Archived Post

Holiday 2007 - Nails for the Season & Quick Tips for Long-lasting, chip-proof nails

Whether you have your nails done professionally or prefer to do them while watching an hour of reality television, we have picked some of our favorites to recommend to you for perfectly polished nails. As always, polishes in reds are always in season when it comes to the holidays, but we are fortunate enough to have experienced the trend of jewel-toned tips in shades like rich, bold navy blues and emerald greens.

Tips for Nails:

  • File down nails (preferrably with a glass file to minimize tearing and splitting) to even them out relative to each other. Sometimes if I break a nail, I may keep that one short but keep the rest even with each other. In general, I try to keep them all in line, in terms of length and shape, with each other.
  • Find the shape that suits your hand. I go for the “squoval” or a squarish oval.
  • Take care of cuticles by using a product like Creative’s Cuticle Eraser (I always keep a couple on hand and stash them around the house: by my desk, on my nightstand, and on the bookshelf near the couch).
  • Wash hands thoroughly before beginning the process of applying polish. Any dirt, grime, or lotions will make it harder for the polish coats to adhere to the nail base.
  • Find a good top, base, and fast dry coat to use. I love Zoya’s ColorLock system because it comes with everything you need, and I’ve been using it for weeks now with amazing results. I have also had good results using Creative’s Stickey base and Seche Vite’s Fast Drying Top Coat.
  • I prefer a top coat or dry coat that quickly dries my polish–enough at least–that I can resume some activity. Remember, nail polish doesn’t set immediately, even with a dry coat; usually the polish is fully set an hour later. Ensure that you don’t get texturized by your bed sheets by applying polish well before bed time!
  • By applying a base coat (which anchors the polish better) and a top coat (protects the color, prevents chips), you automatically increase the wearing time of your manicure.
  • Buy your salon favorites at online retailers like 8ty8 Beauty, Head2Toe Beauty, & TransDesign, rather than in drugstores. If you buy enough, you will not only offset shipping, but save money, too (and who doesn’t LOVE to do that?).

Now that you know how to make the most of your polish, here are some great shades to help you mix and match and coordinate with your holiday pieces this year.

China Glaze’s Heart of Africa is a superb mix of raspberry and ruby reds; it shimmers subtly, and we love it as a modification of traditional reds at holiday time.

China Glaze’s Ruby Pumps is a most gorgeous shade of red with berry undertones with lots of festive red glitter for the holidays. Just make sure you have a good polish remover for this one!

Essie’s Who’s She Red is a lovely creme bright red; surprisingly it isn’t as daunting as one might think, it is really quite complimenting.

China Glaze’s Up All Night is a gorgeous shimmering rich navy blue that is so in right now.

OPI’s Russian Navy is one of the “it” polishes of the season.  It really is not to be missed, as it is almost duochrome in sheen.

OPI’s Jewel of India is a lovely, iridescent shade of raspberry with fuchsia-purple reflection.

Essie’s Showstopper is yet another amazing variation of the red holiday nail (this is part of their Winter ’07 collection!); more subdued than a typical creme red, but it still has plenty of punch with fine, shimmery red glitter and a mauvey-raspberry-red hue.

China Glaze’s Black Diamond is my pick for a gunmetal gray polish, which is always a great dramatic nail choice. I found that this one gives me the exact color I want, but it isn’t so shimmery that it shows brush strokes in the end like some other polishes do (that are more metallic).

15 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Tanya Avatar

Oh perfect timing on this post 🙂 I just decided to replace all my miss matched nail polishes and instead only buy OPI brand. Are you familiar with any of the OPI top coats? Or would I be better off with the Zoya brand you mentioned?

Mary Avatar

Yayyyyy holiday nails! I just painted mine red (an OPI color but I don’t recall which one) and covered them with gold glitter. It’s absolutely obnoxious and I love it!

I do like “Black Diamond”. I might have to check it out as long as they don’t test on animals!

victoria Avatar

i am so into the color OPI suzi loves sydney, i think that was the name. same shade as china glaze heart of africa. my family hates it because it’s too dark but i don’t care, i love it. it’s so beautiful and trendy. i do need a base coat of this one because i don’t want my nails to turn yellow, hate that.

whitnee Avatar

8ty8 Beauty are the shipping rates reasonable here? they don’t tell me before i place my order and i don’t want to be in for a huge shock. thanks.

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!