Sunny Holographic Mani

Hello, hello! I was feeling inspired outside the GOT challenge and the Revlon Parfumarie range; this stimulus arose by looking at some pretty holographic polishes in the sun and let's face it, who doesn't like holo on their nails?

I started with two coats of Union Jack Black by Butter London in all but ring fingers, let it dry and applied on two dabbed coats of L.A. Girl in Supernova on the prepped fingers. While that was drying, which btw took forever, I applied two coats of the silvery holographic goodness that Ozotic 509 is and let it dry. I then stamped what I would like to call the stained window pattern from MoYou's Suki 04 plate with Konad's Black Special Polish. I topped all fingers off with one coat of HK Girl topcoat that helped the drying time of Supernova.

I ended up getting a lot of shrinkage on the black nails and usually I would point the finger at Seche Vite for that terrible trait, but this time I'm pretty sure it was Supernova's clear base and my piling of it on the nail. It ended up looking very thick and I actually had  a couple of the black nails pop off in one piece in the shower. :(

It was really pretty while it lasted and very rainbow-y. Blurred photo for effect.

And some  photo spam because you can never have enough holo!

Yeah, that's it from me. I'm just hoping more inspiration comes my way.

Till next time,

Laura

essence Snow White Glitter Sandwich

Going through Tasha's stash has given me quite a few lemmings. One of them was Essie's Jelly Apple. I loved the colour (my favourite polishes have always been red) and the jelly finish (which until now, I never owned). When swatches starting popping up on the WWW of essence's Snow White collection and its polish of the same name, I knew my lemming would be satisfied for a very low price. 

I patiently waited for Target to stock the collection but it took a few months before the display was up. I guess the release of Twilight was more important than Snow White (not on my books...). It took a few attempts and visits to two local Targets to get my hands on this puppy. I actually ended up buying three bottles, but at $3.50 each, it is still cheaper than buying one discounted Essie online.

Swatch below is done with one coat and no top coat. Isn't pretty AND shiny? I also love the fact they have a wide, flat brush that makes the application of this extremely-easy-to-work-with formula even easier.

I couldn't stop admiring the colour but after a few hours it got kinda boring and I thought 'Why not paint myself a glitter sandwich?'. I used my favourite glitter topper, American Apparel's Supernova. It's doesn't need to be dabbed on too much for an even coverage of its different size glitters and it's pretty colourful. Only applied one coat on the photo below.

I let it dry for a bit to avoid any drag and applied a second coat of Snow White. What happened to the colour of the glitters really impressed me. The glitters were either light or black and no actual colour showed thru. I'm still no connoisseur of colour theory and a lot of my experimentation is trial and error. Either way I was very happy with the result. It sort of reminded me of strawberries... 

 At the end, I added a matte top coat but wasn't too impressed. For once, I liked the shiny version better.  

Til next time, 

Laura

In Memoriam of the Skittled Mani *Edited with photos*

This is a rather sad post for me as I am mourning the massacre I created while trying to revive a four-day-old skittled mani (the one i got with all your awesome nail polishes on Friday night). I thoroughly enjoyed having ten fantastic colours on my nails all at once. I never thought it could be so much fun!!! 

So after the four wonderful days, I noticed there was considerably nail tip wear on the glitters, which accounted for at least three of my digits. I thought a tape mani a la Chalkboard Nails* would hide the tips and give the colours that I was wearing a new life. Off I went to grab my striping tape and carefully pressed it onto my nail, cut it and re-pressed it to make sure it was stuck. I applied a thick-ish coat of Rimmel 60 Seconds in Black Out on the worst tip wear offender and quickly peeled it off. Oh, big mistake. There were no lines, just blobs of black polish over speckles of colourful glitter. 'Oh well!' I though, 'Let's try the next one'. I let it dry for about five seconds but I still ended up with a mess. 

What to do but keep trying? I grabbed sticky tape and tried to do one of these on my ring finger. It seems like I placed the sticky tape bits too close together, maybe there was a bubble in the polish or I didn't wait long enough but the half the black came off with the tape. It looked baaaaaad... Plus there was no contrast with the dark blue I was wearing and it was too far down on the nail for it to look good. I tried the last method once more on my thumb and it worked so well, I almost top coated it. Pity, the rest were so unpleasant to the eye. It all had to come off! I didn't even take a photo of it! 

I shall remember it anyway with this small tribute. 

The colours of American Apparel in Supernova have everything my skittled mani had, lots of colour and lots of glitter!

I need 4 coats to get a (mostly) full coverage and each coat dried surprisingly quick. I was done in about 20 minutes including top coat and by then it was dry to the touch. This polish is surprisingly smooth without top coat and there's no need to fish out the glitter if the brush is inserted into the bottle fully for each application. Enough of my words, I shall leave you with some pictures.

*Chalkboard Nails gives credit to Nailside for the idea of the tape mani, however, I liked the former's idea of using striping tape as I have no patience to cut so many strips of such small width. Anyhow, if my attempts keep failing with striping tape, I might have to follow the sticky tape route.

That's all from me and until next time,

Happy polishing.