DIGIT-AL DOZEN WEEK: Monochrome Teal Floral

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies!

Today's venture into photography land was, as you can tell, far more successful.

I had three teal polishes stacked side by side and had zero idea what to do with them. So, true to form, I did a floral. (There is no going wrong with a floral.)

I began with two thicker coats of Willow, which is stunning in every way, and then painted on random blobs of Still Waters for the petals and 1977 for the leaves. I then used Ski Teal We Drop to outline everything, deliberately going for a sketchier/messier look.

These are my second favourite look of the week! I am, of course, saving the best for last. >:)

Polishes used:

Arcane Lacquer - Willow

Liquid Sky Lacquer - Still Waters (LAST CALL! GO BUY IT NOW!)

la couleur couture - 1977

OPI - Ski Teal We Drop

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

medium detail brush

tiny detail brush

I've got something kind of similar on the docket for tomorrow, so I hope to see you then!!

xo,

J.

CHECK OUT WHAT THE OTHER TALENTED LADIES OF THE DIGIT-AL DOZEN ARE UP TO:

Pahlish Polishes! [Pic Heavy]

Press Sample

Hello lovelies!

I have a special post today: Shannon over at Pahlish sent me a couple polishes to review, and they are both absolutely stunning. I'm going to bombard you with pictures and words now. Okay, go!

First up we have Fevers and Mirrors. This is a deep, vampy jelly base that perfectly skirts the burgundy/wine-purple divide, with gold tiny circles, tiny fuchsia holo hex, teeny gold squares, teeny pink holo squares, itty bitty holo hexes, and flake shimmer in gold and (I think) red. Phew!

Lo! A wild cinderella hand appears!

Shown are two generous coats of polish, one thin coat of Glitter Food, and one thin coat of 2013. I would recommend three thinner coats instead of two thicker ones... except... I found that this polish dried super fast. Insanely fast. This is very much a 'get it right in three strokes or move on' kind of polish. Which is excellent for those of us on the run! And sort of iffy for those of us, like me, who are secretly incompetent at painting our nails.

My lightbox would not cooperate with this one. It kept making the base come out way darker than it is. I've taken a flash photo (below) to show you the real colour of the polish: 

And, of course, lightboxes are where holo (and all other sparkliness) goes to die. So you'll have to trust me on the fact that the sparkle comin' off this polish is wonderfully robust, even with the dark jelly base.

Next up we have my favourite of the two, Greenery and Humid Air! This is a beautiful deep teal coloured jelly base with what looks to be glass fleck in blue-purple, green-gold, and pink. But in reality I think this polish is made of magic. You really need to own this one, trust me.

'Greenery' made me think of leaves, so I opted to paint some fall leaves on this one. Because it's so chock full of the shiny goodness, I didn't have to worry about covering up any of its beauty. :)

Again, this is two generous coats, with one thin coat of Glitter Food, and one thin coat of 2013. The Glitter Food was likely unnecessary. As with Fevers and Mirrors, this polish dried wicked fast. You'll need to move quick, but again, it's worth it.

I'm bummed because my photos look solely teal, when I promise promise promise you that there is a whole heck of a lot more going on with this polish. Here is a post over at Pointless Cafe that gives you a slightly better idea.

Here, I took this weirdly-coloured photo under direct light in hopes that it shows the multi-colour goodness a bit better. Please to be zooming in:

Polishes used:

Pahlish - Fevers and Mirrors (I'm told this is available through the Big Cartel store but I don't see it; it may be currently out of stock), Greenery and Humid Air

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter A-Peel (base coat), Glitter Food

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

acrylic paint

detail brush

And there we have it! Both of these shades are standalone shades, and should be available, as mentioned, through Pahlish's BigCartel store. While both are stunning, I really can't say enough good things about Greenery and Humid Air-- it needs to be seen in person to be truly appreciated. Pahlish make a ton of beautiful polishes, and I do recommend you check them out. :) 

Working on some nail art today, hope to have it for you tomorrow!

xo,

J.

Bubbles!

Nothing to Disclose

Hello my lovelies!

GUESS WHAT.

You didn't guess. I can tell.

Fiiiiine.

This is my 100th post! I have survived 100 posts! You have survived 100 of my posts! We should drink to this. I'll go get us some wine. I hope you like sauvignon blanc, because I hate champagne.

Kanpai!

Much better. Okay, onto business! I've gotta catch up on my Follow the Devil ABC Challenge prompts, I've been away for a whole three weekends! First up: B, for bubbles.

