Sweet Baby Octopolish!

About a year ago, Shleee released a polish in my fave color, with my name (almost) right on it... and as with pretty much everything when one has a mountain of untrieds, it sat unloved FAR too long.  indoor, bright CF lighting Michele (which should have 2 L's, ahem) is an absolute ocean dream.  It's a lovely mid-toned aqua just right in the middle of blue and green, loaded up with a holo flake sparkle and a stunning contrast shimmer. outdoor, afternoon sunlight In almost any lighting condition, that contrast shimmer shows as a seriously intense pink flash - few pics show it even halfway accurately, so just dial up the bright pink reflection down the center of my nails by several notches.  This shimmer does shift to a gorgeous green in angled light, which changes up the look of the polish quite a bit, but shows up in these pics only as a flash around the curve of the nail.  indoor, bright CF lighting If this polish looks somewhat familiar, well, it did to me too:...

I've been trying like anything to shop my stash instead of shopping, but wow do plenty of people's swatch photos make that a difficult proposition.  I saw something recently that reminded me of an untried already in my hot little hands, so pulled that out instead of clicking "buy"... indoor, bright CF lighting Briar is a gorgeous jet black jelly filled with what I usually call "ocean" flakies - they shift from cobalt to aqua to emerald, and I even got a hint of purple in there now and then.   outdoor, angled bright sunlight This polish was quite a bit more sheer than I'd expected, and I'm wearing 4 coats to get to the not-quite-opacity you see here.  Though this is very sheer, it applies mostly evenly without obvious streaks - you could sandwich stamping in between the layers easily.   window-filtered direct sunlight Because the jelly base is so sheer, the pinky-neutral of my nail beds shows through, pulling the final color over toward brownish or of...

 I love themed nail art looks, so holidays are a real must-do for me (despite not actually celebrating several of them).  We're still missing out on community fireworks this year, but there's always room for a red, white, and blue mani this time of year, and I can always use an excuse to bust out the fluid art polish. indoor, bright CF lighting Baroness X is the undisputed queen of fluid nail art polishes, going beyond mere basic colors (though she has those too) and adding some unique elements to this technique.  Snow Leopard is a neutral, creamy white that happens to also have some translucent shimmer mixed in. outdoor, bright direct daylight There are tons of youtube videos that show how to create fluid art cells, but here's the short version for those of you that prefer text to video.  First off, select a fluid art polish - this won't work without one - and then pick some contrasting colors to go with it.  More contrasty colors make the cells pop.  In t...

One good Clarins 230/unicorn pee shimmer deserves another, right? outdoor, direct daylight I've worn this particular pale green shimmery confection before , and at that point thought I wouldn't like it solo because of the yellow lean inherent in a bright lime green.  Turns out that the base color was probably amped a good bit with the layers of white stamping, much like painting a white base first to really make neon shades pop. outdoor, shady daylight Without the white base layer, the natural color of my nail beds is instead what this polish builds up off of, and since it's sheer as anything, the end result is a more soft sage green than neon lime.  I'm wearing 4 (!!) coats here, and it's still not opaque at all, but is plenty shimmery and suits me a lot better than perhaps the neon lime did.   outdoor, angled bright daylight At this look, it reminds me a lot of Ethereal Rainforest, with it's vibrant but earthy green base and total lack of opacity.  Both of the...