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impyIt's time for poor financial decisions with Impy! I'll be your host, Impy, as we walk through how I caved for the HT advent calendar and the sale. To be fair, I had set aside funds for both of these things, so it wasn't a surprise beyond being surprised they were doing a calendar to begin with.
It's now since sold out, but I want to ramble on about it and the various nail spaces are being predictably grrr, argh about it and I'm not really into that right now.
We'll begin with my biggest gripe (beyond the price, we shall not speak of that), which is that they didn't offer the option of spoilers before it dropped. HT has gotten much better this year at offering full 'spoilers' for their new releases prior to their official drop, but the one time I think it was totally required, they were still in their playing coy about what you were getting. Look, I get it, people want to be surprised, but at the same time, I want to be an informed customer (a phrase they used repeatedly) and it's really fucking hard to do that when you don't share what's in the box until after it's for sale and the site is on the verge of crashing AND there's a race to check out because everyone and their hamster knew this wasn't going to make it through the weekend (I'm not sure it made it through the day?). THIS is what people who complain about FOMO marketing mean, HT.
It did not help that their spoiler page was half broken, with the zoom function not working. But like, save that shit to Pinterest and we're golden. (The zoom does work now, but it absolutely did not for launch.)
My other gripe is that the hand cream is too small. I get why it's small (to fit in the box, duh), but when your two full size items are a nail file and a clean-up brush, well... this is not a box bought for ~value~, mmkay?
But the damn box is pretty and I will be using it as holiday decor, so I'm factoring that in as part of the cost.
Gripes out of the way, let's look at what's inside, shall we?
Let's get the non-polishes out of the way first:
Too lazy to put these in their proper order. I'm most excited for the hand cream from these, as I do enjoy the cream I got during the last sale but I'm fairly certain I'll like this scent more. I still haven't used my clean-up brush that I picked up before, but maybe having two will mean I will actually use at least one of them. I actually really like the stickers and with three sheets, I might actually go ahead and use some of them. The nail file is pretty and speaks to my soul, and unlike my Amazon ones (which I do use), I'm gonna leave this one by my bed to use. So these are fine and I'm happy to have 'em.
And now, the polishes. First, the macro shots because I think this wall is pretty:
*sighs happily*
We're going to try and go in order of days now. Day 2 is Silent Night, a navy crelly. Gods this is a pretty shade, but it is also one of the most divisive for this set. I watched the promo vid for this and looked at the pics and unlike a lot of the other HT crellies (which I personally believe are just their cremes that they couldn't get opaque but still wanted to release, so they called them crellies and called it a day and the vindication I feel now that other people are FINALLY on my wavelength is immense), I thought this one looked solid. Imagine my surprise when the swatchers are all like, "yeah, this is in the traditional HT crelly formula (derogatory)." Despite... it looking to still go on fine for them? I'm not sure if it's that HT's crellies, even when they aren't a patchy mess, skip the squishy part and just tend to be fully opaque in 2/3 coats and that's part of the complaint, and if so that's valid, or if I'm just not able to see the patchiness/not self leveling that others have mentioned. Which is weird because those I'm usually able to see. *coughSoToxiccough*
In any case, I think this one's pretty and the only complaint I can fully co-sign for now is that it's insane that this is Limited Edition as it should be a staple in their collection. I get why it was released here, as it makes a pretty good base for 2/3 toppers, and works for a pretty holiday but not specifically Christmas box (I mean, it IS an advent box), but it's not LE.
polished_yogi over on YT has a pretty good dupe in the form of Cracked's Midnight Phase, which had I not already blown my BF money, I'd be eying. As it is, we'll hope it's one they don't retire and wait to see how other people find it as a dupe since there's a fairly decent crossover between Cracked fans and HT fans.
Now, these are all minis (7ml vs 12 ml) and honestly, assuming they don't go weird as some minis can, I'm actually all for this since I do not foresee a universe in which I use this one up the way I use my polishes now. But in case I do happen to fall into that universe, I'm making mental notes for dupe options.
