NOTD: Winter Affair with Mickeys and Mistletoe

Hi, I'm back! I spent most of my time away vacationing in warm and mostly sunny Florida (after stressing out about work right until just about the last minute before we left); Mr. Karen and I returned to cold and snowy Michigan Sunday night. As I mentioned before I disappeared, I expected to be in a new office as of yesterday, but while I was away, that move got postponed and is now scheduled for this coming weekend, which means I'm a bit disoriented right now since I packed up all my stuff before I left and it doesn't really make sense to unpack it all again only to repack it in a few days.

Mr. K and I spent our whole vacation at Walt Disney World, riding rides, seeing shows, taking in the holiday decorations around the resorts and theme parks, and going to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party one night. I found the perfect polish for it: Candy Lacquer Mickeys & Mistletoe, a red and green glitter mix in a clear base that includes Mickey Mouse shaped glitters. I layered this over Studio M Winter Affair, a wine shimmer (same as Color Club Winter Affair from last year's holiday collection). I tried out the glitter over red and green cremes, too, but the wine was best to let the glitter pop.



Since I did this mani in a rush late at night, I didn't take good notes about how many coats I used. I think it was two of Winter Affair and two of Mickeys & Mistletoe, with some dabbing and skootching of the latter. Candy Lacquer included a small bag of extra glitters, so I fished some extra Mickey heads out of there and plopped those on the wet polish. For a base, I used Salon Sciences Starting Over After Artificials, which I've been using even though I've never had acrylics and it does seem to be helping my nails feel stronger and peel less. For a topcoat, I used Diamond Dry, which I think was not quite thick enough to cope with the bigger glitters but which I went ahead and used anyway because I trust it not to chip on me.



My nails are pretty curved, so the wider glitters—Mickey heads and stars—didn't sit flush to my nails in all the spots I put them in. The first full day I wore this look, one of the Mickey heads popped off entirely, but that was easy to fix by plopping a dab of some smaller glitters there instead. As the week went on, a few of the ears on the Mickey heads lifted up. I probably could have stuck them back down with more topcoat, but I just clipped them off and let those Mickeys be lopsided; there was enough else going on that I don't think anyone noticed.





I was quite happy with how this wore. I touched up tipwear around day six and got a couple chips around day 10 and touched those up, too. I still have this on my nails now, twelve days in, though I'll likely take it off tonight because the growth gap at the base of my nails is getting a bit too wide for my taste. Mickeys & Mistletoe was the first Candy Lacquer polish I tried; it won't be my last. (Her shop is closed now for the holidays but of course I ordered more than one color; figured I could always swap them away if they didn't work for me.)