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...

When my recently snagged Tonic oops treasures arrived at my house, I just happened to be in need of a new mani, and these were all super pretty.  Oops 30 jumped right to the front of the line. indoor, CF lighting Oops 30 is a sheer sky blue jelly base, loaded with a gold-to-green shifting aurora shimmer, translucent iridescent glitters in 2 sizes, and silver holo flake. outdoor, direct sunlight There's a whole lot going on in this polish, but everything works beautifully together.  Somehow, the shimmer, glitter, and holo all sparkle in harmony (not the same notes but always complimentary), with each taking center stage separately in different lighting but giving way to the other elements with only a slight tilt of the nails.  outdoor, cloudy daylight The sheer base built nicely by the 2nd coat and came to visual opacity by the 3rd.  In most lighting, the shimmer was dense enough that it looks opape IRL, but the camera occasionally "sees through" the...

Tonic just had a oops batch sale - this time, small batches of color studies, prototypes, or just pretty mistakes rather than individual bottles - and to celebrate scoring all 3 of my must-haves, I grabbed another Tonic prototype. indoor, CF lighting  This particular prototype is unmarked with either a batch number or handwritten label, so I'm not at all sure if this is a one-of-a-kind or if there were several of this color made.  window-filtered daylight It's a deep slate blue, slightly green-leaning, but really more grey-leaning, filled to the brim with red-to-green aurora shimmer.  In a lot of lighting, the shimmer is heavy enough to give the polish an overall metallic look, like a beetle's carapace. indoor, bright CF lighting  This was fully opaque after two coats, which I find super unusual for how shimmery it is - typically, polishes with this much sparkle need to be more sheer to prevent the base opacity from drowning the shimmer.  w...

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...