If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you’ll probably know that in December, I swatched all the colours from Ciate’s Mini Mani Month advent calendar. I decided to make a post featuring my favourite colours, and there’s a link below to take you to all of the swatches from the advent calendar on my Flickr account!
Starry Night from Ciate’s Mini Mani Month Advent calendar: nail swatch
If you haven’t picked up your advent calendar yet – don’t worry, there’s still time! While some of the more popular calendars are sold out, there are still some fantastic options out there. Here are my favourites, still available to purchase!
Yankee Candle Advent Calendar, £21.49
Available from Amazon, this calendar contains 23 tea lights plus one votive for Christmas Eve. Even though there are 24 different slots, there are actually only seven fragrances, which are new for this year. The calendar is double sided, so you can get tealights from both sides of the calendar!
Inside are All is Bright, Festive Cocktail, Christmas Cookie, Macaron Treats, Snowflake Cookie and Star Anise & Orange. You’ll get around six hours of burn time from these, and 15 from the Christmas Eve votive! Check out this list on the Yankee candle page for information about all of the scents.
Check out this link to pick up the advent calendar now! It’s a great way of filling your house with some incredible, festive scents!
Ciate Mini Mani Month, £50
I get a Ciate advent calendar every year – I just can’t resist! This year, the new thing seems to be advent calendars made of boxes, rather than cardboard door, and I love it. It’s so much neater than the windows, and it’s like opening a present every day in December!
Inside is not just plain nail varnishes, but a nail file, toppers and nail treatments as well! I love getting these because it gives you a chance to try colours you might not have tried before – and I also like to have a variety of colours on hand for fancy dress parties as well. Sometimes you can find an unexpected favourite in a colour you wouldn’t have tried before – or you can get the perfect match for an outfit for a party! Face it, it’s basically a treasure trove.
I really love the layout and design on this – and the colour scheme of blue, purple and gold with the London skyscape images. Ciate is such a great brand – you know these formulas are going to be long lasting and easy to apply. Inside this calendar, there’s four new and exclusive shades, plus one full size bottle on Christmas eve.
Cheeky Advent Calendar, £50
As an alternative to the Ciate nail calendar, how about this one from Cowshed featuring 24 different colours from the Cheeky range? If you’ve had the Ciate calendar for a few years in a row, you might want to branch out and try something a bit different, which still focuses on nails.
The colours here look really bright and vibrant, and I can’t wait to try out a new brand for my nails. (I love the teal and hot pink colours!) Check it out here.
Marks and Spencer Beauty Calendar, £35 (with £35 spend)
This is probably the one I’m most excited about – with contents worth over £250, this is probably the best beauty calendar on the market.
The M&S beauty hall has seriously gone from strength to strength over the past few years, and this calendar contains a fantastic selection of products from all across the range, including makeup and skincare.
Just like the Ciate calendar, the items are contained in small boxes which are opened every day to reveal the present – some of which are full size items! To purchase the calendar, you first need to spend £35 in the beauty, home or fashion departments. If you don’t want to spend the £35, then don’t worry – you can buy the calendar for £250… (Yeah… no. I had absolutely no difficulty whatsoever picking up £35 worth of bits and bobs in store – the monogrammed glasses were pretty amazing for a start!)
There are some available online but I saw loads in store too. So, don’t buy one for a rip-off price on eBay before you’ve checked to see if your local store has stock…
Hotel Chocolat Calendar, £12.50 (c/0)
Really though, it wouldn’t be Christmas without an advent calendar filled with chocolate! And if you want the best, you have to go to Hotel Chocolat – my favourite chocolate shop on the high street!
The Hotel Chocolat advent calendars come in a variety of flavours, including dark, white, caramel, and milk. Check them out here. You can even get a couples version for £26 which is such a lovely idea! Hotel Chocolat makes such gorgeously high quality chocolate, and the pieces are just the right size to be dainty yet satisfying.
So, those are some of my favourite advent calendars this year – all tried and tested by yours truly. Have you picked up one for yourself? Let me know what you selected in the comments!
The first, and only, glitter of the bunch was under the 11th door of the Ciate advent calender: it’s Jingle Belle!
This seems to be an exclusive for the calendar, and is a hot pink glitter with gold sparkles. I applied it over the top of Kiss Chase, from 8 Dec, which gave it a very pink base underneath.
As you can see, depending on the light, the colour appears either coral or pink – but either way, it was very pretty! I was initially worried about how well it would apply. Considering that the glitter is very fine, I thought it would go everywhere, and be difficult to remove from your fingers. But a quick wipe with some tissue (dampened if needs be!) worked a charm, and it’s even fairly easy to remove compared to some other glittery top coats. Again, nice job, Ciate! I definitely want to try out some different glitter top coats now!
