Nail Mail Monday: Nail Bestie Christmas Gift

I’m so timely, you guys! NOT. Here I am, with the first of two December-specific nail mail posts. I’ve been planning this post for at least two weeks, but I had a hard time getting together the pictures I wanted, so things got delayed. And then I got busy, so things got delayed even more. Aaaaand … well, you get the idea. Now, we are already into the second week of January, and here I am, sharing a Christmas gift. I feel weird prolonging December stuff like this. I know it doesn’t matter, really. Because it’s my blog and I can do things however I want. But I have my own weirdness and insecurity and all of that. But, anyhow … It’s Christmas!! (in January — yay!)

CHRISTMAS NAIL MAIL!!

My sweet nail bestie (@jenniferwallenfels on IG … have I mentioned how awesome she is? Um, yeah … I think I have! ^.~) sent me an amazing and awesome package of nail love for Christmas. I felt so loved when I got this. There are two “old favorites” in here, and also two brand new things I was aching to try out. So much awesomeness!!

The first “old favorite” is the little bottle of Zoya Remove. I love Remove. It’s my favorite polish remover, but I save mine and use it only for clean-up after my manicures. I haven’t found anything that works as well for me. For last year and this year, I purchased a giant bottle (well, 32 oz) during one of their really great holiday sales. This bottle will last me pretty much all year for manicure clean-up. So getting a little mini bottle of it was a huge treat! It seems silly to get excited over polish remover, but I totally was!! I was extravagant in my use of it, since I had this little extra bottle. I even used it to remove a couple of glitter-heavy manicures. It was fabulous. Needless to say, my little mini bottle of Remove is already all gone.

This is the second “old favorite”. This is China Glaze, Sunday Funday. Sunday Funday in the house!!! YAAAAAS!!! This was one of my absolute favorite blues and a favorite China Glaze, too. I loved it so much that I pretty much used up my entire bottle. I had a little bit left in the bottom. When I swatched my China Glaze blues, I mentioned that I had struggled to get one last manicure (for my swatch picture) out of my bottle. I tried to save it with thinner, but it didn’t work. I had to toss my bottle because there was so little left in it that it was all goopy and stringy. I was so, so sad.

Imagine the squeals of delight when I opened my nail bestie nail mail and found this polish inside!! I can’t even explain how happy this makes me. I mean, just look at this blue! It’s so stinking perfect!! I’m sitting here thinking I kind of want to compare it to Ogre-the-Top Blue from OPI. And I can do that now, because I have a new, full bottle!! zOMyGosh!! Seriously, you guys. This is epic. Epic. I love this polish so much. I kinda want to cry. But in a good way.

This is the first of the new things I’ve been dying to try. This is the HK Girl fast drying top coat from Glisten & Glow. I have heard so many great things about this top coat on the interwebs. I’ve seen so many reviews raving about how fabulous it is. I’ve wanted to try this for about forever. But let’s get real. Am I ever going to spend my limited nail polish funds on trying a new top coat? Um … no. Because I’ve got polish to buy, y’all! So getting a bottle of this top coat in my Christmas nail mail love package was amazing. Aaaaaah-mazing! I was super excited about trying it.

You guys! I LOVE it!! I love this top coat so much! I used Seche Vite for a long time, and I like it. I love the way it looks on my nails. I didn’t love the way it tended to play “not nice” with the indie polishes I adore. It also didn’t play nicely with Zoya polishes for me. I switched over to Poshe and Out the Door. I like them both okay. But I don’t LOVE them. I feel like HK Girl, for me, combines what I love best about all of those top coats. I’ve been using it on all my manicures ever since I got it, and I haven’t fallen out of love with it yet. Total winner! I’m so happy I got to try this, and I know there will be more bottles of it in my future.

This was the last beautiful thing included in my package of nail luvvin’. This is Cirque Colors, Lapis Lazuli. Whaaaaat?!?!?

This is Lapis Lazuli in macro. I know I’ve already shared this in a weekly manicures post, so I will try not to go on too much about it.

But … This is beyond epic, you guys. I can’t even with this amazing polish. I wanted to try this so badly, but I was hesitant about ordering it. I get that way sometimes with new-to-me brands. Anyhow, I am super grateful that Jenn sent this to me. It is the perfect shade of blue. It looks EXACTLY like a Lapis Lazuli stone. Oh, and it has a great formula, too. Boom. I love everything about this polish. Everything!! When I opened the box and saw this in there, I might have squealed out loud. Just a little bit. Maybe.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

So that’s what was in my amazing box ‘o’ nail polish luvvin’ from my sweet and incredible nail bestie! Jenn, you are awesome! Thanks so much for the wonderful and thoughtful gift. And thanks, too, for a whole year’s worth of fun and silliness. I’m so glad we “met” via IG last year. I love chatting with you and sharing nail polish and life stuff, too. You definitely made my 2017 much brighter. Hugs to you!