Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 The man picked "purple" when I was stumped for a color, but I was feeling very pastel instead of vampy and this little gem fit my mood just right. indoor, bright CF lighting Ethereal has a certain aesthetic she sticks to most of the time, and this polish falls right within that type - it is indeed ethereal, cool-toned and sheer, with enough sparkles for a faery queen. outdoor, shady/overcast daylight This particular example starts with a softly sheer lavender base - I file polishes by color, and this one is with other lavender purples - that is absolutely filled to the brim with a duochromatic shimmer that's a metallic light aqua in direct light, then shifts to a lavender almost the same color as the base at angles. outdoor, bright angled sunlight Added to the sparkle factor, this proto has a very finely milled linear holo that's beautiful in bright light and fully hidden by the contrast shimmer in lower light. indoor, bright CF lighting You can see a bit of VNL in s...

One good Clarins 230/unicorn pee shimmer deserves another, right? outdoor, direct daylight I've worn this particular pale green shimmery confection before , and at that point thought I wouldn't like it solo because of the yellow lean inherent in a bright lime green.  Turns out that the base color was probably amped a good bit with the layers of white stamping, much like painting a white base first to really make neon shades pop. outdoor, shady daylight Without the white base layer, the natural color of my nail beds is instead what this polish builds up off of, and since it's sheer as anything, the end result is a more soft sage green than neon lime.  I'm wearing 4 (!!) coats here, and it's still not opaque at all, but is plenty shimmery and suits me a lot better than perhaps the neon lime did.   outdoor, angled bright daylight At this look, it reminds me a lot of Ethereal Rainforest, with it's vibrant but earthy green base and total lack of opacity.  Both of the...

My last of this month's nail art challenge prompts was "frogs."  There was a gorgeous manicure posted for PPU a few months ago that had me purchasing both the beautiful lime green stamping polish and the plate with the cute frog design, and I considered just remaking the same one, but then found another untried polish that needed love. indoor, bright CF lighting At last year's Tonic prototype sale, I'd received a pretty multichrome that I swapped for this bright lime green UP proto.  It's unlabeled with number or working title, and just has the gold unicorn face sticker that she used to label the ones with that Clarins 230 type shimmer. outdoor, sunlight This proto is a sheer jelly polish with plenty of sparkle.  Noticing how sheer it was inspired me to use it like an old-skool jelly for a pond mani.  The idea behind these is that you sandwich a dot or shape in white polish between layers of the jelly, where they highlight the translucency as the c...

After a couple of deep, saturated jewel tones and while I was pondering what to wear next, the man suggested silver.  A-ha, an untried Femme Fatale sample was filed under silver! indoor, bright CF lighting Femme Fatale occasionally (once or twice per year) releases samples that were prototypes, studies, or things that just never fit into a collection.  I have a handful of gorgeous one of a kind polishes from these sample sales, and always grab another 2 or 3 when the opportunity comes up.  window-filtered overcast daylight Geralt is sample number 82 from the June 2017 sale.  It's a warm tarnished silver with bronze contrast shimmer, linear holo, and the teeny holo glitters that are signature Femme Fatale.  The quantity of bronze shimmer meant that this often read like old gold or even light brown, especially since once I put it on all the glorious sunshine we had evaporated into rainy overcast for days. window-filtered overcast daylight The for...

Mystery polishes aren't so much my jam - I have a bajillion untrieds to get through, and when your collection gets to a certain size, you really give everything a critical eye as to whether you already have something similar.  When Tonic announced earlier this year that she was cleaning out the closet of a bunch of prototypes, though, I bought everything I could. indoor, CF lighting This is an easy fave of the prototypes I received - a deep charcoal grey based linear holo with a gorgeous red to bronze to green metallic multichrome. outdoor, indirect daylight Unlike a few others I recieved, this prototype has no number or other marking.  I'm not completely sure what final polish it was an in-process study for - it's not quite Witchy Woman or Ninja Pumpkin, and I'm well aware those two aren't anything alike, but I think this is somewhere in between.  outdoor, indirect/overcast daylight This polish is shifty as all get-out, going from a deep scarlet i...

Femme Fatale makes a number of polishes with slightly or significantly more chunky holo glitters, and with the recent bout of all sun all the time, I was definitely feeling some holo.  The fact that I was feeling like also dealing with glitter, though, is quite unusual and not to be passed up (far too many pretty bottles of glitter sit unloved around here because I don't want to hassle with the removal).  Perusing my stash, I discovered an untried sample and a glitterbomb, both with equally nautical names, so surely meant to be together. indoor, CF lighting Sound of the Sea, as the bottle says right there, was a part of a sample sale from July 2016.  Femme Fatale releases batches of samples periodically, not on any particular schedule, and each of the bottles is a completely unique one of a kind study that may or may not have been developed further to make it into a regular collection.  This one "feels" to me like it'd fit in with the color palette of the Birt...

Once or twice per year, Femme Fatale announces a sample sale.  This used to be a battle royale situation, with everyone in the fan group trying to shout "first" on a photo of the one you wanted, but recently Sophie has instead taken to selling them as sight-unseen mysteries where you only select the color family.  So far, I'm still super pleased with the ones that I've gotten. indoor, bright CF lighting The Dark Star is perfectly named - vampy and dark, yet brightly twinkling in little flashes.  This is a deep wine colored jelly dusted in tiny bronze holographic microglitters and overlaid with a turquoise blue shimmer.  I have several blue-in-bruise polishes, and this is a fave color combo of mine. window-filtered daylight The different elements here mean this is one of those polishes that has something lovely going on for it in all sorts of lighting conditions.  In lower light, the bronze glitters flash out of the vampy base, while in brighter light...

My massive love for Femme Fatale is absolutely no secret at all.  There's always at least one in each new collection I need to snap up, and I honestly can't say that about any other maker, indie or mainstream.  Once or twice per year, she runs a sample sale, where prototypes and sketches are sold to the pack of wolves (we are not slow about gobbling them all up), and you need to be quick with the clicking to have enough luck to score one or two.  For luck with the sample sale was this week, I finally brought out the one single solitary sample I snagged last year, Shockwave. indoor, bright CF lighting Buckle up, this will be the most pic-heavy post ever, since this is literally the only bottle ever, and I full-on SWOONED over it. outdoor, direct sunlight Shockwave is a total chameleon that presses all my buttons.  The slate-teal base color is jam-packed with reddish-fuchsia and holo microglitters, some duochromatic shimmer, and Clarins 230/Fantasy Fire shi...