With Christmas just two days away, I wanted to talk about this beautiful nail polish set I've been pleasantly surprised by. And because just showing off my holiday manicure just didn't seem like a meaty enough post for me, I'm throwing in where I see this space going in the new year. The end of the year is really a time for reflection, and I've been thinking a lot about how I can improve and keep my blog evolving as I do.
First, the nails: I recently was sent the Vixen Nail Polish Set* from rms beauty, and oh my am I in love. I've only tried two of their highlighters before (I compared them here), and I hadn't heard much about the polishes. They're just stunning - opaque in one coat with no streaking. The set comes with Infamous, a beautiful classic red, Vicious, a perfect berry shade, and Luminizer X, a frosty silver shade meant to be like the famous Living Luminizer but for your nails. I don't know when the last time I wore red nail polish was - for some reason I had it in my head that it looked weird on me, so I think I stopped wearing it when I was around twelve years old. But the shade Infamous is just beautiful, and it's made me get over my fear of red nail polish. It's not too bright, so it's not "out there," and it's perfectly neutral - not too orange and not too blue. I used it on all of my nails and then topped my ring finger with the Luminizer X shade. I think it makes it look super festive, and I like that the red peeks through the silver ever-so-slightly. I used my typical base/top coats (Orly Bonder Rubberized Base Coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat), and this manicure is still going strong, even after four days of meticulously cleaning my lab bench at work this week. Once I take these shades off, I'm definitely going to try the Vicious shade.
As for where I see this blog going in the new year, I have a general vision of the overall style I'm going for, so I'm going to put a lot of effort into really developing that vision and making it a reality. I haven't changed my blog design once since I moved to Squarespace around a year and a half ago, so I think that's definitely overdue. Since the next year or two are going to be full of changes for me (including buying a house and getting married), I want to try to document more of that on the blog. I've been toying with the idea of including some wedding planning content, so let me know if you'd be interested in that.
Also, since those two big changes are also big investments, I'm going to be doing a lot less haul posts (and hopefully "hauling" in general) in the new year, and I'm thinking of doing away with my Monthly Favorites posts. Instead, I might do a sort of Monthly Edit/review, where I recap my month and talk about all sorts of favorites and non-favorites, not just beauty. Another goal of mine is to get over my fear of being on camera and start a YouTube channel already. I already have ideas of what I would want my videos to look like, so I'll have to wrap my head around my camera and figure out how to edit. I'm hoping to start that by mid-year next year, so keep an eye out!
I hope you have a very happy holiday and spend it surrounded by people you love. I'll be back on Tuesday, and next week you can expect my 2016 favorites as well as a low-key New Years Eve look (since I never got around to that low-key Christmas look I was planning).