This year, I received the Ciate Mini Manor Advent Calendar. Behind each door is a new nail polish or nail accessory for each day in the run up to Christmas. This advent calendar contained loose sequins and glitter. Loose glitter for the nail's top coat was new to me, although I know that it has been around for a little while now. My first application was a little messy, and I found that the glitter was quick to wear off and needed a top-up at the end of each day. However, using a clear top coat kept the glitter on the nail, which I feel is a better alternative.
I liked the design of the avent calendar, which looked like a toy house with windows or doors that could open to reveal the polish and accessories. See below for a day-to-day review of the colours received in the 2014 advent calendar.
1. Headliner: This turquoise colour needs a couple of coats on the nail to deepen the colour, and it dries in a matte finish.
2. Sharp Tailoring: This is a pale grey colour, and a couple of coats are needed as it's otherwise a streaky finish.
3. Girl with a Pearl: These loose 'pearls' are meant to be used on nails to create your own look. One side is flat so that it can stick against the nail. I have never used nail embellishments.
4. Members Only: This pale colour needs a few coats as it's almost the same colour as my nails/skin and has a slight shimmer effect. It's not one of my favourites because it needs a few coats. (I paired it with the glitter colour I received the following day.)
5. Sloaney, Sweetie: This is the first glitter nail polish in the advent calendar, and it consists of shinny light pink and silvery strands. The colour compliments yesterday's.
6. Runway Ribbon: This bright red loose glitter is perfect for Christmas.
7. Tuxedo: This shimmery dark grey has a glossy finish and is a nice netural colour. I paired it with Sand Dune, Members Only, and Sharp Tailoring. This is one of my favourites so far, but it does need a couple of coats on my nails.
8. Big Yellow Taxi: This bright yellow nail polish. I've wanted bright yellow nail polish for awhile, so this is welcome. A few coats are needed to get rid of streaky nails. I combined this with nails painted in Cupcake Queen (beneath door 16) and Amazing Gracie (behind door 17).
9. Prima Ballerina: This loose glitter nail polish is a dark pink colour. I added this over the top of Strawberry Milkshake (behind door 11).
10. Mineral Clarity: This shimmery glitter polish is a dark blue-silver colour when dried. I love this polish.
11. Strawberry Milkshake: This is the colour of a strawberry milkshake - milky pink. The product appears to be a slightly lighter colour until it dries. This needs a good three or four coats to look nice.
12. Let it Snow: This is another colour perfect for Christmas. It is a loose silver glitter.
13. Silhouette: This polish is a dark red-purple. It is almost a dark berry colour. This is a nice sophisticated colour when you want something classy but not red. I wear this colour as an alternative to wearing bright red because I feel that bright red washes out my skin.
14. Unrestricted Glam: This is a glossy black polish, but I needed several coats of this to cover my nails, and it was still not the darkest shade of black. I paired this with the glitter 'Slumber Party', and it was perfect. This polish, paired with 'Slumber Party' is perfect with black jeans and a casual look.
15. Slumber Party: At first, I thought this was a polish, but it's actually loose blue-purple-black glitter. I love this glitter and it's perfect on top of the 'Unrestricted Glam' and is a great look with jeans.
16. Cupcake Queen: This bright pink polish needed three coats to look bright on my nails. I'm not a fan of the colour pink, but I painted one nail this colour and also used 'Big Yellow Taxi' from earlier in the month and a white polish (tomorrow's 'Amazing Gracie') to create a trio of shades on my nails. I love the results. This is a summery colour, though. Also, this goes perfectly with a glitter polish that I received later on in the month.
17. Amazing Gracie: This is an off-white nail polish. This needed several coats as it dries streaky as it's such a light colour. This also took a lot longer for this colour to dry when compared to the others.
18. Tinsel Trail: These large blue and silver sequin flakes remind me of winter, so this is a perfect shade for this time of the year. These are loose flakes, so they require getting a little messy, and they are quite large, so they take a lot of fiddling to get the desired effect instead of over-hanging on the nail.
19. Candy Cane: This is a pink glitter nail polish. The polish itself is a semi-transparent pink colour, but I did not care for the effect as a polish on its own. The polish actually looks really nice on top of 'Cupcake Queen' from day 16.
20. Frozen Daydream: This is another loose glitter, and it's a dark blue colour. This is another wintery shade which I think could look sophisticated.
21. Nail Transfers: This long strip of nail transfers contains a wintery snowflakes pattern.
22. Sand Dune: This is a shimmery gold polish. The colour dries a pale gold.
23. Sherbert Fizz: When I originally looked at this polish, I thought that it was a festive bright red. However, it's not. The polish dries into a sherbert pink colour, and it has a shimmer effect. This is more of a spring or summer colour.
24. Celestial: This is a larger-sized nail polish compared to the others. The polish is a glittery shimmery silver with larger flakes of glitter nail polish and smaller pieces of silver glitter. This is an extremely pretty polish.
Which was your favourite shade?
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