Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Like Midnight Clear, Santa Cutie was released in November this year by Australian indie polish maker Grace-full Nail Polish as part of the Vintage Christmas collection. Described as a red jelly packed with teeny super holographic gold microglitters, the base color is a soft, cool-toned medium red along the lines of amaranth with ruby aspects that is warmed by the gold holographic microglitters, adding body to the color and giving it a kind of Indian red quality. The microglitters have an dainty, twinkling prismatic sparkle in ambient light and are downright dazzling in the sun, where they blanket the polish with brilliant sparks in every color of the rainbow.

Application was a pleasure. The consistency of Santa Cutie is fluid and dense with microglitters, with a medium viscosity and a fluent, smooth, self-leveling glide over the nail, an eminently-paintable formula that is easy to manipulate with Grace-full's compact, flattened-style brush. Coverage is provided largely by the microglitters, which do a good enough job to deliver wearable opacity in one medium coat (!), although you'll want two for richest expression of color. I did my cleanup as I went along to avoid sticky microglitters and had no issues. Santa Cutie dries naturally in good time to a flat, sandy-textured finish that is mostly smoothed by a layer of glitter-smoothing or gel-effect topcoat. I added a final layer of Seche Vite for a glossy, glitter-under-glass look.

Photos show two coats of Santa Cutie over treatment and basecoat topped with a layer of Girly Bits Glitter Glaze and a layer of Seche Vite.

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

Grace-full Nail Polish Santa Cutie

I'm partial to microglitter bombs like this all year round but the irrepressible sparkle meshes especially joyfully with winter holiday preparations, I think. This polish, which my significant other persists in calling "Santa Cuticle," is just perfect for the season. The glitters are superfine, making for an easy application and a delicate but cheerful, mood-elevating twinkle, which I always appreciate.

xo,
Liz