2017 Christmas/Holiday Polish Picks

So here we are, less than a week until Christmas. It seems like the perfect time to do a Christmas/Holiday Polish Picks type of post, right? Yeah … There’s nothing more fun than waiting until the last minute. And I am a professional procrastinator. Go me!

Really, I hadn’t planned on doing a post like this. But today is gray and gloomy. I feel like putting something up on the blog. I didn’t have anything properly planned, but I figured I could pull a list of my holiday favorites together fairly quickly. Besides, all the “cool kids” are doing this. I wanna do it, too!

I’m going to sort my list out by different color categories. These are the colors I like to wear around the holidays, but they aren’t necessarily what one might consider “traditional” holiday colors. I didn’t include a category for gold or silver, for example. I love gold polish, but I’m not feeling this color for a full manicure this year. Instead, I’ve been enjoying having my hits of gold and silver in nail art accents or glitters. Within each color category, I’m going to include polishes I’m especially enjoying this year, but, really, these are just examples of each color. Some of the polishes in this post are new. Some are old favorites. I tried to get a mix of indie and mainstream in my list, although I’ve been wearing a lot more indies lately. Also, as with all of my recent posts, there will be a mix of old and new swatch photos in here. This is going to be a long post, because I have a few polishes in each category. So grab a snack and a drink, and buckle in for the ride!

RED:

I’ve said, many times, that I’m not much for wearing red polish. In the past, I have felt more comfortable with red on my toes than on my fingers. But … I think I’m coming around to loving reds more and more. I think I’ve purchased more reds and red-toned polishes this year than any year in the past. And it is one of the “classic” colors I particularly like to wear during the holiday season.

What is more “Christmas” than a sparkly, glittery red polish? There are scads of glittery, festive reds out there, but China Glaze, Ruby Pumps is my favorite. I wear this one all year round, but I try extra-hard to wear it at least once during the holiday season. Last year, I didn’t manage it, and I’m still a bit sad about that. Which is silly, I know. Not only do I love it for the holidays, but it is also one of my favorite reds of all time. I have a sentimental attachment to it, because this was one of the first reds I tried and LOVED on my nails.

A. England, Anne Boleyn is brand-new to my stash. I have not yet worn it in a full manicure. I’ve only swatched it. But I am loving the look and feel of this deep, dark, and subtly vibrant red for the holiday season. It is rich but also feels a little dangerous, somehow. I’m looking forward to wearing this one, and I hope I manage to get it onto my nails before Christmas. I’m not sure I will, though! Perhaps before New Year’s. The pressure is on!

Moonshine Mani, ‘Tis Hammertime is another polish that is brand new to my stash. I haven’t worn this one as a full manicure yet, either. But I’m really feeling it as a festive and glittery scarlet-type of red for the holiday season. I may need to do a whole week of just reds or mostly reds before New Year’s Day!

GREEN:

Colores de Carol, Esmeralda is the only green I have on my list this year. This is a brand-new release, and, of course, it’s brand-new to my stash, too. I have already worn this one, and it is FABULOUS. It might be the most perfect green I have, but I’m not sure. At any rate, it’s the only one that gave me the holiday vibes or feels this year. I like wearing greens during the holiday, particularly leading up to Christmas, but I don’t wear them nearly as much as other colors.

PURPLE:

Purple kind of snuck up on me this year. Even before Thanksgiving, I was feeling the need to wear a lot of different purples. And that desire has continued right along through December. Purple is a beautifully festive color, although I’m not sure it’s considered “traditional”. Maybe it is, though. I think it has become traditional for me, at any rate.

Nine Zero Octorok was one of the first purples that came to mind when I started my list. This is a recent (Fall 2017?) release, and it is beyond fabulous. I love the deep, almost eggplant, purple of the base. And the holographic glitter! So. Many. Colors. It’s gorgeous and perfect and I love it.

