Trixie Mattel Christmas Special manicure

I got Holo Taco’s Pixel Perfect collection on Black Friday sale, so I wanted to test just one out, but then I put on some YouTube and Tricia Martel made me want to do pastel Christmas colors instead.

Green nails: base coat of HT Mint Mojito, 3 coats of HT Bonus Life, 2 coats of Essie Gel Setter for true smoothness.
Pink nails: base coat of HT Toe Beans, 3 coats of HT CTRL Cutie on the pink, 2 coats of Essie Gel Setter top coat.
Pillow: World Market.

All of these polishes are great to work with. I do wish Bonus Life leaned more green than aqua (it just looks slightly too similar to 8-Bit Blues than I’d want in a full collection). I’ll also say that the Pixel Perfect collection has somewhat uneven opacity—CTRL Cutie had a lighter glitter load and definitely needed 3 coats, while Bonus Life could probably have stopped at 2. Both look better with a base color than without, but that might be my VNL phobic inner demons talking. Either way, they’re just gorgeous. There’s something about the shape and size of the square glitters that really pleases me!! It has more contrast with the rest of the glitter than a hex does, which gives a flashy look that’s genuinely special in my collection.

But of course there are a lot of pastel chunky holo glitters in this world. I am mostly here to shamelessly promote pastel Christmas manis. And the Trixie Mattel Christmas Special on YouTube was lovely.