Belated Holiday Nails

We're now firmly out of the holiday season, but I'm still playing catch-up.  While I immensely enjoyed my time at home, eating home-cooked meals and baking cookies and catching up with old friends, it put somewhat of a damper on the trip when I arrived in Chicago, unpacked my bag, and discovered that my laptop absolutely refuses to turn on.  This is extremely frustrating given that basically my entire life is on that thing, including Chromatic Consumption content.  Luckily I still have a desktop that performs...well, adequately at best, but it's better than nothing.  So, before they become even more irrelevant than they already are a week into January, here were my Christmas nails!

Colors used: Ulta 14 Carat, Milani Jewel FX Gold, e.l.f. Light Red, Color Club Art Club White

Cheesy and over-the-top for sure, but oh god I loved it.  I got numerous compliments, even with the smearing and uneven lines - first time using a striper brush.  But I really liked it, so much easier than taping off my nails like I had been originally planning.  I think that's still the easiest for thicker stripes, but for little ones like this a striper is the way to go.  Plus it made it easier to have some variety, so not every nail looked the same.  This was my left hand, which is my dominant hand; the ones on my right hand looked a bit more uniform.

 

What I don't understand is why the polish smeared when I tried to add a topcoat.  After several times screwing that up, I finally let them dry overnight before trying to add it; that didn't make any difference, it still caused the polish to smear.  My guess is one of the following: the polish was very thick, the polish was low quality, or the topcoat - Insta-Dri Clearly Quick - I'm starting to suspect may not actually be a topcoat, I think it might just be a clear polish.  I realized when unpacking that I had accidentally left my Out the Door topcoat behind, accidentally grabbing my goopy old Seche Vite instead.  I got the Clearly Quick bundled together with another color while Christmas shopping (more on my holiday haul next entry), but I didn't really look very closely until now.

In any case, I eventually just decided to forego topcoat altogether, since I would only be able to wear this for a few days.  But even with those few smeared nails, I happen to think the outcome was pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself.