Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 Funny how these alternating manis sometimes end up truly the opposite of each other! indoor, bright CF lighting for all For my last round of Enchanted Polish deep-diving, I went with the very holiday themed Pre-lit Opal Tree, originally released as part of the 2016 holiday collection.  It's a deep Christmas tree green jelly filled with a light scattering of holo sparkle and iridescent glitters in small hexes and tiny bits. The formula was a touch thick, and became completely opaque in just 2 coats.  No fishing for glitter was necessary, but wow was there way more glitter on the sides of the bottle than visible on the nail - the texture left on the nail said otherwise, and I think that's because the glitters are iridescent, so easily covered by the moderately opaque polish or seen through.  I frankly may have liked the look better if I had an iridescent glitter topper over a pine green crème or holo. Rating:  a solid 3 out of 5 stars, this is a quite nice holida...

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...

A fave brand's upcoming collection includes an utterly gorgeous, rich, deep violet, jam-packed with "ocean" flakies, and I just have to... wait a sec, I'm sure I've bought this before... indoor, bright CF lighting KB shimmer released the gorgeous Ready For This Jelly as an exclusive for PolishCon 2016.  It's a deep, saturated, bottom-of-the-sea violet packed with the "ocean" type iridescent flakies that shift aqua to blue to green.  outdoor, shady/overcast daylight This polish went on like a dream in 3 perfectly smooth coats, giving me zero problems with the brush or formula.   indoor, bright CF lighting Interestingly enough, this polish starts out purple and very sheer on the first coat, yet somehow builds to looking violet and if anything leans slightly more blue than purple.  I've no idea how it leans cooler-toned with each coat, but the end result is stunning and looks just as vibrant as the bottle.  outdoor, shady/overcast daylight If the lu...

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...

 Our most recent book club pick was Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan, a memoir about surfing and life.  Though the subject didn't appeal to me at first (neither nonfiction in general nor autobiographies in specific are my cuppa), the book is genuinely fantastic, and I wanted to pull out the stops for our meet-up.  And it occurred to me I had a plate for that... outdoor, bright daylight for both I've started here with 2 coats of Fancy Gloss Lace, a soft pink that she sells as a "sheer" and we can certainly debate whether this is jelly vs crelly.  In any case, you'd need perhaps 4 coats for opacity, which is not actually what it's for IMO.  This polish is absolutely the best ever "my nails but better" shade at just a couple coats.  The sheerness keeps it neutral to the point I think it'd provide an utterly perfect clean nail art base on any skin tone. KADS Nature 011 is a square plate with 4 images of waves crashing in 3 layers, which means you ...

 For several years running, I've gone all-out for the Oscars, and this remains my fave event of the year.  This year, though, the show was sandwiched in between a lovely long vacation and a bunch of work shenanigans, and I just wasn't feeling up to putting in the hours of effort that look needs.   window-filtered daylight Voila!  A fun and colorful look that let me get my art on but went together more cohesively than the usual Oscars look. I wanted to celebrate the diversity in this year's slate, since the acting choices and the international films were my absolute faves this year.  I've started with a flat white crème base, then layered a few random swipes of 2 jelly colors on each nail to create a watercolor rainbow effect.  I've topped it all with a filmstrip image from my trusty XXL-4 plate. In 2015, both Essie and OPI released a collection of sheer jellies for layering, and an assortment of these easily make up a rainbow with the addition of an or...

 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...

Wanting something a little more low-key for this New Year's Eve, skipping out on a look stamped with celebration, I picked something that would have the fireworks embedded within. indoor, bright CF lighting Dragon Glass was Cuticula's offering in the August '21 "elements" PPU.  It's a black jelly packed with iridescent jewel-toned flakies, giving a very 'black opal' look. bright daylight To let those flakies shine brightly out of such a darkly colored base, this polish is sheer - much more so than I was expecting, in fact.  I have plenty of other flakie polishes with richly saturated bases, so it didn't occur to me that using it as a topper was the way to go, and I'm showing 3 and a half coats here. indoor, bright CF lighting In bright lighting indoors or out, the sheerness overlying my skin tone meant that this polish looked charcoal-grey or a warm-leaning off-black rather than true deep dark BLACK black. outdoor, shaded daylight In low light,...