Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Early this year, Baroness X started releasing mystery polishes once per month, each themed on a myth or legend, and each paired with a handful of scented bath or nail care items.  While mysteries aren't my thing in general (I have waaaaayyy too many polishes to risk being sad over getting something dupe-ish), the Baroness herself posts a "hint" in her fan group that's been enough to let me know whether or not i'll want the polish in question. indoor, bright CF lighting Amphitrite was the Monthly Mythical Mystery for April.  Named for the Greek sea goddess, it's a lovely sky-blue crelly scattered with both blue-to-green iridescent flakies and blue-green shimmer. indoor, bright CF lighting This polish went on quite sheer and was a little streaky at first, but built up nicely in 3 coats.  It did need a layer of topcoat to let the shimmer sparkle and to meld those layers, but once topcoated, it had a lovely glassy shine. outdoor, bright sunlight ...

Continuing my musical nails for the week, I went in a totally different direction; since the opposite of goth is cute... indoor, bright CF lighting I've picked up a few of the Hard Candy anniversary re-releases now.  Though I was certainly into polish in my college days, apparently I wasn't hardcore yet because I never would have considered dropping $15 or 20 on a bottle of anything at that time.  The $4 releases at wally world, though, hey, i'll give that a whirl. indoor, window-filtered daylight Coconut is exactly as creamy a white as that name would suggest.  The formula is, to be blunt, crappy: it goes on with a subtly granular appearance in the first coat that had me worried it was going to end up legit lumpy.  3 coats were needed to get this to opacity, and with topcoat, POOF, things were for the most part magically evened out. indoor, CF lighting Coconut has a hot magenta-pink shimmer that's readily apparent in the bottle, yet 100% invisibl...

This week is a live music extravaganza in my area.  I have friends going to a whole list of different shows, and I'm hitting up 2 concerts this week. Crazy!  The interesting unifying thing for all of them is that these acts all had their heydays in the 80s and 90s - turns out me and my crew are too old for Bieber or whatever the kids are into these days, haha! indoor, CF lighting For my first show, I went with SOPI's 212-Sephora.  Originally sold only at the NYC store, this polish is supposed to be reminiscent of neon lights or cigarette ashes sparking on wet asphalt. indoor, bright CF lighting 212 is a black jelly base that's absolutely packed with a rich bronze shimmer (enough that it looks like a blackened bronze at arm's length), then scattered with fire-colored flakies (the ones that shift from gold to orange to red), and lightly dusted with tiny holo microglitters.  It's sheer enough to need 2.5-3 coats, but the formula dries quickly and is very ea...

When ya gotta glitter, ya gotta glitter: Femme Fatale's The Weirding Way. indoor, CF lighting The Weirding Way, part of this year's Dune collection, is more than a little bit of a chameleon.  The jelly base reflects different lighting conditions very differently, so that sometimes it's a brown-tinged wine and others it's a dusty mauve pink. outdoor, indirect daylight Overlying the base color is a scattering of glitters in various sizes, some holographic, and a heavy electric blue shimmer. outdoor, indirect early morning daylight 2 coats were close to opaque, but a partial coat brushed mainly over the tips opaqued the edges nicely.  The formula was fantastic for a glitter, requiring no dabbing at all to get this nicely even glitter spread. outdoor, indirect daylight The blue shimmer was prominent in most all lighting - nothing shy or hidden here!  Glitters stuck up just a little, especially around the edges, but were pretty simple to push back int...

After a polish-making hiatus, NerdLacquer re-opened her web store early this year, and has been periodically stocking new trios without fanfare.  I recently took the plunge and ordered a few from one of the first ladies to make indies be a Big Thing, with my first one being P versus NP. indoor, bright CF lighting P versus NP is named for an unsolved Millennium Prize math problem (oh no, this girl is NOT getting her polish inspiration from junk reality tv!).  It's a greyed taupe, just a touch more warm tan than you'd call a neutral cement grey, with both a linear holo and metallic gold flakies. outdoor, bright sunlight In very bright sunlight, the flakies were masked by a pale gold flash and the delicate sparkling of the linear holo arc, but were otherwise visible the majority of the time, and of course most noticeable in shady light. indirect, window-filtered daylight The formula on this one was slightly thicker and more sticky than ideal, but ultimately...

Somewhere on a FB nail polish group, a nail fanatic said that Literary Lacquers' Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster was quite possibly her fave polish of all time.  Well, that was a strong enough rec for me, so... indoor, bright CF lighting PGGB, named of course for the legendary brain-destroying cocktail in The Hitchhiker's' Guide to the Galaxy , is a lusciously cool tropical-ocean aqua.  It was somewhat sheer, typical for other LLs I've tried, and needed 3 coats for opacity. outdoor, indirect sunlight The extra coat is no trouble, though, since the formula is smooth, thin in a way that makes it easy to control (not runny/watery), and dries quickly.  This is a jelly-type holo, so the sheerness goes with the territory and allows the holo particles to sparkle forth. outdoor, full sunlight PGGB is a linear holo of the sort that is lightly sparkling rather than blinding holo flame, with added tiny iridescent holo microglitter circles.  Even when the light isn...

My first foray into Frenzy Polish has been sitting here unloved for more than a few months, but seeing swatches of something else by her reminded me about the couple of fantastic flakies that I needed to get around to, including Autumn Symphony. indoor, bright CF lighting Autumn has a pretty perfect name:  this isn't the super pale and bright blue of a summer sky, but a heavier cadet blue of cooler weather with a few storm clouds.  Its rich, creamy base is packed with metallic copper and tiny red flakies, just the color of crushed fall leaves. indirect afternoon daylight This was nicely opaque in 2 coats, and was fantastically self-leveling to a lovely glossy smoothness.  One layer of topcoat, and this was nice & glassy.  This is, of course, the type of blue that will cling like a barnacle to your cuticles, so be sure to paint careful and be handy with the clean-up brush. outdoor, direct sunlight The flakes were in no way shy, with a high enough...

Redheads make up only a tiny percentage of the world population (there's a pretty decent book about it if you'd like to trace both the genetics and cultural response to the phenomenon), and as a ginger myself, I'm a sucker for redhead things.  To whoever posted a swatch pic of this one, thanks, you sucked me straight into needing this one! indoor, CF lighting Her Red Hair is a Llarowe exclusive for Nailland Hungary.  The ladies there said they wanted a color that represented all the shades that red hair can be - fiery orange, red, copper gold - but do do so as a duochrome that didn't also shade to purple or green.  I think they've really captured that inspiration here. angled late afternoon sunlight Orange flames, check. outdoor, overcast daylight Scarlet red, edged in bronze and copper, check. outdoor, direct sunlight Cooler, not-quite-berry red with a lovely shine, check. Her Red Hair is duochromatic shimmer of a warm fire color that...