Deck the Nails

Yeah, okay, I have a confession... I'm getting really excited for Christmas!! Apart from it being an occasion to farewell the generally horrible year that was 2012 for me, it's another Christmas I get to spend with the most important person in my entire life - my Mum - and I've got a holiday job that I am really, really, REALLY loving! On top of all that, my oldest brother who moved to the States at the start of the year IS BACK FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!!! *Mega happy excited dance* This will be the first time the family's seen him since he left, and we're ALL feeling the joy of his impending arrival. How better to celebrate my excitement for the upcoming festivities than by painting my nails? Behold my first proper Christmas mani!

That beautiful deep red you see is two coats of OPI Big Apple Red, my most favouritest of red polishes ever. Yes, favouritest. It's so much my favourite that it gets its own new word! The accent nails are water marbled using China Glaze Winter Berry and Holly-Day. I used Winter Berry instead of Big Apple Red for the water marble for two reasons: 1- water marbles tend to work better if you use same brands together, so since I knew I was gonna use Holly-Day, I wanted to use another CG polish with it, and 2- Winter Berry is much darker than Big Apple Red so when it thinned across the water, I knew (okay, hoped) that it would thin out to a similar shade to BAR. Whaddaya reckon - pretty close huh?

Streaky McStreakenstein made an appearance after I applied Cult Nails Wicked Fast, even though I waited for it to dry and used plenty and everything! *humph* you can't win 'em all... Winter Berry is so freakin' saturated that it tends to dominate whatever it's next to (and is an insanely caffeinated drunk toddler of a [bleep] to clean up) so I'm not too surprised about my lovely unintentional festive stripes. Gotta say, I'm pretty darn pleased with how the water marble turned out!

Today's photos are brought to you by Billy, my big camera - can you tell the difference? Maybe I just like taking photos with Billy more - I feel more 'involved' 'cause I have more control over the settings. I still love Johann (my little point n' shoot) but there's something really satisfying about messing with settings to get the shots you want. 

Are you excited for the holiday season, dreading it, or just meh? How do you celebrate, if you do? Thank you for checking in, lovelies! See you soon ^_^