Sweet Baby Octopolish!

The next major item in my life gone hectic list was the annual big conference this week - since I'm known for my nails (ha!), but this is a grownup sort of gig, slightly flashy but tasteful was the plan. indoor, CF lighting After my major love affair with Kaleidoscope/El Corazon (I think that El Corazon is the brand name, and Kaleidoscope is their line of stamping polishes, but I don't read Russian so it's all a guess) Mysterious Mars, I recently jumped at the chance to order all of their multichrome stamping polishes at a discount with a group buy.  A few of them are somewhat sheer and will look very different over different base colors, but the rest are just as opaque and shifty and universally usefully awesome as Mysterious Mars.  outdoor, bright sunlight Egyptian Scarabaeus is predominantly a slightly greenish-tinted gold head on - it's in the realm of OPI Just Spotted the Lizard/Chanel Peridot.  Like those duochromes, it shifts to minty green, then n...

After the summer lingered unseasonably warm for months, a switch has been flipped to super chilly here on the east coast.  It drives me absolutely bonkers to turn the a/c off then the heat on all in the same week, but hey, that also means it's thermal season. indoor, bright CF lighting Fancy Gloss released Captured Butterfly as part of the books theme for this past March's Polish Pickup.  It's a fairly reactive thermal that on me tends to stay on the warm side - this was the kind of polish that was already turning colors as each coat was still drying.  In its cold state, it's a very dark, moody slate teal. outdoor, bright direct sunlight While in the warm state it's an unusual violet purple that drove my camera nutty. outdoor, bright direct sunlight The funky french tip effect was in fine form, and would have been much more dramatic if I'd left my nails a bit longer.  Over both the warm and cool states, Captured Butterfly has a gorgeous bright ...

The life upheaval task that has occupied the most of my brain energy for the past couple of months is car shopping.  My old car has been a trusty steed for the past THIRTEEN YEARS  and over 200,000 miles - I've driven every car I've owned until they are quite dead, so since this one had the good grace to give me plenty of warning, I've been able to really shop around.  There's a spreadsheet of important numbers, everything from money to mpg, including the test drive ratings on the well over a dozen things that actually made the cut for me to take for a spin.  Last week, I found what I really really wanted, and this past weekend I found one with very low mileage and a very good price, and well, obviously my nails need to match. outdoor (obviously), overcast daylight In a stroke of wonderful convenience, it turns out that a color already hanging out in my stash is a near-perfect match for the paint of a 2018 BMW - OPI's lovely pearlescent sapphire Yoga-Ta Ge...

I keep trying to slow my polish roll, since my stash is already dizzyingly large, but every month at least a couple of things from Polish Pickup shout my name.  This one was so fantastic that it was the next thing on my nails as soon as I opened the package. indoor, bright CF lighting September's PPU theme was horror movies, and Cameo came up with They're Here as a nod to Poltergeist - specifically, that spectral blue glow coming out of the TV at the moment it all hits the fan.  It's a medium cobalt blue borderline-jelly formula that's studded with silver and off-black microglitters, holo flake, and oh yeah, that spectral blue glow: in the dark, obviously LOVE IT.  Why do I only have a half dozen glow in the dark polishes?!  My inner 3 year old demands more! Ahem. 2 smooth coats to opacity, this formula was just about as thick as I like to work with before deciding to thin things down.  The glow wasn't as OMG insane as a few other things I...

One of the hectic things I've jammed into my schedule was a long weekend in LA that I've just come back from.  It was amazing, we saw Minke whales out on a harbor trip, had tons of great food, and soaked up the kitch of funky Venice Beach.  The beach getaway definitely called for a super bright and sunny look! indoor, CF lighting I'm wearing a combo of Color Club's blindingly holographic Kismet and Julep's fiery red foil Karmen.  To create the design on my accent nails, I laid down one thick stripe of each color just barely touching onto my silicone mat, then zig-zagged quickly through both stripes using a small tip dotting tool.  Once the decals were dry enough to be peeled up, I painted a single thin coat of Kismet on my middle & ring fingers to stick the decals onto.  indoor, bright CF lighting The end result looked somewhere between blazing sunshine and a candy cane - if I switched to a silver holo or added some green, this would make a super...