Getting Ready for Christmas: Not Yet, But Almost!

Hello lovelies! What a crazy week this has been! I've been running around town trying to get all sorts of paperwork done so I can go on holiday next week. I haven't had the time or energy to write any posts although I have tons of stuff to show you. Today I'm very happy to introduce you to a new challenge created by the lovely Elsa of Like a Candy Shop. It's called Getting Ready for Christmas and it has some really great themes. With this challenge I can officially say that the holiday manicure season has started. Here's the banner with the themes. 

Fun, right? I will try to do as many of these as I can because I love them all. So for today I have my very first Christmas manicure of the year. I pulled out my Christmas polishes to get inspired and I immediately felt the urge to wear some green. China Glaze always have a sparkly green in their winter collections and I decided to combine the ones from 2011 and 2012 in one manicure. Here's the result. 

As you can see, the two greens are pretty similar but for us polish lovers they are actually very different. The green from 2011 is called Glittering Garland and it's packed with light green flakies. I used that one as a base. The green from 2012 is called Winter Holly and is a very fine glitter with a bit of a holo effect. I did a gradient on the tips using the glitter. 

This gradient is definitely of the subtle kind, but I think you can still see the difference between the tips and the base of the nails. In real life you can see that the tips are sparklier and lighter compared to the rest of the nail. 

I don't know about you, but I love subtle manicures like this. Well of course the fact that it's sparkly makes it less subtle. Make sure you check out Elsa's blog to see more of this challenge and her Facebook page where she will be sharing everyone's posts.

*Later edit: Here's a list of all the entries for this theme. Make sure you check them out!

Aby's World
Posh Nail Art
What's in my bag
Iulia Beldean
Love Makeup
Rainbows in a Jar
Fall in...naiLove!
Make up Deer
Pearls Lipstick and Chocolate
Taya
Wanna See My Nails?

Andra Katerina
Never Without Makeup
Recensendo
Pink Bijoux
Le Beatrici
Konad Addict