Party Christmas Nails!

Partayyyyyyy!  This past weekend was my first Sadie Hawkin's dance (pictured below, I'm the weird girl wearing the one shoulder black and red dress) , and our yearly holiday concert (link to my a cappellla group performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9xo7EUPT4o&feature=plcp&context=C265beUDOEgsToPDskL_ANWLrl7CzfvPgQfMrFFD)!  Lots of holiday themed stuff to do and I wanted to make sure my nails reflected it.   I invited my friend Natalie (red shirt, black shrug on the right) over on Friday to start the weekend and we got to some serious painting.

First order of business was choosing the perfect Christmas red.  My favorite red has long been the gorgeous, deep Bogotá Blackberry from OPI, but it was a little dark for the cheery Christmas season.  But the OPI minis came through.  Really the only red in the collection, Fiercely Fabulous, proved perfect for our needs.  I have plenty of full sized silvers but in the interests of experimentation I tried out the Sephora by OPI Bring On The Snowflakes (even a great name for the holiday season).  I was even happier with this silver than the red!  It is now officially my favorite.  Unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture right after the painting but here it is a week later, after the wear and tear of finals.

Not a lot of chipping actually, and all the damages were surface chips that preserved uniform color, nothing deep to the nail.  I haven't really talked about the durability of this line yet but so far they have proven themselves in two week increments to be fairly steady.  I would freshen up every five days or so but the scratches are shallow and a good top coat (which I am sadly lacking right now, having run out of my OPI) should prevent them.  I paint my nails too often to testify to their prolonged use but I'll do a trial at some point.

Now about the nails!  I chose alternating silver and red simple nails because the theme was holiday "rave" and I thought a little glitter would add something nice but I didn't want any fancy designs that I could ruin as soon as I got them on after two hours of smearing and redoing.  Start with the silver:  Bring On The Snowflakes is a very solid shimmery silver, not possible to use as a over coat AT ALL.  But since that was exactly what I wanted it worked great.  The shimmer is quite bright and reflective even with minimal light so it definitely makes the look more noticeable.

The red (Fiercely Fabulous) looked a little deeper than I wanted in the bottle, closer to the Blackberry, but when it came on it was perfectly shiny and matched up with the reflective silver very well.  The pigmentation is lovely, a very bright and lively red that could work for both a dance/party or a day full of holiday spirit!

Coming up (this announcement isn't very reliable as I change my mind often, but I'm excited for this,  Icy Graphic Nails!)