Paul and Joe Holiday 2011

Somehow all the nail polishes from Paul & Joe's Holiday 2011 collection, Ornamental, made their way to my stash. Okay, they made their way there because I ordered them. I definitely wanted one of them, was intrigued by a couple more, and figured if I was going to get three of the colors, I might as well get all five and make the completist in me happy. Here they are, left to right: 020 Home for Christmas, 021 Hallelujah, 022 O Holy Night, 023 Merrily on High, and 024 Rockin' Around.



I included the numbers up there because that's what's on the bottles. If the names are printed on the label somewhere, I haven't found them. As you can see, this isn't a typical assortment of Christmas colors, though they are named for Christmas songs. There's a green, but it's a light lime. The closest to red is a warm rosy pink. The gold has a bright bronze cast to it. Lilac and blue green round out the collection.

These came in green and silver patterned boxes, which are nice, though I didn't like them quite as well as the flowered ones from Summer 2011.



Home for Christmas was the one I was least certain about getting, since gold is the hardest metallic for me to wear. This is definitely the least flattering of the group on my skintone, but I'm still glad I bought it because I don't think I have any other polishes like it. The pink sparkles in it were an especially nice surprise. This is three coats, no topcoat.





Hallelujah, the lime green one, is a glitter topcoat. In the photo below, I'm showing one coat on my index finger (top) building to four coats on my pinky (bottom). No topcoat, and it's surprisingly smooth without it for such a glittery formula.



I love that this one is full of square glitter, some small, some larger. As much glitter as I have, very little of it is square. I noticed that these polishes were made in Japan; maybe that's where all the square glitter is hiding (and round—one of the summer Paul & Joe polishes had big round glitter in it, and that's also rare in my experience).



O Holy Night has square glitter in it, too: small blue, silver, and teal bits in a teal shimmer base. I used three coats of this one, though could probably have stopped at two. It could have used a topcoat as it was a bit bumpy on its own.



Merrily on High is what I think of as a spring color, a warm lilac shimmer. I have to give the brand credit for not naming this Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, as I've already run across too many variations on the name sugar plum for holiday polishes. At three coats, it was just a touch short of completely opaque, but certainly wearable.







Rockin' Around is a pretty shimmer in a warm pink color that makes me think of summer. In some lights, you can see sparks of orange and purple in this one. This is also three coats with no topcoat, and you'll see just a hint of visible nail line.





I couldn't resist trying the two glittery ones together, and oh my goodness, that worked out quite nicely. This is three coats of O Holy Night with two of Hallelujah.





It's like some fabulous undersea party! New Year's Eve at Neptune's castle, perhaps.



I've never seen this brand in stores, though I don't go to all the stores, so it could be out there. I've gotten mine from Aphotica.com (a sponsor of this site), b-glowing, and Urban Outfitters.