Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 2084 was a lovely neutral that just happened to also make the ideal base for some understated nail art for book club. This month's book club pick was Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, a story about a very human-appearing android.  Since I was already wearing a cool neutral - not quite skin tone - it was an ideal base for this look.  Directly over my existing mani of Femme Fatale 2084, I stamped a sun image rom Dixie Plates Isabel's Reverie using HTB Magna Opus.  The circuitry design uses Moonflower The General and Winstonia W317.  Happy reading! ~Michelle 

For the lighter color this round, I went with a true neutral, Femme Fatale 2084 indoor, bright CF lighting Wow does time fly!  I swear that Femme Fatale released their Total Recall-themed "Welcome to Mars" collection pretty recently, but nope, this beauty is from 2016! outdoor, bright sunlight 2084, named for the year the story takes place, is a cool-leaning taupe filled with a very finely milled metallic magenta shimmer.  It's just a few shades cooler and darker than my own skin tone and would be wholly appropriate in the office or any setting you wanted to look chic and pulled together but very understated. indoor, bright CF lighting I'm wearing 2 smooth coats here, which provided good coverage and complete visual opacity.  While painting, the brush drug obvious grooves through the polish, which completely leveled out even before topcoat. outdoor, shady daylight indoor, bright CF lighting Rating:  a lovely neutral and a collection staple, a solid 3 out of 5 st...

Reflective glitter is the new hotness that's absolutely exploded all over the indie polish scene in the past few months.  I've  been a little hesitant to jump onto this particular wagon because 1) still attempting to work that no-buy and 2)I typically kinda hate glitter removal.  But like the polish nerd I am, I totally caved when I saw one that was just too too gorgeous to pass by... indoor, bright CF lighting Obsessed is about the right word here.  This is an amazingly saturated color that was truly the exact violet center between blue and purple.  It leans more one way or the other depending on indoor vs sunlight, but I am filing this one under blue.  The base is deeply saturated but is a jelly to allow those sparkles to shine forth, so it took 3 coats to get to the opacity you see here.  with flash With flash or with the just right angle of direct sunlight, those bright silvery glitters come alive and throw back as much light as physics allows....

 I wasn't ready to let go of purple, so the next pastel mani is lavender candy hearts for Valentine's Day. all pics indoors, bright CF lighting I've started this look with 3 coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Will They Won't They, a slightly greyed lavender with subtle aqua metallic shimmer. For the adorable hearts, I'm using the utterly fantastic Let's Converse plate from Lantern & Wren.  It has hearts and heart outlines in 2 sizes, and literally dozens of candy heart sayings, ranging from traditional to cute to anti-V-day.  There's even a tiny alphabet in the same font if you want to make up your own sayings, or use someone's name.  Because the detail in this plate is very fine small lines, I did have to make a couple attempts to pick up some of the images, but ultimately each of them worked out great.  I love this plate and probably will continue to use it every year .  Grab yours direct from Lantern & Wren . ~Michelle 

I knew that I wanted my next saturated dark shade to be a purple, and lately I've seen a few swatches of rich, vampy aurora shimmer purples that had me shopping my stash instead of clicking "buy now"... indoor, bright CF lighting UNFFF YASSSSS.  Exactly what I'm looking for. outdoor, bright afternoon daylight Lupercalia was the ancient Roman festival of cleansing, fertility, and wild abandon, so this lushly sensuous purple is absolutely perfect for its name.  A deep royal purple absolutely filled with finely milled red-to-gold aurora shimmer, it most often looks to be a plummy wine. indoor, bright CF lighting I'm wearing 3 coats here for full opacity, and each coat went on smoothly and trouble-free.   outdoor, bright daylight This polish is a stunner in sunlight, and just as beautiful in everyday indoor lighting.  Lupercalia is gorgeous with my skintone, and yet at the same time I think it'd be beautiful on most everyone as long as you enjoy colors this rich a...

This series has been rather fun, ricocheting back and forth from light to dark.  After my last super vampy but not quite black, I rebounded all the way over to iridescent white. all photos indoors with bright CF lighting Shleee Polish has been a huge fave of mine for a couple of years now.  She's absolutely a master at shimmery sparkle that contrasts beautifully (but never clashes) with a different base color, and I keep being lured into her weekly releases though I'm trying my darndest to stick to a no-buy otherwise. Ghostly Snapshot is a barely mint-tinted white crelly base, jam packed with a lovely coarse-milled aurora shimmer that shifts from spring pink in direct light to gold at slight angles, then on over to vibrant metallic spring green at steeper angles.  I'm wearing 3 coats here to bring this to full opacity. I was fairly hard on my hands this week, and the weather is utter crap, so I have only bottle shots indoors and no outdoor sunshine.  Also, these phot...