NOTD: Christmas Nails

I did this nail look a little while ago, but it's the look I did for the holiday parties with my boyfriend and his family.

Sorry I didn't photograph the nail polishes I used! But the green I used is China Glaze's Jolly Holly, the red is Ciate's Dangerous Affair, and the glitter is e.l.f's Glitter Glam. I used two coats of the red and green and one coat of the glitter.

I wasn't crazy about the overall look because e.l.f's Glitter Glam isn't really designed to be a top coat, not in my eyes anyways. It's too thick and opaque, so that if you apply it too heavy handedly, you end up not being able to see the color underneath. But anyways, it looked pretty enough and reminded me of Christmas ornaments!

What do you guys think? I'm thinking of painting my nails in a couple minutes. I'm thinking Jolly Holly with Party Hearty over the top. Christmas may technically be over, but it isn't for me! Hehe.

E.L.F Cranberry Nail Polish v Ciate Paint Pot in Dangerous Affair

When I was in the shop today, I noticed the November issue of Marie Claire. I instantly grabbed it to see what the free gift was, since that's my favorite part about buying magazines, hehe. Upon realizing that it was a free Ciate nail polish, I decided to buy it. I noticed that the color looked exactly like the E.L.F Cranberry Nail Polish currently on my fingernails, but I wanted it anyways!

So have I found a dupe? By golly, I think I have! (sorry).

Sure, the Cranberry polish has a bit of glitter while Dangerous Affair doesn't, but on such a dark color, you don't even notice, unless you put your face right up to your finger nails, and let's face it ladies, we don't do that, do we?

And okay, yes, Dangerous Affair is slightly more shiny....which almost makes me prefer it, except for the fact that it retails for 9 pounds whereas the Cranberry nail polish is only 1.50! And I had to apply 3 coats of each so I can't say the Ciate nail polish is really any better quality than the E.L.F one.

The Ciate brush / long and round handle certainly do make application easier as opposed to E.L.F's squared one, but hey, I can deal with that.

Overall, I'm not inclined to shell out the 9 pounds for the Ciate nail polish just because it's shinier and has a cute little bow on it, and I recommend if you want either, you go for the cheaper alternative of E.L.F's Cranberry.

*Note: I wrote this before I actually went to take the photos, and when I put my nails under the studio light, I realized Dangerous Affair became quite red. x_x But the thing is, it doesn't look this red unless you get into bright light, as you can see from the photos above. See how red it gets in the light!?:

But take my word for it, in regular light it doesn't look that red. That's underneath an actual studio light used for photography etc etc, lol, so it's rather bright.

Besides, Cranberry went quite red under the light as well, see?:

So what do you guys think? DUPE?