Pretty Serious Christmas Without Snow Collection - Swatches and Review

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Pretty Serious have just released their Christmas collection for 2012! Based on an Australian Christmas, it's aptly named Christmas Without Snow. All of these polishes are very different to the usual holiday collections we see released around this time of year by brand name and indie labels alike. Despite this, they have still managed to capture the essence of all the unique components of what makes an Australian Christmas truly unique!

Firstly, a mention of the packaging. Pretty Serious polishes are contained in a cute little box with their mascot, Daphne, printed on the side. Recently they have started changing the boxes a little to suit the theme of some collections. Last time they produced holographic green boxes for their Halloween collection, and this time they are holographic red with a Christmas themed print. Daphne has had a makeover too, and is now wearing an adorable Christmas outfit. I love the extra finishing touches that Pretty Serious add to their collections - it makes them seem very polished and it's obvious the amount of care and effort that goes into everything.

L-R: Santa's Sunburn, Blue Gums on Boxing Day, Twinkling Lights, Seasonal Sunset, Hot Summer Nights, Party by the Pool

Now onto the swatches!

Party by the Pool is a turquoise jelly packed with tiny green and blue glitters. It's quite sheer, I used 3 coats, although the VNL is not so visible in real life. Also keep in mind I have extremely white tips. I don't know why, but it's kind of annoying because they're really obvious in photos. As with all jellies, the formula requires a bit of patience to apply but it's nothing too difficult. I think it perfectly captures the effect of sparkling pool water, or even the ocean, because let's face it - if it's summer in Australia you're either by the pool or at the beach!

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Indoors, natural light

Santa's Sunburn is a warm toned red with silver micro glitter. Let me just say... Holy One-coater, Batman! These photos are all one coat! That's right, just one, super quick drying, glossy coat! In the sun the beautiful golden glow comes out to play. One weird thing about this polish is that when I applied top coat the silver shimmer just disappeared.

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Indoors, natural light

Blue Gums on Boxing Day is a perfect eucalyptus green with blue shimmer. For those who don't know, a blue gum, or gum tree, is another word for the native Australian Eucalyptus tree which is basically everywhere. The story goes that when Captain Cook first discovered Australia, he wrote it off as a colonisable country because the twisty Eucalyptus trees were absolutely useless for boat-building. And so it lay, unoccupied (well, except for the native Aborigines whose home it really was), until Britain decided they needed to offload their convicts somewhere really far away where they couldn't get into more trouble. Interestingly, these convicts who came to Australia got a pretty good deal because when they were released, they were given pieces of land which were pretty much "from here to the horizon", just because there was so much freaking land.

But I digress. Blue Gums on Boxing Day is beautiful! The blue shimmer is nice and strong, just the way I like my shimmers. The formula is very easy to work with. It could be opaque in 2 coats but I used 3 here just to be safe.

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Indoors, natural light

Indoors, natural light

Hot Summer Nights... I am speechless. What a beauty! A midnight blue with blue and silver glitter suspended through it, this colour is just perfection. It's dark, but doesn't look black. The formula is a little thick but it evens out nicely, and this only needs one coat. I've used two here. It does dry a little dull and gritty so a top coat is recommended, although it also does that weird thing like Santa's Sunburn where the silver glitter disappears. On the other hand, top coat enhances the vibrancy of the blue glitter.

A quick note on the name - I actually hate summer nights here. Apart from the stifling heat which means you have to sleep with no sheets and a fan on, it also means HUGE Christmas beetles! They fly around your windows, continuously bumping into them, crawling all over your fly screens, getting in through the cracks or whenever you open the door, flying around your house, falling into your food, bowls, clothes, handbags, shoes, sink... For the last couple of nights I've had to switch off all the lights in the house and sit in the dark in the bedroom with the curtains drawn, just to avoid the insanity of it all. Then in the morning I have to deal with sweeping up their crunchy dead carcasses, because they all drop dead overnight. Charming .

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Indoors, natural light

Seasonal Sunset is a vibrant russet brown with bronze, gold and red particles. The particles are really interesting, I've never seen anything like them before. They're kind of like teeny tine bar glitters. This is going to sound gross but the best way to describe them is that they remind me of the stubble hair my boyfriend leaves in the sink after he shaves. The overall effect reminds me of wood chips in Autumn.  The formula is great, I've used 3 coats here.

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Indoors, natural light

Twinkling Lights is a combination of small blue glitter with bigger copper glitter in a clear base. This is definitely a glitter topper as it doesn't get opaque. The formula was a little thick, and I used dabbled coats for the best result. This is 3 coats on its own.

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Indoors, natural light

Indoors, natural light

And here is one coat layered over Hot Summer Nights. Stunning!

Indoors, natural light

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Another fantastic collection from Pretty Serious. My favourites are Blue Gums on Boxing Day and Hot Summer Nights. I was super excited by the preview photos of Twinkling Lights but in person it doesn't quite live up to my expectations. It's still pretty though. Which ones are your favourites?

The Christmas Without Snow collection is available on the Pretty Serious website for $9.95 each, and you get a 10% discount if you buy the whole set.

P.S. I'm trying out a new style of photographing my nails. I'm trying to pull the camera back a bit so it shows a better idea of what the polish looks like on the hand, if that makes sense. What do you think?