Basket Weave

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

Sorry for my absence lately, my sweethearts. I've been working on some secret stuff for next week and then wore the base colour for today's mani for three days unadorned (gasp)!

For this weekend, my ABC Challenge prompt was I for iridescent. I had zero clue what to do with it.

So, I totally took it the easiest way possible. Hah. Whoops?

For this look, I started with two coats of Germanicure, which is my single favourite polish of all time. I topped than off with a coat of Iris, which is comprised of tiny iridescent flakes -- how I snuck in the theme for this week! I then painted on the basket weave first in Nightmaren, then in Stardust, and finally used Funny Bunny as an accent.

The below photo shows how Stardust is duochrome; it looks pink in the centre of my thumb and golden at the edges.

Polishes used:

OPI - Germanicure, Funny Bunny

Cirque - Iris

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren

Nubar - Stardust

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

detail brush

I've been going through some rough times in the past week, my friends. (You can tell because my watermarking on these photos is kind of wonky-- I'm definitely spacey.) I'm sure I'll be back to my chatty, somewhat batty self soon. In the meantime, if anybody has any leads on teaching in Korea next year, send 'em my way! ;)

xo,

J.

SWATCH SATURDAY: Inner Beauty is for Amateurs

Today I have the polish that has given my camera the hardest time of any I've photographed so far. I'm going to have to ask you to use your imaginations to patch the photos together to get something of an idea!

This lovely polish is Inner Beauty is for Amateurs by Nail Pattern Boldness. It's a lot brighter than above; I had to tweak the levels to get the micro glitter and iridescent glitter to show up. A gorgeous bright classic blue-toned red jelly, highly pigmented (I used two coats). Goes on like a dream-- very easy to control where the polish is going, and dries rather quickly, too!

The following two shots are my attempt at showing you the glitter. The outdoor one (left) is purposely blurred and gets the red's brightness down perfectly, but is a little too orange. The right one is just a bottle shot near the window because I found this showed the iridescent glitter the best. All of the glitter is very noticeable on the nail. It's a polish best appreciated in person. :)

I don't think that it'd be hard to remove, in spite of its glitter density, because of how small the particles are. But I wouldn't know, because I used NPB's new Glitter A-Peel base coat!!! I am so excited about this product, it's wonderful. I used a birch stick and it peeled well for me, even though I took this off only about an hour after application (onto nail art!). I find that PVA glue requires you to have your mani on for at least a half-day, preferably a full day, before it can be peeled without becoming a sticky, stuck, sticking bloody mess. So, major kudos to Nail Pattern Boldness for knocking this one out of the park.

Polishes used:
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter A-Peel, Inner Beauty is for Amateurs (the link provides excellent swatches, much better than mine!)
Seche Vite (top coat)
random iridescent stars I found... somewhere?


J.