Sweet Baby Octopolish!

For some reason, I feel the need to be all professional at work this week, and put down the greens and blues for just a sec.  Still, I'm not ready to give up all things interesting (pink crème girl, not so much), so I pulled out Barry M's Dusky Mauve.  I'm a huge fan of things that are two colors at once (duochromes FTW!), and contrasting shimmer polishes certainly fit the bill. indoor CF lighting Dusky Mauve is really more taupe than mauve - it's a cool, dark mushroom crème with a lovely purple shimmer that gives it a plum cast in most lighting. outdoor direct sunlight It's a known dupe for the far pricier Chanel Paradoxical, and Chanel's standard MO is subtle, borderline hidden shimmer.  If the shimmer here were a little more prominent, I'd love it a whole lot more. sunlight Still, when the shimmer is there, ooof.  This one is an edgy modern neutral with a little sneaky something extra, and it feels very chic.  The shine that one la...

The first one was so great, I had to move right on to another of the ILNP multichrome flakies.  My partner picked a blue base and Success to layer over it. indirect sunlight Success is a predominantly kelly green flakie that shifts to shimmery pink on the nail.  In bright lighting, it often looked bronze-gold, probably because these flakes are so metallically shiny, and not because the color actually shifts there. very bright CFL - here's where it looks most metallic In lower light, the shift was more apparent (like duochromes often do), with both green and violet-pink there, and a touch of aqua blue here and there. outdoor, overcast light At some angles, the green was a rich, saturated emerald: indirect bright sunlight And at very steep angles, it hit a violet purple that was nearly impossible to catch on camera (attempts at color correction to make my skin not yellow here were a total disaster, but the color of the purple flash is nonethel...