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Sunday, 24 March 2013

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.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Retro Spaceships! (Kind Of.)

I have a fun one for you today! Unfortunately, it is irredeemably cloudy out, so my photos aren't their best, but hopefully it's possible to get the gist of it.

I had this idea in my head as a pure exercise in geometry, but my partner saw them upon completion and announced they looked like old school space capsules. Which is, I guess, kind of true! So I added some dots to the background at the last minute, to resemble stars, and called it a day.

I love this thing.

I started with a base of Cape Liz (3 coats to opacity); lovely formula, unfortunate that I couldn't get a photo that shows its beautiful multi-coloured glass fleck finish. I then sponged Marble on the top halves, and learned the hard way that it is IMPOSSIBLE to clean up this particular polish-- it just disintegrates into a million little sparkles that stick to your skin forever (augh).

I then cut out the shapes in tape and stuck those pieces of tape on my nails, followed by two coats of Euphoria and the swift removal of the tape while the polish was still wet. Lastly, I glued on the little studs, made the little white dots with a small dotting tool, and covered the whole thing in Glitter Food and topcoat.

And a super-overexposed photo to show you the holographic goodness of Euphoria. (It also shows up in the sun, but is too subtle for cloudy conditions.)