Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 Neon isn't so much my jam.  Eye-searingly bright colors are right up there with oranges and yellows in my "nah, it's cool on you but not on me" list.  And yet...  Cirque's annual Vice Collection of summer neons had a really unique red that had me intrigued.  Plenty of folks reported it leaned rather orangey, so doubly not up my alley, but then someone suggested this as being similarly bright, but leaning more pink than orange, and just woah. window-filtered overcast daylight Orly released Blazing Sunset with their 2018 Summer collection, "Neon Earth," and it is indeed scorchingly neon.  In bright daylight, it's merely bright, but somehow in lower lighting it absolutely glows. indoor, bright CF lighting Blazing Sunset dries down just a touch more saturated than the bottle color, so you end up with a neon coral and not the hot pink the bottle suggests. On swatch stick and while making these decals, it's easily opaque in just 2 coats, and does not ...

 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...

Time to ring in the new year! outdoor, bright direct sunlight for all photos Bee's Knees keeps coming up with fantastic themed mystery bag polishes that are later sold individually if mysteries aren't your thing.  Out of each of these releases, there's at least a few that I just have to grab.  Who the Hell is Bucky?, a part of the Marvel mysteries, is a not-quite-black charcoal base packed with dark red aurora shimmer and a sprinkling of holo flake.  Vampy and glowy, it's ideal for a late night party look. I started with one coat of Bucky on each nail, then made marble decals for my thumb, index, and pinky with Dance Legend Spot It White, Sinful Colors Under 18, and Zoya Alicia along with Bucky.  My Spot It appears to not really be working anymore, but while I didn't get many areas with good foam cells, the marble effect was still very pretty. Festive designs on each hand are 2 perfect coats of Bucky, stamped in Emily de Molly silver holo, using imag...

One of the hectic things I've jammed into my schedule was a long weekend in LA that I've just come back from.  It was amazing, we saw Minke whales out on a harbor trip, had tons of great food, and soaked up the kitch of funky Venice Beach.  The beach getaway definitely called for a super bright and sunny look! indoor, CF lighting I'm wearing a combo of Color Club's blindingly holographic Kismet and Julep's fiery red foil Karmen.  To create the design on my accent nails, I laid down one thick stripe of each color just barely touching onto my silicone mat, then zig-zagged quickly through both stripes using a small tip dotting tool.  Once the decals were dry enough to be peeled up, I painted a single thin coat of Kismet on my middle & ring fingers to stick the decals onto.  indoor, bright CF lighting The end result looked somewhere between blazing sunshine and a candy cane - if I switched to a silver holo or added some green, this would make a super...

I've been mesmerized by a whole bunch of Russian blogger IG videos where drops of contrasting paint swirled into a base color on the nail make amazing marble patterns effortlessly, and because they make it look so easy I figured I could give it a go. indoor, CF lighting While the macro shots highlight a few inconsistencies, at normal viewing length I was super pleased with these, and got tons of compliments. indoor, bright CF lighting Sky is a Walmart exclusive, part of the anniversary re-release polishes that launched there last year. The pretty electric blue shimmer visible in the bottle above is extremely subtle on the nail (even in macro pics this is a creme finish and not a shimmer).   The last time I tried out  one of these HC subtle shimmers, it had a hot mess of a formula.  Conveniently, thinner polishes with a slower dry time are apparently ideal for this kind of drag marbling on the nail technique, so this seemed like a good idea. outdoor, shady/o...