Sweet Baby Octopolish!

The very first  polish that came to mind when I decided I was going to revisit older things I'd never blogged/photographed before was Butter London Two Fingered Salute.  I swooned over this when The PolishAholic (sweet baby octopus I miss her blog and perfect pics!!) said it was an all-time fave, and yet it was distinctly underwhelming on me.  Definitely time for a reload! indoor, bright CF lighting Two Fingered Salute, an exclusive for Nordstrom from way back in 2012, is an earthy crelly somewhere between aqua and green, utterly jam packed full of shimmering copper microflake. outdoor, direct sunlight The microflake flashes between metallic copper and metallic pink - I never could decide if it was duochromatic or if there were two different types of shimmer, but it's a fun effect regardless.  If this was a more saturated aqua color in this shade, I'd end up with lobster hands for sure, but the earthy mutedness that makes this look dead-on for copper verdigris m

This week is cold and snowy AF, so while winter designs are thematically appropriate this time of the year, I'm kinda suffering and can't reasonably reach for snowflake stamping plates and stuff like that.  When searching through my spreadsheet for other worn but not photographed/blogged polishes for this here reload series, though, I did find the most impossibly appropriately named pair ever. indoor, CF lighting ILNP released Absolute Zero as a gift with purchase if you bought a certain number of their 2013 Fall collection polishes, and Winter was from a 2016 winter trio, and those are the frostiest polish names I have bar none. window-filtered bright afternoon sunlight Winter is a slightly greyed white - the closest I have in my stash to a "true" white linear holographic, this phenomenon being notoriously difficult for makers to achieve since holo pigment is itself grey.  Ultimately, I feel that stark whites have an unfortunate resemblance to whiteout, w

A serious fave of mine, a England Saint George didn't get to shine boldly in my last mani, and while it was out on my table I decided it very much deserved it's own moment.  I've paired it with another aE scattered holo gem, Princess Sabra. indoor, bright CF lighting Saint George is a very deep, super saturated teal that leans just a hair more to the green side than the blue.  Princess Sabra (aka Tristam Eyes, named for the maker's cat) is a warm, antique gold.  Both have that gorgeously unique aE scattered holo finish that's not at all greyed out in lower lighting, but shimmers with a rainbow sheen in bright sunlight. window-filtered bright afternoon sunlight outdoor, bright winter sunlight Princess Sabra absolutely needs the two coats shown here to get the depth of the color in the bottle.  Saint George is fine in one somewhat thicker coat, though I'm wearing two here.  Both have utterly perfect formulas and utterly perfect brushes that minimi

Alright, we definitely have a theme going on here while my shorties grow out!  It's all back from the vault polishes that I've worn before but hadn't photographed/blogged!  I'll pull out some faves to see if they're still champs years later, and I'll give a second chance to ones I bounced off of the first time.  Also on the new year/new tries theme, my lovely partner bought me a new camera!  It's very likely going to take a while to get used to the settings and options, but the macro capability on this one is rated as far superior.  If that weren't enough, my phone finally crapped out, and my upgrade has a **much** better camera.  Long & short:  all pics from here out get a big upgrade! indoor, bright CF lighting First up, the gloriously luscious royal purple that is a England Avalon.  I bought and first tried out this beauty not long after it came out, and was instantly smitten with the amazing formula of Adina's polishes.  One thick coat

My short little nails demanded flashy sparkles, but I'm thinking while growing them out I might pass on swatching/trying new polishes lest my annoyance with shorties taint my opinions.  I pulled an old fave out of the vault, and used it with a new magnet. indoor, CF lighting Sinful Colors released Polar Opposites back in 2012, the first time magnetic polish was cool, and I'm super glad to be back on that train.  It's an almost gunmetal silver with a subtle scattering of electric blue sparks unmagnetized, and it's easily opaque in 1-2 coats (no base undies needed, as typical for the older magnetics but less common of late).  It was sold with a starburst-design magnet that works really well with this polish, but is a bit too big for tiny nails, so I tried out my flower magnet pen. indoor, CF lighting indoor, bright CF lighting This handy little magnetic pen is available at a bunch of nail supply stores for typically about $2.  One end has a straight row of

I wore La Boheme just a few days out of the envelope it shipped in, and filing the bottle away with her closest sisters reminded me of a polish or two I'd once hoped were lemming killers for that red, as well as just being curious as to how close all these were.  Red isn't my typical jam, so the fact that I had a handful of similar things just begged a comparison for sanity's sake.  Also, the sun peeked out for the first time in days , so why not run around my neighborhood like a loon chasing those rays while fanning a handful of plastic bits? indoor, CF lighting From left to right in all pics throughout, we have (links are to my full pics & reviews of each): Ninja Polish Divinity   Baroness X Magma Colors by Llarowe P-47 OPI La Boheme First things first, absolutely none of these are dupes.  They don't look identical in the bottle, merely in the same ballpark, so I'm using swatch sticks here to show subtle differences.  My swatch sticks are always

Clarins 230-type shifty shimmer polishes are of course some of my all-time faves, and OPI La Boheme has been one of my lemmings for quite some time now.  An ebay alert a couple of weeks ago informed me that a new listing had gone up for $20 cheaper than I've seen it in years, and hey, you only live once soooo... indoor, CF lighting Wait, what just happened here?!  Yep, those nails are SHORT.  While stepping into my bathroom to get some remover so I could start this here very mani, I cracked a fingernail off into the edge of the door frame.  It had the good graces to snap off very neatly and squarely at the base of my free edge, but there was no way I could do anything other than cut the rest down to match.  Sigh.  So, here we are, starting back over at squared nubs for 2019.  Huzzah! indoor, CF lighting La Boheme is part of one of the most truly amazing holiday collections of all time, OPI's 2003 Holiday on Broadway.  It's a deep red that changes from slightly b