Swatch Saturday: Bathed in Light

Oh, holy moly. This polish. Just look at it. This is the polish you wear to work and then people gape when you go outside in the afternoon. This is Bathed in Light, by Dandy Nails.

The above is the multi-chromatic goodness as it appears indoors. I loooove the pink with greenish edges. The base colour is actually a greyed-out blue, which shows up at acute angles (you'll see).

In direct light, the pink goes all flaming on us, and the holo glitter comes to life:

Here is that blue-grey I was telling you about:

The full shift:

Lastly, a blurry photo to show the holo glitter at work:

Polishes used:

Dandy Nails - Bathed in Light

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

INM - Out the Door (top coat)

Delicious, right?!

J.

Beachy Watermarble (Learning Curve Ahoy!)

Hello lovelies!

Today I tried my hand at watermarbling. I did exactly four fingers and then threw in the towel. People who can watermarble with ease are astounding and awe-inspiring and I am definitely not among them. I'd prefer to paint little Yodas and go cross-eyed. Doing this made me want to build a time machine just so I could go a couple of hours into the past and tell myself not to do this.

For this, I used a combination of Godiva and an acrylic wash of Van Dyke brown to get sort of a sparkly wet sand look. I then covered up all that work with my ineffectual watermarbling.

So it goes! This technique takes a lot of practice (the YouTube gurus make it look so eeeaaasssyyy ;___;) so I'm trying not to lose hope altogether.

And a detail shot to show you the abysmal little bubbles I had everywhere, the terrible clean-up job I did, and the delightful sparkly sand!

Polishes used:

Zoya - Godiva

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On, Pacific Blue, Mellow Yellow

INM - Out the Door (= the clear stripes)

Dior - Gel Coat (top coat)

acrylic paint in Van Dyke brown + wash brush (#4)

usual watermarbling accoutrements

Going for something simpler for my next look, and I have a Swatch Saturday for you tomorrow (and it's GORGEOUS, you'll see)!

J.

Swatch Saturday: Skittle Manicure of Colour-Shifting Wonder

That has to be the worst title of all time. These polishes, though, are amazing.

For this mani, I painted my thumb, index, and pinkie in Anna Maria. I then painted my middle and ring fingers in Merope. Lastly, I did two coats of Shift Happens on my index and middle fingers. Merope just naturally looks blue and pink-purple simultaneously; it is the most genuinely duo-chromatic polish I own and have ever come across. Anna Maria is deep beautiful shimmery teal and it applies like a dream. Shift Happens is a Clarins 230 dupe and shifts from green to red (and you can see both at the same time on occasion, particularly if you layer it over green, blue, or purple).

Sorry for tip wear; took these photos after 2 days! SO MUCH LOVE

Words cannot express how much I liked this look. It's so striking in spite of being so simple.

Polishes used:
Contrary Polish - Anna Maria
CrowsToes - Merope
Girly Bits - Shift Happens
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
INM - Out the Door (top coat)

These swatches are a nice break from intense nail art. :) This was a good idea, it lets me show off some of the beauties in my collection without cluttering them up!


J.

Spun Sugar Gradient

I'm sorry this didn't go up yesterday! I finished these quite late at night and didn't have it in me to edit photos and write up a post. But I am doing so right now (hiyah).

For these, I started with a base of Still Waters-- it's a lovely colour deserving on its own post, and its incredible glowiness is a big part of why the jellies light up in the sunlight as above. It also applied like a dream in 2 coats; because the shimmer is almost (but not!) frosty in its intensity, you need to work your brushstrokes a bit to get them evened out, and Still Waters is probably the most indulgent polish I've worked with in months. It has an almost marshmallow squishiness to it and it stays smooth as butter for as long as you need it to. Superb.

I then dusted the tops of my nails in the turquoise glitter. Once done, I did the spun sugar technique with the three jellies, going from light green at the tips to dark green in the middle to dark teal up top. I left space for the glitter to shine through. I then topcoated it all to make it last until I could take photos today, but I won't do that next time. It takes away from the spun-sugariness.

Getting the colour balance proper on these was nigh impossible. Sorry for kinda leprotic hand colouring.

Purposefully blurry to show the glitter shininess.

Polishes used:
Liquid Sky Lacquers - Still Waters
Nfu Oh - JS34, JS35
Zoya - Frida
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Martha Stewart micro iridescent glitter in Wintermint

I think I'll do a painting next! I have some ideas, but it seems all my pre-planning goes off the rails lately...


J.

Hand-stitched Quilted Nails

Hello friends!

As promised, I've tried to bring you something more entertaining today. A total sweetheart named Shivani over on Instagram wanted to see quilted nails, so that's what I've done!

Sorry for dry fingers! I forgot to moisturize!!

For this look, I used three coats of Oodiful, which I pressed in using a cuticle pusher when the paint was not yet fully dry. I then painted in the seams first with silver, then with black hand stitching. Lastly, I painted a couple little flowers and petals using acrylic ink mixed with acrylic modeling paste for texture.

