Sweet Baby Octopolish!

Next up on my journey through the oldest untried Femme Fatale polishes in my collection, I took a step back even further to her 2012 Gemstones collection. indoor, bright CF lighting The Gemstones collection was a group of shimmery iridescent effects topcoats, too sheer to be worn solo (see the air bubble in the above bottle shot for an idea).  Dragonscale is a peridot green to gold shifter, and I'm showing it over an assortment of base colors to see how that impacted the shifty properties.  indoor, CF lighting My index finger is OPI Christmas Gone Plaid, with the idea that it would compliment the head-on peridot and perhaps shade it toward emerald.  Middle & ring fingers are Vapid Brown Chicken Brown Cow, in hopes to amp the warmer brown edge of the shift, assuming it was a duochrome in the vein of Cover Girl Emerald Blaze .  After wearing this, I don't think that's the case after all.  On my pinky, basic black, usually the go-to for making any sheer duochro...

New month, new brand!  Today we have the polish that inspired this year's blog theme for me, which I've put out ISOs on the resell fb groups, pinterest, and destashes for several years (I found an old ISO post from 6 years ago!)… and then from out of the blue, it became available just last month, and it's HERE! indoor, bright CF lighting Let me tell you a little tale of "if I knew then what I know now":  once upon a time in 2013 when I was starting to have to worry about storing all the polish I was acquiring from all these wonderful indie stores and stockists, I tried to put the brakes on going overboard.  I'm not someone who worries about being a completist, and if the 2nd book in a series really sucks, there's no reason to keep reading.  I originally bought only about half of Femme Fatale's 2013 collection comprised of linear holos with amazing contrast shimmer.  I loved every single one I wore - these are all 4 or 5 star polishes, easy.  But I fail...

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...

This week was all forecast to be rainy, so time to move on from holos to something that would show well in the lower light... and oh how is this still untried?? indoor, CF lighting Well, I'll tell you - it got skipped for a while because I think I expected something else. Texas Flake was released as a "Bespoke Batch" in August 2016, and I have it filed as being a "charcoal pewter" color, while I remember that the few swatch pics were more purple (limited swatch pics being pretty typical for these prototypes).  I can only assume my disonnect between expectation & reality caused me to set this aside for too long.   outdoor, overcast daylight I was wrong.  Texas flake is neither charcoal nor purple, but a warm raisiny taupe - if you believe that neutral shades can be vampy, this is it.  There's an assortment of microflakes in gold and metallic ultrachrome, and a very delicate scattered holo sparkle. indoor, bright CF lighting The bottle has a wicked case of...

Winter is just absolutely the worst time of year to try and show off a nice nail polish.  When the work day is a lot longer than the day light, you're pretty well stuck with indoor and bottle shots... until a coworker informs you of some amazingly cool celestial phenomenon happening right outside , prompting you to get a nice sunlight photo of your coincidentally celestially-named polish.   outdoor, bright direct sunlight Chasing Northern Lights was Pahlish's contribution to the December 2015 Holo Hookup box (blast from the past, yo!).  It's a cool greenish-leaning bronze linear holographic with a subtly duochromatic contrast shimmer that goes from coppery (center of my pinky) to gold to chartreuse (index finger) at angles.  I'm wearing 2 coats of this smooth perfect formula for complete opacity. Rating:  4 out of 5 stars, this is a lovely edgy neutral color that was very flattering on my skin tone.  The only flaw was that it wore a little quickly, but...

For the past couple years, I've decided on a theme for my nail looks - first it was colorful alternating with neutral, then light alternating with dark last year.  By some small miracle, a long-searched for DISO fell into my lap this week, which caused me to pore through all the far too long unloved polishes in my stash.  BAM!  This is the theme for 2023:  I'll pick a new brand each month, and select from the oldest yet-untrieds I have of that brand.  In shopping my stash, I'll either feel the need to purge or I'll dig up buried treasure! indoor, bright CF lighting for all photos Hooooboy I have been collecting and wearing polish for more than a decade, with some things lying untried for longer than the brand was in business, eek!  Pahlish is thankfully still going strong, and still with really personal and unique inspo for her collections.  Today I'm showing Sleep To Dream, from her 2013 Winter collection.  The name is taken from a Fiona Apple so...

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