Sweet Baby Octopolish!

 We've been having some unseasonably temperate weather lately + a recent online discussion about how thermals don't last forever struck me + I needed something suitably cerulean for my latest book club read, and all that added up to me pulling out a previously fave thermal to see if it was still love. indoor, CF lighting Almost exactly 9 years to the day since the first time I wore it, here's another look at Digital Nails Nox.  In the cold state, this is a deep inky violet, which used to transition to a barely-there sheer grey packed with the chunky sparkle that gives this polish its color.   The transition is a lot slower at this point - you can just see that the beds on the unstamped nails are a touch paler - but if it dies in the cold state it's still a gorgeous polish.  In keeping with the theme of the book we read, I've stamped an accent design of a phoenix from KADS Nature 051 in a rich fiery copper. ~Michelle 

Life has been less than kind lately, with bad news coming left and right.  I pulled out an old fave that I last wore before my pic-taking and blogging days for a little comforting peace. outdoors, overcast daylight Sweet baby octopus do I miss Digital Nails!  I don't believe she's released anything new in the past couple of years, and her social media is silent, which is a real shame considering the level of nerd creativity + gorgeous polish she made.  Digital released I'm a Survivor back in 2013 as a charity fundraiser for Alex's Lemonade Stand, and I loved it then and I love it now. window-filtered bright sunlight Survivor is a lush eggplant purple jelly utterly packed with golden flakies.  I'm showing 3 coats here, with each coat building up the saturation of the eggplant purple jelly base and the density & opacity of the flakies.  Unusually and uniquely in my stash, these flakies appear translucent at the first coat, very thin and flexible, b...

It's getting to that time of the year where I'd better get one last hurrah out of my holos before driving to and from work only happens in the dark... Obliviate was originally from Digital Nails' 2013 Harry Potter spells collection, and like  Nox, from the same batch, , this one is a big winner. indoor, bright CF lighting Obliviate is the sort of holo that's in a rather sheer jelly-type base, the better to let the holo sparkle shimmer out of.  For some reasons, this sort of finish rarely looks greyed out by the holo particles, and like others of this type I've tried before, it's very easy to work with and flawlessly self-leveling, so the 3 coats to opacity aren't a problem at all. outdoor, direct late afternoon daylight window-filtered daylight.  <3 that glassy shine! As a fun added bonus, this is also a duochrome along a similar color shift as ILNP's Green Goblin, or Cover Girl's Emerald Blaze .  For the most part, Obliviate iis...

Other than the  awesomeness that is Pale Blue Dots , my next pick from Digital's scientists collection was the thermal Bitch, Plesiosaur: indoor CF lighting Bitch, Plesiosaur wins for having one of the best polish names ever, and in Raph's words, "is a nod to Marry Anning, and play on words which gives acknowledgement to my reaction of a patriarchal dominated field in her time, and still today." It's a golden nude (warm) to warm brown (cold) shimmer, packed with matte white glitter in a few sizes/shapes. outdoor, direct sunlight The cool shade is a rich, opaque chocolate that leans ever so slightly to mahogany - i.e., it's got just a touch of red in the brown. At all times through the color shift, there's a lovely golden shimmer visible, that sometimes flashes just a little green.  I'm also rather a fan of how well the glitter matches, warm or cool. indoor, office fluorescents The shimmers & glitters don't need bright ...

Recently, Digital Nails released a collection based on scientists (!!!!).  I immediately leapt on the Carl Sagan one, for it being awesome twice over. Pale Blue Dots is named for  a quote by Sagan describing a photo of Earth taken by Voyager .  It was a gorgeous sentiment when he said it, and this stuff gorgeously captures galaxy nails in a bottle. indirect sunlight It's a deep sapphire blue jelly that was nice at one coat and absolutely devastating at two, packed with pale blue dot glitter in a couple of sizes.  Digital has been making some single-color chunky holo glitter polishes lately, and she's mixed the gold version into this one for a little more star dust punch. indirect sunlight Wow.  Just...  wow.  When I opened my DN mail package, I immediately took off what was on my fingers to go put this on.  Do not swatch, do not catalog, forget all about passing go, just paint.  The rainbow flashes were easily visible in my k...

Apparently, it was  thermals for both of us this week .  I have Digital Nails Nox here, and it's my new fave thermal. no special tricks - this was how my nails looked most of the time Nox was part of a recent Harry Potter spells collection, each of which has a little "something" extra (thermals, holos, etc).  The color transition really hit the sweet spot of temperature shift for me, since I've had the fun french-tip effect pretty frequently with this one. after dunking in cold water to get the spectrum of colors all at once check out the color shift in the bottle When room temperature or cold, it's a rich midnight sapphire blue that shifts to a pale icy blue when warm.  It's packed with duochrome sparkle that shifts from electric blue to reddish purple, and the interaction between the sparkle and the temperature means that my nails were different colors all the time. With a tilt, the sparkle went from blue to red-purple. Occasiona...