A Galaxy Far, Far Away

This is one coat of OPI Servin' Up Sparkle over last post's blue franken. Ahhh! Inadvertent galaxy nails! This looked even better in person. I couldn't stop staring at my nails.

Intentionally blurred.

I accidentally dented the pointer finger. I didn't want to remix a batch just for one finger. That's a problem with single batch frankens that I don't know how to work around. So, I just painted the pointer with one coat of NYC West Village and reapplied the glitter. Actually, I think I like the calmer base better.

I was so sad to take this one off after three days. That almost never happens.

Two Frankens: Various Shades of Success

First of all, sorry for the dryness. I ran out of Burt's Bees cuticle balm and regular hand lotion is not cutting it. I don't know why that is but I ordered more (apparently it's coming by donkey...).

This first franken was just a random mix of what I had nearby. Note to self: since you're worried about smearing, get out your supplies before you apply basecoat. This is NYC Manhattan, Art Deco Gold Glitter (smells terrible), and some cheapo copper body shimmer that I think I picked up from the dollar store. I say cheapo because even though I added three drops of nail polish thinner it seized up like overheated chocolate, probably due to cheap fillers. I ended up adding a lot more thinner. The final product was one-third polish thinner! This is three coats. I love how much depth and visible glitter there is, even in the shade.

Natural light:

Under the lamp:
I'm not loving the stamping. I think it covers up too much of the natural beauty. Ah well. Stamp color is Essie Shifting Power.

Then I had the "brilliant" idea to use the body shimmer for a Piu Mosso copycat. I mixed NYC West Village with some of the copper body shimmer and added more thinner. I added too much thinner this time and had some cuticle pooling. Oops! I gave it another stir to encourage some evaporation. But the real problem is that the shimmer shows up as silver. Where did the color go?? I don't know if this would have looked better under sunlight. We haven't had any in about a month. Or maybe West Village is too pigmented and I should have added clear.

Three coats, natural light:

Under the lamp.

I'm inspired to keep playing with this particular experiment. Now I just need some sunlight, and maybe some red eyeshadow? Hm.

I added a layer of OPI I Lily Love You which soothed over hurt feelings. Ha!

Till next time, happy polishing.

My Favorite Green

I confess, I am not particularly fussed about holos. I think they're nice but I don't really understand the craze that's currently sweeping the nail world. That doesn't explain why I bought Nubar Reclaim, except this is a color I would wear even if it wasn't holo, tricks are just a bonus. This is my go to polish when I want to feel better. It also doesn't give me lobster hands in real life, I don't know what happened here.

This is two coats plus topcoat, under the lamp. Sorry, we haven't had sunshine in several weeks. Still, very holo, yes?

I need more Nubar in my life. Now I'm off to work on a paper that's due tonight. I'm not supposed to be blogging (or playing Plants vs Zombies) at all. Shh, don't rat me out!

Happy polishing, everyone. :)

A Couple of Glitter Gradients

Hi folks! Sorry I disappeared for a few weeks. I've been totally distracted by the MUA nail board. Eeep. Everyone there has got me preoccupied with glitter. *huffs* On the the polish.

One coat NYC Canal St with OPI Grape Set Match and Servin' Up Sparkle and Nubar 2010.

This didn't photograph too well, but maybe you can see the GSM shift from blue to purple? It's in theory an awesome polish, and I should to do a dedicated post about it but am dawdling because it took a really long time to dry.The dent window is ridiculously large, even with Poshe topcoat.

Here's two coats China Glaze Recycle with OPI I Lily Love You. Not the best combination, I personally prefer ILLY over darker polishes, but I wanted to see what it looked like over a polish that isn't so dark. I love the flakey iridescent goodness. I will definitely be wearing ILLY on the blog again! 

The pinkie is two coats, you can see the base color is too pigmented to try and "fix" with a second coat. But I have high hopes that OPI releases this in a clear, the way they did with Teenage Dream/Servin' Up Sparkle.

And if anyone's interested, these next few weeks I'm going to organize my NOTD photos, post the ones I've been procrastinating on, and then shift blog gears a bit.