Sweet Baby Octopolish!

My current mani happened to be an excellent base for my book club this weekend, and the cover image was just so striking it begged for a nail art interpretation.  indoor, CF lighting for all photos While I didn't want to do an exact copy, the twinkling microflake in Texas Flake would serve well for the stars above the winter tree branches, and the deep taupe was an excellent representation of the nighttime woods. To this twilight background, I've added the ghostly winter trees in a sheer (not stark or opaque) white polish using the bare tree branch at the top left corner of KADS Chinese 021.  I used the same tree image on all my nails, but twisted the stamper as I applied it to make each nail a little different, then used the moon image at the center of the plate as an accent.  As with all KADS plates I've tried, the images are etched very well, and the level of detail is just perfect for designs of this small - not so fine and tiny that you loose lines when lifting the i...

This week was all forecast to be rainy, so time to move on from holos to something that would show well in the lower light... and oh how is this still untried?? indoor, CF lighting Well, I'll tell you - it got skipped for a while because I think I expected something else. Texas Flake was released as a "Bespoke Batch" in August 2016, and I have it filed as being a "charcoal pewter" color, while I remember that the few swatch pics were more purple (limited swatch pics being pretty typical for these prototypes).  I can only assume my disonnect between expectation & reality caused me to set this aside for too long.   outdoor, overcast daylight I was wrong.  Texas flake is neither charcoal nor purple, but a warm raisiny taupe - if you believe that neutral shades can be vampy, this is it.  There's an assortment of microflakes in gold and metallic ultrachrome, and a very delicate scattered holo sparkle. indoor, bright CF lighting The bottle has a wicked case of...

Winter is just absolutely the worst time of year to try and show off a nice nail polish.  When the work day is a lot longer than the day light, you're pretty well stuck with indoor and bottle shots... until a coworker informs you of some amazingly cool celestial phenomenon happening right outside , prompting you to get a nice sunlight photo of your coincidentally celestially-named polish.   outdoor, bright direct sunlight Chasing Northern Lights was Pahlish's contribution to the December 2015 Holo Hookup box (blast from the past, yo!).  It's a cool greenish-leaning bronze linear holographic with a subtly duochromatic contrast shimmer that goes from coppery (center of my pinky) to gold to chartreuse (index finger) at angles.  I'm wearing 2 coats of this smooth perfect formula for complete opacity. Rating:  4 out of 5 stars, this is a lovely edgy neutral color that was very flattering on my skin tone.  The only flaw was that it wore a little quickly, but...

For the past couple years, I've decided on a theme for my nail looks - first it was colorful alternating with neutral, then light alternating with dark last year.  By some small miracle, a long-searched for DISO fell into my lap this week, which caused me to pore through all the far too long unloved polishes in my stash.  BAM!  This is the theme for 2023:  I'll pick a new brand each month, and select from the oldest yet-untrieds I have of that brand.  In shopping my stash, I'll either feel the need to purge or I'll dig up buried treasure! indoor, bright CF lighting for all photos Hooooboy I have been collecting and wearing polish for more than a decade, with some things lying untried for longer than the brand was in business, eek!  Pahlish is thankfully still going strong, and still with really personal and unique inspo for her collections.  Today I'm showing Sleep To Dream, from her 2013 Winter collection.  The name is taken from a Fiona Apple so...

Apparently, I'm still in a blue polish mood, but a little lighter and more springtime than my last look... indoor, bright CF lighting for all photos Lilac Fairy, from Pahlish's 2019 Russian Ballet Collection, is a soft sky blue with a delicate ruby-pink contrasting shimmer. It's a fairly sheer but buildable crelly formula that came up to opacity in 3 smooth and even coats.  This wore nicely and gave me no troubles with application.  Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Equally lovely as a midwinter frosty look or as a springtime change-of-seasons, Lilac Fairy isn't lilac per se but is pretty fairy-esque.  I love contrast shimmers, and this one isn't POW in your face but it is very wearable. Where to buy:  Pahlish usually rotates her collections out within a year or so, and I don't believe you can still buy this direct from her .  Keep an eye out for destashes & blog sales. ~Michelle 

 We've been having some unseasonably temperate weather lately + a recent online discussion about how thermals don't last forever struck me + I needed something suitably cerulean for my latest book club read, and all that added up to me pulling out a previously fave thermal to see if it was still love. indoor, CF lighting Almost exactly 9 years to the day since the first time I wore it, here's another look at Digital Nails Nox.  In the cold state, this is a deep inky violet, which used to transition to a barely-there sheer grey packed with the chunky sparkle that gives this polish its color.   The transition is a lot slower at this point - you can just see that the beds on the unstamped nails are a touch paler - but if it dies in the cold state it's still a gorgeous polish.  In keeping with the theme of the book we read, I've stamped an accent design of a phoenix from KADS Nature 051 in a rich fiery copper. ~Michelle 

I think everyone can agree that the last few years haven't been the greatest, and there's a meme going around lately that says, "Nobody claim 2023 as ‘your year.’ We’re all going to walk in real slow. Be good. Be quiet. Be cautious and respectful. Don’t touch anything,” and WOW do I feel that.  So extra effort and style, heck yes New Year's Eve is my fave, but maybe not dripping in diamonds and gold holo bling, ya know? indoor, bright CF lighting for both I made fluid nail art decals using Dance Legend Robots Vs Humans, a gloriously linear holo in the old-skool style that benefits from an aqua base.  For the cells, I added DL Spot It White, which is quite dead and no longer forming cells but does have a thin consistency that helps cells form up, and Baroness X Glam, a metallic gold sparkly fluid polish that is working perfectly fine.  Interestingly enough, while the cells formed nicely in this look, somehow the white and brown blended mostly together to form a soft moc...