Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Still in a blue mood, I reached for another duochrome LE - Dollish Polish True Believer. window-filtered overcast daylight True Believer is part of a collab quad with Supernatural Lacquer that had a 90s theme - this one is of course a nod to The X-files.  It's a bright cobalt base with an utterly gorgeous shimmer that shifts from aqua to violet purple, dusted with silver holo flakies. indoor, bright CF lighting The shimmer made this polish a real chameleon, shifting easily in all lighting, and looking different as I walked to different rooms at work or home.  The silver flakes were more prominent and more pretty than what the camera captured, but they did tend to look silver more than holo. window-filtered bright daylight In the bright lights of my mani table, True Believer was opaque at 2 coats.  IRL and in these photos, though, 2 coats left some thinner patches near my cuticle line, so 3 would probably be a better plan for next time. outdoor, ...

Facebook group Multichrome Madness has scored some of the most fantastic group customs, and I was lucky enough to win the Don Deeva trio from November! indoor, bright CF lighting Of the three polishes, Dirty Magic is the least duochromatically shifty, but I'm in a blue mood and this just fit the bill so nicely.  It was described as a very subtle thermal, but even with hot or cold water I couldn't appreciate any color change.  The thermal base meant that this is a lot more sheer than darkly saturated colors usually are - 3 medium-thin coats were needed to get to the opacity you see here. window-filtered overcast daylight Dirty Magic is a charcoal base filled with blackened teal shimmer that shifts at extreme angles to a dark plum, with a dusting of scattered holo, and some extra small microflakies that usually look red against the base color. outdoor, afternoon sunlight While it's not an in-your-face chameleon, this is the sort of polish that looks quite di...

I found myself painting my nails on a weekend day with no other pressing to-do items, so had more time than my usual paint right before bed sort of thing.  The extra time meant I could go right ahead and pull out a neglected magnetic polish. indoor, CF lighting Thunderball is from Dance Legend's collection of magnetics with James Bond-themed names.  This one is a rich navy blue with a sorta chunky heavy gold shimmer that gets pulled into the magnet's stripe. outdoor, bright sunlight Immediately after painting, I had some nice, crisp diagonal stripes evident... but about 3 hours later, they'd tragically melted back into the polish, despite my magnetizing both the 2nd coat and the topcoat for at least 30 seconds each, using a quite strong neodymium magnet.  In very bright light, the stripes remained pretty clear on my nails, but in lower or overcast lighting, they vanished. indoor, window-filtered overcast daylight Now, I consider myself a confident m...

After bright cobalts and blingy New Year's flash, I was ready for a soft, neutral palate cleanser.  I really should get back into the habit of alternating neutrals with bright colors - there's so many lovely autumnal browns and wintry greys languishing in favor of the flashy jewel tones... indoor, bright CF lighting Ever After made quite a stir with Mother of Dragons, originally a color of the month, then thankfully brought back as part of the core collection in her store.  MoD is an absolutely lovely pale grey crelly with a subtle scattered holo effect and tons of ultrachome flakies in the fuschia/bronze and emerald/aqua shifts.   indoor, CF lighting  The website says this is a "soft linear holo" but I really don't get that - tiny twinkling rainbow flashes, yes indeed, but not at all linear.  I'm wearing 2 coats here because I love the opalescent translucence at this stage, but if you'd prefer it opaque 3 will get you there 100%, and will l...

You know that feeling when you're amazed at someone else's pics of a polish, then remember that you have that one too, already at your house ?  Yeah, well, that + the frosty thermal-appropriate weather reminded me to take this one for a spin. indoor, CF lighting, no idea why only my middle finger is cold Don Deeva made Notorious PEE for the Rainbows & Unicorn Pee FB group.  Yeah, i still hate calling the red-to-green shifty shimmer we all love "UP" but, well, one has to speak the proper lingo of any hobby.  Anyway, Notorious is a royal purple to cobalt blue thermal with a light scattering of holo microflake and that 230/Fantasy Fire shimmer poured in. bright sunlight When warm, this is a really pretty BRIGHT blue, and sunlight shows off the holo sparkle best (of course).  When cold, there's a lovely royal purple that lets the UP show best. indoor, bright CF lighting The transition was a bit subtle on me, with my fingers usually being either...

The day after Christmas, my partner and I hopped on a plane to go spend time with family in Colorado through New Year's Eve.  When I go out of town, I never take super special LE polishes, the sort that would be impossible to replace if they got lost out of my luggage.  For the most sparkle-tastic holiday of the year, I wanted to look classy but blingy.  A good stamping plate and some sadly ignored mainstream polishes worked out perfectly! window-filtered overcast daylight First up, for the trip out, I wore Sinful Colors Haute Koffee.  Haute is a luscious, deep, dark, vampy wine with a beautiful shimmer that's utterly hidden by the velvety matte finish.  This is absolutely one of those polishes that you can wear 2 different ways, and would look contrasty enough to be pretty with part of each nail painted in glossy topcoat and part left matte.  I'm wearing 2 coats here, then stamped with a paisley-esque stripe design from Creative Shop 77 using Emily d...