Simple Silver and White Paisley

Whoa, sorry to disappear. I was overwhelmed with exams and a cold, something had to give. But enough excuses. This is LA Colors Live stamped with Konad Special White and plate m64. So many people say the Konad polishes are the easiest to stamp with, but I don't really agree. I had to redo this manicure because of smearing, but even when I was careful and light-handed with topcoat the design smeared a little. Bah!

In hindsight, it wasn't a great idea to try to post every day in November. But my picture stash is about three-fourths organized now. That's something. Yay! And exams are done for now, except I still have one project due time-stamp 11:59 PM Friday. Boo! So, back early next week. Happy Thanksgiving, Usians!

Color Club Charity Ball Stamped

This is one of the polishes I won in a giveaway hosted by Paillette! It's Color Club Charity Ball, three coats.

Sunlight (the sun came out after hiding for a week, yarr!):

I stamped with Revlon Copper Penny and plate m64, rotating the design for each finger as I went. Also, I scraped the plate for the pinkie using a metal scraper but with all the other fingers I used a plastic scraper. It made for a cleaner image. I'm mentioning this because usually a metal scraper usually works better for me. Odd.

Under the lamp:

Something I didn't notice until I was editing the pictures is how orange-brown Charity Ball leans on me than everyone else. Here's a link to Johanna's swatch, hers looks much redder. If I'm not mistaken, this is the exact bottle that she swatched with. Since that made me feel crazy, I took a picture of me holding something else orange-brown to show you (and I'm not trying to hide my pinkie, it's just hard holding a full bottle with four fingers)

 

Vaseline bottle photo courtesy of drugstore.com. See? More orange-brown, not very much red. It's this color in real life as well. So bizarre.

Based on swatches I saw online, I didn't think I would like Charity Ball. It turns out I absolutely love it!  It's really perfect for fall. And it's not a color I would buy for myself so thank you Johanna!!

Subtle Zebra

I picked up another bottle of Manhattan after using the other one in a franken. But this bottle seems slightly different, thinner less pigmented formula. Nooo! Oh well.This is two coats New York Color Manhattan stamped with New York Color East Village. Pardon the nicked index finger. At some angles it looked like this.
,

And at other angles the design was barely noticeable. Secret design so I don't get yelled at -- at work.

Variation on a Franken

I caught a cold. My head is fuzzy so fewer text tonight.

This is one part Rimmel Midnight Blue, five parts OPI Simply Smashing, and one part Art Deco Gold Glitter. A variation on yesterday's franken. Except greener, and the addition of Gold Glitter makes this sparkly, in real life anyway.

Flash:

That's all for today. Happy polishing, everyone!

Green Olive Gold? Franken

Whoops, editing to include the correct recipe. Maybe I shouldn't post under the influence of cold medicine...

Another franken. This one was incredibly hard to take accurate pictures of. It's an olive-green that flashes gold but also looks grassy green at certain angles. This is two parts OPI Simply Smashing, one part OPI Rally Pretty Pink, and one part Sinful Colors Black on Black (highly pigmented black creme). All under the lamp.

I turned on the vivid option on my camera to capture the golden flash. Pardon the weirdly tinted skin.

Macro:

Flecky!

I liked this franken but I don't consider it a complete success. My objective was to make Simply Smashing into something that only needed two coats. This still took three.

Funky Drunk French

Argh! I broke the nail on my thumb! This brings the times I've broken a nail to two. First world pain and suffering. I nubbinized everything and now I have an excuse to try something I've wanted to for a while. It's with a french nail design from plate m45 but on the diagonal. This is one coat Rimmel Midnight Blue stamped with Revlon Copper Penny.

Madly rushing today. I thought it was a good day to test a new topcoat, Out the Door. While it dried fast, I'm not happy with the brush marks. Will have to test some more.

Petites Black Diamond, Wet & Wild Femme Fatale and Stamping

This is Wet & Wild Femme Fatale with Petites Black Diamond as accent. These are two polishes I put in my swap/donate pile, but thought I should be thorough and try them again.

Black Diamond is more holo in real life. Probably still not as holo as the good version of CC Revvvolution, but I don't have that polish to compare.

 
I stamped with plate m64 and reversed colors.

Taking these out of the swap pile because they're pretty good for stamping. The only problem is Black Diamond ignited for me a huge lemming for Revvvolution. D'oh!

Another Franken Skittles Experiment

I don't like Skittles candy but I love nail skittles! Maybe someone has caught on that I also love frankening. Everything is two coats except the thumb and index which are three.

Index is Sally Hansen Purple Pizazz
Ring is China Glaze Ruby Pumps
Middle is a mix of Ruby Pumps and a little Purple Pizazz
Pinkie is a mix of Purple Pizazz and a little Ruby Pumps
Thumb is Purple Pizazz, Ruby Pumps, and OPI Simply Smashing

Lamp:

Natural light, shade:

I love successful experiments. Happy polishing, everyone!

