I have been slacking on Holiday nails this year. I've just been feeling a bit "blah" this holiday season. I didn't even put out my Christmas decorations until December 22nd!

Anyhow, to get in the holiday mood, I decided to start off with some simple stamping. I painted my nails with Chaos & Crocodiles: Security Breach, Night Vision, and Orly Mirrorball on my ring finger. Then I used MDU Avocado, Maybelline Metallics Bold Gold, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Redio Active to stamp with. The stamping plates I used are: Winstonia Store W222, and W120.


Oh yeah! I recently picked up some Mundo de Unas stamping polishes. They come from Mexico so it took exactly one month before I received them. I decided to order the minis, since I didn't want any of them to break during shipping. People have complained they have a strong odor, but I didn't find them any stronger than say, Seche Vite or Klean Color nail polish. If you're sensitive to strong scents though, then these probably aren't for you. But... boy do they ever stamp amazing! Now I understand why so many people who stamp, rave about MDU.

✯ Press Release ✯

Travel to the dark side of beauty this fall with Smoky, the fall 2014 collection from ORLY. Beauty emerges from the shadowy corners of the imagination, seducing with an enigmatic palette that comes alive as eyes adjust to the light. Dusty tones are blended with matte shimmers creating an alluring and intriguing mix of hues inspired by shades worn on the smokiest of eyes.


All ORLY Nail Lacquers including the Smoky Collection are formulated without DBP, Toluene and  all traces of Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde Resin.

One of my cousins sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday, so I ended up getting two nail polishes with it. China Glaze Release, and Orly Mirrorball. Release is from The Giver Collection. Orly Mirroballis part of the Holiday 2014 Collection.

I decided to pair them together for this manicure. Release is a purple gray cream. Formula was really nice, not runny at all. China Glaze can sometimes be hit or miss, but this is a hit! Two coats, plus Seche Vite topcoat.

Orly Mirrorball, has a silver linear holographic base, with small holographic glitters throughout, so it looks like it's twinkling. Formula is sheer, but builds up to opaque in 3 coats. The linear effect isn't as strong as some of the indie holographic polishes I've seen, but it's nice for a mainstream polish.

✯ PR Samples Mentioned ✯

If you haven't guessed, my little blogging break is over. ;-) It was nice to chill out and take a break. Not worry about scheduling posts, getting things swatched every weekend. I noticed by taking a break, my creativity for nail polish came back. Since I was usually only creating one look to wear for the entire week, I was able to better plan out my designs and put more thought into them.

I love blogging about nail polish and I love doing reviews, but I'm no longer going to push myself to get several posts up a week. It was draining me out and I was starting to become frustrated with blogging. Instead I'm going to blog when I want. If I only get one post up a week, so be it. If I get on a stretch of posting a few times a week, so be that. I want blogging to be fun for me, and I want to be excited about sharing things with you all.

I have a few reviews coming up. Look for a review of two stunning polishes by Ice Polish and another review of Winstonia Store nail strips!

Today I wanted to share with you some of the looks I created while on break. Some of these were taken with my regular camera and others are cell phone photos.

Zoya Wendy with Zoya Jesy, and Winstonia stamp plate W-04.




 

✯ PR Samples Mentioned ✯

I received some press samples from Wet n' Wild last Wednesday! :-) I took a swatching break this past weekend because my swatching hand was in need of some TLC, but stay tuned because these pretties will be on the blog next week!


I also hit Autty's blog sale a bit hard, lol. She's one of my dear blogging friends and it's not often you have a chance to shop your friends nail polish collection! I picked up 8 colors. I look forward to sharing these colors in the coming months here on the blog with everyone.


 

Every Friday up until Valentine's Day, I'm going to feature a different Valentine's Day design. Today is Orly Miss Conduct with Winstonia Store plates 1st Gen W102 & 2nd Gen W207. One coat of Seche Vite topcoat. They are so sparkly in person! ♥



 

I've gotten some new polishes in the past few weeks, so I've updated my Complete Nail Polish Collection post. Here's some of my recent nail colors and designs.







Then another week, I did a tropical theme. I have Ninja Polish Caribbean Reef on my ring finger. (When my cousin & I visited Lush Cosmetics last weekend, I had 3 of the salesgirls trying to check out my nails when they were testing a product on me, lol!)

*All polish was purchased by myself.