Sweet Baby Octopolish!

The moment Illyrian's Moon Child showed up, I knew I'd be using it as soon as I felt like a flakie bomb.  Meanwhile, I also realized just how long I'd had We Are the Weirdos, Mister lying around.  An Illyrian double-feature was clearly in order. indoor, CF lighting Moon Child was from a collection Illyrian called Opalescent, and it most certainly is that.  This is a sheer but easily buildable jelly base in a lovely sky blue-aquamarine color, filled to the brim with translucent iridescent flakies.  It'd be a gorgeous topper over any shade of blue or turquoise, but works just fine on its own as well. outdoor, direct sunlight We Are the Weirdos, Mister is a deep eggplant purple with plenty of holo dust - I have this filed as a linear holo, but the way I'm wearing it here, the look is definitely more scattered rainbow sparkle. outdoor, shady overcast daylight This look started with a medium-thickness coat of each polish on all nails.  Once that base l

It's been a while since I played with my fluid art polishes, and I needed something a bit more neutral looking after my last blingy look, so I made some decals and ended up with this: outdoor, bright direct sunlight To create the decals, I used a layer of a chocolate brown shimmer, added plenty of LA Girl Live on Stage  for the bright gold holo sparks, and plenty of dabs of Dance Legend Spot it White to create the foamy cells.  Polish was applied to my silicone nail art mat, and the mat was folded and pressed until I was happy with the patterns that resulted. outdoor, shady daylight The white swirled the other two colors together quite nicely, but really only a few areas of the expected foamy cells ultimately developed.  A fluid nail art pro in one of my fb polish groups recently mentioned that her fluid polishes eventually become less effective (NOOOO!!!!!), so this one may be pooping out  :( indoor, bright CF lighting I really liked this look and got plenty of c

As per usual when I need ideas on a starting point for my nails, I asked the man his opinion.  While he most typically gives me just a color, for some strange reason, he was unusually specific:  white and opalescent with lots of flakies.  *Shrug.*  Ok, here goes. indoor, bright CF lighting The result reminds me of shimmery, spangled disco jumpsuits & flashing lights, so I'm calling this a disco nail art look.  It's fun, but not something I would have come up with on my own, so I just popped my hip and flung the opposite pointer in the air and went with it. window-filtered sunlight I started out with a base of Hard Candy Coconut in hopes that its shimmer might peek through the flake base (lol, nope, it's still just plain white on the nail).  Since clearly more shimmer was needed, I then topped with Baroness X Fox Fires, an iridescent microflakie topcoat, which absolutely amped up the shimmer quotient.  Next, I used some french tip guidelines to mark off curv

After a pair of bold and bright colors, I was in the mind for a more pastel palate cleanser, and a stroll through my shelf of palest purples brought this long neglected bottle to my attention. indoor, bright CF lighting Reverie Lacquer has been retired & gone for well over a year now, but Nightfall made several best of lists the year it came out.  I have it listed as "stone purple" in my spreadsheet, so I know it was always a greyed out lavender, but looking at other folks' swatches around ye olde interwebs, I do believe mine has faded a touch. outdoor, direct bright sunlight Nightfall is a fairly sheer crelly leaning toward jelly base that needed 3 coats for the opacity you see here.  There's a softly sparkling of holo, even more subtle and shimmery than what's typically found in a England's signature finish, and a healthy helping of beautiful aquamarine microflakies. indoor, window-filtered daylight All of my pics here seem color a

After loving the look of the first half of the February Baroness X OGUP/Sisters duo, clearly the second half needed playing with as well. indoor, CF lighting I've started with 2 coats of a recent Shleee mystery polish, The Long Night.  This one is a deeply saturated prussian blue that was about 75% opaque in one coat.  If I was going to use a topper with more coverage (such as that prior magnetic), a single coat would have been enough.  indoor, CF lighting Since the topper I'm using with it is designed to be very sheer and let the base color show through, I'm showing 2 coats of The Long Night and no topcoat here.  The brush and thickness were about perfect, requiring only a little cleanup - a good thing, because like most saturated blues, this does want to stain cuticle skin. indoor, CF lighting On top of The Long Night, I have one thickly dabbed layer of the topper in the BX duo, Estrellaria. window-filtered overcast daylight Much like for Chrom

Baroness X has offered monthly mystery boxes for a couple of years now, with a new theme for each year.  Mysteries aren't usually my thing (because what if I end up with all pink and orange??), but I've certainly picked up some when a hint gets dropped in the fan group that sparks my interest.  The theme for this year is "OGUP/Sister," with a Clarins 230-type polish and a sister shimmer in each box, released every other month.  Because I have an abiding love for all of Demi's 230 polishes, I took the plunge and bought the whole year. indoor, CF lighting BAM!  Right out of the gate, magic.  Chromaphilia is a wine-colored base with shifty shimmer, pink to peach to green magnetic shimmer, holo shards, and some little blue iridescent flakes. indoor, bright CF lighting Chromaphilia is fairly sheer as magnetics go, probably to let all those shifty sparkles and flakes shine through without being masked.  It was suggested to wear in 3 coats solo or as a topper