My Christmas Nail Polish Gifts

Hi, everyone.  Today I'd like to share with you all the great nail polish sets I received for Christmas this year.  I really was spoilt by my wonderful husband, Trevor, and my beautiful daughter, Meagan, and her family, and I want to thank them all for being so generous.  So, here are the nail polish gifts they gave me! I received several other lovely gifts too, but this blog is about nail polish, so I won't bore you with those :)

The first one is the "ulta3 Advent Calendar" my hubby bought me at the end of November.  As you can see, there is an amazing mix of 24 mini polishes, and would you believe I didn't already have any of them.  I was amazed! It was great fun opening the little window each day throughout December to see what the next colour would be.  I felt just like a little kid does when he/she opens his/her Advent Calendar and receives a little treat of some kind.  Silly me!!!

The colours are, starting at the top left hand corner, and reading left to right: "bright me", a lovely orange shade; "disco fever", a gorgeous red glitter in a clear base; "orchid", a beautiful deep purple shimmer; "emerald inten-city", a pretty green with a hint of blue; "pot of gold" - lots of gold glitter in a clear base; "lily white" (no description needed); "bon bon", a gorgeous, VERY pale apricot/peach shimmer (really hard to describe); "palette play", a lovely purple; "over the rainbow", which is an awesome rainbow of glitter in a clear base; "tahiti", a bright coral/orange shade; "glamour puss", a lovely silver shimmer; "blue marlin", a lovely mid-blue; "gold rush fever", a lovely gold shimmer, "new year's eve", a brilliant blue glitter in a clear base; "strawberry sundae", which is a lovely mid pink; "luck of the irish", a gorgeous bright green glitter in a clear base; "sizzling red", a lovely deep red; "lilac bloom", a lovely pale lilac/grey shade; "twinkle toes", a bright silver glitter in a clear base; "black satin" (no description needed); "pale dahlia", which is a lovely beige nude; "block it out", another lovely blue; "fruit tingle", an amazing beautiful, bright pink shade; and "pacific fever", a beautiful deep sea green shade.

Next is the "ulta3 "Colour Your World" Christmas 2014 Cube Collection", given to me by my hubby on Christmas Day.  This very quickly went onto my "Christmas Wish List" when I saw it at Terry White's Pharmacy. There were several colours in this set that were the same as those in the Advent Calendar, which was a pity, considering how many colours ulta3 make.  However, the Advent Calendar bottles were only 5ml minis, so this just meant I now have some full-size bottles of those colours (YAY)! They are: "lily white" (no description needed); "lotsa fun", a beautiful, very dark purple/blue with a little shimmer; "fruit tingle" (see above); "tahiti", a lovely coral/orange shade which is really bright and colourful; "pale dahlia" (see above); "lilac bloom" (see above); "sizzling red" (see above); "atomic oj", which is the most awesome bright orange I've ever seen; "gold rush fever" (see above); "emerald inten-city" (see above); and "silver grey", which really doesn't need a description.

Next is the "TBN Paint Tin Christmas 2014 Collection", also given to me by my hubby on Christmas Day, which has 14 different shades, all of which are great.  Some are fluoros, some are cremes, and there is even a glitter. As you can see, the packaging was really unique.   It looks like a plastic can of paint. The top and bottle are metal and the side of the can is clear plastic.  It really caught my eye when I saw it at my Terry White pharmacy, and I quickly added it to my "Christmas Wish List" :)

The colours are: "Crystal Clear" (no description necessary); "Skinny Dip", a wonderful beige/grey nude shade; "Mel-function", which is an amazing brilliant lemon-yellow fluoro; "Desperately Seeking Sue", a lovely orange fluoro; "Little Miss Mila", a lovely bright lipstick pink; "Give Me Moore"; a lovely scarlet red shade; "Cotton Candy", which is a gorgeous pale pink/mauve shade; "That's What She Said", a gorgeous lavender shade; "Jess-able", which is a beautiful rich purple; "Frog Prince", which is a lovely bright green; "Dream Catcher", a sweet pale baby-blue shade; "Rain On My Parade", a bright, mid-blue fluoro shade (picture is pretty close to true colour); "Black Beauty" (no description needed); and "Meteorite", which is an amazing glitter composed of different size black, white and holo glitter in a clear base - you really have to see this one to appreciate what it looks like.  It's awesome!

And last, but definitely not least, is the "BOE Presents MIDNIGHT Collection" of nail polishes and caviar beads that my daughter bought me.  The photo was taken with a flash, so unfortunately there is some glare, and we had to take them out of the box to photograph them because of the plastic window on the front of the box.  There are no colour names or numbers for the polishes, but there is a beautiful pale mauve shimmer, a lovely dark pink creme, a wonderful pinkish-purple shimmer, and a silver shimmer.  They are awesome! There are also two bottles of rainbow caviar beads, one bottle of cerise beads, and a bottle of silver beads.  They even added a tiny little black funnel to use to put the caviar beads back in their bottles after using them (this will come in handy for my glitter collection as well).  This is a beautiful collection, but when I contacted BOE to see if they could tell me what the colour names and/or numbers were, they told me they were one-off limited edition polishes, and won't be made again.  Such a pity, because they really are so beautiful.  So, if you see one at BigW, grab it before they disappear for ever.  You won't be disappointed.

