Hello nail polish loving friends. It's good to still be here.  I thought I would quickly squeeze in one last blog post for 2018.  I'll admit that this year was a pretty light one around here. I'm still painting my nails with nail art at least three times a week, but just getting the photos edited and then something written up it is the main challenge.  Speaking of Challenges, I'm disappointed it didn't get around to completing the 31 Day Nail art Challenge this year.  With my two month vacation in the USA over September and October, it just wasn't something I was able to priorities. I have done about 10 manis from the Challenge prompts already, and I may end up doing the challenge in February or March maybe, once the new year settles in.

As I did last year for this blog post, I did a quick look back at the previous two years.  At that time I had done a recap of my Lisfranc foot fracture that I got as a result of my motorcycle accident two years ago.  I'm pleased to say that the scar on my foot is now nearly not noticeable, especially compared to the purple scars that were still evident in my post last year. It turns out my sandal tan lines are more noticeable these days. 

I usually post about a little polish haul at this time of year too, as it's my birthday in December, and I usually splurge a bit on some polishes around now.  This year I did a big Emily de Molly haul, she has some gorgeous duo chrome metallics at the moment and some great multichrome magnetics too.  I've wore a few of them already, and taken some nice pictures, which of course are unedited. 

Whilst we are still within the 12 Days of Christmas, I feel it's still ok for me to post my Christmas mani.  It's only just now that I've looked back at my 2017 post that I realized I did a very similar look two years ago.  The base polish is a special unnamed one from Sparkly Vernis from about 2014.  I wore it back at Christmas in 2014 where the photos look totally different because they were taken outside, whereas these ones were taken inside under a light.

With that, I fare you all adieu for 2018.  Many happy returns for 2019. 

A throw back to when my nails were a little shorter and rounder.  I created this look a few months back using the SV by Sparkly Vernis spring holos.

This is Spring in your step (green), Pink Starfish (pink) and Breeze and wave sounds (blue). I originally tried doing this by taping off, then I tried using striping tape and pulling it into curved lines.  In the end I just did it freehand and then touched up the white with a stripe brush.

I have some stunning polishes to share with you tonight, which I received several weeks ago and was waiting for the right opportunity to swatch in sunlight, but it never came.  We've had a really wet Autumn so far, and if it wasn't raining it's been overcast, so holos have been really hard work to capture.

I bought new lamp from Costco a few weeks back, mainly to assist me in doing my nails at night. I had previously noticed that I was particularly crap at selecting matching colour swarovski crystals for my nail art.  The light is just two rows of led white lights and so far it's produced the best lighting for taking indoor nail shots compared to the various other lamps I've purchased.

Lets get into these polishes shall we.  This is the Spring Collection called Palm Trees at Night released from SV by Sparkly Vernis. 

These are pretty damn special holos folks.  They are one coaters, yet they still have a strong holo flame.  Think of the opacity of the aEngland holos and these are like that, except with a much stronger holo flame as you can see in these photos.

Due to their opacity at one coat, I thought these would work nicely for stamping, which they do.  I've got a stamping swatch for each of the Spring Collection shades following the colour swatch.

Pink Starfish - This polish is a cool-toned, medium pink holographic with purple shimmer.  This is one coat with Seche Vite top coat.

Breeze and Wave Sounds - a dark, cyan blue holographic with blue shimmer. This is one coat with Seche Vite top coat.

Coral Reef - a warm, medium-to-dark pink holographic with a hint of coral. This one has a creamer base and as such the holo finish isn't as strong as with the previous two colours, although it stamps a bit better. This is one coat with Seche Vite top coat.

E. huxleyi Bloom - a creamy, blue-green holographic that leans cyan and teal. Again the finish is creamer and the holo is not as strong as the first two shades - stamping is superb though. This is one coat with Seche Vite top coat.

La Petite Coquille - a multicolored flakie topper in a clear base with a strong purple shimmer. This is impossible to photograph, and it's one of those shades that looks much better in real life than in pictures.  The flakies are so reflective that most of my photos had large reflective spots.  

The first swatch photo shows one coat of La Petite Coquille over a dark purple jelly polish.  Other swatches show two coats.

Spring in your Step - This one isn't part of the Palm Trees at Night Spring Collection, but it has been recently released as an additional Spring shade as part of the "Frankies" range.  Spring in your Step is a jade green holographic with gold shimmer. This is a light green with yellow undertones.This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

My 'Merry Christmas (insert year)' posts have become a bit of a regular thing here on my blog for the last four years.  Every year I comment what a lovely day we have had with family, the kids enjoying their gifts and recovering in some sort of food coma.  This year is no exception and everything was in excess.  The kids were too spoiled with all the gifts they got, we all over indulged with turkey and baked ham and all the lavish veggies to go with them.  Plus triple dessert! Thank goodness Christmas is only once a year!

The kids were awake at 6.30am all excited that Santa had been.  There are at such a wonderful age where they are totally caught up in the whole magic of Christmas, and still young enough that they don't ask any questions about how!  Right now I could seriously start another blog about reviewing toys, in particular Lego - I swear Mr 6 has nearly every box available.  He and Dad are currently building some massive spaceship at the dining table.

Let's have a look at the nails I ended up doing with my mum last night as we watched carols on TV.

The base polish is an amazing creation that just doesn't look anywhere near as incredible in these photos as it does right now in real life.  It's an unnamed custom polish that was sent to me from SV by Sparkly Vernis.  It's holo, and gold holo, but also with red and green glitters.  It's a perfect gold polish for me for Christmas.  As soon as I opened the bubble wrap on this polish I knew I would wear it on Christmas Day.  I added some red and green Swarovski crystals and free handed a simple Christmas tree on my middle finger.