One of the best things about Christmas has to be advent calendars.
This year - as I can't have chocolate - I've embraced the trend of the beauty calendar instead, and now I've experienced it I don't think I'll ever be fully content to go back to a measly piece of chocolate each day ever again.
That's where the sparkling red glitter of Runway Ribbon comes in. It's a bit different for me - I know - but I came to the conclusion after a lot of deliberation that if I'm ever going to experiment with nail polish then Christmas is the perfect time to do it.
My overly generous and utterly lovely friend Georgi sent me the Ciaté Mini Mani Manor Advent Calendar at the end of November, and I've loved opening it each day to reveal what treats lie within. The selection so far have been wonderful, and I've managed to add a number of colours to my collection that I would never normally have picked myself. If anything it's making me branch out enormously and giving me all the tools to be a little more experimental and to nudge myself out of my nail colour comfort zone. I've been working myself up to doing this for a while, and I'm delighted that I now have absolutely no excuse.
I'm 110% in Christmas mode now. I play Christmas music at full blast in my car, I'm constantly baking Christmas treats and if I'm near a television then the odds of me managing to find a Christmas film to watch are incredibly high. I have festive colours on my mind, and after spotting a couple of leftover candy canes in amongst my baking supplies at the weekend I knew today's manicure would have to be either red or icy white. Instead, I decided to combine the two and have a play with my advent calendar.
One of the polishes I received was Runway Ribbon - a pot of sparkling red glitter. Admittedly I assumed it was glitter within a clear polish, so planned to try out a couple of coats of a white and top them with a slick of the glitter. Easy peasy. However, upon opening the bottle it turns out it's just glitter. The last time I held a pot of glitter was years ago when helping out at Brownies, and every time I went near it it would end up all over me and the millions of seven-year-olds I was supposed to be supervising. Since then, I vowed not to use it again unless in an emergency.
I'd started painting my nails when I made this discovery so I soldiered on, and I actually love the finished effect. It took several attempts as I was extremely heavy handed with the glitter initially: I was aiming for a smattering of glitter but rather obviously I was covered in it from the beginning and completely ruined a couple of nails in the process. Eventually I had to rope my dad into helping me remove a couple of nails to start again, and luckily he took pity on me and sorted out a lot of the glitter too. I can't claim the finished effect was all me at all!
From what I can tell Runway Ribbon is only available as a part of the advent calendar, but I'm sure any other glitter will have a similar effect. I'm still using my Sally Hansen Miracle Nail Thickener as a base coat and I'm already seeing a difference in the strength and condition of my nails. The white I've used is my favourite Essie, Urban Jungle, and it only required two coats for an even finish. This particular colour was part of the Essie Summer 2014 collection and is no longer available, but Blanc is pretty similar. After adding the glitter I sealed the look with a Revlon Multi Care Base and Top Coat.
I love this! Under normal circumstances my dislike of glitter and any form of vague artistry on my nails would lead me to find this intolerable but I'm feeling so festive it's overriding any preconceived opinions on nail polish colours! It's such a sparkly but subtle look that works wonderfully this week of all weeks. I never thought I'd do anything like this, let alone love the finished product, and I now can't stop looking at my nails every time they catch the light!
Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to go full glitter? I've put a toe in the water and found it actually quite enjoyable, so who knows!
What do you think of Runway Ribbon? Are you a fan of glitter polishes? Do let me know!
*** I'm going to be taking a brief break from Manicure Monday, but be sure to check back on Friday 2nd January 2015 where I'll be outlining my plans for future posts and where to find any and all nail polish reviews in 2015. Thanks for reading these posts over the last 6 months - writing about my nails each week has been enormous fun! ***
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