Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Many different brands keep releasing staggeringly gorgeous aurora shimmers that take a slice out of the rainbow to dance across your nails.  I'm trying like anything to not buy multiple versions of what I already have, so pulling this lovely example out this week: indoor, bright CF lighting Lust At Sea was KBShimmer's offering for the August 2021 Elements themed PPU.  It's a deep violet-purple base overflowing with this rainbow-y aurora shimmer that flashes gold to green to peachy to electric blue. window-filtered indirect daylight This color was always visually opaque with two perfect coats IRL, but it's clear in some photos that the base is somewhat sheer, with the dense shimmer that's providing coverage.  It shifts every color of the ocean, with mostly cool-toned gold and aqua sparks. outdoor, bright direct daylight In bright and direct lighting, the purple base takes center stage, with just a flash of icy champagne gold highlights, looking far more medium-purple...

A fave brand's upcoming collection includes an utterly gorgeous, rich, deep violet, jam-packed with "ocean" flakies, and I just have to... wait a sec, I'm sure I've bought this before... indoor, bright CF lighting KB shimmer released the gorgeous Ready For This Jelly as an exclusive for PolishCon 2016.  It's a deep, saturated, bottom-of-the-sea violet packed with the "ocean" type iridescent flakies that shift aqua to blue to green.  outdoor, shady/overcast daylight This polish went on like a dream in 3 perfectly smooth coats, giving me zero problems with the brush or formula.   indoor, bright CF lighting Interestingly enough, this polish starts out purple and very sheer on the first coat, yet somehow builds to looking violet and if anything leans slightly more blue than purple.  I've no idea how it leans cooler-toned with each coat, but the end result is stunning and looks just as vibrant as the bottle.  outdoor, shady/overcast daylight If the lu...

Sometimes a plan just comes together so perfectly, you can't resist. indoor, CF lighting KBShimmer created Let it Beetle for last month's flora & fauna themed Polish Pick-up, and though I tried to talk myself out of it (my multichrome loving heart surely has something similar, right?), Suzy mentally slapped me upside the head.  "Michelle, it's a green multichrome, obviously  made just for you."  She was right, of course. window-filtered overcast daylight Creative Shop had an amazing flash sale last month, and my stack of gorgeous new plates and the PPU shipment arrived together.  CS 50 had a fantastic june bug image, and BM-S245 had a smaller pinky-sized beetle, so this look had to happen. outdoor, direct sunlight Let it Beetle is a gorgeous green-based multichrome, with a peek of jade green at the edges in most all lighting.  The shimmer shifts from a warm copper in direct light, to gold, to a cooler peridot, then emerald, and finally ele...

My life isn't done being all in a tizzy, not by a long shot, but it is time for Halloween and even in a no-time-for-nails shenanigan, I have to Halloween! indoor, CF lighting As soon as I saw swatches of KBShimmer's Resting Witch Face, I knew what my Halloween look would be this year, and it quite obligingly showed up just in time to jump on my nails.  It doesn't hurt at all that I'm apparently on both a thermal kick and a Polish Pickup kick lately! window-filtered daylight The utterly perfectly named Resting Witch Face is a black to almost clear thermal jam packed with lime green glitters - it's the Wicked Witch's face and her dress, all in one go, and it's delightfully fun.  The glitters come in a couple of sizes, and some of them glint metallic holo in bright sunlight. bright afternoon sunlight I'm wearing 2 coats here, which at arm's length was always adequate coverage, but it looks a little more sparse in macro photos than it...

My life is in more than a little bit of an upheaval - my car is crapping out hard core which has made my every waking priority researching a new one, I just came back from a lovely trip with my sister and am busy planning a big overseas trip before the end of the year with a friend, my major annual conference is coming up almost simultaneously with my dad visiting - not all of it bad things, but everything is way more hectic than usual around here.  My posts aren't on my regular twice-weekly schedule, and that's because I'm not painting my nails twice weekly.  Sometimes life just rearranges your priorities, and when this usually fun and relaxing hobby becomes a stressor, well, I'm kinda taking a step back for a while. indoor, bright CF lighting That doesn't mean my nails are going nekkid, that means I'm not as on-the-ball about getting plenty of good photos, I'm wearing each mani longer than I normally would, and my posts will probably be shorter than ...

Sometimes there's that one polish, even in a collection full of jewels, that just draws everyone's attention like bees to honey.  KBShimmer released a slew of utterly beautiful multichrome magnetics earlier this year, and a whole lot of the buzz went straight to Solar Flair, both because it was the LE out of the group and for its uniquely fiery look.  I originally passed on this one, thinking it was too yellow & orange, but the consistently stunning swatch pics I came across convinced me otherwise. Y'all, the hype is real . indoor, CF lighting You see how there's 2/3 of a rainbow in that bottle?  Deep carmine red straight on, that tilts to burnt orange, then a hint of coppery gold, and finally peridot green that's reaching toward blue around the curve of the bottle?  And how all of those colors come right on out on the nail, left to right, from pinky over to index on that bottle shot above?  Yup.  Shifty AF IRL, no special tricks require...

With the warm and summery weather lately, I felt like grabbing a bright summery color to match. indoor, bright CF lighting KB Shimmer released Show the Mahi in 2017 along with a handful of other beach-themed polishes.   This one is a deep royal blue jelly that just barely leans toward teal, liberally sprinkled with an assortment of iridescent color shifting glitters in a couple of sizes and small metallic aqua holographic glitters. window-filtered daylight The overall effect is rainbow confetti in a tropical ocean, or beach balls floating in a swimming pool - it is indeed super summery! window-filtered overcast daylight If you're comfortable working with jellies, Mahi will give you no troubles at all.  I try to get the first coat of any jelly as thin as possible, paying no attention to streaks and evenness, but paying a lot of attention to trying to get the edges done as nicely as possible from the start, so as to avoid the saturated pigment melting into...