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Thursday, December 5, 2013

12 Days of Christmas Nails!! Day 1: a-England Excalibur (new) + Shimmer Elsa

*contains press sample(s)

Hi everyone!  A few days ago I mentioned something I had planned for December that I was pretty excited for, and I thought I'd launch it today.  Last year I had a handful of polishes that reminded me only of Christmas and I didn't give myself a chance to play with them but this year I'm changing all that. :)  So, I present to you LLPT's 12 Days of Christmas Nails!  The idea is fairly self explanatory.  I'll feature twelve different holiday-ish nail looks before Christmas Day finally hits.  We'll see how far I actually make it but I have some fun stuff I want to share, so I'll just get started, with 12 posts before the 25th being the end goal :)

I'm usually very classic in my choices for day to day polishes but I let myself get a little wild and crazy (comparatively speaking) for the holidays, which are, in part, about adding a little more shimmer and sparkle to your wardrobe.  Today I decided to pair two of my favorite indie companies, a-England and Shimmer, in a sponge tip mani.  I used the new a-England Excalibur, a buttery champagne gold, as my base, and Shimmer Elsa, a champagne gold, cerulean, and ruby red glitter, for my tips.

 a-England Excalibur (new) + Shimmer Elsa sponge tips


A few words about Shimmer, since I just named them as a favorite yet never featured one on la blog-- I've long been an admirer of this line of elegant, saturated glitters, from their gorgeous versatility to the labeling to the idea behind the polishes (each glitter is inspired by the creator's friends and family... that makes for some seriously awesome energy!) but I've never treated myself to any.  A dear friend gifted me with a few of them a while back and since I received them, I've pulled the bottles out just to gawk at them and to play with different color combinations.  Needless to say, I'm stoked to finally have some of these beauties in my stash and I'm really excited to be wearing one for the first time.  Thank you, dear friend (you know who you are ♥)!

 a-England Excalibur (new) + Shimmer Elsa sponge tips

I've been in loooove with a-England since the first stroke of Briar Rose.  It's another brand with great energy, and they just have the most amazing formulas and out of this world gorgeous colors.  I used two coats of Excalibur, then used a makeup sponge to dab Elsa onto my tips.  I finished with two layers of topcoat.  I love how festively elegant these two look together.  Shimmers are so perfect for adding a special accent.

 a-England Excalibur (new) + Shimmer Elsa sponge tips

The awesome thing is that all a-England polishes are on special for $9 each through color4nails.com in honor of the Ballerina collection launch.  So now's a good time to grab a few you've had our eyes on! 
Shimmer polishes are available by contacting the shop owner here.

And that's it!  I'm trying to convince my Baby Beau to be my new blogging lap buddy but he's too preoccupied with the novelty of being able to nap in every room in the house, which wasn't the case when Sal was with us.  Certain doors had to be kept closed but now he's got free reign so he's obsessed with one particular room, lol.
As always, thank you for reading, have a loverly day, and stay warm :) We got down to 16 degrees last night ☼
*contains press sample(s)

23 comments:

  1. This is a gorgeous manicure! Love the two together here :)

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  2. Ohmahgoodness that A-Englad. That has shot up pretty high on my lemming list now! As for the weather, the grass is always greener on the other side I guess? Today's high here is 80 and I am SO OVER the hot weather, lol.

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    1. Well, I dunno about that... All summer I looked/felt/was 5lb over what I'm used to so I'm perfectly happy being cold for once, lol.

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  3. Hi Liesl, what a brillant idea!!! I cannot wait to see what you got up your sleeve!!! You know my love for A Englands and seeing the er-vamped Excalibur on you I really need to dig out my bottle and wear it again!!! As for Shimmer Polish - they are "mature" - no? What a great friend of yours!!! And I remember, I was the same when I got my first Shimmers. I kept them in my drawer for a while and just ogle them occasionally :-D and love that bot about Baby Beau, I can just imagine how he prances all those rooms now... xxx

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    1. You hit the nail on the head, sis, it's another glitter for grownups in the vein of BadAss Polish (from whom I'm dying to see some new lovelies). And yes, this friend is lovely, indeed <3
      Baby Beau is entertaining as always and I know he misses his "sister" but he seems to be doing okay on his own. We're all dealing ;)

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  4. How beautiful, Liesl! Totally genius to combine those two polishes. The end result is nothing short of fab and festive! :D

    ~ Yun

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    1. Thank you!! <3 I was pretty stoked when I found this little duo, lol.

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  5. Beautiful manicure Liesl :) Elsa is gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks so much Pearl <3 Elsa is a gorgeous polish!

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  6. YAY! I finally have time to catch up and read some of your blog (Connor and moving takes up 99% of my free time) - but, I really love this combo together. I'm not a fan of metallic looking finishes much, but the glitter balances it out nicely for me! I can't wait to see what else you come up with :)

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    1. I can imagine, lol. It's hard for me to keep up with all the everything and I don't have kids, lol. Anyhoo, I'm stoked you got a free moment! It's always fun to hear from you :) I'm glad you like this duo, too ♥♥

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  7. What a great idea. I can't wait to see your Christmas nail looks:) This is really pretty - you did a great job with the gradient of the glitter.

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    1. Thank you!! :) I didn't do much-- the sponge kind of naturally did it, lol. Shimmers seem to be perfect for this sort of thing. Thank you again ♥♥

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  8. Lovely glitter. It's a great Christmas manicure.

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    1. I think so, too! I feel like my nailses look totally festive :D

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  9. This looks fabulously Christmas. And it's...like sort of Renaissance Christmas party. That made no sense, yet it's exactly what I thought of when I saw it. *sigh*

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    1. You're so cute :) I totally don't know what that means, and googling didn't aid in my imagery much, lol... http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6571292707_e6e6dd3728_o.jpg

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  10. Omg how did I miss this mani?! :O You did what could be considered nail art!!! A glitter gradient!!!! ♥ And it is just sooo gorgeous. You picked the perfect base and the perfect glitter, darling. :D
    P.S. I'm wondering if Mo didn't have the wrong French period in mind... Rococo was very over the top ornate gold silver metallic you name it kinda thing! ;) Renaissance refers more to the mental and industrial renewal.

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