Candy Cane Mani

Here's the manicure I sported this week. Yes, ALL of this week...I swear, this Nails Inc. polish is indestructible. I love peppermints and candy canes, so naturally I celebrated the holiday season with a red-and-white-striped mani. I drew varying sizes of white stripes to mimic the look of an actual candy cane. My thumb turned out the best and most realistic, I think.

Red base coat is Nails Inc. St James, and white stripes were done with a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in white.

Top Coats Undressed

Gabrielle of The Edge of Sanity decided to send 8 volunteers 12 different types of top coats, without letting them know which top coat was which. She entitled this experiment Top Coats Undressed, and it is frankly awesome. Below are the links to the results of each top coat tested, from worst to best.

• Poshe
  
• European Secrets No Chip
• Misa Breakneck
  
• Tough Coat
• Zoya Armor
• China Glaze Fast Forward
• Nubar Diamont
• Seche Vite
• Rock
• Lippmann Addicted to Speed
• Be Natural Seal N Set
• A generic 99-cent top coat

Yes, that's right -- a 99-cent top coat beat out the 11 other "heavy hitter" top coats to claim the coveted designation of Best Top Coat.

My only addition to this list would be CHI Ceramic Top Coat, which I personally love. I would have liked to see how it fared in a blind test.

Giveway at Painted Lady Fingers!

For all of you nail polish addicts out there, the lovely Painted Lady Fingers is hosting an awesome giveaway featuring Diamond Cosmetics polish, to celebrate reaching 300 followers.

From her blog, the winner will receive the following:

~the Diamond Cosmetics Holiday Collection of four polishes

~their new matte top coat

~eight additional polishes of her choice from the core line

~a nail file

~a clear cosmetics bag

Head over now and enter!