Day 3 is Gold Scattered Holo, which I have been begging for them to make for YEARS. Why the fuck is this LE?!?! I have their first Gold Flake Holo anniversary polish and the holo glitters in that are crescent shaped and larger, but it's absolutely one of my favorites to use and I say this as someone who is very much a silver girlie. Why is this, a gold version of their silver scattered holo, limited? On stream, before I tapped out (fell asleep), she did mention that finding the right gold was what took so long, so the implication is that it's a sourcing issue, but I do wonder.
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking INM's Northern Lights Gold Top Coat might be a closer dupe than other things I've seen floated, but the glitters might be smaller. *muse* Other people have mentioned that China Glaze had Golden Enchantment for years as a gold version of their classic Fairy Dust, but that one's not available anymore, particularly since CG did their weird rebrand/revamp and then boldly did nothing with that momentum even though everyone BEGGED them to do Halloween this year. (Boo, CG, BOO.) FUN Lacquer's Gold Diamond Dust seems to be a pretty good option, but since we're in tariff hell and FUN is a Singapore brand, well.
Anyway, will use this and then cry when it runs out and it is one I will actually be paying close attention to the potential dupes for, and wouldn't bet against Holo Royalty voting this back as a perm shade. We'll see, I suppose. Stunning, need a full bottle ASAP essentially.
Day Four is Call Me Vixen, which is a vampy cranberry red holo that I think is absolutely beautiful and I apparently already have the dupe Stef found, which is ILNP's Carrie. This is another one that I'm not sure I understand why it's LE, but I think it's more of a case of it being very pretty but not so pretty that it being LE is going to break anyone's heart aside from people who are brand purists. I'll be very happy to use it (and find out if Carrie now has a little sister), but I'm not foaming at the mouth at the thought of it either. Woo? Damn though, it is pretty.
Day Five is In A Flurry, which is a stupidly pretty light blue frosted metal polish that I want on my nails NOW. Cristine was wearing this on the launch stream and it looked like straight up chrome from far away and it was STUNNING. The general consensus for Frosted Metals is that they do not photograph well and videos still don't do them justice, and I'm inclined to agree with this based on my experience with them. They're very pretty in person and very distracting, but I 1000% get why anyone who hasn't seen/tried them in person is like, "meh, metallic flakies."
Everyone and their GD hamster took one look at this and said, oh, so just Mooncat's Star Destroyer. Which I own. Annnnnnd even taking into consideration the aforementioned photography problems I... don't think they're dupes? They're very similar concepts, but SD is a silver with a blue tint in the base which will show up on some people and not on others. Flurry looks like it's going to be light blue on EVERYBODY, though from far away you'll get a chrome look.
I'm torn on this. I love the color. I love the finish. I would absolutely want this in a full size but...
The Frosted Metal formula isn't stable. The metallic flakies react and oxidize/tarnish with certain pigments, and they do it fairly quickly (within a couple of years, generally speaking, unless you're very lucky), and Flurry has both pigments. So what killed Cold Shoulder and what's killing Royal Crush is going to kill Flurry, so this in a small, LE batch in a smaller bottle makes sense. Use it, don't lose it, basically. So this one is going to go into heavy rotation for me and my goal is to use it up, assuming I like it as much as I think I'm going to. Oh, and this formula isn't just a HT thing; apparently as soon as people's Cold Shoulders started to begin to turn, everyone in the indie sphere went oh yeah, KBShimmer had a line that all went to shit with that formula, didn't they? GUYS. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD TO KNOW EARLIER.
Day Nine is Pirouette Pink and it's the polish (not topper) I'm least excited for. It's weird they don't mention the shimmer that's absolutely in there (it's less obvious in the promo shots, but on all the swatcher vids, it's pretty apparent). It's also weird that they're calling this a warm pink since the base pink is very cool but the copper shimmer does shift this into warmer territory when the shimmer flashes.
