Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Well, for the duration of Halloween I kind of ditched my alternating light & dark mani looks, but in thinking I should get back to that (and also reminded of all the gorgeous things I have untried by Bee's Knees recent release), I picked up Gravebone. indoor, bright CF lighting Gravebone is one of those extremely accurately named polishes - it's a jelly somewhere between nude and taupe, rather like old, weathered bone, dusted with a sprinkling of aqua-to-purple shifty shimmer. outdoor, bright afternoon daylight It's quite sheer to let that shimmer shine through, though I don't think it'd work as a topper because of the highly unusual base color.  Though some of BK's other "UP" polishes were sold with opaque crème undies, Gravebone was not.  I'm showing 3 coats here, and have even coverage but not opacity. outdoor, bright afternoon daylight In angled lighting, the sparks of unearthly sea green flip over to blue and lavender purple, which pulls t...

Well, did my last look count as "light," cuz this one is most definitely dark?  Nah, not so much.  I guess this means by not leaping back to a more demure or desaturated or neutral or pale color, I'm out of my every-other-mani-switch game?  Look, all I know is that deep violet jelly was calling my name... indoor, bright CF lighting Bee's Knees often creates lovely polishes for important causes, and For Texas supported a charity relief after the 2021 power crisis.  It's the deep violet sister to Shoggoth from the Lovecraft Country collection, and contains the green-to-blue shifting "UP sister" shimmer pigment. window-filtered bright daylight I have this filed with the blue polishes, but the base is a bit of a chameleon - it does hit a deep, cool blue in some light, but is also distinctly purple-leaning in others. outdoor, bright daylight In angled lighting, the sparkly shimmer pigment shifts to blue, bringing the whole look more to the blue side of violet...

Well, my alternating vampy and ethereal nail looks theme was going to get derailed at some point, and what finally did it was an amazing trip this week to the Jersey Shore to see Harlequin Ducks. indoor, bright CF lighting Harlequin Ducks are utterly striking creatures that look like they were done as a graphic designer's masters project.  There's patches of midnight navy, stormcloud blue, and cinnabar, flashed with snips of black and white, all in bold patterns across the whole bird's body.   I've picked out a few of these dramatically graphic designs to make this look - the dot on the side of the head, the layered V of the back of the head, the black & white bar across the shoulder, and the big cinnabar patch on the side.  I picked all crème colors since the design is flashy enough without added sparkle. outdoor, bright daylight For the stormcloud blue on my index & middle finger, I used the perfectly apt Cirque Storm King.  The warm orange-leaning red...

 A couple of years ago, in order to reach into my stash more, I went for a few months alternating a bright/nontraditional polish color with a neutral one.  I think this year (at least for a while) I'm going to try something similar, alternating between a dark polish and a light one. indoor, CF lighting After my black NYE mani, first up in the lighter side is this glowy and soft confection from Bee's Knees Lacquer. outdoor, late afternoon daylight Mora was originally a prototype for Indie Expo Canada, then became a gift with purchase during a sale event.  When a free polish arrives at your house that's both green and aurora-shifty, you are winning at life! outdoor, shady daylight Mora is a very sheer jade green jelly that is packed with a very fine-milled aurora shimmer that appears as a glowy shine in low light, a bright sparkly ruddy gold in brighter light, and shifts to minty green at angles. outdoor, angled afternoon daylight Mora is quite sheer - I'm showing 3 coats...

 When ya got time to paint and are ready to deal with the precision needed to make magnetics work... indoor, bright CF lighting I'm just gonna say:  HOT DAMN. outdoor, bright sunlight Bee's Knees released the magic that is Losing My Mind (srsly, mind is lost, just wwooowwww) as part of the album covers theme with March 2019 PPU.  This will obviously be a pic-heavy post, both because this polish has a lot going on, and because it's just too pretty for me to cut back the photos.  indoor, bright CF lighting To start with, this polish is quite sheer to let all these gorgeously shimmery elements shine forth, so I've layered 2 coats of it over a single coat of a piano black crème.  In the bottle, LMM is a dusty plummy purple full of iridescent flakies, with flashes of red and gold.  But when you magnetize it... indoor, CF lighting And THERE'S where the magic is revealed.  Losing My Mind is a black base filled to the brim with everyone's favorite Clarins 230 ...

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...

 It's my birthday month, so I decided a celebratory look toward hopeful stars was in order. indoor, CF lighting Bee's Knees released The White Witch as part of an Outlander-themed Fandom Flakies box for March 2019.  It's a lovely barely-ivory (not stark white) filled with aurora shimmer and flakies that shift red to gold to green. window-filtered daylight I'm wearing 3 thin coats here, which was enough for complete opacity.  The aurora shimmer warmed up the ivory base another couple of degrees, with an overall look of pearlescent shell. indoor, bright CF lighting outdoor, bright direct sunlight For the stamped design, I'm using a few cute Pisces images and tiny stars from Mundo de Unas SF Zodiac plate, in MoYou London Midnight Green. window-filtered daylight indoor, CF lighting Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  In the right lighting, this is gloriously sparkly... while in low lighting it's a soft, office-appropriate neutral.  White nail polish often has the unfor...

 Bees Knee's Lacquer has planned a gorgeous collection based on The Nevernight Chronicles for her holiday/BF release, and I just won my absolute fave of this batch in her fan group giveaway (kermit flail)!!!!!!!!!!!! indoor, CF lighting DEAD.  Obviously, this treasure jumped straight on my nails the moment it arrived, as it's 100% in my wheelhouse of polish love.  Let me count the ways:   outdoor, bright afternoon sunlight 1.  A luscious emerald green base 2.  Loaded in gorgeous "UP sister" contrast shimmer 3.  That is shifty as anything into aquas and blues, so all my fave colors at once.   outdoor, bright sunlight OH YES check out that shift, at which point it transforms from a sparkling emerald to a storm-tossed ocean.  Am I over the top here?  Heck yes, no shame. indoor, bright CF lighting I'm showing Lady of Storms at 3 coats, plus my usual topcoat.  This polish is sheer enough to allow the flashy shimmer to twinkle t...