Happy Holidays and a Crackling Giveaway!

Very merry holidays!

I am so happy to reach 200 followers, thank you every one! This is a great community to take part in and I am thankful to experience that. There is always a kind word in the right time, an appreciative comment, a hello and a welcome back when you've been to busy to post for a while.

You are a great bunch of people! :-)

Because of that, I decided to set up my first giveaway. I will give away a complete set of the Isadora Graffiti Nails, awesome crackle polish in 6 colors. All purchased by me, open to followers everywhere.

The rules are simple:
This is for followers, old or new. Please tell me by which name you follow and state a valid email address to get in contact with you in a comment to this post.
If you want a second entry, blog about this giveaway in a post or in your sidebar. Please provide a link to your blog.
Feel free to use my picture, no extra points but many nail addicts may not know the Swedish brand Isadora.
Open until January 25, my time ;-)

200 followers, wow! :-D

Santa's Little Helper

So as we all know, there is hard work involved with celebrating christmas. There is food to be cooked, cakes to be baked, presents to be wrapped, house to be cleaned, tree to be dressed, children to be at least modestly cleaned up before santa arrives..

To manage this you need an iron clad manicure. Enter a China Glaze Glitter!

I have very good experience from CG glitters in the past, so as my pre-christmas manicure, I choose CG Mistletoe Kisses.

Amazing, this is two coats only, base coat and SV top coat as usual.
I must point out, this photo is from our winter solstice, when sun is barely creeping up above the horizon. This polish is much brighter in clear light, but it never showed..

Midvinterblot

Today is winter solstice. For us in the northern hemisphere it is the shortest day of the year. For me this means that there is only a few precious hours of daylight until the long, dark night begins again.

Way back, when we all lived in the forest and worshipped the old gods, we used to have a ghastly celebration on this day. There would be bonfires, music and prayers. There would be animal sacrifices, some historians even say that we made human sacrifices to the old gods to make them please, please, bring back the sun.

My picture is taken exactly at noon today. Look at the position of the sun. It just barely lights up my world. A little blood sacrifice doesn't seems so crazy after all. Maybe I should offer a red polish instead...

Lady Manhattan

This is a really wonderful polish I won in a giveaway from the sweet Mon Coin á Moi. This is the essence of my polish addiction. It's a beige! It's a holo! This is the perfect work safe alternative.

The brand is Lady Manhattan, color is 96D. It is a golden beige shimmer with holographic glitter. It does not go on streaky on the nail and it covers easily with one to two coats.
The notd is basecoat, one coat of polish + top coat. In the photo, you can see slight vnl, but after adding another coat, the polish is opaque.



Now, the winter is really, really here and the days are short, the nights are very long. Look at the hand of the ice queen!



I don't want to leave you in the cold and the dark, so here is my favorite Manhattan cocktail.

2 oz of rye whiskey (use a good brand)
1/2 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antiqua Formula is the best in the world)
4 dashes Angostura Bitters (sometimes more is needed - how bitter are you tonight?)
1 Maraschino Cherry for garnish and a small sweet tang at the bottom of the glass :-)

Stir, stir, stir with ice. Strain carefully in a cocktail glass.
Think of the Ice Queen. Enjoy!

I caught a new bug!

This is the fantastic polish Scarab, from the Illamasqua autumn collection. Ladies, this is ONE coat, slapped on in a hurry just before my youngest daughters christening ceremony last saturday. The photo is taken on day 5, excuse the wear. As usual Nubar Foundation base coat and Seche Vite top coat.

I touched it up with a second coat after taking the photos and the color grew even deeper and more haunting. I now understand why the old egyptians worshiped the Scarab bug as a holy creature! I think I may do that too.. ;-)



As a little bonus, here is Sonja on her big day. Nails done with one coat of Orly Shine.