I'm not really a dainty pink kind of person and yet, if this didn't have that copper shimmer? I'd be breaking this out as my actual neutral shade (instead of ILNP's Cityscape, which is a black scattered holo and what do you mean it's not a neutral?). With the shimmer I'm ennnnnnnnhhhhhh. I'm not a huge crushed holo fan to begin with, as I'm pretty firmly in the camp that it's not holographic enough to really be considered holo to start with (I'm sorry, but where? Where is the holographic in these pictures? In the swatches, both promo and PR? Right, right, it's barely there if you can see it at all.) but I also really don't tend to like the contrasting shimmer they've been pairing their crushed holo formula with for awhile now. It's weird, because everyone lost their goddamn minds over Spyglass, which was a light blue crushed holo, but it had a BLUE shimmer. Why was their takeaway to make the next crushed holo collection have all contrasting shimmers? And pretty much (possibly every?) crushed holo release since then has also had the contrasting shimmer. Spyglass was so pretty and so beloved because of the complimentary shimmer, and as far as I can tell, the candy crush collection wasn't nearly as popular as they seemed to think it would be, based on how often the colors have popped up as rewards and the fact that one is being discontinued and another one or two are on the bottom sellers.
Anyway, back to Pirouette. I have no idea what could dupe this because it's not in a finish I seek out. I will say that all the dupe possibilities I've seen so far have been so far off that I wonder if we're just calling anything a dupe these days. :P Not really, I don't think anyone has cried an outright dupe of this one yet, at least not that I've come across. I do wonder if someone's got one without the shimmer. *muse*
Oh, and not sure why this is LE though maybe they're going to release similar stuff next year and figure this particular combo might be better suited here? I can see wanting something in the more neutral/traditional vein for this, though I'm more of a chaos demon myself.
Day Ten is Wreath Havoc, which has my favorite name even if I'm inclined to be a little disappointed this doesn't give me wreath vibes as much as the name would imply. I am absolutely cackling though, because I was lamenting not making an ILNP purchase since I wanted Supernova and uh, yeah, I'm calling these dupes. The only reason I can see for making this LE is because they don't think it'll sell well enough as a non-seasonal shade and honestly, there's probably something to that. Especially since there's a very easily found dupe that non-brand stans would be just as happy to pick up and save themselves some money. That being said, I have been in love with Fallen Flake (their more autumnal flake topper) since I got it and I would've absolutely bought this in a larger bottle. BUT this will just entice me to actually try and use the mini up, so I'm choosing to see this as a win for me personally, even as I acknowledge it's probably not an overall win for most.
Day Eleven is Ice Angel, which is probably the polish I'm most confused by. Not by its inclusion or LE status, just... what even am I looking at? It seems to morph depending on angles, and so I want to see this one in person to figure out how I feel about it. Unlike Flurry, which I'm sure I'll love, or Silent Night which is a formula ponderment, this is very much what will the actual color look like on me? I'm not in love with the shimmer, but without it I'm not sure we wouldn't just have Circuit Breaker, so this is one I plan on breaking out the swatch wheel when I get it. I think someone described this as if Toe Beans (their light pink linear holo with shimmer) and Circuit Breaker had a baby. If not, it's how I'm seeing it. I wonder if this was their attempt to 'fix' Featured Guest, or if we'll get a version of this with a different shimmer instead. If so, I might be into it. We shall see. I also have no idea on dupes for this, because like Pirouette, the few I've seen thrown in as contenders have been so far off as to be headache inducing. So, like Pirouette, I'm not heartbroken this is LE (this may change when I try it), but I'm not sold on why it would be, short of them having something similar in the pipeline or not thinking people would buy it over Circuit Breaker.
We end on Day Twelve with Diamond Dasher, which is probably the hardest sell for me. I absolutely get why this is a LE, if only because I'm not sure how well ANY of their chunky glitter toppers have done, and this would be a harder sell than, say, the stars. I also am not in love with this. I don't love the diamond glitters and I realize what I'm about to say is going to go against everything people might think about me, but here goes.
Despite being a loud and proud glitter and confetti lover, I do not like chunky glitters in my nail polish. They don't tend to lay down well and when they stick up even a little bit, I pick or they catch, and then it's game over. I also think they tend to just look ugly on the nail. In the bottle, I could watch them sparkle all day. Swatched out in macro form (not on a nail)? Stunning, let me fall into the glitter for days. On nails? No thank you.
Again, haven't seen any dupes for this one, though if one doesn't exist currently, I can't imagine one won't pop up soon since these aren't unusual components for polishes.
