China Glaze Holiday Joy 2012 - Select swatches and review

I visited my local Sally Beauty Supply this week and had the China Glaze Holiday Joy collection shoved in my face. :) (Hi Christy!) Seriously, she knows how much I love polish and gets just as excited about new collections as I do. I'll bet she's pretty amused watching me paw through boxes deciding what I "need." 

I only grabbed three from this collection of twelve polishes. As is typical of a holiday collection, there are reds, greens, silvers, golds, cremes, and glitters. Winter Holly, Glitter All The Way, and Pure Joy jumped out at me as polishes that are unique in my collection. I did something different on each nail, so I think I'll discuss that in captions under each photo. 

L-R: 2 coats Winter Holly, 3 coats WH, 3 coats WH over butter LONDON British Racing Green,  2 coats WH over bL BRG

L-R: 2 coats Glitter all the Way over Zoya Monica, 3 coats GatW over Monica, 3 coats GatW, 2 coats GatW

Same as above photo

Index - Pinky: 2 coats Pure Joy over red creme, 3 coats PJ over red, 3 coats PJ, 2 coats PJ

Same as above photo

 All polishes had excellent application for your typical glitter bomb in a clear base. I will definitely be using Elmer's Glue as a base coat when I use these for a regular mani. I also prefer the look of these with a solid color as "underwear."

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Snow Bunny

I'm going to try to make it through all of December with only my Salon Effects. This is the first set, Snow Bunny. I had a different picture ready to go, but couldn't not use the one with Kitty in the background!
As per usual, the strips are easy to apply. I used some cuticle remove first, because that is usually where I get the first bits of the sticker lifting from the nail. This set seemed more thin than usual, and the end of the supplied cuticle pusher was pretty rounded, so I got some irregular tears near my cuticles.
I wasn't as excited about this pattern as I thought I would be at first, but it's really grown on me and I've gotten some fantastic compliments! Next up will be the green and red tartan plaid.