I trust you all had pleasant Holidays. I had a very nice Christmas at my parents' home with my husband, brother, and sister-in-law. The dogs had a great time, too, eating peanut butter ice cream out on the pool deck (don't worry - it's ice cream made for dogs!).

I am officially now on vacation. HIP, HIP, HOORAY!! My bud Kup is here and we are having lots of fun. :) It's nice to be able to paint her nails as well. She's sporting Illamasqua Poke right now and let me say it looks mighty fine on her.

Alright, well here is a pre-holiday mani I wore a few weeks ago. Zoya Astra (the pink-red) and Zoya Luna (the white-silver), skittled on every other finger.

I'm not sure why I decided to do every other finger the way I did, but as soon as I got going I realized that the mani reminded me of candy canes! I was rather proud of my accidental holidayness.

The Zoya Ultra Glitters are awesome. They are quite a dandy trick to remove, but totally worth it (you knew I would say this)!

If you didn't get your candy cane fix before Christmas, hopefully this will help you out.

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I've wanted $OPI 212 for as long as I knew it existed. I even planned to swoop it up on a business trip to NYC this past summer, at the grand opening of the Sephora Times Square 212 store! Oh best made plans... I ended up delayed in LaGuardia for endless hours instead. :(

But look! I have it, finally! Hooray!! And it is every bit as magnificent as I thought it would be! I had been playing in some loose red eyeshadow earlier, thus the lovely red tint stuck in the grooves around my nails. :) Pardon my mess!

It's smoky blackish brown with a lovely strong gold shimmer. There are holo glittah bits as well as coppery looking flakies!!

I saw the flakies more nekkid-like when I was taking off this mani and I think they are actually more pink. But amidst the slurry they turn copper-reddish. So cool! A year ago I don't know if I would have gone nuts for this mix but I think there's some magic in that bottle. If you are waffling about 212, GET IT! It's limited edition, after all. :D

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Her name is Poke.

She is arguably the finest, most heavenly perfect purple polish EVER. :D

Some might say I have taken "too many" pictures of her.

I say they are crazy.

My nails have some oil on them still, so if you see any textural inconsistencies, it the oil, not the Poke.

Poke wants you to come have a pool party!

"Where do I find this spectacular specimen of varnish?"(You might be asking.)

Only in the United Kingdom!!!! Oh dear. Lucky for them. Not for us...or the U.S. for that matter. :P

But is it worth the bazillion pounds and dollars that you will spend to have her shipped to your front door?

I think you know the answer.

There is a very slight light blue flash. Do you see it?

Now go get you some Poke. Do it! Now!

Hmm. What is this? Sweet little Laguna Lagoon from B.B. Couture for Nails! I think I was in a hurry and only uploaded one picture of this, but you need to see it. Gorgeous! BBs apply very beautifully, if you haven't tried them yet. And they wear well, too. Oh, and they have a groovy color range! Mints have been all the rage this year and I fear Laguna Lagoon has been a bit forgotten. Minty creamy deliciousness!!

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Are you as shocked as I am to see another post in such a timely manner? :) I'm trying, here, I really am! I value you, my readers, and want to give you the most dizzying polish to look at on a regular basis. Thanks for your understanding over the past few weeks and let's get on to the polish!

Finger Paints. Decked with Dazzle. Holiday '09.

Shimmery, foil-y, beauteous sparkling cool pink. Near Magenta, I'd say.

What's with the beach ball? (You may be thinking this.) Nothing really. It just happens to pop on over to be in my pictures and I kind of like it. It's a tribute to my awesome friend who bought it and can't wait to be here on vacation soon.

*sigh* My nails are looking good in these pictures. Sadly they were taken a while ago and now I'm sporting some hard-core nubs. C'est la vie.

I don't remember what top coat I used here, but it tried to shrink back a little on me. If it weren't for that the mani would have be pure perfection! :)

Finger Paints smell like wicked nasty toxic waste to me, but I like the consistency, application, and wear well enough to forgive them for that. Also, the price is more than fair. You can find these gems at Sally Beauty Supply.

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Luna, oh, Luna. Such a great polish!! This is one of the newer China Glaze Glitters. What a spectacle! Shiny, metallic, bright, glittery, holo-tastic - everything a girl could want!

