Santa Suit and Reindeer Mani

Whelp, I know it's now after Christmas, and I couldn't get these up before the actual holiday.  I'm sorry.  But, I still wanted to share these with you and my experience with yet another KBShimmer polish!

So here's Santa (or part of him, at least!) and one of his reindeer bringing you some (belated) Christmas joy!  Click Read More down below for additional pics and reviews.

Christmas Mani

I had fun doing these!  I haven't done advanced stamping in a while, so this was just a quick and simple advanced stamp that I actually turned into a decal on my stamper.  More on that later.

L-R: OPI Nail Envy, KBShimmer Whole Lava Lovin', Zoya Bar, Essie Blanc, Sinful Colors Black on Black,
OPI LAMB, Zoya Codie, KBShimmer Clearly On Top, Glam My Mani Christmas Nail Vinyls, Cici&Sisi plate 03

So, let's talk about KBShimmer for a minute.  KBShimmer was officially my first indie purchase.  I have since (lol, in the past month) purchased or received (gifts from friends) several other indie polishes, so I'm slowly beginning my descent into the world of indies and I couldn't be more excited!

Anyway, KBShimmer.  In my experience so far, Christy's polishes are well priced for an indie ($8.75 per bottle, give or take).  She offers a variety of formulas and finishes, as well as basecoats, topcoats, nail treatments, vinyls, and scrubs, soaps and lotions.  So far I've purchased some of her crellies, jelly glitter bombs, a duochrome, a holo, her topcoat, and a scrub.  I don't yet have experience with Christy's other products.  But I adore her topcoat (I liken it to Essie's Good to Go quick dry topcoat; not to thick or thin and it dries so quickly without shrinkage) and her polishes.  Her peppermint sugar scrub is pretty great too.  

Let's talk about Whole Lava Lovin', which is what I used in this mani.  It's a raspberry red polish with linear holo.  I used two coats for this mani and topped it with KBShimmer Clearly On Top quick dry topcoat.  The linear holo is mildly subtle, but that could be because I didn't really see it in the sun.  It's still a gorgeous polish with a great formula.  It stayed where I put it when applying the polish and didn't pool at my cuticles at all.  This is a winner in my book!

KBShimmer Whole Lava Lovin' (2 coats no topcoat), Zoya Bar (2 coats no topcoat),
Essie Blanc (1.5 coats no topcoat)

I painted my middle nail with a coat of Essie Blanc, then painted a line still using Blanc down the middle for my Santa suit, since I was going to put the red polish on either side of my nail.  I topped it with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.  I used two coats of Zoya Bar on my ring finger and topped it with two coats of Clearly On Top for a smooth stamping base.

Santa Suit and Reindeer!

I used a straight thick stripe nail vinyl from my Glam My Mani set (sorry, I don't have pics of the process of this mani) over top of the middle of my white nail and painted either side with KBShimmer Whole Lava Lovin', then topped it with topcoat.  Once it was dry I used two thinner nail vinyls with a space in between for the belt and filled it in with Sinful Colors Black on Black.  Then I used a striping brush and OPI Lamb to draw the buckle on the belt and dotted Santa's "fluff" on the bottom of his suit with Essie Blanc and topcoated one more time (good thing I ordered a back up of KBShimmer's topcoat!).

For my advanced stamping, I used Zoya Codie (dark brown creme) and my reindeer image from Cici&Sisi jumbo set 1.  Since I have two Cici&Sisi stampers I made both reindeer at the same time.  I picked up the reindeer image, then dotted Essie Blanc on the face, then let it dry a bit on the stamper and put a coat of Clearly On Top over the image and let it dry completely.  I then removed the image from the stamper and laid it on my ring finger.  I topped that off with another two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top to smooth out the decal.  I also added dots to my index and pinky fingers using Essie Blanc.  I left my thumb plain with two coats of Whole Lava Lovin'.

And that's that!  This was one of my personal favorites out of my Christmas manis.  What does your favorite holiday mani consist of?

Products used in this mani:

KBShimmer polishes can be purchased at www.kbshimmer.com

Glam My Mani nail vinyls can be purchased at www.glammymani.com

Cici&Sisi stamping plates/stampers can be purchased at www.ciciandsisi.com