Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Earlier this year, Cirque announced the return of their "UP sister" LE shade Thicker Than Water, which of course being turquoise sparkle is something I've regretted missing for some time now.  Unfortunately, that return was only a handful of bottles that went in a fb lottery, and I was not a winner, waaah.  To try and put that lemming to bed, I did snap up a couple other things here & there... indoor, bright CF lighting Prism Polish UK is a relatively new brand, and this is my first taste of their magic.  Leave His Brains is a vibrant aqua-blue jelly with a sparkly gold to green UP sister pigment, and according to the official description, a dash of red shimmer. outdoor, bright direct sunlight That added red shimmer kept throwing me for a loop, because in some lighting it makes this shimmer look like Clarins 230 red to green instead of one of her sisters - this effect didn't translate to photos, but I swear it's there enough of the time IRL to have...

I cannot remember what possessed me to pick up OPI fireflies, but it definitely must have been a swatch over black or another very dark color, because when it arrived, I swatched it, filed it, and promptly forgot about it for several years. indoor, bright CF lighting OPI Fireflies is a very sheer duochrome shimmer that flashes from green to peach.  In swatches I've seen of this worn solo, it's a vaguely yellowish stain on the nail that flashes green at only just the right angle... and frankly, it's not that impressive on my swatch stick either (hence my long skip despite my huge twin loves for most anything green or duochrome). outdoor, afternoon sunlight To avoid the stained-nail look with this polish, I first started with a single coat of Sally Hansen Shark Bait.  It's a slight touch darker and warmer toned than my own skin, but pretty darn close to being the just right "mannequin hands" shade for me, to the point where I'm considering backup...

Last month, I was posting a handful of cute stamping manis prompted by the themes on one of my nail art facebook groups... and I won! indoor, CF lighting The Stamping Shop is a fantastic resource for group buys of non-US stamping plates & polish, where our collective buying power can get a nice discount.  Every month, there's a nail art contest with up to 4 themes, with each mani being an entry to the contest.  My prize pack were these three cute stamping plates, a TSS branded scraper, and a bottle each of Esmaltes da Kelly Anna & Ulli. outdoor, bright sunlight Anna is a pretty grape jelly sprinkled with holographic glitter in 2 sizes.  I'm wearing 2 coats here for full opacity.  This had only mild texture after a single layer of topcoat and then wore very well with only minor edgewear after several days. indoor, bright CF lighting In the bottle, Ulli is a bright, vibrant coral.  Though it picked up great like all my other EdK s...

When Shleee released a few polishes with unusual names (100% her usual thing) early this year, I didn't cotton on to there being a theme until someone else squee'd over it.  Once I watched the devastating brain-warp that is Midsommar, wow did I get it.  Fortunately for me, she restocked the sparklefest gem of the collection so I could snap it up.  indoor, bright CF lighting May Queen is an homage to the dress that culminates the film , and this polish absolutely wins for most dead-on-accurate nod to its inspiration of pretty much any polish ever.  outdoor, shaded daylight This is a vibrant spring green jelly, overflowing with an ocean of iridescent flakies that primarily flash pink & gold, plus plenty of small round holographic glitters.  outdoor, shaded daylight There's also a much smoother shimmer here that compliments and underlies the other elements of this polish, shifting from flamingo pink straight on (above) to a bright green-tinted...

Despite my valiant attempts to be on a no-buy, I keep getting sucked in by bottles that call to me, and someone's recent super affordable RBL destash was one clear example.  In her sales post, she had a bottle of **faded** Black Russian, where the burning embers of the red glitters had bled out, leaving them sorta silver and the base more smoky than black.  I hadn't considered this was possible, and rushed to grab what I'd picked up years ago as a close-enough dupe to this sold out LE, and it was just fine. indoor, bright CF lighting Piggy Polish Midnight Fireflies is an only slightly off-black jelly that is filled to the brim with extremely tiny metallic red microglitters, absolutely a smoldering embers in the smoke look. outdoor, bright sunlight The formula on this was quite nice, fully opaque in 2.5 coats, and with a density that stayed where I put it - no pooling in my cuticles (thank goodness because you know black is a PITA to clean up) or balding (which i...

The last 2 nail art prompts for this month in my stamping group were "birds" and "trees" and since those two go together into a harmonious theme, I did one version on each hand. First, I started out with a grand old tree, branches spreading across my whole hand.  The tree trunk design is from Powder Perfect's Woodland Creatures plate, while the finer branches are from Kads Nature 07, all done in brown crème.  The irregular blotches of leaves are actually the background of a rose from CJS-05, as is the little accent leaf on the edge of the tree trunk. On the other side, I've again used the same branches, tree trunk, and leaves, but now added the cute woodpecker from Woodland Creatures in black & red on its branch, and also a crow from Creative Shop 38. ~Michelle

I'm still having a lot of fun participating in some nail art prompts with fb groups, and when one of those prompts needed a clear summer sky for the base, I knew exactly what to reach for. indoor, bright CF lighting Femme Fatale has released three different series of her "Enchanted Fables" polishes inspired by fairy tales and Disney movies; Alice was from the original 2016 set. outdoor, direct sunlight Alice is a soft sky blue filled with a metallic gold shimmer and microflake.  The formula is smooth and easy to work with, which is good because it needs all 3 of the coats I'm showing here. indoor, bright CF lighting There's a very pretty gold flash that's easily visible in bright light - no hidden shimmers here at all.  To make the shimmer really show through the pastel base, though, this is rather sheer, and in just the right lighting I could still see a few imperfections in opacity here and there. outdoor, bright direct sunlight At ar...