In all fairness to my dear friend, Luna, these pictures make it look a bit more chunky and textured than I recall it being in real life.

Of course the glitter is thick and chunky, sort of, but it appeared to be mostly smooth.

It's hard to explain. You'll just have to take my word for it!

Oh wowza, Luna! You are so special to me! :)

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Whew! What another doozy of a week. I'm so glad to be relaxing a little and am sorry it's taken me so long to give you another post. I'm back with Illamasqua Rampage! It is everything I had hoped it would be: jellylicious, deep, sexy green.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Illamasqua varnishes apply so perfectly for me. This one is no exception.

I did three coats here.

I can't say I'm the biggest jelly fanatic out there, but this one sure makes me happy.

I do love the word "jelly." It's fun. :)

Rampage looked nearly black on me in certain indoor lighting, but most of the time it still looked green. In sun, like the pictures I've included here, it's very perfectly dark green.

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Can I just say that it's good to post?! I have missed posting lately because I've been so busy juggling work and my personal life. I think it's partly because of working in retail (last Friday, "Black Friday,"= super wacko crazy), scheduling, holidays, and a slight addiction to Wii Super Mario Bros. I hope you will forgive me, and I hope you enjoy lots of pictures of China Glaze Sci-Fi!

Here it is indoors. Very smooth and shiny.

Indoors with flash. Blinding, bright, and slightly cool blue.

I think this was outdoors in indirect sunlight. Isn't it pretty?

You can see the blueish tint here, too.

I really enjoyed wearing this one. It's so clean and polished.

It seems wintery to me. And it looks very good with my creepy pale skin. :)

This is from China Glaze's Khrome collection, which is fairly new. I did get all six, but I think this one and possibly Metallic Muse (a sea-foam green kind of color) will be favorites for me. They are terrific if you like metallics! Almost no brush-strokes whatsoever.

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I only have indoor pictures of this beautiful combo, but they still showcase the greatness of two new polishes. I layered CND Effects in Ice Blue Shimmer over OPI Sapphire in the Snow.

The shimmer is very tiny and almost looks like pearl. It turned the blurpleness of Sapphire in the Snow into full on gawgeous deep blue.

Love me some blue shimmah!

I bought several of the CND Effects polishes recently and am super happy to have them. You know how I love to layer!

I'm glad a nail polish company decided to embrace a concept that I've been championing for years! Yay layers!

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This was my first sort of Holiday inspired mani of this season. I'm not ready for Christmas, winter, Thanksgiving, any of it really! It doesn't help that down here in Florida nothing remotely feels like Christmas or winter. I grew up in Michigan, so I'm used to cold and snow and I have to say that I miss it, especially when it comes to thinking of the Holidays. Anyway, this is Finger Paints Evergreen Dream topped with Sinful All About You.

It's Christmassy, no?

I love that the Sinful glittah has orange and gold bits. So pretty!

I didn't get around to taking any pictures of this outdoors in natural light, but I still wanted to share the glittery goodness with you. :) This mani lasted me a crazy long time, too! Nearly a week, if I recall. Wowza!

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This season has brought several terrific ambiguous purply gray colors. Hooray, I say!! These are some big favorites for me. Not only do they look great with my skin tone, but they meet my need for a chic, unique purply color. Yes, I love my purples!

Here is Dior's Silver Purple. Clever name, right? It's soooo beautiful!

It's got a gunmetal gray base with a hint of purple and shimmer.

Next up is Sally Hansen HD Opulent Cloud. I have wanted this polish from the moment I first heard about it, which I might add was quite some time ago! I have not yet seen it in my area. Boo! I also gave up looking for it a few weeks ago when a most generous gal from MUA sent it to me out of the kindness of her heart, knowing that I was going bonkers trying to find it!

These flash pictures really pick up on the gorgeous lilac side of Opulent Cloud. It just makes me happy! Check out the subtle shimmah on the index finger and thumb below!

Now for pictures with fluorescent lighting. It shows much more golden soft gray.

The application was smooth and flawless. I am a big fan of the Sally Hansen HDs, from the buttery formula to the brush (which reminds me of a more narrow version of OPI's Pro-Wide).

If I ever see these in person I may have to pick up the red and pink in the fall line, as well as a back-up of OC! THANK YOU GINA!!!! xoxo

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