Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Suzy had the marvelous idea to get the heck out of dodge for the Thanksgiving holiday and let someone else do the dishes, so we just spent a week in sunny Puerto Rico! indoor, bright CF lighting Now, I don't have a whole post worth of pics, because I was too busy being on vacation (don't hate, just bask in remembered sunshine with me).  BUT this one pic right here tells you pretty much everything you need to know.  Pretty Serious is becoming my go-to vacation nail polish:  it's gorgeous, it wears great, touch-ups if needed are no biggie because the formula is so nice to work with, and if something happens to the bottle I can grab more in her store later (i.e., this isn't LE). outdoor, cloudy sunlight shining down on a very old fort in old San Juan Khepri's Amulet is from Kaz' amazing "Museum of Naileontology" series, where she's captured the look and color of some very old, very hard to find polishes - in this case, Street Wear Hippy Di...

The weather has been a little shifty lately (cool outside and the heaters kicking on inside), AND my nails are of a length to make it work, so it's thermal time! indoor, bright CF lighting I think Whirlpool came home to me as part of last year's black friday shenanigans...but yeah, my pile of untrieds is so huge I can't keep em straight.  In any case, Doctor Lacquer had a whole collection of thermals that are the almost-clear to smoky-off-black sort, each with a different duochromatic shimmer added in, and this was my pick from that set to try out the brand. indoor, bright CF lighting Whirlpool has a similar shift to CrowsToes Season of the Witch, a pretty emerald green head-on that tilts to a lovely plummy purple at angles. indoor, CF lighting The color shift is most obvious on the cool state of a dark background (rather like layering any duochrome over a black undie to make it pop), but the clear-ish warm state gives an ethereal glowy pearl look that...

Well, this week has been depressing as hell.  I needed something more cheerful than black mourning ASAP, and damn if some NerdLacquer didn't fit the bill. indoor, bright CF lighting Holy Grail is a soft, watery aqua with that little touch of grey that makes it wonderfully wearable for me with no lobster hand shenanigans.  It's packed with silver holo hexes in at least 3 sizes: window-filtered morning daylight It's got a sparkly scattered holo finish beyond what the glitter sparks in bright sunlight: outdoor, direct sunlight And if that's not enough to make your inner 3-year-old smile, it glows in the dark to boot: in the dark, obviously.  after holding to a bright light for a sec to get max glow power. Holy Grail goes on in 2 painless coats, with no need for glitter fishing or placement.  It looks thick and the GITD pigment looks kinda sandy in macro pics, but none of that was an issue IRL.  Obviously, a Nerd glitter is gonna need ...

The recent Chicago Polish-Con was a big deal to the indie polish world, and though I couldn't go, several makers offered their exclusives after the event - sweet!  Not very long after Great Lakes Lacquer sent me Leaves in the Lake it was time to take it for a test drive. indoor, bright CF lighting Leaves is a rich navy blue jelly absolutely crammed full of gorgeously shifty ultrachrome flakes, with the final effect looking exactly how it's named.  The first coat went on smoothly enough that if you wanted to try it as a topper over other blues, it should work fine. indoor, window-filtered daylight I've paired Leaves here with Hits Boca Seca from the "Gio Antonelli Senescoes" collection.  Not at all sure how this rich mahogany copper equates to a dry mouth (the name's translation), but damn, Hits made some nice polishes and I wish there was still a stockist that carried them. indoor, window-filtered daylight Boca Seca is nearly a one-coater, wi...

Well, now that Halloween is over and I'm back at work and those loooong talons I had going on were cutting into gloves at work, I filed back down to everyday length, which is both more practical (no more surprise scratches for my poor partner!) and way less fun (less stamping space, boo!).  Oh well.  But!  Not time at all to abandon fall vampy colors, so when the man picked purple, I reached for Illyrian Dream Hopper. indoor, CF lighting A pic like this first one is what made me swoon over Dream Hopper.  It's a luscious eggplant purple filled with an emerald-to-magenta duochrome shimmer.  230/Fantasy Fire-type shimmers are the opposite of this one, which is green head-on and pink in angled light.  Buuuuuuttttt... reality was a whole lot closer to this 2nd pic instead: indoor, bright CF lighting Still purple, still a pretty color, but IRL the shimmer is only super prominent and super shifty in just the right light.  I kind of get a surprise ...

And finally, for actual Halloween, I got around to using one of last year's HHC True Blood LEs, Anonymous Lacquer's Vampire Barbie. indoor, bright CF lighting A true red holo has been one of the harder colors to find - "red" holos tend to lean more orangey or flame-colored.  Vampire Barbie manages to be exactly the color it should be:  actual red, with the tiniest touch of brown to bring it over to BLOOD red and not candy-apple.  It's a gorgeous color that went on quite sheer at first, needing 3 coats to be completely opaque. outdoor, bright sunlight I stamped some Dia del Muertos skulls using El Corazon white and BundleMonster's BM-413 for my last Halloween design this year. Rating:  a solid 3 out of 5 stars, Vampire Barbie had a fabulous color, but was a little too thin for my taste and showed edgewear pretty quickly.  Maybe I just wasn't feeling red, IDK, but this one is definitely worth coming back to. Where to buy:  join the HHC fb gr...