Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 Our book club pick for this month is Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  While typical Chinese images would have been an easy go-to, including any version of the book cover focusing on the titular fan, I wanted to pull out an idea from the story for this look. outdoor, bright sunlight for both One of the motifs in the story is a lavender silk cloth embroidered with clouds that one of the main characters reworks into many different outfits throughout her lifetime.  I started here with a base of OPI Planks a Lot, then added the Chinese-style cloud image from Creative Shop 88 in a navy blue holo.  I filled in the clouds with white while on the stamper head, let them dry for a while, and applied to my nails with a sticky base coat to help the reverse-stamped bits stick down.  Way easier and less clean-up than making decals for everything.   Happy reading! ~Michelle 

 I needed a light lavender/purple base for this week's book club nails project, and decided to wear this oldie from the vault by itself for a  couple days first.  indoor, bright CF lighting OPI released Planks a Lot with their 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean collection, which was all pastel crèmes without a swashbuckling piratical color to be found.  outdoor, bright direct sunlight Sadly, these crèmes are kind of a pain to work with - I thought so when I first got the couple of them I have, and now that I'm loads more confident with polish application, I still think these are pretty imperfect.  The formula is simultaneously a little too watery and also a little too thick, and if you overwork any one spot you'll end up with balding.  Blah.  outdoor, bright direct sunlight Rating:  3 out of 5 stars.  It's a really pretty color that's quite unique in my stash, and it did wear rather well... but this formula isn't for the faint of heart.  Where to buy:  ebay is your b

 The sun is out after some grey days, so it's HOLO TIME! indoor, bright CF lighting Zoya  released Alicia as part of 2016's "Urban Grunge" collection, and up front I gotta say that it made my head spin when the 90s were a trendy fashion thing a couple of years ago.  Side story - it reminded me of the time in high school where my mom made me a super cute 70s trapeze dress for a Halloween costume, using one of the patterns she'd worn herself back in high school.  I'm floored to realize that those faraway 70s are roughly the same distance from the 90s as the now faraway 90s are to today.  Ahem. outdoor, bright direct daylight Alicia can only be named for Ms Silverstone, she who broke big during the aforementioned grunge era, though I don't remember her having anything to do with grunge per se... which then again, this whole collection didn't really scream plaid & combat boots to me. outdoor, shady/overcast daylight Instead of any dark or gungy colors,

Purple was the man's pick for the next color, and soon as he said it I knew what I'd be reaching for... indoor, bright CF lighting When Tonic first released Indiglo, I passed because surely there must be a handful of similar things in my collection, like Prince's Plums or Belinda or any number of the luscious purple-plum-indigo beauties I can't help myself from hoarding. outdoor, bright direct sunlight Enough stunningly beautiful swatches appeared all over the interwebs to convince me, quite rightly as it turns out, that I was dead wrong.  Indiglo is indeed ALL THAT , and while she may be a sister to the other richly saturated, somewhat shifty purples in my stash, she is truly unique. Thank all that's holy for destashes helping you out when you made a wrong decision the first time! indoor, bright CF lighting Indiglo's base is a smooth, lightly sheer, distinctly red-leaning plummy purple that is loaded with a staggeringly beautiful electric blue aurora shimmer.

 After some screaming acid green, it was time for a slightly more girly palate cleanser.  But I'm clinging to the end of summer, so no time for true neutrals! indoor, bright CF lighting Baroness X released her "Ex Libris" collection in 2015, and it still remains one of only a very tiny few collections I own all of.  Each of them is a brightly saturated jelly packed with Clarins 230-type pigment or one of its sisters, plus ultrachrome flakies.   outdoor, afternoon daylight Molino is the red of the collection, a berry-leaning red jelly filled with UP sister gold-to-green shimmer  and lightly sprinkled with chrome microflakies.   indoor, bright CF lighting Because it's a jelly, it needs to be built up a bit... which also means there's a lot of layering possibilities if that's your jam.  As per usual for polishes that look "complete" (as opposed to things which are obviously toppers in clear base), I prefer to do a couple more coats to get to what's

 This holiday weekend, I got together with my book club on the beach to discuss the gonzo novel that is Tim Dorsey's Nuclear Jellyfish, which of course necessitated nails to match the eye-searing cover.   outdoor, bright sunlight for both I've started out here with 3 coats of Vapid La Fae Verte, a polish I originally considered selling, but has since come in quite handy simply because I don't have many of these super bright pretty-ugly greens. I've stamped over the green background using white, light purple, and turquoise - finding a color scheme that would both pop yet not simply look black was tricky, but I think I pulled it off.  HeHe's amazing new Magic stamping plate collection - I've never bought an entire collection, but these are all must-haves - provided the jellyfish and some spare tentacles on plate 03. Happy summer/fall/beachy reading, everyone! ~Michelle 

 Every time I wear an a England polish, I wonder why I haven't bought all of them, even the colors I don't gravitate toward... because the colors I do reach for are always just lovely. outdoor, direct sunlight for both Maxim is a rich, earthy, office-appropriate neutral - it's a deep-toned red somewhere between brick and plum, that should look incredibly flattering and sophisticated on most skin tones.  It's nearly opaque in one medium coat, but any overworking of the first coat starts to patchily lift the polish, so a 2nd thin touch-up coat was needed.  It dries satin-matte, so topcoat is certainly needed to allow that holo shine to blaze forth (though I always wear TC regardless). Whoops, I forgot bottle shots or macros (hey, sometimes life just gets in the way of mere nail polish), but I think these 2 shots cover what you need to know - it's lovely. Rating:  a very nice 4 out of 5 stars.  The flawless formula goes on super smoothly, but wears a little quicker tha