Polish All the Nails

Oh my, so much Halloween, I can't help jump on the bandwagon.  I had a hard time deciding what to do and surprisingly, my male co-workers and friends have been really helpful!  I wasn't about to use makeup to make it look like my nails were torn off like one suggested as I have had actual nightmares about that and I now get really depressed when I break a nail *breath* but I like the idea of monster nails.  As I've been having fun with my nail art polish lately I thought I'd try my hand at happy monster nails. To start, I painted my thumb, middle and pinkie fingers with Orly Dayglow, my index finger with Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and my ring finger with Joe Fresh Orange.  Next, using L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art polish in black, I freehanded the monsters.  I used the end of a paint brush to make the eye circles as all my dotting tools seem to have disappeared lately.  Viola!  Happy monster nails!  On a side note, I've actually had a few peopl...

So I was stuck for ideas for what nails to do.  I'm in the process of editing a timelapse video of my latest glitter mosaic manicure and just needed a break.  At a friend's suggestion, Hurricane Sandy nails!

So I have something of a first today.  People at work actually noticed and commented on my nails!  This may not sound particularly significant but I work as a programming in a mostly male office so you know they have to be something out of the ordinary.  To say so myself, they are something out of the ordinary.  I present to you my most complex nails to date: rainbow zigzag glitter nails! I'm just going to say up front: these took a long time - even by my standards; upwards of two hours.  This may seem like a long time some of you but I find doing this relaxing, like knitting or cross-stitch.  Plus, sparkly!  So sparkly.  Like, seriously, so sparkly.  I've been wanting to do this pattern for a while and found the time last night.  I found the easiest way to do it is to start in the middle of your nail at the top.  Making sure your hexagons are with a point up, not a flat side, it's pretty easy to create a zigzag.  I used m...

I don't even think I should bother writing an introductory paragraph at this point - it would just be more about how much I love glitter and rainbows.  Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies! Yay! Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies! Yay! Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  You know that I would have covered my whole nails if I had the time last night but alas. Instead, rainbow glitter lasers!  If you don't want to commit to full nails, this is surprisingly eye catching way to go, especially if you add two coats of Seche Vite like I did to get the black super glossy.  To do this mani, I used my usual technique for placing glitter but rotated the glitter slightly so they tile horizontally.  Take a look at the thumbnail, you'll see what...

You might have noticed that I have something of a thing for my rainbow glitter right now.  I can't help it.   I've completely ruined my aesthetic for anything non-ridiculous.  It's so bad that I couldn't even stick to a black base, I had to replace it with the most ridiculously neon orange.  See how strange my fingers look?  That's cos I stunned my camera's sensor.  I'm even having trouble typing this as I keep getting distracted by these pictures.  Oh, and today still ends in "y", so that clearly makes it ok for moar glitter! So I couldn't decide what pattern to do with the glitter.  I had an idea of doing columns of glitter in the full rainbow but alternating the order.  I did this on my thumbnail but the pattern didn't quite turn out like I hoped.  Screw it, said I, imma go crazy.  Thus, the below images!  I can't even decide which pattern I like the most.  Certainly not the middle, but eh.  I think my ri...

Something I try to do on this blog is be open and transparent about how I feel about polishes and manis.  I've been reasonably good at it but I felt I should show you some of the manis I've done recently that make me angry, be it poor choice of colours, photography, style or application.  Let's take a look at some of them, shall we? First up we have what should have been a simple swatch of Nfu-Oh 51 over Sally Hansen Navy Baby.  I thought the navy would bring out the nice blue in the 51 but it was just too dark.  My application and clean up was bad so my cuticles and fingers look a bit dirty and weird.  In cleaning up also, I removed just a bit of the top colour from around my cuticles which I hate.  It's too thick, too!  Urgh, I just hate everything about this.  I will find a way to review this polish properly soon, though.

Guess what everyone!  Today ends in "y" so it's time for more rainbow glitter yay!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D The Reddit Weekly Challenge this week is gradients so while I have my rainbow glitter occupying my every though, I thought I'd try a different type of gradient, one that goes horizontally across my nails in a glorious, smoothly transitioning rainbow!  Unfortunately, my glitter isn't as different on the nail as I thought so it just looks like I've done each nail a colour but there are ten different types of glitter here, I swear!  I really should get some green glitter... Despite being able to articulately express myself in this introduction - it isn't even the first one I typed - I had such high hopes for this mani.  I lined up all the pots of glitter and I swear, I thought that it would immediately be obvious how different they all were.  I always forget though how much my lightbox sucks the holo out of my polishes.  Anyway!  To start, two coats of W...

Alrighty then, so you all liked my stained glass glitter nails , then, huh?  I hearby take that as free licence and encouragement to do all the glitter nails!  Hooray!  One takeaway from that post was that they could be, how to put it... stained-glassier.  I took that as a challenge! This is such a nail blogger problem, but it's really hard to make shapes out of hexagons.  Especially when the types you generally get with glitter aren't true hexagons.  After a bit of experimenting, I found that rotating (shocking!) the glitter a little meant that I could create diamonds, a more stained-glassier shape if ever the was one.  To create this mani, I used my usual technique for applying the glitter.  I've recently switched up my top coats and I'm now using Essie Everyday Top Coat.  The trick is to find one that doesn't dry too fast - sticky is the key.  It's been working really well and is super shiny.  In case you were wondering, it...