China Glaze, Queen of Sequins came out with their recent holiday collection. I love this polish. It is glittery, but in a much more subtle way. I love the hits of lighter purple you get as the light plays over the glitters within the base. This has beautiful hints of red in the undertone, too, which makes the polish seem really rich and elegant without being too over-the-top in flash or color. This polish is very similar to OPI, Rich and Brazilian from their 2016 Holiday Collection. I love both of them, but I think I like Queen just a hair more.

Colores de Carol, Baby It’s Warm Outside! is probably my absolute favorite purple for this holiday season. I think it might be my favorite purple from the year, too. I love the flakes/shards in here. And the base color is beautifully bright and vibrant. It almost has a metallic sheen to it, which plays off the colors in the shards for a fun, festive, and stunning combination.

BLUE:

Blue is my biggest color category. No big surprise, right? I have more blue polish in my stash than anything else. And blue is my favorite color. I could probably wear different shades of blue polish and no other colors for the rest of my life and be quite happy. Not that I’m going to do that, but … Well, you get the idea.

LIGHT BLUE:

In terms of light blues, I fell hard for Orly, Forget Me Not. This polish really surprised me. It’s not a new polish. I think it was released this past Summer. But it is new to me. It was a total impulse purchase because of a store sale. I ended up LOVING this polish — hard! I loved everything about it. And this color is so beautifully light, airy, and almost icy that it feels perfect to me for winter and the holidays. I wore this polish in a manicure with pink accents in my nail art, and I adored it. I did not want to take that manicure off.

Pretty Serious, My Immortal is another light blue I’m loving in recent weeks. This one might be more of a medium blue, but I’m sticking it into the light category because it is so bright and vibrant on the nail. I love this one so much that I went back and ordered a second bottle as a back-up. It is super bright and vibrant. It glows off the nail, and it’s amazing in any type of lighting.

MEDIUM BLUE:

A.England, Katherine Parr was the first polish that came to mind when I thought about my medium-toned blues. This was a favorite from my Color4Nails Black Friday order, and it is a serious contender for being a favorite from everything I bought this year. This is the perfect, perfect, PERFECT tone of bright, yet medium, blue. I love everything about it. I can’t even.

Moonshine Mani, The Department of Mysteries is another medium-toned blue I’ve loved for my holiday manicures. I did a manicure with gold accent stamping and this polish as a base, and it was fabulous. I love how mysterious and glittery and sparkly this polish is. And the base color is such a beautiful tone of blue. This was part of a Polish Pickup order, so it’s no longer available for purchase. This is unfortunate. But, if you happen to run across this one in a destash sale, or if you already own it, it’s a great holiday polish!

Nvr Enuff, The Artisan King rounds out my medium blues. This is another new-to-my stash polish for this year. And it is a beautiful, almost grungy-toned, blue. It reminds me a lot of denim. I also love the glitters and the copper accents in this polish. This one looked beautiful as part of a  holiday manicure with rose gold stamping over it.

DARK BLUE:

Zoya, Dream. My holiday polish list would not be complete without this gorgeously beautiful, deep and dark holographic blue. This is a perennial favorite for me. I love this beautiful polish at any time of the  year, but it takes on a particularly festive feeling around the Christmas holidays. It reminds me of stars sparkling in a clear winter night sky.

China Glaze, Up All Night is another perennial favorite for me. This is probably my favorite polish of life, which is saying a lot. I love the velvety, dark, rich look it has on the nail. For the holidays, this one is beautiful on its own or with glitter or nail art. China Glaze, New Year New Boo, which released in their The Glam Finale Collection this year, is very similar to this polish. So that one might be a nice dark blue, if you don’t have Up All Night.

OPI, Less is Norse ended up in my dark blues even though it’s more of a gray-blue. Well, it is dark. This was probably my favorite polish from their Fall 2017 Iceland Collection. I love everything about it. I love the color tone. And it is creamy and perfect, formula-wise. Every time I wear this polish, I find myself thinking about how much I love seeing it on my nails. This holiday season, I wore this polish as a base color and then stamped over it with a silver holographic. It was so pretty!

