CrowsToes Bifrost

By -
Now that the big inspection is over (we rocked out), it's time for AS NOT PROFESSIONAL AS POSSIBLE happening on these here nails, and my picks from the rest of CrowsToes' 9 Realms collection (after Huginn & Muninn arrived solo earlier) just showed up!


Bifrost, named for the rainbow bridge that connects Asgard & Midgard, is as rainbow-y as its namesake.  It's tons of microglitter packed into a completely clear base.  It's sheer enough to be used as a layering polish, but builds easily to an opaque look without needing undies.

one coat, indoor CF lighting, no clean-up
At one coat, you can see straight through this - it's only a moderate peppering of itty bitty glittery bits, and the base is totally clear - if you wanted to try this over any other color, it wouldn't change the base shade.  I did a swatch over black, and I don't think it's better, just a different look.

The rest of the pics are all 2 coats, which was enough to look opaque IRL, though the macro pics show gaps between the glitter particles.  The colorful blingy flash kicked out by this stuff visually fills all those gaps to the eye.  At arm's length, Bifrost is pewter-silvery with a whole lot of sparkle:

outdoor, full sunlight
Closer up, the predominant colors are gold and magenta, but there's definitely blue and red in there too.  It reminds me of rainbow sprinkles on cupcakes - totally a fun little party on your fingers.

indirect sunlight
Some of the glitter particles are holographic, kicking off even more rainbows in the sun.

blurry to show the holos, of course
And though it dries to a lightly sandy texture, one thick coat of a good topcoat is all that's necessary for glossy coverage.

indoor office fluorescents
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  I love this stuff.  Flashy and fun, and with interesting layering potential.  This kind of microglitter works really well for gradients or fading french-tip styles, and would compliment as wide a range of colors as what's in the mix here.  Bonus:  this was also experiment part 5 with Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel, and IT ACTUALLY WORKED THIS TIME!!  I painted 2 coats of GAP for the base instead of just one, and painted my nails in the morning before heading out to lunch.  Bifrost looked great with no chips all yesterday, survived some cleaning and washing my hair last night, and was good today throughout a whole work day.  I had one chip after making dinner tonight, and my spidey sense told me that a few other nails were ready to lift, so I attempted removal - MUCH better, easier, bigger peels than before.  Revised verdict - GAP works, but you might need to let it dry literally all day before doing anything "stressful" to your manicure, and you're still getting 2 days optimally (not 3 or 4).

Where to buy:  CrowsToes is sold at Llarowe.

~Michelle

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Topcoat battle! HK Girl VS Pro-FX quick dry!

By -
Image
I'm sure that every polish geek has a half a handful (or plenty more) topcoats - I myself have my go-to quick dry, a thicker one for chunky or unsmooth finishes, some back-up "lesser" quick drys, and a matte.  Having that many, though, honestly means we're all still looking for MORE! For a couple of years now, my holy grail TC has been HK Girl.  I'd been pretty happy with INM Out the Door for a year or so, but HKG dries much faster to a harder (aka more chip-resistant) finish, so I made that switch around the time we started blogging here.  I've never had the love affair with Seche that plenty do - it seems more stinky to me and I get shrinkage often enough to have never bought more after my first 99 cent mini of it.  I've seen a few blog posts mentioned some behemoth from WalMart, and remembered to pick up a bottle when driven to the commercial den of iniquity by a wild goose chase for multichrome notebooks, which brings us to... Topcoat Battle!!!!
Read more

ILNP Masquerade & Comparison

By -
Image
Every time I Love Nail Polish releases another batch of their multichromes, my wallet is going to take a little hit.  Their formula is always great, but the colors .  OMG, I die with these super shifters.  From the most recent release, my first pick was Masquerade.  Ginormously pic-heavy post in 3...2...1... Masquerade is a very sheer charcoal grey base packed with magically light-bending pigment that goes from a rich magenta-wine color, through a lighter pink, then bronze, on its way to a vibrantly saturated emerald green.  It took 3 coats to get it to visible opacity, of the sort where it can look sheer if you hold your fingernails up to the light.  Though it's most often a metallic to slightly brush-strokey chrome, in the sunlight, a sparkly shimmer peeks out. outdoor, bright sunlight The color range can be soft and muted: ok, "muted" for something like this, anyway.  outdoor, overcast/cloudy day It can be mostly wine: outdoor, overcast daylight
Read more

China Glaze Pearl Jammin' + comparison

By -
Image
For my first new mani of this year, I went straight for one that was on so many people's best of 2016 lists, China Glaze Pearl Jammin'.  This lovely lady sold out super quick, and for a while was going for INSANE prices on ebay, but I found one at normal retail price on Amazon. indoor, bright CF lighting for both Pearl Jammin' is a greyed sky-blue base packed with warm coppery shimmer that's thankfully just as beautifully flashy on the nail as it is in the bottle.  The formula is a little squirrely, the sort that's both slightly too thin and yet dries so fast that it gets gummy if you go over the same area twice.   3 coats are needed for even coverage with the sorta thin/sheer formula, but that's the price to pay for having the shimmer this bright, and all minor irregularities smooth out perfectly with a layer of topcoat.  I stamped my accent nails with the cute dreamcatcher image on BM-407 using Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl. Then we promptly had
Read more