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.

St. Patrick's Day Nail Art: Nyan Pot-O'-Gold!

I had ZERO inspiration for St. Paddy's Day nail art until I was lying half-awake in bed this morning. And of all things to find inspiring, an outdated meme is a weird one. I probably ate too much sunomono last night (noooo, not possible!).

May I present: Nyan Pot-O'-Gold.

I dunno guys, it seemed appropriate.

I started with a base of Passport Blue, which I coated with my 20-grade Spectraflair topcoat to give it some pizzazz (yeah, I used 'pizzazz', deal with it). I then used white acrylic paint to draw the 'shadow' of the rainbow and the pot of gold. The blacks/greys are also acrylic paint, as are the little star details. The gold is nail polish, as are all the colours of the rainbow.

I tried to make the rainbow segments shorter at the end to denote them 'fading away' (kind of), but it didn't work.

On my thumb, I kept it simple with two (amazingly easy, gorgeous) coats of Liquid Leprechaun (HOW PERFECT?!). It was smoothed out with one coat of Poshé pretty well-- I'm noticing just the tiniest bit of texture now, about an hour later, so it's probably a 2-coater, which is excellent considering how much glitter it packs.

And I leave you with this purposefully blurry double-shot to show you the sparkly goodness of the Spectraflair topcoat and Liquid Leprechaun:

Polishes used (rainbow colours are in italics):
American Apparel - Passport Blue
Indigo Bananas - Spectraflair topcoat (20-grade)
Quo by Orly - Filthy Rich
Nails Inc. - St. James
Essie - Action
Revlon Top Speed - Electric
American Apparel - Crescent Heights
GOSH - Blue Balloon
Zoya - Mira
Pretty Serious - Liquid Leprechaun
OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat)
Poshé (top coat)
Black & white acrylic paint

Set in Lacquer has a contest going for St. Patrick's Day nail art, so I'm thinking I will submit this there. I can't expect it'd win (good grief, it's a riff on Nyan Cat, let's be serious), but it can't hurt to try to branch out and meet new people!


J.

Subtle Springtime Fishtail Manicure

It isn't spring yet. Not quite yet. But the week of the 18th, it'll warm up a bit! And then we'll enter Slush Season, which is the precursor to Spring! (I will admit, I am not fond of spring. I'm fond of early summer. Spring is more of an exercise in mud, defrosted dog poo, dead lawns, half-decomposed leaves, garbage everywhere, and potholes that can blow your tires.)

That aside, I thought a muted appreciation of the soon-to-be change in season was in order.

Na naaaaah!

For this manicure, I used the fishtail manicure technique, as devised (or at least perfected) by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails. I love this look on square or squoval nails; the combination of straight and curved lines is very aesthetically appealing. It's also pretty straightforward to do-- check out her video tutorial-- so, a laid-back manicure with visual punch!

I started with a base of Jacqueline, which is a polish that is a strange mix of thick and streaky. BUT it's also gorgeous, and worth the effort. I might thin it for next time; in general, though, leaving time between coats should avoid cuticle drag. I then painted on two coats of The Way I Am, which is stunning and I think I'll need to buy the full size of it (I only have the mini right now). After that, I painted on two coats of Hellebore, which is perfect for this use because it's very glitter-dense, so it gives major impact without having to goop it on. I chose to pair these two greens because they're fraternal twins! The Way I Am is the introvert and Hellebore is the extravert; both are greens with fuschia accents. (It's hard to see the pinkish sparks in Hellebore from my photos, but trust me, they're there). I then topped it with Glitter Food to smooth out the layers, then topcoat, and done!

And now, because I took a butt-load of photos, I will leave you with all of them! Think of new spring grass and itty bitty wildflowers. :)

And I leave you with this cell phone picture; I found that the reduced quality / slight blurriness helped to better show the sparkle smorgasbord that is Hellebore.

I think I'm going to try a Real Life Floral next! Lucy's Stash has me all fired up about it (though I am nowhere near her skill level, holy moly). We'll see!

Polishes used:
Zoya - Jacqueline
Contrary Polish - The Way I Am
Cirque - Hellebore
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
New York Color - Grand Central Station (top coat)

J.

Guest Post by Kate!

Today I have a special guest: Kate! Kate and I painted her nails this evening. Here's what she has to say about it:

Sparkles and a heart!

"My favourite colour is pink. I like sparkles and I try to make them pop out on my nails, so I like it when it has a background to it. I also like little sequins, and making little scenes out of them, like connecting the dots. I like polka dots, that's why I like sparkles on my nails, because they're like little dots."

Both hands together!

And a close-up!

Kate and her adorable nubbins may well show up sometime in the future as well. We will see. ;)

Polishes used:
Piggy Paints - Pocketful of Posies
Happy Hands - Motherboy
Some unnamed Ardene polish (pink/blue shimmer on accent fingers)
Orly - Hottie (heart detail)
New York Color - Grand Central Station (top coat)

J.