Sweet Baby Octopolish!

My book club's recent pick was Madeline Miller's utterly fantastic Circe.  The dramatic cover illustration immediately suggested some matching nail art. The bold black and bronze stylized design is of course very reminiscent of ancient greek pottery, so my stamping design matches the color scheme and theme of the book cover, using a few elements from the story.  Femme Fatale Defiled in Gold provided the perfect base, somewhere between bronze and copper, in 2 easy coats.  My left hand has a portrait of the witch herself from MoYou London Artist 26, plus a 3 headed hydra from Xiuya 22 (a knockoff of MYL's greek mythology series).  My right hand has the minotaur from that same plate, and the greek keys and waves came from Xiuya 20. The book is fantastic, highly recommended! ~Michelle

I was going out this Friday with the work crew, and ended up doing stamping designs for everyone... so my stamping game had to be done and sharp before getting to the party! indoor, bright CF lighting Hard Candy exploded on the scene back in the day when a celebrity wore Sky, a creamy sky blue, on late-night tv.  When they released their anniversary collection of back-in-the-day faves a few years ago, this therefore had to be one of my picks.  outdoor, direct sunlight Despite the pale pastel, only 2 coats are necessary for utter opacity.  The first coat goes on a little thicker than ideal, with visibly obvious streakiness.  The second coat perfectly levels everything out, though, and the end result is an overall "plumper" look than I usually go for on my nails, but with ultimately flawless coverage. indoor, CF lighting Within Sky's crème formula hides a bright, finely milled, electric blue shimmer that shows nicely on the sides of the bottle (above)...

I've been in a hell of a funk lately, and when I asked the man re: color suggestions, he casually tossed out that I never do a classic french mani look.  Well, there's a reason for that:  my polish buddies have referred to the classical white-tipped  french mani/pedis as "stripper nails" in a years-long running in-joke.  On top of that, I'm convinced it looks pretty dated in a vague late-90s sort of way.  But as a concept, the two tone look is something I can certainly work with. outdoor, shady & overcast daylight I started with 2 very thin coats of Esmaltes da Kelly black soap bubbles - a sheer black jelly polish ideal for leadlighting-type nail art.  It ended up a little bit more streaky/uneven than ideal, but any more layers would have darkened it up enough to ruin the dramatic contrast. outdoor, overcast daylight I've stamped using MoYou London Frenchy 17 (a whole collection dedicated to thwarting the stripper nail stigma!), first with ...

Not to get too depressing, but life has been more than a little sucky lately, including some bad news about my small dog.  Bright colors weren't working for me, but painting it black and getting swamped in my sadness wasn't going to help either... indoor, CF lighting Charcoal grey with a nice rainbow was just what the Dr ordered.  In addition to the linear holo, Enchanted Polish Spiderwebs also has a scattering of lilac pink micro flakies.  outdoor, direct bright sunlight Spiderwebs is easily a one-coater, with a formula that well tolerated being brushed back over.  I'm showing 2 here out of habit (and because I'm convinced that two always wears better than 1), but this may well be opaque enough to stamp with, if you like dual-purpose polishes. outdoor, bright sunlight For my accent nails, I used BP silver stamping polish and paw prints from OS-03. indoor, bright CF lighting Rating:  a very solid 4 out of 5 stars.  I got tipwear quic...

Bee's Knees has been releasing mystery bags monthly that contain a real treasure trove of beauties hidden behind the surprise. Since I had enough time to work with a magnetic polish, I was itchy to try out some of these gorgeous things, prompted by everyone else's swatch pics in the fan group on fb. indoor, bright CF lighting YASSS.  Bee's Knees Not Today is a lovely deep blue jam packed with both 'ocean' flakies that shift blue-aqua-green, but plenty of really vibrant multichromatic magnetic shimmer.  There's a whole lot going on here, so this post is very picture heavy. outdoor, bright sunlight When swiping the brush against the bottle neck, it looked a little sheer to my eyes, so I decided to layer it over an opaque blue base to prevent any bald spots.  In the end, I don't think the single coat of Cult Time Traveler was 100% necessary, but heads up that these pics show Not Today with undies. outdoor, shady and overcast daylight Over my b...

When I was thinking out loud about what color I wanted to use for my next mani, the man came up with a very elaborate plan involving multiple colors to represent sky, grass, and plants, with a bee flying in between them.  "Bees!" I said, "I can work with that." outdoor, shade I started with a base of the same sparkly white crelly that underlied my July 4th design, then added 2 layers of a very old TOMA thermal that's died in a soft honey-gold shade.  It's quite sheer at this point, with just a suggestion of shimmer, but was utterly perfect for this look.  Hot tip from a nail fiend with too much polish: dead thermals and stuff with crappy formulas work great for nail art experiments! outdoor, shade Next, all nails got a honeycomb design from BM-422 in Hit The Bottle Espresso Martini.  My accent nails are the utterly perfect bee design from BM-S241, an Edgar Allen Poe themed Halloween Plate, stamped in black and filled in on the stamper, then place...

While July 4th was pretty well rained out here, the sun came out and the bbq was on for this weekend, so my holiday themed nails kept flying the whole weekend. outdoor, direct sunlight After starting with a white shimmer base, I realized that just wasn't going to cut it, and topped with a single layer of Glitter Gal Light as a Feather.  By itself, that polish comes out just a bit grey as spectraflair in white base usually does, but over top of the white shimmer it absolutely appeared to be a true white linear holo.  Sweet!  I then used some long straight triangles from Maniology's new M053 in CBL Addicts Blue Me Away and UberChic Realm of Erotica - wow was this easier, more precise, and quicker drying than attempting to freehand the same design would have been!  Finally, I added a star from XXL-03 in Tonic Black Friday.  indoor, CF lighting In the end, I think I got a little bit more Texas than Old Glory, but hey, I'm all good with that, too. ~Mich...

When prompted to pick a color for my next mani, the man went with red, specifying a "rosy" sort of shade.  Well, one can only do so many linear holos in a row, and this was a lovely change. indoor, CF lighting Dulcinea is a polish that utterly mystifies me.  I swear that when I hold the bottle up to angled light, I get that tell-tale emerald green flash of a Clarins 230 type polish... and yet, there is approximately none of that on the nail.  I do get a lovely dusting of gold at angles though, so who knows? outdoor, afternoon sunlight This polish is almost every shade of red you'd want all in one bottle, so it's a good choice if you can't pick from among all your reds.  It's a subtle duochrome, shifting from a more cool rosy pinkish-red on over to a warm brick red, hitting true candy apple right in the middle. outdoor, direct sunlight I'm showing 2 easy coats here, and had no problems with application.  The current Tonic brust is just a s...