Since I did say I'd be using this as decor as well, I figured I should show the packaging. I think the little polish boxes in particular are adorable. ♥ Looking at the little houses just makes me unreasonably happy and the holo flare helps with that. This is one of the only times I'm counting the box/packaging as a part of the price, since the box sets don't charge more for the boxes. But in this case, the box is kind of the point and so for me, I'm factoring that into things.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with snagging this. I realize it's stupidly expensive for what it is, but I love the packaging, like or love nearly all the polishes, and the non-polish stuff will actually be useful, plus the minis will encourage me to actually USE the damn stuff. I hope. I'm trying to be better about that. I also don't remember the last non-cheap candy advent calendar I bought myself, so there's that. I figure once every twenty years I can splurge?
I'll have to try to remember to edit this if more dupes are found. You know, for science.
I did also partake in the sale, though I did rein myself in a little since the sale pricing on the stuff I was most interested in wasn't as good as the sale they do in the spring. I picked up a few polishes I didn't want to roll the dice on being discontinued first. I specifically caved and bought Beach Please because there's no world in which this survives the next culling unless it's because they decide they really, really want to keep a sandy beach color in stock. I'm not sure anything else in my order was an obvious "this is not long for this world" polish though. Oh, I grabbed Rainbow Snow as a backup since I've been meaning to do that for awhile and I also grabbed Camera Shy since that one is being discontinued. Everything else was just stuff I'd wanted when it first came out but didn't want to wait anymore to get. I did forget to pick up a few others (Cardinal Sins for one), but figure since the sale is ongoing and there were three Rewards changes in there (now it's two since they updated today), it gave me time for them to be in the Rewards switch and thus freebies. This week's Rewards has some I would've redeemed over the weekend if they'd been available, but I'm not sure I'd want to place an order specifically to redeem them.
Essentially, I scooped up most of the Renaissance collection, parts of the Pixel collection (rolling the dice on those being rewards), and Stop Buggin' because green flakies? Yes, please. Lest you think this is insane (it is), please consider that Impy of a year ago would've just bought these collections as they came out. This year's Impy waited to get them ON SALE.
Now I've got to curl up in a ball and convince myself that Peri-Social is only on such a deep discount because they just have a lot of her and not because they're going to discontinue her.
It's now since sold out, but I want to ramble on about it and the various nail spaces are being predictably grrr, argh about it and I'm not really into that right now.
We'll begin with my biggest gripe (beyond the price, we shall not speak of that), which is that they didn't offer the option of spoilers before it dropped. HT has gotten much better this year at offering full 'spoilers' for their new releases prior to their official drop, but the one time I think it was totally required, they were still in their playing coy about what you were getting. Look, I get it, people want to be surprised, but at the same time, I want to be an informed customer (a phrase they used repeatedly) and it's really fucking hard to do that when you don't share what's in the box until after it's for sale and the site is on the verge of crashing AND there's a race to check out because everyone and their hamster knew this wasn't going to make it through the weekend (I'm not sure it made it through the day?). THIS is what people who complain about FOMO marketing mean, HT.
It did not help that their spoiler page was half broken, with the zoom function not working. But like, save that shit to Pinterest and we're golden. (The zoom does work now, but it absolutely did not for launch.)
My other gripe is that the hand cream is too small. I get why it's small (to fit in the box, duh), but when your two full size items are a nail file and a clean-up brush, well... this is not a box bought for ~value~, mmkay?
But the damn box is pretty and I will be using it as holiday decor, so I'm factoring that in as part of the cost.
Gripes out of the way, let's look at what's inside, shall we?
Let's get the non-polishes out of the way first:
Too lazy to put these in their proper order. I'm most excited for the hand cream from these, as I do enjoy the cream I got during the last sale but I'm fairly certain I'll like this scent more. I still haven't used my clean-up brush that I picked up before, but maybe having two will mean I will actually use at least one of them. I actually really like the stickers and with three sheets, I might actually go ahead and use some of them. The nail file is pretty and speaks to my soul, and unlike my Amazon ones (which I do use), I'm gonna leave this one by my bed to use. So these are fine and I'm happy to have 'em.