Now you know why I said I was spoilt this Christmas.  I wasn't expecting all these polishes, and it really made for a beautiful Christmas Day for me.  When you add this to the other gifts I received, including one from my gorgeous granddaughter, Sioned (the first gift she's bought me since joining the workforce), you can see why I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  It may be small, but I love them all dearly, and I don't know where I would be without them, and that was even more special whilst I was going through my battle with breast cancer throughout 2014.  Thank you so much, guys.  You have no idea how much I appreciate you all.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, too, and that the New Year will be a happy and prosperous one for you and your loved ones.  My next post will be my New Year's Eve manicure. Until then, God bless you, and I hope you'll come back soon to see what else I have to share with you.

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

P.S. I have received no monetary or material gain from my reviews of the products used for this manicure.
Everything comes from my personal stash, all purchased by me, either in-store or online.

Another Christmas Manicure 14 December 2014

Sorry it's been a while (12 days, I see), but I had another disaster this week.

My last manicure lasted 9 whole days with virtually no damage at all.  I was amazed, but I didn't want to bore you with more photos of it. However, I stuffed up royally with my manicure for this week first time around, so I had to take it all off and start again, after I had slept on it and worked out what I had done wrong.

So, today I have a Christmas-themed skittle manicure (with each nail completely different).  Here's the best photo I could get of it - although it still doesn't really do it justice,  it's pretty close.  I love the colours of all the polishes I used, and will certainly be using them again.

I started with 1 coat of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Base Coat.  I then added 2 coats of Colours by TBN "Dancing In The Forest" on my pinkies, 3 coats of Revlon Brilliant Strength "Hypnotize" on my ring fingers (although 2 coats would probably have been enough), 3 coats of OPI "Alpine Snow" on my middle fingers and thumbs, and 2 coats of ulta3 "scarlet" on my index fingers. I found the OPI "Alpine Snow" rather hard to work with and, if I hadn't been adding glitter and stripes to the nails I used it on, I would have had to add another coat to get a smooth finish.  The other polishes were all really easy to work with, and I only added the third coat on the gold nail to add intensity to the colour.  This is a gold that I will be using a lot, I'm sure, because it is just so easy to use, and looks so amazing.  I think it would be great for stamping and/or water marble manicures, too.

Once my polishes had all dried, I placed strips of masking tape and striping tape on my thumbs. I then added one coat of ulta3 "scarlet" over the nail, quickly removing the tapes before the polish dried.  I'm afraid I wasn't very happy with the way the stripes turned out, because there were a few spots where I obviously hadn't pressed the tape down firmly enough, especially on the edges of my nails.  I discovered last night, after I had finished it, a tip suggesting that I use a coat of top coat on my nail before doing the striping, and I'll try that next time. However, as a first time striping job (where I painted over them instead of using them as the stripes), I am reasonably happy with it.   I then added 2 coats of KBShimmer "Kringle All The Way" to my ring fingers, and 2 coats of ulta3 "disco fever" to my index fingers.  I had to fish around for some large glitter with the KBShimmer, but there is heaps of different-sized glitter in the bottle (red, green and silver in different sizes, and tiny holographic glitter throughout), so it wasn't hard to get some large ones.  The ulta3 red glitter was really easy to use, and also has plenty of glitter.

Finally, I applied 1 coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (Yay! I finally got some!) to each nail, and I'm thrilled to bits with the finish it has given to my nails.  It covered all the glitter beautifully, and dried my manicure so quickly I couldn't believe it.  I will be interested to see how long my manicure lasts with this as my top coat.  I'll be adding another coat, as usual, every other day, and will let you know next time how well it goes.

The damage on my nails is still growing out, and I am nursing another break on my right thumb, but each week there is less of the horrible, dark-brown, fragile, flaking area on my tips left, and more of the lovely pink new growth at the base of my nails.  I am just filing a small amount off each week before I do my new manicure, and my nails are definitely getting a lot stronger each week since I started using the Jojoba oil at least twice a day. They seem to be growing faster, too, which is fantastic.  I'm also using Swisse "Hand Skin Nails" tablets, and I'm sure they have helped, too.

I've been having trouble finding a good, natural cuticle oil that uses Jojoba oil as a base that is a reasonable price, but have decided to make my own after I have used up all the treatments I've already bought.  I'm also having trouble finding a good, hydrating hand cream, but I've found some great recipes online, so I've decided to source all the products I need to make my own, and have also found a recipe for an exfoliating sugar hand scrub, and will be making some of that this week once I find some nice jars to put it in.

I'm amazed at how much information there is available about natural solutions to my hand care problems, and I have found suppliers and recipes for just about everything I need to make my own.  I am allergic to perfumed products, and also to a lot of the preservatives and other artificial additives cosmetic companies use in so many of their products.  It's hard to avoid some of them with my manicures, of course, but at least I can with the products I use every day on my skin and nails.

As I used 2 ulta3 polishes this week, I thought I'd mention the fantastic Christmas gift ideas they have available here in Australia this year.  My hubby bought me a wonderful ulta3 Advent Calendar full of mini nail polishes, and so far the colours have been amazing, and I haven't got any of the ones that I've opened the window for, so hopefully I won't have any of them.  There is also a cube of 18 full-size ulta3 polishes, and a large candy cane full of full-size polishes. I think they have a couple of other gift items, too, but I haven't discovered them yet.  Of course, I've put my order in to Santa for one (or more, perhaps) of them for Christmas.  There are some great Colours by TBN gift sets as well, and lots of others around the stores for other brands, so I'm hoping Santa gets the message and is feeling generous.

So, that's it for another week.  I hope you like what I've shared with you this week, and that you'll come back often to see what I've been up to.

God bless you, and peace be with you all!  Have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope

http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/

P.S. I have received no monetary or material gain from my reviews of the products used for this manicure.
Everything comes from my personal stash, all purchased by me, either in-store or online.