Polishes used:

Nail Pattern Boldness - Oodiful

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

black, white, red, yellow & green acrylic paints

INM - Out the Door (top coat)

acrylic modeling paste

detail brush

I hope you enjoyed these. And, because it's impossible to avoid current affairs and it isn't desirable to do so anyway, I just want to say that I hope that anybody you may know in love in Boston is safe and sound tonight. My heart goes out to everybody affected by this unconscionable and unfathomable crime.

J.

Iron Polish: Glitter Food Edition

WELCOME TO MANICURE STADIUM

(please don't sue me)

I own a lot of top coats that are intended to smooth out glitter. As many know only too well, glitter can be very 'hungry' and gobble up endless coats of topcoat without batting a proverbial eye, all while remaining rough like taunting sandpaper. There's a small industry within the nail community dedicated to finding ways to smooth out dem glitterbombs, and today I'm weighing in on 10 of them.

For this epic showdown, I began by painting two coats of OPI's Stay the Night on each finger-- because this is a 'first formula' Liquid Sand polish, it is VERY textured, and therefore a good candidate. I then painted on two coats of each type of 'glitter food', using what I would call medium/generous coats (neither thin, nor glooping it on). I then waited an hour, evaluated what the glitter was feeling like, and recorded it. I thereafter went to sleep for about 7 hours, woke up, and recorded once more how the glitter was feeling. Results are below (pardon the dry cuticles in the photos; I was running around that morning and forgot to prep for photos properly).

A few notes: I've done some swapping out, so now my Seche Vite, Poshé top coat, and Good to Go are all slightly thickened, but only as much as would be considered 'average' (not brand new, not in need of any polish thinner whatsoever, able to be applied in a floating manner but do not typically produce shrinkage). I have not evaluated these top coats for drying time; the only one I noticed took longer to dry than the others was the Maya Cosmetics one-- it got some ridges overnight that the others did not, but not due to the product settling into the glitter. I've therefore evaluated it based on its general characteristics, not the ridged spot.

LEFT HAND, THUMB TO PINKY: Gelous, Poshé top coat, Nail'd It Glitter Frosting, Maya Cosmetics Smoothing Coat for Glitter, Seche Vite

RIGHT HAND, THUMB TO PINKY: Dior Gel Coat, Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, Poshé base coat, Essie Good to Go, INM Out the Door

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: Good to Go and Seche Vite are the same, two coats give good smoothness after about 20 minutes; Nail Pattern Boldness does not self-level; Maya and Dior both seem to be working, but have created a multitude of little air bubbles between each piece of glitter.

AFTER AN HOUR:
Gelous - gritty
Poshé top coat - relatively smooth
Nail'd It Glitter Frosting - semi-gritty
Maya Cosmetics Smoothing Coat for Glitter - very smooth
Seche Vite - relatively smooth
Dior Gel Coat - very smooth
Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food - super smooth
Poshé base coat - gritty
Essie Good to Go - very smooth
INM Out the Door - gritty

AFTER 7 HOURS:

Gelous - gritty:

Poshé top coat - 85% smooth, very small amount of shrinkage:

Nail'd It Glitter Frosting - gritty:

Maya Cosmetics Smoothing Coat for Glitter - semi-gritty, lots of bubbles!:

Seche Vite - 80% smooth:

Dior Gel Coat - 95% smooth:

Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food - 95% smooth, would be 100% with shiny top coat:

Poshé base coat - gritty:

Essie Good to Go - 80% smooth:

INM Out the Door - gritty:

I hope this comparison has been useful to you! I have another one like this planned, to compare quick-drying top coats, but if there's anything else you'd like to see in this vein (i.e. no colour comparisons, I don't have a big enough stash to be useful on that front!!), please let me know!

J.

Inverted Chevrons for Easter!

Happy Easter Monday to all who celebrate! I am amused that it falls on April Fool's Day this year. There's only so much coincidence a person can take before they can't help but smile.

This is a very toned-down Easter nail art, inspired by the very talented Emily at Globe & Nail, who did this look with a deep navy and a blingy micro-holo band and it looks FANTASTIC, so go see! Emily also has the best nails, the crispest swatches, and the world's best blog name (if you are Canadian and get the joke).

For this, I pulled out what I feel is the quintessential Easter polish: Adeste Fidelis [sic]. Named for a hymn (English version is "O Come All Ye Faithful") that the polish's creator once saw Pavarotti sing in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Montreal, she took the cathedral's interior as her inspiration in putting together the colour scheme. I think it's as classy as a glitter possibly can possibly be, and, though it is obviously intended as a Christmas polish, the medium pink and pale green glitters remind me of the Easter dresses I used to wear as a child.

Because I chose to paint the bottoms a different colour altogether, to maximise the effect of the matte topcoat, I only taped off the chevrons once, and then freehanded the band of gold. This was probably not the best of ideas, but it wasn't a TOTAL disaster.