And now, the polishes. First, the macro shots because I think this wall is pretty:
*sighs happily*
We're going to try and go in order of days now. Day 2 is Silent Night, a navy crelly. Gods this is a pretty shade, but it is also one of the most divisive for this set. I watched the promo vid for this and looked at the pics and unlike a lot of the other HT crellies (which I personally believe are just their cremes that they couldn't get opaque but still wanted to release, so they called them crellies and called it a day and the vindication I feel now that other people are FINALLY on my wavelength is immense), I thought this one looked solid. Imagine my surprise when the swatchers are all like, "yeah, this is in the traditional HT crelly formula (derogatory)." Despite... it looking to still go on fine for them? I'm not sure if it's that HT's crellies, even when they aren't a patchy mess, skip the squishy part and just tend to be fully opaque in 2/3 coats and that's part of the complaint, and if so that's valid, or if I'm just not able to see the patchiness/not self leveling that others have mentioned. Which is weird because those I'm usually able to see. *coughSoToxiccough*
In any case, I think this one's pretty and the only complaint I can fully co-sign for now is that it's insane that this is Limited Edition as it should be a staple in their collection. I get why it was released here, as it makes a pretty good base for 2/3 toppers, and works for a pretty holiday but not specifically Christmas box (I mean, it IS an advent box), but it's not LE.
polished_yogi over on YT has a pretty good dupe in the form of Cracked's Midnight Phase, which had I not already blown my BF money, I'd be eying. As it is, we'll hope it's one they don't retire and wait to see how other people find it as a dupe since there's a fairly decent crossover between Cracked fans and HT fans.
Now, these are all minis (7ml vs 12 ml) and honestly, assuming they don't go weird as some minis can, I'm actually all for this since I do not foresee a universe in which I use this one up the way I use my polishes now. But in case I do happen to fall into that universe, I'm making mental notes for dupe options.
Day 3 is Gold Scattered Holo, which I have been begging for them to make for YEARS. Why the fuck is this LE?!?! I have their first Gold Flake Holo anniversary polish and the holo glitters in that are crescent shaped and larger, but it's absolutely one of my favorites to use and I say this as someone who is very much a silver girlie. Why is this, a gold version of their silver scattered holo, limited? On stream, before I tapped out (fell asleep), she did mention that finding the right gold was what took so long, so the implication is that it's a sourcing issue, but I do wonder.
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking INM's Northern Lights Gold Top Coat might be a closer dupe than other things I've seen floated, but the glitters might be smaller. *muse* Other people have mentioned that China Glaze had Golden Enchantment for years as a gold version of their classic Fairy Dust, but that one's not available anymore, particularly since CG did their weird rebrand/revamp and then boldly did nothing with that momentum even though everyone BEGGED them to do Halloween this year. (Boo, CG, BOO.) FUN Lacquer's Gold Diamond Dust seems to be a pretty good option, but since we're in tariff hell and FUN is a Singapore brand, well.
Anyway, will use this and then cry when it runs out and it is one I will actually be paying close attention to the potential dupes for, and wouldn't bet against Holo Royalty voting this back as a perm shade. We'll see, I suppose. Stunning, need a full bottle ASAP essentially.
Day Four is Call Me Vixen, which is a vampy cranberry red holo that I think is absolutely beautiful and I apparently already have the dupe Stef found, which is ILNP's Carrie. This is another one that I'm not sure I understand why it's LE, but I think it's more of a case of it being very pretty but not so pretty that it being LE is going to break anyone's heart aside from people who are brand purists. I'll be very happy to use it (and find out if Carrie now has a little sister), but I'm not foaming at the mouth at the thought of it either. Woo? Damn though, it is pretty.
Day Five is In A Flurry, which is a stupidly pretty light blue frosted metal polish that I want on my nails NOW. Cristine was wearing this on the launch stream and it looked like straight up chrome from far away and it was STUNNING. The general consensus for Frosted Metals is that they do not photograph well and videos still don't do them justice, and I'm inclined to agree with this based on my experience with them. They're very pretty in person and very distracting, but I 1000% get why anyone who hasn't seen/tried them in person is like, "meh, metallic flakies."
