Christmas Sequin Nails

Hi, and Merry Christmas! I actually haven't ended up doing as many Christmas-themed nails as I had expected to do, partly because I had finals and then got home and didn't feel like doing anything except sleeping. I definitely wanted to do something for the actual day of Christmas, though, and I ended up doing a glitter/sequin mani with Zoya Chantal* (a part of the Naturel collection) as a base. I'm planning on reviewing Zoya Naturel soon, but I will say that when I got them in the mail I knew I was going to love Chantal - I may have finally found my "mannequin hands" shade. On my first two nails I used loose glitter from Born Pretty Store,* and on the second two I used two coats of Lac Attack Holidays at Hogsmeade.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I started this manicure, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It just so happened that the red and green loose glitter I had perfectly matched the red and green glitter in Holidays at Hogsmeade, so they went together really well, and Holidays and Hogsmeade kept the sequins from being quite so overwhelming. I think I might have to just go for full-out overwhelming and do sequins for New Year's Eve, though... ;) Enjoy the rest of Christmas while it's here!

Zoya Chantal and the Born Pretty Store loose glitter were sent to me for honest review.

Butter London Keks

Hello all! I hope you've had a pleasant weekend. I know mine has certainly gone by faster than I would've liked. Today I'd like to show you Butter London Keks, a bright medium blue polish I got as part of my Ulta Cyber Monday sale haul. I decided to try it out first, and to keep with the wintry/holiday theme, I added a few coats of OPI Lights of Emerald City on my first two fingers.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to taking pictures of this until the sun had gone down for the day, but I did manage to get a color-accurate picture of Keks under my desk lamp. I have to say, though it's not a particularly extraordinary polish, I really like Keks. It's bright, but not quite neon, and I can see myself wearing it during pretty much any season. I'm hoping to compare it with a couple of other blue polishes I have to see over break, so hopefully you'll see that post in the relatively near future. I don't know if I'll be able to post again this week since I have finals, so good luck with finals if you have them, and if not, good luck with whatever else you've got going. :) Until next time!

Ulta Cyber Monday Haul

Hello all! Just thought I'd do a quick little post today to show you what I got on Ulta's website on Cyber Monday, since it arrived in the mail today. They didn't have a ton of nail polish deals, but they did have Butter London polishes going for 2 for $18, and seeing as that's almost half what they normally cost...let's just say my Butter London collection is now significantly larger.

Yes, I do have alligator and elephant (and giraffe and zebra and rhino) kids' decals on the wall behind my desk...they're fantastic. 

Pretty! I can't wait to try out these new beauties - in fact, I'm doing my next manicure with one of them now...and its name might start with a K. ;) Which one do you think I should try next?

Christmas Skittles!

Good morning, and happy Thursday! Today I have some Christmas nails to show you. I am super excited for Christmas this year - partly because I'm actually excited for Christmas, and a little bit because I just want to be done with the semester. It's wrapping up! I only have one final, two projects and two papers left, and I'll be done it a week. So excited. Anyway, here's my Christmas nail art skittles mani:

Thumb & ring finger: Pure Ice Kiss Me Here with two coats of Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade
Index finger: Two coats of China Glaze White Cap, topped with two coats of China Glaze Snow Globe, topped with two-ish (I say this because there was some finagling involved to get enough glitter on) coats of OPI Lights of Emerald City. (Not looking forward to removing this.)
Middle finger: Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe with gold circles in Zoya Ziv.
Pinkie finger: Zoya Rekha with snow in Cult Nails Tempest

Whew! That was a long list of polishes. I started this mani not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, but I really like how it turned out. This was the first time I tried Lac Attack Holidays in Hogsmeade, despite having bought it almost a year ago - I just felt weird about wearing it in January. I really like it, though, especially the stripey large red hex glitters. So cute.

It's supposed to snow here in St. Louis today, tomorrow, and Sunday. I really hope we get some accumulation, and I might just have to do another wintry/Christmas mani to get in the mood. :) Have a great day!

Dandy Nails: Chilled Down

It's December! Wait, how did that happen? If you're like me, you've been enjoying the opportunity to wear sweaters and scarves and boots and layers, and that's only going to continue into the winter months. Fall is my favorite season, but I love winter, too, and it's time to get chilled down - so today, I'm showing off Chilled Down, a Dandy Nails polish. (See what I did there? Eh? Punny.) I used three coats here.

I actually wore this way back in August, but I can definitely see myself pulling it out again now that colder weather is here. I love how unique this polish is, and the blue and gold color scheme is definitely a plus. In some ways, it's similar to Lac Attack Beauxbatons Academy, which was the very first indie polish I showcased here on Never Unpolished. Beauxbatons Academy is still one of my favorite polishes, and I think Chilled Down may be making its way up the ranks as well.

On a slightly different note, now that it's officially December and thus (in my mind) the appropriate time to start doing Christmasy stuff, I can't wait to get started on some holiday manicures. Any suggestions?