PINK/ROSE:

I’ve been feeling the pinks and rosy/coppery golds this holiday season, both as accents in stamping or other nail art and in full manicures. This is a bit surprising, as I’m not always a “pink” kind of gal. But what can I say? These colors are pretty and feel particularly festive to me this year.

Colores de Carol, Caribbean Wonderlands is a new polish from Carolina’s Holiday 2017 collection. This is a perfect rose gold. I love how it has those lovely gold/copper undertones. But it also has a good deal of pink, which keeps it from looking too hard or harsh. And I love the finish this one has on the nail. Super pretty, fresh, and festive for the holidays!

Zoya, Padma is another new-ish release, from the Fall 2017 Sophisticates Collection. But this lovely lady is brand new to my stash. I just got her in my hot little hands this week, thanks to Zoya’s surprise Christmas sale. This is such a beautiful rosy color with just a hint of depth to it. It’s almost like a brown-rose color. It’s a little bit “grandma”. I can admit this. And yet, I am LOVING this color. I’m hoping to get this one onto my nails in the next few days, and it’s a contender for Christmas Day manicure (with nail art or stamping).

Zoya, Tawny is another recent release. She is from the most recent Winter/Holiday Party Girls Collection, and she is also brand new to my stash. I find this color hard to describe. Online, I’ve seen it billed as a rose/copper-toned gold. It has hints of rose, red, orange, copper, and gold all within the polish. I’ve already worn this one in a full manicure, and it is beyond fabulous. The light plays over this color beautifully. You can see flashes of every color down inside it. I have a macro shot of this one, too. I plan on sharing it in my next “Nail Mail Monday” post, which will be all the Zoyas I recently purchased. I’m already excited for it!

CRELLIES/GLITTERS:

What would the holidays be without crellies and glitters? Well, I’ll tell ya: BORING! I am a big fan of crellies. I’m also a big fan of glitters. I love wearing them all year long, but I find them especially perfect around the holidays.

Colores de Carol, Regalos came to mind immediately when I thought of this category. It is a perfect Christmas crelly! I love the mix of glitters in here — even the bars, which I usually don’t like at all. I also love how it has the “traditional” red-green-white color scheme. This polish is from last year’s holiday collection. I haven’t worn it yet this year, but I’m hoping to get a full manicure with this one before Christmas happens. I still have 5 days, after all! This is another polish that is a strong contender for Christmas Day manicure.

China Glaze, Ugly Sweater Party is a glitter I have to wear every year during the holidays — at least once. I wore it last week, and it made me feel like Christmas was upon us. Somehow, it just doesn’t feel “holiday” to me until I’ve busted out this bad boy. This is one of my favorite glitter polishes. It’s entirely “too much”, and I adore that.

China Glaze, Don’t Be a Snow-Flake is from their 2017 Holiday Collection (The Glam Finale). I love everything about this crelly. It’s one of my favorites from the collection, and it feels so, so, so holiday and winter to me. I love it best on its own, because it makes me feel like I’m wearing sparkling snow on my fingernails. I know — weird. But, there ‘ya go!

Colores de Carol, Pass the Ponche is the final glitter on my holiday list for this year. This glitter polish is perfect in every way. I love the blue glitters. I love the holographic. I love the silver base. It is sparkly and flashy and delicate and everything. I think this one would be a beautiful New Year’s Eve manicure, especially if I did anything exciting like going to a party or dinner and dancing. I don’t do anything exciting. I’m boring. But I might be boring with gorgeous, sparkly nails. That would be an okay way to start the new year!

So what are some of your favorites for the holidays? Are there certain polishes you find yourself reaching for every year? Or are you going with all new beauties this year? I would love to know!

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