My Winter Nails: MAC Ice Parade Mini Nail Lacquer Kit

A belated New Year's present to me, that I only recently received (thanks to the otherwordly delays in the domestic post this past holiday season), was something I've been eyeing for quite some time now: the Dazzlespheres Mini Nail Lacquer Kit from this year's Ice Parade/Holiday 2011 collection.

Now, in theory (and in reality), I have enough nail polish to last me well over a decade, but this little selection of shades made my pupils dilate each time I came across them; so, naturally, I needed them in my life! The shades are (as shown from l to r): Style Tip, Much Adored, Dark Angel and Mistletoe.

Let's take a closer look:

Style Tip is one of those cream "mannequin nails" shades, a soft, muted beige-pink shade. Those particular shades are the hardest to suit my skintone, since I find they often look "dirty" on my nails - this, however works lovely! Style Tip required 2 to 3 coats to achieve an opaque finish (depending on thickness and steadiness of your hands during the application).

Much Adored is a beautiful shimmery milky white, shot with the prettiest golden pink shimmer! If you know me by now, you've probably figured out that I don't usually go for "girly" or "princessy" shades, when it comes to my makeup, but this is exactly how I'd describe it and I don't mind it all; I love the "polished" effect it gives (swatch is taken after 2 coats)!

Dark Angel is a deep, dark violet shade, in a cream finish, despite it being labeled as a frost (god knows why). Beautiful dark shade, but the formula wasn't the best: this one definitely needed 3 coats to achieve that bottle opacity.

Finally, there's Mistletoe, what sold me to this set in the first place: a rich, uber metallic greenish gold. I adore this one! I knew all along that Chanel Peridot wouldn't work for me (I found the greenish iridiscence a little too much for my skintone), so this was the next best thing. One coat would have sufficed, but I added a second one. As I'm typing this, I can't help but smile looking at my statement metallic nails! :)

By the way, this set marks my first experience with MAC nail polish; my thoughts on it: so far, so good. I wasn't 100% wowed by all the shades, but then again I rarely ever am by any nail polish brand. To be honest, the application was probably better than I expected, given the frequent backlash that MAC gets when it comes to their nail polishes.

One thing I would have preferred though is for the bottles to have been a little bigger: each "mini" is about 2.66 ml, which is too little to be considered a "mini" in my book - "teenie tiny" is more like it. Buuut, I do love these shades and they're the only ones I can imagine wearing this season, they really lift my spirits in this super cold (maximum today is -1, yeehaw) and stressed (upcoming exams) time of the year!

Now, I know this is a totally unfair post to you all, since it was a LE/sold out item and all that jazz, but I thought it was worth a mention. I promise the next one will be something more...contemporary!


So, what are you wearing on your nails this time of the year? Do you pick your nail polish depending on the weather?