glitter

If you're looking for a fun Easter egg activity that doesn't involve candy, we highly recommend you consider making smash eggs, also known as confetti eggs or Cascarones. The tradition of smashing filled eggs over friends' and family members' heads has actually been around for centuries in Europe and Mexico.

The idea is simple: hollowed-out, refilled eggs are broken over the heads of friends, showering them with confetti . . . and, according to tradition, good luck. Kids might need some simple instructions and oversight (egg-smashing etiquette requires eggs to be broken directly on a person's head — it sounds rough, but it actually makes for a gentler and safer experience). Jordan Ferney from Oh Happy Day! shared photos of her amazing glitter and Fruity Pebbles eggs with us. Want to make your own? Follow her easy DIY instructions!

Source: Robyn Kessler for Oh Happy Day!

I often paint my nails at night, so I've woken up plenty of times with sheet imprints on my fresh new manicure. The easiest solution I've discovered is to polish on a glittering top coat. Between the texture of the sparkling flecks and their ability to obscure any smudges, a sparkling top coat pretty much works like magic. My deep plum manicure got plenty of sheet action the night before, so I reached for Essie Luxeffects in Stroke of Brilliance ($8) to hide my imperfections. The bluish glitter worked perfectly with the shimmering purple polish, but I also keep the silver Essie Luxeffects in Set in Stones ($8) and the gold Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow ($20) on hand, depending on my polish shade. This quick fix is quite a dazzling option.

A black manicure is a fashion staple, but adding a touch of shimmer creates the perfect go-with-everything holiday manicure. Keep your nails trimmed short and use a file to get your desired shape. Next, apply two coats of your favorite black lacquer — I used Essie Licorice ($8). There are plenty of scintillating top coats to choose from this season. For this particular manicure, I opted for Butter London Fairy Cake ($14), which features fine silver and holographic glitter in a pale gray polish. The sheer base mutes the severity of the black polish and adds a dose of multifaceted glitter in one coat.

This Fashion Week has been exceptional for its eye makeup, but the creative use of oversized gold glitter on lids at the Betsey Johnson show was easily a standout. Instead of overwhelming eyes with lots of chunky glitz or shimmer, the makeup artists instead used just a few strategically placed flecks of gold to accentuate the shapes of models' eyes. Combined with bright gold liner in the inner corners and v-shaped taupe shadow to define the crease and lash line, it was a little bit Studio 54 and a lot unexpected glamour. Plus, it's the kind of edgy but alluring look that's actually achievable at home. So next time you're going out with the girls, keep this golden idea in mind.

Back in October, we found out that Katy Perry would be coming out with her own line of OPI nail polishes, and now they're here. Yesterday Team Bella sampled all six shades in the collection, including the color pictured here, Last Friday Night ($7, but prices will vary depending on retailer).

While it's described as a bold cobalt blue with iridescent glitter, the result was more of a light pastel blue with flecks of cool-toned glitter — and that was with three coats. This further proves that judging a bottle by its color is never the best determiner of the true results. Last Friday Night is still a cool shade, especially as a top coat, but don't expect this particular hue to pack as much punch as the electric-blue wig Katy wore to the MTV Movie Awards last year.

How much does this sparkly manicure look like one of those scrumptious Funfetti cupcakes? And just as easy as those colorful confections are to eat, this two-step manicure is similarly just as swift.

Just start off with two coats of white opaque polish, like Sinful Colors' Snow Me White ($2). And for the finish, China Glaze's Party Hearty top coat ($2) from its 2010 holiday collection adds just the right amount of sparkle with randomly-placed bits of red, green, and gold glitter.