How about one more Polish Pickup tonight? I know I’m a little early, but we are all planning our Black Friday shopping lists and we all want to make sure we have some Polish Pickup funds leftover – so I figured I better get a jump start. Up next is Stella Chroma Karavaki!

As always, we’re going to go through my spiel on Polish Pickup for those not familiar with it!

Before I get into this lovely shade shown above, we’re going to talk about this new Facebook group and I’m going to describe it’s concept. The group is Polish Pickup. Polish Pickup offers a fun, interactive experience that allows you to submit theme ideas, vote for your favorite theme, and selectively purchase your favorite polishes every month. It’s NOT a box though. I think when it formed that was the major misconception of it.

Now, I love polish boxes, however, some purchasers shared their frustration in only wanting 1 or 2 polishes from a box and needing to unload the polishes in the box they didn’t want. So essentially they were paying $40 and up for 1 or 2 polishes and hoping they could sell the polishes they weren’t interested in.

Polish Pickup is different. While the concept of picking themes and voting isn’t new, instead of buying the whole box, you can shop online for JUST the single polishes you want. There can be many indie makers involved with the theme, but you only have to pay for the exact polishes you wanted rather than 4-8 polishes you may not have been interested in.

Then every month the theme and makers change and you get a whole new set of polishes to pick and choose from. So while it has a box like feel (with the voting and themes) it doesn’t carry the box commitment.

This set of polishes will be available from December 1st at 11am EST through December 4th at 11:59pm EST.

The December theme is ‘Holidays Around The World’ so we’re going to see various holidays, some you might be familiar with, some you might learn a little something about through this Polish Pickup theme. I will be adding info about each holiday I cover this month. I know of many of them, but I’m not completely familiar with all of them so this is a learning experience for me as well. If I have inaccuracies about a given holiday, please don’t hesitate to correct me.

Here is the Stella Chroma inspiration photo!

Stella Chroma picked a tradition in Greece for her inspiration. As a sea-faring nation, the Greeks created a unique and unusual custom of decorating small boats or “karavaki” with Christmas lights during the Christmas celebrations. It is a type of honor and an appropriate welcome for the many sailors who returned from their journeys across the world to be with their families at Christmas time.

I actually had to look this up to learn a bit about it, as it was one I wasn’t familiar with!

Let’s see Stella Chroma’s interpretation!

Stella Chroma Karavaki

Stella Chroma Karavaki is a sheer black jelly base packed with small silver and blue holographic glitters. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

There is a lot of glitter packed in here, so I do recommend 2 coats of top coat for a smooth finish. I used 1 coat since it’s a thicker top coat (Girly Bits Glitter Glaze)

Look at those sparkles though.