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.

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. 

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:

Jelly Franken Matte and Subtle Stamping

This one didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I mixed N.Y.C. Manhattan, a dark plum creme, with lots of clear. The rule of thumb for jellies is one part creme to two or three parts clear. It's that simple. Manhattan is crazy pigmented so, what you're seeing is one part creme to six parts clear. Crazy! I poured some into my palette and added more clear. The ring finger is splotchy. I have that problem with single-batch frankens. I was actually trying to avoid this problem by mixing a whole bottle. Boo! Once I use up some of the bottle, I will add more clear because this still isn't jelly enough for me. This is three coats plus topcoat.

I added a coat of matte. This is weirdly suede-like. I don't know why.

And stamped with clear and a design from plate m63.

Have I Mentioned How Much I Love Matte?

So much that I did something I've never done before. I took off a color of polish and put it back on again. Well, kinda.

I bunged this one up a bit. I was aiming for as few coats as possible but ended up with seven (!), including base coat. This is two coats Essie Licorice which was almost a one-coater but I mechanically put on two. Plus one layer of OPI Grape Set Match and I am once again ignoring the ellipses. Plus one thick coat of LA Colors Sparking Diamonds. Matte polishes look cruddy when bumpy so I added a thick coat of Seche Vite which smoothed things out nicely and helped dry, topping with Essie Matte About You. You can see how thick it is on my pointer and for once it doesn't bother me in real life, but I may as well have gone with three coats of GSM. Hmph!

All under the lamp.

I had a little trouble getting the large hex glitters where I wanted and it was the first time that I understood what other people meant when they said that, heh.

Surprisingly easy to remove. Three cotton balls but with acetone-based remover and not pure acetone. My usual for two coats of creme is two cotton balls.

Stamping + Matte

Hi. I couldn't think of a snappy title.

I stamped over my gradient from yesterday *cough* with Mash plate m60 and Essie Shifting Power. Shifting Power isn't very shiny on its own. Perhaps that's why it isn't a very popular shade. This is with topcoat.

But I thought it was missing something, so I added a coat of Essie Matte About You. Aw, my sad pinkie nubbin.

Still, I didn't want to take this one off. And this is the last of the sad nubbin posts. That is until I screw up filing again haha...