Everyone and their GD hamster took one look at this and said, oh, so just Mooncat's Star Destroyer. Which I own. Annnnnnd even taking into consideration the aforementioned photography problems I... don't think they're dupes? They're very similar concepts, but SD is a silver with a blue tint in the base which will show up on some people and not on others. Flurry looks like it's going to be light blue on EVERYBODY, though from far away you'll get a chrome look.
I'm torn on this. I love the color. I love the finish. I would absolutely want this in a full size but...
The Frosted Metal formula isn't stable. The metallic flakies react and oxidize/tarnish with certain pigments, and they do it fairly quickly (within a couple of years, generally speaking, unless you're very lucky), and Flurry has both pigments. So what killed Cold Shoulder and what's killing Royal Crush is going to kill Flurry, so this in a small, LE batch in a smaller bottle makes sense. Use it, don't lose it, basically. So this one is going to go into heavy rotation for me and my goal is to use it up, assuming I like it as much as I think I'm going to. Oh, and this formula isn't just a HT thing; apparently as soon as people's Cold Shoulders started to begin to turn, everyone in the indie sphere went oh yeah, KBShimmer had a line that all went to shit with that formula, didn't they? GUYS. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD TO KNOW EARLIER.
Day Nine is Pirouette Pink and it's the polish (not topper) I'm least excited for. It's weird they don't mention the shimmer that's absolutely in there (it's less obvious in the promo shots, but on all the swatcher vids, it's pretty apparent). It's also weird that they're calling this a warm pink since the base pink is very cool but the copper shimmer does shift this into warmer territory when the shimmer flashes.
I'm not really a dainty pink kind of person and yet, if this didn't have that copper shimmer? I'd be breaking this out as my actual neutral shade (instead of ILNP's Cityscape, which is a black scattered holo and what do you mean it's not a neutral?). With the shimmer I'm ennnnnnnnhhhhhh. I'm not a huge crushed holo fan to begin with, as I'm pretty firmly in the camp that it's not holographic enough to really be considered holo to start with (I'm sorry, but where? Where is the holographic in these pictures? In the swatches, both promo and PR? Right, right, it's barely there if you can see it at all.) but I also really don't tend to like the contrasting shimmer they've been pairing their crushed holo formula with for awhile now. It's weird, because everyone lost their goddamn minds over Spyglass, which was a light blue crushed holo, but it had a BLUE shimmer. Why was their takeaway to make the next crushed holo collection have all contrasting shimmers? And pretty much (possibly every?) crushed holo release since then has also had the contrasting shimmer. Spyglass was so pretty and so beloved because of the complimentary shimmer, and as far as I can tell, the candy crush collection wasn't nearly as popular as they seemed to think it would be, based on how often the colors have popped up as rewards and the fact that one is being discontinued and another one or two are on the bottom sellers.
Anyway, back to Pirouette. I have no idea what could dupe this because it's not in a finish I seek out. I will say that all the dupe possibilities I've seen so far have been so far off that I wonder if we're just calling anything a dupe these days. :P Not really, I don't think anyone has cried an outright dupe of this one yet, at least not that I've come across. I do wonder if someone's got one without the shimmer. *muse*
Oh, and not sure why this is LE though maybe they're going to release similar stuff next year and figure this particular combo might be better suited here? I can see wanting something in the more neutral/traditional vein for this, though I'm more of a chaos demon myself.
Day Ten is Wreath Havoc, which has my favorite name even if I'm inclined to be a little disappointed this doesn't give me wreath vibes as much as the name would imply. I am absolutely cackling though, because I was lamenting not making an ILNP purchase since I wanted Supernova and uh, yeah, I'm calling these dupes. The only reason I can see for making this LE is because they don't think it'll sell well enough as a non-seasonal shade and honestly, there's probably something to that. Especially since there's a very easily found dupe that non-brand stans would be just as happy to pick up and save themselves some money. That being said, I have been in love with Fallen Flake (their more autumnal flake topper) since I got it and I would've absolutely bought this in a larger bottle. BUT this will just entice me to actually try and use the mini up, so I'm choosing to see this as a win for me personally, even as I acknowledge it's probably not an overall win for most.
