Sweet Baby Octopolish!

In what has now become an annual tradition for the Oscars party, I present the 2019 Best Picture nominees across my nails.  It's an assortment of stamping, freehand painting, decals, and dozens of different paints & products that I'm not going to call out individually here.  One change this year - these are in order of my faves, best to least. On my left hand, index to pinky: 1.  The Favourite (b&w brocade & a rabbit) 2.  Vice (poster from the movie) 3.  BlackkKlansman (a super 'fro and a lawman's star) 4.  A Star is Born (a literal star) On my right, index to pinky: 5.  Roma (b&w sky with a plane overhead) 6.  Black Panther (a literal black panther) 7.  Bohemian Rhapsody (one of the movie posters) 8.  Green Book (a piano) I was especially proud of my freehand painting of the poster from Vice, then less than thrilled with the airplane from Roma.  But the real tragedy of course is Gre...

One good Blush absolutely deserved another, so when I was done with green and the weather turned cold again, I remembered yet another wintry-themed polish name that kept this theme rolling. indoor, bright CF lighting Snow Squall is a Color4Nails store exclusive from Blush Lacquer.  It starts with a crelly-ish concrete grey base, then has a light scattering of iridescent ocean-type flakies, and a boatload of gold-to-green metallic shimmer. window-filtered direct sunlight In any kind of angled light, the shift in the shimmer got super prominent, pulling the whole look toward mossy green a lot of the time.  There's a subtle holo sparkle scattered in here, too.  Snow Squall is "neutral with a twist" where the twist is dialed up to 11. window-filtered direct sunlight, showing the shimmer shift from green to gold to warm bronze If there's anything to complain about, its that with all the shimmer and the opacity of the base color, the flakies that are evide...

Scrolling through my stash, I occasionally find a brand I've picked up a few of, yet worn none of them.  Time to correct that oversight for at least one brand... indoor, CF lighting Just like the bottle shot above shares with you (pictures, 1000 words, etc), Blush released Professional Blogger Extraordinaire as a group custom for the Multichrome Madness folks on fb last year.  While customs are on hiatus for this group lately, they sure came out with some beauties in there, and the duo Blush came up with was right there at the top. outdoor, direct sunlight PBE (because let's be real, that's an unwieldy name) starts out slivery-green in direct light then goes to emerald then royal purple at extreme angles. indoor, CF lighting Yes indeed, it's a Hey Jude type shifter, of which I have many, because it's probably my all-time fave multichrome.  PBE earns a permanent keeper slot, though, because not only is the base a beautiful shift that revs my engines...

I was feeling pretty girly and festive (not my usual MO, that's for sure) for Valentine's day, resulting in red and pink and hearts all around. window-filtered direct sunlight On my thumb, index, and middle fingers, I'm wearing 2 coats of Grace-Full's Blood Countess, a red jelly somewhere between oxblood and scarlet with plenty of ultrachrome flakies.  My ring and pinky fingers have 2 coats of Sinful Colors Glass pink, a princess charming barely pink with super sparkly glass fleck.  I've worn and loved both of these two in the past. window-filtered daylight For the accent nails, I taped off a diagonal and added a generous dab of Blood Countess, then later stamped hearts in Emily de Molly dark pink.  The stark contrast between the red and pale pink was too much for the stamping polish to remain opaque over, so I had to repeat the stamping in another layer. outdoor, overcast daylight Hope your Valentine's day was fun, whether or not you got all g...

A sad-but-truism of polish-land is that though thermals are absolutely the easiest nail art to accomplish (being as how they require zero effort on the wearer's part), the clock is ticking and they'll die at a time you have no control over, somewhere between the cold and warm state.  When the weather is just right for thermals, then (spring and fall, cool rather than cold, works best for me), you gotta bust them out. indoor, bright CF lighting My Indie Polish released the fantastically named and hilariously inspired Shifter's Full as a custom for the Holy Shift thermal lovers fb group back in December of 2017, and I'm happy to report that it still transitions beautifully over a year later. outdoor, shady daylight In the cold state, Shifter is a vibrant aquamarine with a healthy dose of aurora type shifty shimmer that is bright pink when viewed directly, but tilts to gold and a subtle flash of green at angles. indoor, bright CF lighting As it warms up, ...

After something so flashily amazing as Birefringence, a neutral palate cleanser was most definitely called for... and it turns out I had yet another wintry snow-themed polish in my stash. indoor, bright CF lighting I picked up two Rococo polishes in a destash - she had something I really wanted, and picked these up to come along for the ride - despite having never heard of the brand and being unable to find swatches online.  And wow, am I glad I did. indoor, window-filtered daylight Sno Baby Luxe is a white crelly brimming with iridescent microflake shimmer (I think the "luxe" at the end is Rococo's way of designating finish rather than part of the name, but who can be sure?).  I'm wearing 3 coats here plus topcoat, though this dried quite shiny on its own.  Sno Baby was amazingly non-streaky for a white polish, with a borderline too-thin formula that meant that it self-leveled flawlessly and didn't get thick even by that 3rd coat.  There's still s...

The other polish that I immediately thought of when deciding what to revisit was one that I always find myself shocked that I somehow never photographed.  I just know I've worn it at least twice before this, but maybe I'm just imagining things... indoor, CF lighting Once upon a time, Ozotic made duo-and  multichrome polishes that had really pretty shift (according to pics, I don't actually have these myself) but were so sheer that wearing over black was a definite necessity.  Then ILNP burst onto the scene, first with some pretty holos, then with some staggeringly beautiful shifting magic that was opaque on its own, no undies required.  ILNP Birefringence is the absolute mother of all multichromes.  I had a hard time narrowing down all the pics I got, so buckle up, and spoiler alert - all the colors even hinted at in that bottle shot above are absolutely visible on the nail. outdoor, shady and overcast daylight When viewed dead-on, Birefringence is a...