A coat or two (as needed) of Glitter Food to smooth everything out, followed by quick-dry topcoat and Matte About You on the tips (freehanded as well), and they're done!

And, finally, a close-up to show you just how complex Adeste Fidelis is. A lot going on, but somehow it never becomes overwhelming!

Polishes used:
Smitten Polish - Adeste Fidelis
Rescue Beauty Lounge - Plié
Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Essie - Matte About You (top coat)
one-stroke brush

I hope you're nomming on chocolate right now! I sure am. (Though this isn't new; I pretty much always am regardless of the occasion.)


J.

Cartoon Nails with Faux Half-tone

Cartoon nails are a big thing right now. I've seen them all over the place, and I find them impossibly cute. Very clever was the person who thought this up! Triztron over at Instagram wanted to see me do cartoon nails, and I happened to have prepared this post anyway! (I'm not sure this is what she had in mind-- she is very talented at doing cartoons ON her nails-- but I can give that a shot sometime soon, too!) And because I don't like making my life easy, I thought it'd be neat to do an accent nail of a half-tone like pattern.

The cartoon nails themselves were very straightforward and I'm sure there are a bajillion tutorials up on YouTube by now, but the basic premise is to paint your nails black, then paint them the colour you want (leaving a border around the tops and sides), then adding the black stripe at the bottom, followed by the shine marks in white.

For the half-tone, I found a picture online and tried to replicate it. It didn't work. In fact, it didn't work even a little, but I like the look anyway. Sort of macro-looking. I used two jellies for this, along with a bright fuchsia and black acrylic paint.

Polishes used:

Nfu Oh - JS20

Zoya - Frida, Charisma

GOSH - Nero

OPI - Jade is the New Black, Nail Envy Matte (base coat)

Revlon Top Speed - Spirit

INM - Out the Door (top coat)

black & white acrylic paint + detailing brush

Do you like this look at much as I do?

J.

Sketches in Geometry Class

I hated geometry. I'm not the world's most maths-inclined person, but I'm especially resistent to geometry-- I nearly failed that segment of the curriculum in grade 9, only to score nearly perfect on the trigonometry segment. My teacher was very confused.

All that said, in my never-ending quest to use all of my jelly polishes, all of the time, I came up with this idea:

For this look, I started with a base of Spirit and Funny Bunny, which I topcoated to help it dry faster. In the meantime, I cut geometric shapes out of paper to which I'd stuck tape. These templates allowed me to colour in the jelly shapes and, once those were dry, use a pared-down striping brush to produce the messy, sketchy 3D-sort-of lines in black acrylic paint.

CLAW

The pinkie is my favourite <3

Polishes used:
Revlon Top Speed - Spirit
OPI - Funny Bunny
Nfu Oh - JS20, JS28, JS29, JS34
Zoya - Frida
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
black acrylic paint + striping brush

Are you a maths type, or not at all? Any time a class or subject really just kicked yer butt?


J.

SIMPLE(R) SUNDAY: Fleur-y of Flowers with Purple Holo Stripe

I recently discovered a new-to-me polish brand from Canada: Tryst Lacquers. I snapped up Jaded, Fleur-y of Flowers, and Just a Crush. I've used Jaded by now (it's the background to my Yoda), and today I'm using Fleur-y of Flowers. I really can't say enough about how much I love these polishes. They are what happens when you take lovely crellies and mix in the perfect amount of micro and micronic glitter-- complexity without being overwhelming. I've included a bottle shot at the bottom to show you just how complex this pretty is.

I started with two easy coats of Fleur-y of Flowers (two medium coats or three very thin coats gives perfect opacity, and it self-levels well). Because I love the polish so much, I wanted it to be the spotlight, so I kept the accent nails bare. I then taped off the middle sections of my other fingers, and painted on stripes of (top to bottom) Euphoria, Lady of the Lake, and Misty Blush-- all purple-toned holographic polishes.

As it were, I am terrible at taping straight vertical lines on my nails, because they were a hot mess. I touched the sides up with my detailing brush.

To get an idea of the holographic goodness, we need flash!

As you can tell, Misty Blush is the most holographic of the three, and is a linear holographic. Lady of the Lake is a scattered holo, and Euphoria is a linear, though more subdued.

Here is a crappy phone pic to show you how this looked in the sun. It manages to be very eye-catching while still being very simple.

Lastly, that bottle shot I promised you. The frosty pale blue glitters are amazing, and the multitude of micronic glitter get me every time: black, blue, red, silver, gold... Just masterfully mixed, this polish.

Polishes used:

Tryst Lacquer - Fleur-y of Flowers

Wonder Beauty Products / Superchic Nail Lacquer - Euphoria

A England - Lady of the Lake

Layla - Misty Blush

OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat)

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food

INM - Out the Door (top coat)

Thanks for reading, as always! I hope to cook up some really neat stuff for you this next week or two.

J.