Konad Sandwich, Matte

I was just playing around so only pictures of the final product. This is one coat New York Colors West Village, one coat New York Colors East Village, some flowers with Mash fauxnad and Konad Special White. I thought that was too stark so I added another coat of East Village. Then I topped with a topcoat and Essie Matte About You. I like using a topcoat so the surface is as smooth as possible because matte finish highlights any bumps.

Pink Leopard Palate Cleanser

Or maybe pink cheetah. Actually, no clue. I just felt a bit overwhelmed with the bold colors these past weeks. The base is Revlon Lilac Pastelle, 3 coats. It's a light pink with blue undertones. I did not even bother taking a picture by itself because it bubbled a lot.  I stamped with plate m57, and China Glaze Recycle which isn't really a good stamping polish but it works. Then I dotted the spots with Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Diamond.

A thin layer of Diamond seems to be holo, even in low light. Curious. I love studying polishes by way of frankening, and Diamond has now moved its way to the top of that list.

Someone make a polish that looks exactly like the nail prisms label?

Goldie Franken

Hi folks!

Okay, I have a gold-esque? franken to show today. I eyeballed all of this: About equal parts Sinful Black on Black, clear, gold body shimmer, and nail polish thinner. Cheap cosmetic powders usually require a lot of thinner. Two coats plus topcoat.

Say, anyone interested in helping me name frankens. I'm so bad coming up with names.

Natural light.

There was no sunshine the week that I made this. I did however figure out how to take closeups with flash. Goldie, see?

A Cheaper Crown - Layering Fun

I was talking with some people on the MUA nail board, and we decided that this combo was a good dupe for OPI Crown Me Already. Which is nice, but not a color I was interested in. I thought I'd test it anyway! Two coats LA colors Live under two coats LA Colors Sparking Diamonds topped with Seche Vite. This didn't photograph very well. It'll look better if you click and enlarge. It was very blingy in person, and actually kind of neat.

Macro:

Sparkling Diamonds was absolutely smooth with a layer of Seche Vite, but was rather hard for me to remove. I'm going to say harder than even other hex glitters. I didn't use the foil technique (I usually don't), and this took 2 cotton balls of pure acetone and another 2 of regular polish remover to take off.

Nubar 2010 Crackle Sandwich Matte (Pt 2)

Sorry, picture heavy!

Aw, man. I know everyone's sick of crackle. I can't help it though. Every single time I see someone use crackle I want to play with my own. I topped yesterday's manicure with China Glaze Black Mesh, and BLAMO! instant regret, again.

 

So I decided to rescue the manicure with another coat of Nubar 2010. A magically delicious sandwich!

In the photo the flakes pop even more in natural light, but in real life it didn't matter.

I wore this mani for five days, which is usually three days longer than I wear a color. Generally I don't take pictures after this point, but I lost my mind and wanted to show this.

This is five day tip wear. Not even noticeable in person!

For whatever reason I first decided to "wrap" the tips with China Glaze Ruby Pumps. It was like circling a minor imperfection with red pen. Oops! Anyway, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You. It really brought out the blue in the flakes that you can see in the bottle, but usually not on the nail. Hey, maybe that's why I was lukewarm about 2010.

Okay, I like it, but it just looked and felt so thick. This had me running for the acetone.

Maybe you'd like a palette cleanser too... Here, purposely blurry, autumnal nails. 

China Glaze Ruby Pumps Plus Nubar 2010 Pt. 1

Nubar 2010 was my first and biggest lemming. I have a confession though. I was really disappointed when I finally bought it. I'm not even sure why. I used up about one-fourth of the bottle wearing it over different colors and trying not to be underwhelmed. That said, I really love it over Ruby Pumps. This is two coats China Glaze Ruby Pumps and one coat Nubar 2010.

Under the lamp:

In natural light, shade:

This is with weak sunlight which is all that came out that day. Probably the most color accurate as well.

Huzzah, contentment at last! I didn't want to flood the post with too many pictures so I'll post my experiment tomorrow.

Nubar 2010 Over Black Plus Matte

This is one coat Nubar 2010 over one coat Essie Licorice plus topcoat. I felt like doing something autumnal. This combo makes me swoon!

I don't usually have trouble with Essie but I thought Licorice was difficult to work with. It was runny and I had to deal with cuticle pooling. And if I wasn't layering, I would have done two coats of Licorice because it was splotchy with one. I may add some clear to it to make a jelly black.

Sunlight:

 Under the lamp:

Topped with one coat of Matte About You:

Later in the day after a few rounds of handwashing and lotion:

From the Vault: Wet n Wild Waves of Enchantment

This is my favorite Wet n Wild ever!! It's similar to OPI Rally Pretty Pink but I love this shade so much! I think it's because the metallic particles are larger? I even used this as the main ingredient for a skittles franken I made a while back before I knew it was hard to find. But I don't like frankening with hard to find polishes. /sad panda

The formula is so good! Shown is two coats plus topcoat.

The only thing I didn't like was the stiff brush. It made for wonky application near the cuticle, but that has to do a lot with user error as well.

Ahhhh! If Wet n Wild wanted to make this world a better place, they would 1) make their LE polishes easier to find! 2) make Waves of Enchantment a core color!