China Glaze in Party Hearty over Essie in Pure Pearlfection over OPI in Don't Touch My Tutu!

Indirect natural light

We are finally done with holiday manis! For Christmas, I chose to wear a glitter gradient with China Glaze in Party Hearty over Essie in Pure Pearlfection over OPI in Don't Touch My Tutu! This mani was inspired by these two designs: a MUA post and The Nail Network picture, and you can see my version is infinitely inferior, although I was still fairly happy with it (I like how the original design has the glitter kept closer to the cuticles). 

Party Hearty was released with the Holiday 2010 "'Tis the Season to Be Naughty and Nice" collection. I have to say, I prefer the simplicity of this mix to Lynnderella's more complex versions. Pure Pearlfection was released with the Holiday 2011 "Luxeffects" collection. Don't Touch My Tutu was released with the Spring 2012 "NYC Ballet" Soft Shades collection.

Since I was using a sheerer polish as my base color, I used Nail Tek Foundation II, which is a ridge-filling base coat that dries matte and gives a slight milkiness over the nail. I used 4 thin coats of Don't Touch My Tutu! This is a sheer formula, but it's not streaky, and it builds well with no cuticle-pull - much nicer than Essie in Marshmallow (the Pro-Wide brush helps with this as well). It's a soft not stark white. 

I added 1 thin coat of Pure Pearlfection starting at the cuticle line up to about two-thirds of the nail. This is a layering polish made up of fine white/silver shimmer flakes in a clear base. There is also green and purple shimmer, but it really only shows over dark colors at certain angles. Pure Pearlfection is pretty dense, but I don't think you could ever get it to cover up visible nail line.

To top off this mani, I added 2 coats of China Glaze in Party Hearty. Party Hearty is made up of large red hexagonal glitter with more densely packed medium green hexagonal glitter and small white-gold hexagonal glitter in a clear base. The gold glitter is quite neutral - at different angles it appears silver. Party Hearty does sink in it's suspension base over time, but it's really easy to shake it up, no need to stir it or leave it upside-down. The formula is pretty thick. Because of the shimmer and smaller glitter on my nail you can't tell unless you look very closely, but Party Hearty bubbled quite badly on me. Next time, I will thin it before using it. It does require some placement of the red glitters.

I used 2 coats of Gelous and 1 coat of Seche Vite to finish this off. Surprisingly, it wasn't super thick on the nail.

Worn December 25 - 31, 2012.

I just have to vent a little as well. Last week was horrible for me. First, I spilled China Glaze in Gussied Up Green on my carpet. I got it out (a combination of Sparkle and acetone), but it took a couple days and a lot of time. Two days later, I went to get my hair cut (for graduation), and my stylist cut off about 3 extra inches even though I had brought her about 20 pictures of what I wanted and discussed it with her extensively before-hand. I am not fussy at all about my hair, so this was kind of egregious, even though the cut itself is not ugly (it's "cute," which is the one adjective I told her I didn't want!). Then, on Sunday, even though I am so busy with school, I made myself be "good" and go for a run, and afterwards, when I was stretching (and after about 5 minutes too, so it wasn't like I suddenly did something), I heard a big "pop" and pain shot through from near the top of my calf to about mid hamstring. I can put weight on the ball of my foot or my heel, but I can't bear weight on my whole foot (the arch) or I the pain comes screaming back, so I can't imagine I'll be able to run anytime soon. I'm horrible at crutches, but the last few days I've been hobbling around without them, and now my ankle and knee hurt from the odd weight distribution, so I've got to start using them. I have been running for years (through knee problems and routine shin splints), and I wasn't doing a new stretch or anything, so this was shocking, scary, and really disheartening. It's not feeling much better, but my boss won't let me take off any more work (even though my job has me running around and on my feet the whole time), so I'm back to work tomorrow. I'm going to the doctor on Friday, and hopefully I will be able to get a note to get some time off, but if you guys will wish me a speedy recovery I would really appreciate it!

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight

Indirect natural light

There are many swatches of Don't Touch My Tutu! Here are some I love: Scrangie swatches, Spaz & Squee swatches and comparisons, Naz's Nails swatches, Kellie Gonzo swatch, Vampy Varnish swatch, The Hungry Asian swatches, Polish or Perish swatch, Lucy's Stash swatches, The PolishAholic swatches, and AllYouDesire swatch.

Swatches of Pure Pearlfection can be found from Scrangie swatches and comparisons, Let Them Have Polish! swatches, and The PolishAholic swatches.

Party Hearty has been swatched by Scrangie (alone and over gold foil and red jelly), Lextard (alone and over red shimmer, olive shimmer, silver foil, and gold foil), Spaz & Squee (over dark green glitter and white jelly), Polish Hoarder Disorder (over many many colors), Let Them Have Polish! (over red, white, and green water marble), Ida Nails It (over olive shimmer), AllYouDesire (over white creme), and All Lacquered Up (over white creme). Party Hearty also has a dupe! It was released last holiday at Walmart and is called Salon Perfect in Glam Glitter. It was limited-edition, but maybe it will be available again next year.

What did you wear for Christmas? Do you like this combo?