TGWTGN Festive Edit Part 3: Tristam, Snowflakes and a Gilt-y Pleasure

One of the things I think of when I think of Christmas is snowflakes. I can't even think of the last time it snowed on Christmas Day, yet it still comes to mind. I've been wanting to do snowflakes on a dark background for ages. Then recently I was ordering a little present from Rainbow Connection for a friend, and Different Dimension Mistle-Toad fell into my basket, along with Wingdust Gilty-Pleasure. So you see how this is mani came together :) Now how appropriate is the name Gilt-y Pleasure when you're buying even more polish?!

I recently won a spa day at The Grove (woohoo!) and I booked to go on Monday with my sister and one of my best friends, so lovely of them to go with me, and this is the mani I wore :) (Side note: I've never had a spa day before, and thought I'd be ready to go early afternoon - um, no! It was so amazing! We were so relaxed we were falling asleep though we had done hardly anything. Unfortunately the day didn't end so well, I was meant to stamp my friend's nails, but a migraine started :( )

I used two coats of A-England Tristam as the base, it was perfect. I'm so glad I own this, it's unique in my collection, and it's a colour I find myself reaching for often. To stamp I used A-England Excalibur with MoYou Festive Plate 1. I used one coat Wingdust Gilt-y Pleasure on my index and ring fingers. Everything was topped off with Seche Vite.

This is my first Wingdust, and I LOVE it! I had no trouble getting flakes on the brush or applying them, and no problem with them being too tiny to notice. In fact on the ring finger I had a nice large silver piece which I had to dab at to break up. That's opposite to usual, when if I'm lucky enough to get something on the brush, it's tiny and sparse.  The description from the Etsy page is "23 karat gold leaf, silver leaf, and purple iridescent flakes with a touch of soft blue shimmer". What's not to love?!

I've been waiting for MoYou to get their festive plates in stock, and  I pounced when they did. I wanted a couple, but I was restrained and only ordered one plate from that collection. I'd love to own plate 2 someday though. I know the plate looks like it would be difficult to pick out one design, so I choose what I want (including what's around as that's mostly unavoidable), pick it up on the stamper, then clean off what I don't want using a cotton bud dipped in polish remover. Personally I find it easier to do it that way round, rather than cleaning off the surrounding area on the plate before picking up the design. All designs on this plate transfer well, except for the small Christmas trees to the side of the 'door'. No matter which stamper I use, I just can't pick those up :( I think they're just not etched deep enough.

I have to say that I do love the MoYou plates, I'm looking forward to building my collection! You really need to check out the Explorer ones - love them!

I bought A-England The Knight, Tristam and Excalibur direct from their website, although delivery is only within the UK. Check out their stockists page for international resellers.
Wingdust Gilt-y Pleasure is available from Rainbow Connection, and Llarowe is an international reseller if you're outside of the UK.
MoYou London ship internationally from their website.

What do you think of this festive mani? And on a side note, have you ever been for a spa day?
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