Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Apparently, I'm still in a blue polish mood, but a little lighter and more springtime than my last look... indoor, bright CF lighting for all photos Lilac Fairy, from Pahlish's 2019 Russian Ballet Collection, is a soft sky blue with a delicate ruby-pink contrasting shimmer. It's a fairly sheer but buildable crelly formula that came up to opacity in 3 smooth and even coats.  This wore nicely and gave me no troubles with application.  Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Equally lovely as a midwinter frosty look or as a springtime change-of-seasons, Lilac Fairy isn't lilac per se but is pretty fairy-esque.  I love contrast shimmers, and this one isn't POW in your face but it is very wearable. Where to buy:  Pahlish usually rotates her collections out within a year or so, and I don't believe you can still buy this direct from her .  Keep an eye out for destashes & blog sales. ~Michelle 

Oh yes, I still have plenty of Enchanteds now calling my name, and it's been way too long since I wore a deep, luscious purple.  indoor, bright CF lighting Awwww yeaaaaah that's my kind of color. outdoor, direct daylight Enchanted Polish released Telenovela with their 2016 Midwinter Night's Dream collection, and indeed it's a juicy berry perfect for the time of the year where jewel tones are de rigueur.   indoor, bright CF lighting I have this shade filed with purple, but you could make a reasonable argument for it being wine instead due to the pinky contrast shimmer that forms a metallic gleam of brighter, warmer color down the center in bright light.   outdoor, direct daylight There's a real theme going on here in quality & finish for my untried mountain of Enchanted Polishes:  we have a finely milled linear holo sparkle very nicely complimented by a super smooth borderline metallic contrasty shimmer. outdoor, direct daylight The formula was perhaps a touc...

For this week's Halloween look, I was inspired by a slew of truly impressive layered graveyard scene manis popping up everywhere.  Mine is much more simple, but I've still got to have some glow-in-the-dark fun! I've started here with 2 coats of Orly Fowl Play, a boysenberry-wine jelly with jewel-toned flakes.  I've stamped tombstones and a ghost from Clear Jelly Stamper Haunted Mansion in white and periwinkle, then stamped the ghost with Baroness X Never Trust the Living.  Though the BX is designed as a sheer topper, it stamped perfectly well and created a heck of an electric blue glow for hours.   Where to buy:  Baroness  X released a trio of GITD toppers a few years ago, so cross your fingers she restocks them because they're all wow!   ~Michelle 

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...

Reflective glitter is the new hotness that's absolutely exploded all over the indie polish scene in the past few months.  I've  been a little hesitant to jump onto this particular wagon because 1) still attempting to work that no-buy and 2)I typically kinda hate glitter removal.  But like the polish nerd I am, I totally caved when I saw one that was just too too gorgeous to pass by... indoor, bright CF lighting Obsessed is about the right word here.  This is an amazingly saturated color that was truly the exact violet center between blue and purple.  It leans more one way or the other depending on indoor vs sunlight, but I am filing this one under blue.  The base is deeply saturated but is a jelly to allow those sparkles to shine forth, so it took 3 coats to get to the opacity you see here.  with flash With flash or with the just right angle of direct sunlight, those bright silvery glitters come alive and throw back as much light as physics allows....

I knew that I wanted my next saturated dark shade to be a purple, and lately I've seen a few swatches of rich, vampy aurora shimmer purples that had me shopping my stash instead of clicking "buy now"... indoor, bright CF lighting UNFFF YASSSSS.  Exactly what I'm looking for. outdoor, bright afternoon daylight Lupercalia was the ancient Roman festival of cleansing, fertility, and wild abandon, so this lushly sensuous purple is absolutely perfect for its name.  A deep royal purple absolutely filled with finely milled red-to-gold aurora shimmer, it most often looks to be a plummy wine. indoor, bright CF lighting I'm wearing 3 coats here for full opacity, and each coat went on smoothly and trouble-free.   outdoor, bright daylight This polish is a stunner in sunlight, and just as beautiful in everyday indoor lighting.  Lupercalia is gorgeous with my skintone, and yet at the same time I think it'd be beautiful on most everyone as long as you enjoy colors this rich a...

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...

 Ok, the last one was pretty traditionally "spooky" but for this round I wanted to try out the "spoopy" vibe of cute Halloween. outdoor, indirect/overcast light for all I started with a really simple tutorial from What's Up Nails , picked an orange crème, purple jelly, and green crème to make it a Halloween color scheme, then painted freehand exactly as shown in the tutorial.  Stamped black bat shadows topped with the same shape in silver from the KN 15 stamping plate tied it all together.  I totally love how this turned out, like a splash of crayon color, and the negative space is something that always looks so chic that I really ought to play with more.  ~Michelle 

 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.  Wher...

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. ...