Sweet Baby Octopolish!

And here's that design I needed a deep purple base for: outdoor, afternoon daylight for all photos On top of my base mani of Glisten & Glow Monster Mash, I've added a 2-step layered plaid design that just happens to perfectly match one of my fave pairs of cool-weather tall socks.   I'm using two of my most workhorse-solid stamping plates here.  The light grey woven-design plaid  is from Hehe 028 (such a great plate that every time I use it I feel the need to check Hehe's store to see if there's anything else I need), then the red accent lines are from Maniology M053 (a plate that everyone needs in their stash, since it's nothing but basic shapes you can use to create any geometric design).  I mattified the whole thing, because  much like last week's autumn leaves, most plaid cloth isn't at all shiny! For a really long time now, I've only occasionally done nail art.  My nails are always done, but with the state of the world I just don't often ...

 With a stamped design planned out, I needed the right base color, and remembered to snap a few photos of this new-to-me polish before layering it under the stamping... indoor, CF lighting for all photos Glisten & Glow is my fave topcoat, hands-down, long-term, but I have a scant few of their polish offerings.  Monster Mash was released with last year's Halloween-themed PPU, and is a deep smoked-amethyst purple loaded with subtly shifting gold microflake shimmer. Monster Mash was nearly opaque on the first coat, and I'm showing two as per usual.  I loved the way this looks - all the shimmer and mystery of OPI First Class Desires or a England Incense Burner , but definitively purple and not near-black.  Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Frankly, I was only looking for just the right purple for my planned mani, then unexpectedly fell absolutely in love.  This color is vampy without being outright goth, very flattering on my skintone, and had a lovely form...

With the re-emergence of some sunshine, it was time for a sparkly linear holo; with my nails down to shorties, a chic dark color was in order. indoor, CF lighting Glisten & Glow released Asteroid Belt as part of the November 2017 Holo Hookup Box, and the deep sapphire/navy with the coppery contrast shimmer had me at 'hello.' outdoor, direct sunlight bright window-filtered daylight In addition to a lovely linear holo arc (more prominent than some of these pics, but not ZOMG in your face), Asteroid Belt has a light scattering of tiny holographic microglitters that come out best in lower lighting. outdoor, shady daylight This was a one-and-a-half coater - not quite opaque in a single swipe, but fairly close.  The formula was smooth and easy to work with, ideal since blues this dark can otherwise be such a pain to scrub out of your cuticles. outdoor, direct sunlight - the most accurate as to *how* holo we're talking about here This wore a littl...