I cannot lie, I sort of hate these. I mean, the base polish is two beautiful, amazing coats of Teal Another Tail, the polish with which I'm convinced KBShimmer is going to take over the world. Words alone cannot express this polish. If you are in the States, hie thee to the KBShimmer store. If you are in the rest of the world, stalk Harlow & Co for the next restock. You need this in your life.

But then I failed at making nice bubbles (like, I kind of just can't do them??), and stuck some pearls on it for good measure. So now it's gaudy and weird. The little seashell, though, I really like. I got it from The Nail Room, which stocks a small assortment of Japanese nail art supplies right now-- I'm hoping their stock will keep growing, because I will not hide my lusting after some of the creations of Japanese nail artists like @hana4 and @oshimanails (who runs The Nail Room) and @nailsalonavarice. It's so hard to find their dainty supplies, though, and I don't speak Japanese... so yeah... hurrah for The Nail Room!

The pearls are kind of driving me nuts. I'm touching them now and their roundness is getting to me.

Zoom the above picture, you must, just bask in the glass fleck beauty of this polish, just do it!

Polishes used:

KBShimmer - Teal Another Tail

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

white acrylic paint

pearls from Born Pretty Store

seashells from The Nail Room

nail glue

Colour blocking for you tomorrow, denim for you on Sunday, and I should be all caught up! Hooray!

~*~*~*~*~* SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT TIIIIME *~*~*~*~*~

I have been invited to join The Digit-al Dozen! You'll notice I've put a page up at the top of my blog; it leads to a listing of all the other talented ladies who form part of this beautiful, charming group. Go check out their work, would ya? And I'll have themed nails for you starting October 14th! :D 

xo,

J.

PS: I'm still a mucus machine, in case you were at all curious.

Teal Paisley

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! Tonight I have for you a look I posted to my Instagram last night, but posted so late that I wasn't able to get a post up.

I did twin nails with @amylovesnewwave over on Instagram and we opted for teal paisley print in honour of Teal Nails for Scleroderma, an awareness-building campaign that sheds light on scleroderma, a disease that affects the skin and several organs and for which there is no cure.

You can see our mutual attempts by clicking here.

This was a lot of fun to do, actually. I used a base of Jacqueline, with shapes in Tracie and Anna Maria. The gold embellishments is all acrylic paint.

Polishes used:

Zoya - Jacqueline, Tracie

Contrary Polish - Anna Maria

gold acrylic paint

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

Are there any causes very close to your heart that you've tied into your hobbies before?

And a (rather late) happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! I hope you've all had an excellent day. :)

xo,

J.

Aqueous

Nothing to Disclose

Good evening, lovelies! Another Tryst Lacquers custom polish for you today: Aqueous.

To show this beauty off, I decided on another skittlette. (I'm planning on something more oomph-ish for tomorrow, thus inverting the posting order I have established. Yay?)

All fingers started with a base of 4 coats of Aqueous. This sounds like a lot, but it went on very smooth and thin-- it's a true jelly, to let all the shimmer types through. If many layers annoy you, putting it on top of something like OPI's Ski Teal We Drop would be an excellent alternative. It leans a bit more green than the photos are showing, making it a perfect deep teal. My middle and ring fingers have a simple water marble done with White On and Nail Envy, and my pinkie has two coats of Trash Glam (because it is Quo by Orly, it is as far as I can tell a dead-on dupe for Orly's Sparkling Garbage, but maybe a bit denser glitter-wise). I focussed the above photo on my index so that the blurred out pinkie could hint at the holo goodness of Trash Glam. It's a party in a bottle, that one.

The above helps to show you the complexity of the base polish, but I wasn't satisfied. Oh no. Kimberly took my vision for a water polish and knocked it straight out of the park, so I decided that the world needed MACROS. Here's Aqueous in lightbox compact fluorescent lighting (this one is pretty well colour accurate) and indirect natural lighting:

If you aren't ready to pounce, you may have a fever-- please consult a doctor. But in all seriousness, like with all of my custom Tryst creations, I've allowed Kimberly to sell this baby to anybody who wants it, so if you're drooling, fire her off a note!

Polishes used:

Tryst Lacquers - Aqueous (custom)

OPI - Nail Envy (clear, for water marbling)

Sally Hansen - White On

Quo by Orly - Trash Glam

la couleur couture - 2013 (top coat)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Until tomorrow, my lovelies!

xo,

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.