A good friend of mine, who I affectionately call Other Laura, had a birthday party this weekend.  As we often compare nail polish and she likes to call me a glitter crack addict, I had to do something special.  Given that I'd just sorted out my bag of glitter pots, I thought that the nine different small hex glitters might be able to help me out.  Turns out, when layered over black, it makes the most sparkly, rainbowy, commented-upon stained glass manicure I've ever done.  I did this Saturday afternoon, it's Monday lunchtime and I can't bear to take it off.  Let's take a closer look, shall we? I initially started this mani as just thumb and ring accent nails over Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme.   Using my usual technique and starting in the middle of the nail, I spaced out the nine different glitters in a column down my nail.  Then, alternating placing them up and down offsets, I filled in either side, keeping the spacing consistent.  I ...

Oh middle finger nail, I do miss you.  You break so often and it makes me sad to see you in your prime, in pictures from my backlog.  Especially when you look so pretty, pink and sparkly in Dandy Nails Another Heart Breaks. Another Heart Breaks is a lovely pink glitter mix with silver, purple and pink micro glitter and larger pink hexes.  I've worn this on its own before but is much smoother layered, in this case, over Zoya Charisma.  Instead of three thick coats to get full coverage on its own, you just need the one coat over a base colour.  

A while ago, the wonderful Jenna from Lacquistry sent me the most magical box of glitter you've ever seen.  You name it, it was in there.  One of the odd pots out was a pot of purple and green tinted shredded glitter.  I can't tessellate this! says I, and promptly forgot about it because there was too much sparklies and my brain couldn't cope.  I was going though all the glitter again a few weeks ago and decided to investigate this unusual glitter further.  TURNS OUT IT'S THE SAME TYPE OF GLITTER I LOVE IN FLAKIE POLISHES SO MUCH WHY DIDN'T I REALISE THIS SOONER I'M SILLY. So, experiment time! I wanted a darker polish to help bring out the colours in the flakies so I started with two coats of Maybelline Demin Dash.  I then applied a thick coat of top coat and dunked my nail in the glitter.  I then brushed off as much of the glitter as I could and pressed everything flat.  With a stiff-bristled brush, I got as much of the glitter from out...

Over the past week or so, I completed the mammoth task of swatching every single polish I own.  Given that this was my collection  back in April, it was no easy task.  I did, however, find a bunch of polishes I forgot I had.  Among them was my Art Deco +nail art polishes I found for super cheap earlier in the year.  I never really used them as the colours weren't quite right for what I had in mind and they got pushed to the bottom of my hold-all box.  Turns out, they're pretty good, especially the black and whites.  Having just started re-watching Friends from the beginning again, I had time to play with the stripers.  So, stripes! It's funny, this looks so much better from a distance.  My hands are nowhere near steady enough to hold up to macro photography but, I make an effort to share regardless of how much I want to retroactively go and fill in the gaps in the stripes.  I didn't use a base colour for this mani, just striped on t...

One of my goals here is to try to avoid some of the blogging cliches - things like apologising for lack of content, complaining about being busy, etc but I have to say I've been a little uninspired of late.  After 325 posts (this is 326), it gets rather challenging to come up with something new.  There's only so many times I can do glitter mosaics - well, that's not true, I love them but I don't want to wear out their welcome.  As a result, my posts have dropped off.  I've still been doing my nails but not in a way I feel needs showing.  In an effort to haul myself out of my blogging funk, I swatched my entire collection.  Yep, on these  lovely things.  It's helped me see what I have stashed away and I should get back to posting more.  The Reddit Weekly Challenge seemed like a good place to get back into it so let's take a look at my interpretation of "Blue". My collection doesn't even come close to fitting in one Helmer.  That's o...

I've had some great experiences with A-England polishes, specifically the beautiful one coat subtle linear holographics like Bridal Veil. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out that not only does Color Club have two polishes that look similar in the bottle, but actually apply just as well and are just as pretty.  I've heard a lot about Color Club Revvvolution and Wild at Heart but dismissed it for the most part because I've been hurt before *hand to forehead*.  Turns out, both the charcoal Revvvolution and purple Wild at Heart have a great formula - only needing one coat if you're not fussy and two if you are - and actually have a rainbow holo in direct light.  It's amazing.  I love the look of the strong coloured holos.  I wanted to try the two of them together despite the colours not going together perfectedly and I figured triangles to be the way to go.  Once the two coats of purple was dry, I taped off the triangles using ...

It's embarrassing to admit, but I have enough nail polish that I should never ever wear the same one twice.  I just couldn't help wearing Ninja Polish Alexandrite again though, it's just too pretty.  I figured that if I slap enough glitter on it, it'll be different enough from this post that I can get away with it. What I love about Alexandrite the most is the combination of the duochrome shimmer and larger glitter pieces.  They colour shift differently which makes for some serious distraction while typing.  I mean, look at how pink the glitter is at the edges!  While being able to see green in the middle!  Exclamation marks!  I wanted to bring out the purples in this polish so I layered it over American Apparel Imperial Purple instead my usual black.  Works better with the cooler glitters.  Of course though, there can always be more glitter so I added a glitter gradient using my new favourite holo gold glitter.