Sweet Baby Octopolish!

For my next dark/saturated colored look, I wanted to go with something springtime, or traditionally girly, and reached for a rich wine. indoor, bright CF lighting Pahlish released What Would Carole Baskin Do? as their contribution to the December 2020 "everything's fine" themed PPU.  I never watched 'Tiger King' and certainly DGAF about the drama on that show, but I do love me a rich wine nail polish. outdoor, shady/indirect daylight WWCBD (which certainly wins as one of the most unwieldy names in my collection) is an incredibly saturated dark magenta in direct light, a bit more pink than wine, perhaps, and I honestly wondered why I'd been so keen on this one (not being a connoisseur of pinks). outdoor, bright angled daylight Then I saw that duochromatic shimmer flash in the sunlight and aaaaaaah yes, I remembered exactly why I felt the need to grab this beauty.  indoor, bright CF lighting The shimmer goes from wine to gold to peridot green, giving the overall...

Well, when you do one hand light and the other dark, it throws the whole "alternate each mani between those" plan to the wind, so I decided to reset with a fresh, light color.  indoor, bright CF lighting Arctic Chill was a custom made for Ethereal Lacquer's fan group back in 2020.  It's basically the super bright aurora shimmer that's very much a part of her house style loaded into a delicate aqua-blue base. outdoor, direct sunlight In any degree of sunlight, this is a stunner - super fiery, sparking bronze-red to gold in direct light, and shifting over to green at angles. outdoor, direct sunlight The base is quite sheer, as is evidenced by air bubble easily visible in the bottle shots, and I'm wearing 3 coats to get to the degree of opacity you see here. indoor, bright CF lighting The sheerness means this would would be perfectly effective as a topper over any color that complimented the base color (blues, aquas, greens, and cool-leaning purples). outdoor, di...

A friend called up this week with unexpected good news - they'd bought tickets to see Return of the Jedi with a live orchestra literally years ago, and it was rescheduled for this weekend, and the folks originally going with them now couldn't make it.  But we sure could! all photos indoor, CF lighting I decided to go with a light side & dark side look in black & white.  On my left hand I had the battle for the Death Star... And on my right, our best friends from the series. Images came from Mundo de Unas plates Seducao 11 and Star Wars 2.   May the force be with you! ~Michelle 

It's been a bit rainy & dreary out, and that's the ideal time for a duochrome... and the poor weather meant I had all the time in the world with no plans so plenty of time to play with a magnetic! indoor, bright CF lighting Cirque released their Illusion collection late last year - a whole batch of duochromatic magnetic shimmers, all in a jelly base.  Most magnetics are in thickly opaque bases, so you don't end up with see-thru patches after you've moved the shimmer, but this is an utterly unique look!  I couldn't help myself and bought four of them.  outdooor, bright daylight Paradox is a luscious plum wine jelly that is exactly as sheer as any true jelly - I needed to use 3 coats to get to the color saturation you see here. indoor, bright CF lighting - bottle is magnetized Compare the above shot to the top pic of the bottle to see how much difference the shimmer creates, and to see just how inky-rich Paradox's base is on its own.   outdoor, bright daylight...

 I asked the man's opinion on colors for my pedi this past week, and he suggested emerald green, a fine choice IMO.  I typically bring my own polish to the salon so I can do my nails to match later if I so choose.  A get-together this weekend with the ladies in my book club meant a whole coordinating look was born from jewelry to nails. indoor, bright CF lighting Having recently had such a fantastic experience trying out one of Fancy Gloss Sheers , I reached for the other I'd acquired at the same time, Got Milk, a lovely soft white sheer jelly/crelly., then created the flaming tips with Zoya Logan . outdoor, shady/overcast daylight To get this look, I started with my typical base coat, then painted one thin layer of Got Milk.  Working one nail at a time, I painted a very thick layer of Got Milk, then striped Logan across the tip.  I had a drop of Logan on my nail art mat, which I dipped into with my dotting tool, then dragged upward through the green into the wh...