Top coat is a funny old thing. It seems essentially useless and is incredibly boring to contemplate, but actually, it’s one of the most important parts of any girl’s nail varnish stash. The right top coat not only makes your colour last longer, but it can also fix bumps and lumps in the finish, and even set your varnish faster – and harder. I’m a long time convert to Seche Vite, just like any other nail blogger, so I was interested to see what Ciate had to offer.
Colours are always exciting, but an essential like this is good to have in a sample size for travelling, and it’s great as a way of convincing those who aren’t quite sure yet that that top coat is actually worth using! Not only does it hold your caviar manis in place, but it also brings out the shine in other top coats.
Ciate says: “Speed Coat is an award winning Formaldehyde free top coat which guarantees touch dry nails in sixty seconds, locks in colour and can extend colour wear. Taking the nail industry by storm, this formula has won many industry awards since its 2008 launch. Including U Magazine’s Best Top Coat award. A high gloss finish and chip free for up to 10 days, this gorgeous product delivers a perfect performance.” You can purchase the new and improved formula here – currently priced at £11.
Here’s yesterday’s Pillow Fight, layered with Halo, on the left. On the right, I’ve topped Halo with Speed Coat. As you can see, even in the incredibly subtle medium of photography, there’s a much glossier shine on the Speed Coat version – and it was much more pronounced in real life. Speed Coat is an impressive blend – thick, easy to apply, and it brought out a deeper shine on my finished nails. A keeper!
Under the door today is Pillow Fight, a deep and moody purple with a playful side!
Ciate says: “Creamy delicate grey with the smallest hint of lilac, innocent looking with an edge. Get ready to release your playful side.” You can buy a full bottle here.
The straight up colour is on the left, and on the right is OPI’s matte top coat over it. And I thought I’d pose with my favourite trinket – a ceramic pot which used to hold Fortnum’s relish, but now holds my earrings on my bedside table!
As for the colour itself, I’d argue this is purple with a hint of grey, rather than the other way around – and it’s Christmas, so that means arguing is pretty much par for the course!
It’s bright, neon pink for Sunday, with Ciate’s Kiss Chase – under door number eight of my advent calendar!
What can I say other than this is unashamedly girly.? Ciate’s decription reads: “A dreamy pink to make the boys wink, super girly and sure to become the Paint Pot equivalent of your BFF. Bold high coverage one coat colour with luminous pastel tendencies. Pucker up!” Buy a pot here.
Bold pink is not really my thing, but even Kiss Chase is growing on me! And what do you think of the matte version, on the right? (By the way, I added three coats to my nails, because it seemed slightly sheer to me, somehow! But then, I was painting my nails at 2.30 in the morning!)
Today it was like Christmas on the Starship Enterprise, thanks to the sci-fi glam of Fit For A Queen!
Here’s Ciate’s decription: “A classic chrome silver. Just what you need to finish that super duper sequinned dress. Think liquid platinum, full of glamour and seduction. Team with your favourite silver studded boots for the glam rock look or with a LBD for sexy sophistication.” You can buy a full bottle here.
I tried Fit For A Queen with matte top coat (top right), Ciate’s Snow Globe from earlier in the month (bottom left) and Pirouette My Whistle from OPI (bottom right). Which one is your favourite? I probably sound like a stuck record, but I’m digging the matte effect!
Couldn’t resist posing with my latest favourite purchase: the beautiful Zara necklace that Kate Middleton was wearing on the red carpet this week – and of course, it was also seen on the delightful Mary Berry during Graham Norton’s show! Sadly, it’s now sold out, but you can bag one on eBay if you don’t mind paying a premium!
A pretty pastel shade for Friday – it’s Sugar Plum under door number six of Ciate’s Mini Mani Month advent calendar!
Ciate’s description reads: “Baby doll parmaviolet. Delicious creams create a colour perfect for the spring and summer. Unique and flirtatious that screams pass me my floral skirt and pussybow blouse.” You can purchase a full bottle here.
Pastel shades aren’t really my thing, although this is a pretty shade if you want to fully embrace your girly side!
I also gave it a whirl under a matte top coat (bottom left – although I didn’t really dry it enough, the finish is much more matte than it appears there!). What do you reckon to this colour – are you a Sugar Plum fairy?!
Today’s door held a rather sophisticated and restrained orange: meet Encore!
Encore! is so new that I got an email (well timed, Ciate!) about its launch today, as part of the Dragonfly Collection (six bottles for £40 – viewable here.) Encore’s description reads: “This muted orange is perfect for wearing all-year-round as an alternative to a classic red.” You can purchase it as an individual bottle here. I definitely appreciate Ciate slipping in a brand new shade for the advent calendar – yet another reason to purchase one if you haven’t already!
At first I was a bit hesitant about this shade, as orange isn’t really my thing, but it grew on me, and by the end of the day I really appreciated its understated glamour. As a bonus, I wore it to Highclere Castle’s Christmas fair (where they film Downton Abbey), and I felt it was very appropriate given its vintage vibe – although Lady Mary would probably have been shocked!
Food, Fashion and Fitness 