Day Eleven is Ice Angel, which is probably the polish I'm most confused by. Not by its inclusion or LE status, just... what even am I looking at? It seems to morph depending on angles, and so I want to see this one in person to figure out how I feel about it. Unlike Flurry, which I'm sure I'll love, or Silent Night which is a formula ponderment, this is very much what will the actual color look like on me? I'm not in love with the shimmer, but without it I'm not sure we wouldn't just have Circuit Breaker, so this is one I plan on breaking out the swatch wheel when I get it. I think someone described this as if Toe Beans (their light pink linear holo with shimmer) and Circuit Breaker had a baby. If not, it's how I'm seeing it. I wonder if this was their attempt to 'fix' Featured Guest, or if we'll get a version of this with a different shimmer instead. If so, I might be into it. We shall see. I also have no idea on dupes for this, because like Pirouette, the few I've seen thrown in as contenders have been so far off as to be headache inducing. So, like Pirouette, I'm not heartbroken this is LE (this may change when I try it), but I'm not sold on why it would be, short of them having something similar in the pipeline or not thinking people would buy it over Circuit Breaker.
We end on Day Twelve with Diamond Dasher, which is probably the hardest sell for me. I absolutely get why this is a LE, if only because I'm not sure how well ANY of their chunky glitter toppers have done, and this would be a harder sell than, say, the stars. I also am not in love with this. I don't love the diamond glitters and I realize what I'm about to say is going to go against everything people might think about me, but here goes.
Despite being a loud and proud glitter and confetti lover, I do not like chunky glitters in my nail polish. They don't tend to lay down well and when they stick up even a little bit, I pick or they catch, and then it's game over. I also think they tend to just look ugly on the nail. In the bottle, I could watch them sparkle all day. Swatched out in macro form (not on a nail)? Stunning, let me fall into the glitter for days. On nails? No thank you.
Again, haven't seen any dupes for this one, though if one doesn't exist currently, I can't imagine one won't pop up soon since these aren't unusual components for polishes.
Since I did say I'd be using this as decor as well, I figured I should show the packaging. I think the little polish boxes in particular are adorable. ♥ Looking at the little houses just makes me unreasonably happy and the holo flare helps with that. This is one of the only times I'm counting the box/packaging as a part of the price, since the box sets don't charge more for the boxes. But in this case, the box is kind of the point and so for me, I'm factoring that into things.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with snagging this. I realize it's stupidly expensive for what it is, but I love the packaging, like or love nearly all the polishes, and the non-polish stuff will actually be useful, plus the minis will encourage me to actually USE the damn stuff. I hope. I'm trying to be better about that. I also don't remember the last non-cheap candy advent calendar I bought myself, so there's that. I figure once every twenty years I can splurge?
I'll have to try to remember to edit this if more dupes are found. You know, for science.
I did also partake in the sale, though I did rein myself in a little since the sale pricing on the stuff I was most interested in wasn't as good as the sale they do in the spring. I picked up a few polishes I didn't want to roll the dice on being discontinued first. I specifically caved and bought Beach Please because there's no world in which this survives the next culling unless it's because they decide they really, really want to keep a sandy beach color in stock. I'm not sure anything else in my order was an obvious "this is not long for this world" polish though. Oh, I grabbed Rainbow Snow as a backup since I've been meaning to do that for awhile and I also grabbed Camera Shy since that one is being discontinued. Everything else was just stuff I'd wanted when it first came out but didn't want to wait anymore to get. I did forget to pick up a few others (Cardinal Sins for one), but figure since the sale is ongoing and there were three Rewards changes in there (now it's two since they updated today), it gave me time for them to be in the Rewards switch and thus freebies. This week's Rewards has some I would've redeemed over the weekend if they'd been available, but I'm not sure I'd want to place an order specifically to redeem them.
Essentially, I scooped up most of the Renaissance collection, parts of the Pixel collection (rolling the dice on those being rewards), and Stop Buggin' because green flakies? Yes, please. Lest you think this is insane (it is), please consider that Impy of a year ago would've just bought these collections as they came out. This year's Impy waited to get them ON SALE.
Now I've got to curl up in a ball and convince myself that Peri-Social is only on such a deep discount because they just have a lot of her and not because they're going to discontinue her.