SWATCH SATURDAY: Dandy Nails - Chilled Down

Nothing to Disclose

Hello lovelies! Two posts in one day, totally off the hook over here!

Just a simple swatch this time, because I was in the mood for it. Accent nail is inspired by a photo Vanity Projects posted of a Lexi Martone mani that I LOOOOOVE.

Base is three coats of Chilled Down (could have gotten away with two, but taking photos in a lightbox is very demanding in terms of visible nail line). I love this polish. I love polishes that look speckled, and this one reminds me of a bird's egg. A really awesome bird's egg.

Accent nail was done with Shirin, then acrylic paint in blue and white, plus some 1.5mm rhinestones from Born Pretty.

Polishes used:

Dandy Nails - Chilled Down

Mentality Nail Polish - Shirin (I have been ADDICTED to this polish, lately!)

butter LONDON - Nail Foundation (base coat)

Glisten & Glow - HK Girl (top coat)

acrylic paint

liner brush

1.5mm rhinestones from Born Pretty Store

Any seasonally-appropriate designs you'd like to see me do? I don't much celebrate Christmas so it can be hard for me to come up with nail art for the season. If you have any ideas, send them my way!!

xo,

J.

SWATCH SATURDAY: Forget You

Many moons ago, Deborah Lippmann came out with a glitter topper called Happy Birthday, and it went on to become a nail blogger darling (well, at least the original version; but I think the new version to be prettier). To me, though, while it was nice, it was missing something. It turns out that something was a black jelly base.

Suh-WOON. A rainbow jelly sandwich in a bottle! When I was in high school, I went through a phase of being what I could only describe as a 'glitter goth'. This appeals to exactly that part of me.

For this, I used two coats of Glitter A-Peel, three coats of Forget You, one coat of Glitter Food, and one coat of Seche. In spite of the coats, it isn't very thick. That's because Forget You, in spite of being very glitter-dense (no dabbing needed for this polish!), is suspended in a miraculously smooth, relatively thin jelly base. It was a real pleasure to work with, almost no clean-up required.

Look at all those layers! I love the glitters peeking through the black jelly. SO MUCH.

Polishes used:

Deborah Lippmann - Forget You

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

Seche Vite (top coat)

Still trying to decide what to do for Simple(r) Sunday tomorrow! AAAaaaahh.

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.

SWATCH SATURDAY: Comet Tail

Hello lovelies!

A very quick Swatch Saturday for you today. Having used Still Waters yesterday, I wanted to use its blue sister, Comet Tail.

What I could not capture in my photos is the pinkish flash that Comet Tail has, which makes it look lavender in most direct light. The lavender glow mixes with the red microglitter for an amazing look. Depending on your light source, the polish looks totally different: in this light, it looks blue; it direct light, it looks lavender; in the shade or indoors, it tends to look silver. A very pretty polish. It does dry a bit gritty, so you will need whatever glitter topcoat you typically use. You also want to let it fully dry between coats, as the formula has the same sort of marshmallow thickness as Still Waters.

On my accent finger, I used Full Spectrum. I cannot hope to convince you of what a sparklebomb it is based on these photos-- but it is a full-coverage glitter, a mix of coloured microglitter and super-microglitter in an astonishing pink-to-green duochrome. Zoom this photo to see everything in action:

Polishes used:
Liquid Sky Lacquers - Comet Tail
China Glaze - Full Spectrum (Scrangie's review, as she does a MUCH better job than me)
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri


J.

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.

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.

Swatch Saturday: El Cap

At the request of my friend Megan, who wanted to see more plain swatches from me (in a fit of frustration at nail art, I think), I've decided to institute Swatch Saturday! Every (or almost every) Saturday, I will post photos of a simple manicure, sans nail art.

Today, I have Elevation Polish's El Cap, topped with accent nails of Cirque's XX.

My camera had a heck of a time picking up the true nature of the shimmer in El Cap in the lightbox, and it was a dreary day outside so I couldn't use the sun to my advantage. El Cap is a sort of dark cornflower blue with electric violet shimmer, and is a dream to apply. Anywhere in the following photos where you see a pink/violet shimmer, know that that's what the polish actually looks like in regular lighting.

A couple of close-ups here to show the holographic goodness of XX. These were 1 thick, dabbed-on coat per nail.

Polishes used:
Elevation Polish - El Cap (should be restocked in May)
Cirque - XX
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
Poshé - top coat

I have a simple nail art look for you tomorrow, and then a failwhale extravaganza for Monday, but I hope to give you something awesome to look at on Tuesday, so sit tight!


J.