Sweet Baby Octopolish!

For the 2nd year now, I've dressed up for a friend's oscar party by getting each best picture nominee on a nail in one way or another.  I've used a crazy assortment of stamping plates, a little bit of freehand, and about 20 polishes, so it's all too much to call out individually, but here you go! And the nominees are... On my left hand: Thumb is the google earth image that played a key part in Lion Index is the baseball hanging from a tree branch in Fences Middle is a rocket ship on top of numbers & equation symbols for Hidden Figures Ring is a face on aqua, wine, and purple as a nod to the poster for Moonlight Pinky is a couple embracing after singing in the rain a la La La Land And on my right: Thumb is some strips of film (only 9 best pics this year) Index is the front of a boat sailing through the ocean for Manchester by the Sea Middle is some of the Heptapod language from Arrival (my clear fave for both movie and how this nail turned o...

I absolutely love Paraiba Tourmaline - that electric tropical paradise color is simply amazing - so of Cirque's recent collection based on gemstones, Paraiba was my immediate must-have. indoor, bright CF lighing Paraiba is exactly what it should be: a gorgeously bright, caribbean ocean water aqua jelly, packed with absolutely tons of fine holographic silver flake. outdoor, direct bright sunlight The formula was absolute perfection, with the ideal thickness that stays just where you put it and building to perfectly wearable opacity in 2 coats.  This is the kind of green pigment that likes to cling to dry cuticle skin, so the need for minimal clean-up was appreciated indeed.  The flakies lie down completely smooth, giving Paraiba a gorgeous, encapsulated-in-glass look after a single layer of topcoat (necessary, since it dries just a little satin). shady morning daylight.  UNF DAT SHINE. This type of holo flake reminds me a lot of the finish of some of a En...

One of my FB nail polish groups alerted me to the Starlight & Sparkles Etsy store, where plenty of shifting shimmer offerings are to be had (including, yes, the Clarins 230-type).  She's selling in 3 different types of shimmer, each offered in 3 bases: clear base for use as a topper, jelly tinted base to either wear solo or as a topper, and tinted jelly with linear holo.  All 3 of the colored base polishes came home with me ASAP. indoor, bright CF lighting Dragon Scales is a very teal-leaning green jelly absolutely packed with a sparkly shimmer that's bright metallic gold dead-on that shifts up to bronze then emerald then blue. outdoor, bright sunlight When the shimmer is in its golden phase, the overall look of the polish is much warmer, sometimes approaching mossy green: bright sunlight for both And when it's in the green phase, it's a cooler, jewel-toned brilliant emerald: bright sunlight And then that blue shift, YASSSS: more with...

A super quick holiday post:  I was struck a couple of days ago for the undeniable need for some adorableness (maybe it was the goth black & skulls previously??), and lit on the idea of candy hearts on my nails. The red background is of course the ever-flawless a England Perceval, the hearts are freehand, and the utterly authentic conversation heart sayings are from Bundle Monster 425.  <3 ~Michelle

One good red deserves another? indoor, CF lighting You know when it's all wintry and overcast and you're longing for a seasonal vampy dark shade?  Shleee My Roanoke Nightmare covers that quite nicely. indoor, bright CF lighting Roanoke is a black crelly holding a bunch of bright scarlet red ultra tiny microglitters along with a shimmer that's equally scarlet dead-on, but then shifts to bronze and then (OMG!) green at steep angles. indoor, bright CF lighting It's about impossible to get the "real" Clarins 230-type shimmer, but some uses of this aurora pigment shimmer get just about close enough!  I'm wearing 2 smooth coats here, with a nice shine, opacity, and formula all in one.  The red shimmer in black reminds me a whoooole lot of RBL Black Russian, and I've certainly bought more than one polish in an attempt to quiet that wish, and honestly I don't need it as of right HERE. window-filtered daylight To accentuate the red i...

We went out this weekend for dim sum with a big batch of folks, with lunar new year as an excuse to get together with loads of food and good times.  Obviously, this called for flaming red nails, but the man also said, "you need a chicken for year of the rooster."  Where the hell in all my plates am I going to find a chicken ?? indoor, bright CF lighting SuperChic promises all of her ultra  holos to be one coat wonders that stamp like champs.  This claim is utterly 100% true as far as the lusciously berry-red Realm of Erotica goes.  One coat, great formula of the perfect thickness, DONE.  And a good thing that cleanup is only minimally needed, because this is the kind of red that stains the crap out of cuticle skin.  Paint careful, kids! window-filtered daylight It's a cooler-toned red with a lovely berry-tinted glow to it, that's utterly classic bombshell. window-filtered shady daylight And yeah, there actually was a chicken on the ot...

Oh humongous polish stash, what else hides untried in this pile that I've forgotten about for over a year??? indoor, bright CF lighting There is Your Treasure was a November 2015 Hella Holo Customs polish. this one named for a Paulo Coelho quote (as all Literary Lacquers are named after bits of books).  It's a gorgeous blue somewhere between periwinkle and violet, with a soft magenta-pink flash and a scattered holo shimmer. outdoor, afternoon sunlight sparking that pink indoor, bright CF lighting  The formula was dead perfect, requiring almost no clean-up, going on thin and smooth and self-leveling.  It's a little sheer like all LL polishes tend to be, so 3 coats were needed for this color intensity and opacity, but each coat dries quickly so it's NBD. outdoor, as bright sunlight as February is gonna give me It's got a pretty holo sparkle, not quite linear, in bright light, but it's one of those that's still perfectly lovely even in unf...