Home Alone - A Powder Perfect Christmas Collection

I'm pretty conflicted about Christmas. I love the giving and getting presents parts, and the eating until you burst parts. But the Santa junk, and bloody tinsel, and all that nonsense? I HATE IT. I'm that grinch you see scowling at the brass band playing Christmas carols in November. I'm the one in the corner rolling my eyes while everyone talks about the "spirit of the season". And most of all, I hate red and green together. I just do. I think it's gross. I like red, I like green, but put them together and I want to smash things.

So you can understand that Christmas collections from indie polish brands are a mixed bag for me. They're almost always where the best sparkly reds of the whole year make an appearance, and I'm a terrible sucker for any and all sparkly red polishes. But it can also get deeply monotonous - Christmas in and of itself isn't really a terribly wide pool of inspiration to draw from. Which is why I was so delighted when Powder Perfect announced their Christmas collection would be inspired by Home Alone, one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time.

(The best Christmas movie of all time is, of course, Die Hard)

Powder Perfect very kindly sent me Decorate A Palm Tree*, Kevin! and Don't Flash Those Babies Around for review, and considering how much I loved the last polish I bought from them I had pretty high hopes. Happily, I was absolutely delighted with every single one - a pretty rare occurrence when being sent things randomly for review.



First up is Don't Flash Those Babies Around, a lovely fire engine red creme with a teeny sprinkle of shimmer. It came out looking quite a bit pinker in these photos than it appears to my eyes - to me it looks almost like a dupe of OPI's I'm Not Really A Waitress. This covers perfectly in two thin coats, which I was incredibly impressed by. Indie cremes can be a bit touch and go - for every Love Thy Polish Miss Priss there's one that you have to use four coats of just to cover the patchiness - but the formula on Don't Flash Those Babies Around is fantastic.

Out in the sunshine, to show the shimmer

In the shade, to show the perfect cover

Because I already had a red base on, I decided to try Kevin! next. These swatches are two thin coats over Don't Flash Those Babies Around, and I think Kevin! is possibly now my new favourite sparkly red polish - which is a hell of a compliment, because I consider myself something of a connoisseur of sparkly reds.The only things I can think to write about this polish are long streams of wildly over used adjectives like amazing, gorgeous, stunning, and spectacular, so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Literally the only negative thing I can think of to say about this polish is that due to the massive glitter content, it does dry a tiny bit gritty, so you'll need to use a topcoat. But it doesn't even need a lot of topcoat, like some glitterbombs. I just used one coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl topcoat, and it turned out smooth as can be.

It might be just because I was in the middle of railroading Mr. Reluctant Femme through Gone With The Wind for the first time, but I can't help picturing this polish worn with Scarlett O'Hara's spectacular red party dress. Don't you think it would match perfectly?

Finally we have Decorate A Palm Tree, a stunning sparkly green with yellow and grassy flecks that give it a very palm tree-like colour palette. I'm not usually a fan of paler greens, but this is just SO DAMN sparkly I could forgive it anything.

In the shade, to show the gloriously smooth finish.

These swatches are two thin coats over a dark green, but considering how much of the dark green you can actually see past the sparkle (ie none) I am pretty confident this would be fine with no undies.

Be sure not to look at it directly for too long, you'll burn your retinas.

The smattering of rainbow flecks in both this and Kevin! really give them both a really distinct, celebratory look. They're just perfect for the party season, and I can see myself wearing Don't Flash Those Babies Around any time of year when I need a perfect scarlet.

This is quite a large collection, and these are only three out of a total of eight polishes, so be sure to check out all the other swatches - the Powder Perfect etsy store, Bettina's Nails, Every Little Polish as well as Lilyandjinks and Strawbrie over on Instagram all have tons of beautiful pictures for you to wade through.

 * Because I'm a ridiculously pedantic movie nerd, I feel the need to point out Decorate A Palm Tree and Don't Flash Those Babies Around are in fact references to Home Alone 2: Alone In The City, rather than the original Home Alone. Not that anyone cares but me, but, well, I couldn't help myself.