Merry Birthday!

I am SO behind on posts! The whole fam got a really nasty cold that has dragged on from a week before Christmas, and yesterday I breathed in something awful while sanding my pallets with no mask (read: idiot!). Anyway, on to the nails!

The 19th was my best friend's bday and our Christmas get-together, so I wore a birthday/Christmas mash-up for her, b/c she always checks to see what I'm wearing on my little canvases!

I won't even bother to list all the polishes it took to do these.  I will say it took me forevah, and that I should have known drawing the balloon strings below with a Sharpie would smear as soon as I top-coated. Oh well. You can't tell in this pic, but the shimmer of the orange totally glistened and shone in the water marble!!

Because of the wonky shape of my nails, the wreath I copied from here looks kind of dumb on me. I was pretty proud of my deep V French Xmas tree and my mistletoe nails!

Birthday Haul Part 1: or, Glittah City!

"We now interrupt your regularly (or not so regularly) scheduled nail art challenge to bring you this random post..."

Yesterday was my birthday! 39...ugh. One more year until I'm flippin' 40 years old. Ack. Barf. On a more cheerful note, my kids all got me awesome polishes, some I'd been coveting for months, some I didn't even know I wanted until I got them! And I didn't just want them because my kids gave them to me; they really are great! Lots of shine, shimmer, and GLITTAAAAAAH! I had to take a break from the nail challenge

Left to right: Olivia got me Wet 'n' Wild Shine Wild Card and SC Superstar, Ian gave me Wet 'n' Wild Shine Bijou Blue and SC Call You Later, Isabella gifted me the long-awaited Notting Hill Blues, and Kristiana gave me Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie, which will forever be known to her and me as "Party in a Bottle". The Different Dimension Space Camp mini is there just b/c I added it over one of my bday skittles, and I hadn't used it yet, and I loooooove it.

Notting Hill Blues on thumb (topped with Call You Later, which I didn't realize 'til it was on that it has green and teeny gold glitters—so much depth!) and ring (+ Rainbow/Party...), Superstar topped w/ Space Camp on index (I love the formula on Superstar: a jelly that stays true to it's "jellyishness" but still leaves no VNL w/ just two coats!), Bijou Blue on my middle and Wild Card on my pinky (both topped with Rainbow/Party...). Wild Card is pretty sheer, and I still had VNL at two coats, but I think a thin third coat would remedy that, and it is a shade and finish I didn't have. The Bijou Blue was thinnish, but a medium 2nd coat was enough to achieve opacity, and although I thought I had something pretty close, it is in fact different enough that I don't have any dupe.  Flash:

Outdoor (overcast)

 I love ALL the polishes my sweeties gave me! Later, I will be posting parts 2 and 3 of my birthday haul, polishes I bought via Amazon.com with gift cards from my best friend and my bestie SIL!