Sweet Baby Octopolish!

My current mani happened to be an excellent base for my book club this weekend, and the cover image was just so striking it begged for a nail art interpretation.  indoor, CF lighting for all photos While I didn't want to do an exact copy, the twinkling microflake in Texas Flake would serve well for the stars above the winter tree branches, and the deep taupe was an excellent representation of the nighttime woods. To this twilight background, I've added the ghostly winter trees in a sheer (not stark or opaque) white polish using the bare tree branch at the top left corner of KADS Chinese 021.  I used the same tree image on all my nails, but twisted the stamper as I applied it to make each nail a little different, then used the moon image at the center of the plate as an accent.  As with all KADS plates I've tried, the images are etched very well, and the level of detail is just perfect for designs of this small - not so fine and tiny that you loose lines when lifting the i...

 Our most recent book club pick was Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan, a memoir about surfing and life.  Though the subject didn't appeal to me at first (neither nonfiction in general nor autobiographies in specific are my cuppa), the book is genuinely fantastic, and I wanted to pull out the stops for our meet-up.  And it occurred to me I had a plate for that... outdoor, bright daylight for both I've started here with 2 coats of Fancy Gloss Lace, a soft pink that she sells as a "sheer" and we can certainly debate whether this is jelly vs crelly.  In any case, you'd need perhaps 4 coats for opacity, which is not actually what it's for IMO.  This polish is absolutely the best ever "my nails but better" shade at just a couple coats.  The sheerness keeps it neutral to the point I think it'd provide an utterly perfect clean nail art base on any skin tone. KADS Nature 011 is a square plate with 4 images of waves crashing in 3 layers, which means you ...

My first Halloween look this year ended up being my fave, because I loooooove glow in the dark polish, so for my last look I felt like coming back to that. indoor, CF lighting I've started here with a base of Dance Legend Price of Beauty , a pretty color that sits on the cusp of blue and silver, packed with iridescent microflakie shimmer and a really nice blue glow in the dark effect.  Unfortunately, it'd thickened up a lot in the years since I've used it last, and with a good squirt of thinner was back to good as new... but I must have overdone it because 100% of the flakes & GITD powder settled to the bottom of the bottle 2 days later, whoops! I've rolled the dice plenty of times on cheapo chinese-made stamping plates off ebay, and sometimes you get what you pay for but sometimes things work out great.  KADS plates are absolutely stellar about 80% of the time, so for about $2 it's well worth that roll.  Nature 032 was a big win for me, and I've used the p...

Now that we're at the first of the summer, and the sun finally came out for more than a brief peek, I was feeling some bright summertime color explosion.  But not neon, because that just isn't my jam. outdoor, bright sunlight Enchanted Polish March 2014 is as close to neon as I usually wear, a cheerfully bright chartreuse green holo.  I'm wearing two coats here, after which I applied decals stamped in black and filled in with Emily de Molly & Esmaltes da Kelly crèmes.  Images are from KADS Flower 015, a stamping plate that was an instant must-buy the moment I saw it. KADS is a budget plate maker that's usually shipped from China.  I've seen them offered on Ali Express, but I always prefer to buy Chinese goods from ebay - seller communication and shipping times end up much better for me.  KADS Flower 015 is an utterly gorgeous set of 9 images that are an insect or butterfly on the left half, metamorphosing to sprays of flowers on the righ...