Loose Glitter Nails & Ciate Calendar Again

Hello!

This post is going to be both to show off my Christmas nails, and to post again about my Ciate calendar now I have opened all the doors! So if you've not opened the last door today yet, don't read this until you have, haha.

Firstly - my nails today! I used all Ciate advent polishes for this. The base is three coats of a beautiful shimmery nude called Ivory Queen - fab name, and a lovely shade - I love discovering different nude shades. Here it is before I added the glitter. Pretty! It has a shimmer to it that isn't too obvious in this photo, and which makes it different (in a good way!) from other nude polishes I own.

I then picked up one of the bottles of loose glitter I received in the calendar. This mix of gold, pink and red looked lush! It's called Miss Mistletoe. I've only used loose glitter once before and it was very messy - this time was no exception - and it takes ages too! I laid out a sheet of paper, and then nail by nail, I painted about half the tip with a clear, slow-drying polish. I then tipped the glitter from the bottle over my fingertip, and patted it down gently so no pieces were stuck up, and they were all flat on my nail. I then tapped my nail gently over the paper so any bits not stuck would fall off. I then used my dotting tool to pick up discarded glitter pieces one by one, and sticking them anywhere there was a gap, and also using a few to create a gentle gradient down the nail.

I finished off with a few coats of Ciate's topcoat - I was actually really impressed! It's called Speed Coat, and I do love topcoats that dry quickly. Can't wait to try it over a smoother manicure to see how shiny it makes my nails, but it's worked well at holding these glitter pieces in so far.

Here's a pic of the work in progress - glitter everywhere! And of course, chocs and coffee (in my awesome Wicked Witch of the West mug) feature too...

And some more snaps of the finished look! Not sure how long they will last, as they're still catching on stuff occasionally despite the thick layers of topcoat. But they do look very sparkly - I love the overlapping glitter!

So I created these nails using my pretty new Ciate polishes. I have loooooved getting a new polish each day over advent, and the selection has really been fab - I thought with it being a high-end brand, I might just get lots of shades of nude and red. I did get a few of these, but I wasn't expecting the lovely glitters and pastels too. Really chuffed with having 24 new polishes all at once to play with! 

Number 24 was an amazing surprise - couldn't have been better! As I said before, I'd not looked on the back of the box or online to see what polishes were included the calendar so I had no idea what I would get each day, and no idea what number 24 would be. I opened the door to find a massive bottle of pink glitter polish!! It's like it was made for me. My two favourites when it comes to nails are pink and glitter, so WAHAY! I also love how big the bottle is. Next to the minis, it looks like an absolute giant!

Here are all my pretties together:

Quick run-down - from the top:
top row: my beautiful number 24 polish, pink glitter <3 (these do have names but I'm not going to type them all out, just want to describe the polishes and what I think of them!)
second row: Top and base coat. Didn't expect these but they're always good to have. V impressed with topcoat!
third: Three shades of red and orange, with a fourth at the end of the fourth row. All quite similar but I've already used the darker red twice, and can see myself using the more orange-tinged shades in summer.
fourth: These first three are stunners - I've used the grey and the lilac already, and the pink is so pretty - pastel, but still bright. Not used that one yet but I can't wait to - love it!
fifth: Two very similar shades of shimmery nude - one perhaps more sheer than the other? I used the more dense one in today's mani. Then there's the beautiful silver foil-like one I used in my xmas lights mani, a silver-foil with glitter pieces in it, and an irridescent flakie that I did give a quick try but found a bit gloopy - will try again!
sixth: a very pale pink that I love - always love a pink! Two bottles of Caviar beads - pretty colours but I'm not sure I'll use them - too fiddly. A holo silver glitter polish, then two bottles of loose glitter - fine gold/pink and the chunky one I've used today.
Bottom row: Love these three too! A pale blue and pale green that I used in my snowflakes mani as a gradient, and a beautiful gold/irridescent glitter that's a really nice mix - very unusual. 

Sorry for the epic length of this post! I hope you all have a lovely Christmas, and I'm so excited to open my Nail Secret Santa presents that are under my tree, and hope to be back ASAP after xmas to post about what I get. Very excited! x x x