This Map Be Such Crap, My Loot Will Be Moot

Avast, Fireflies!

Did ye landlubbers be thinking of stealin' me booty?  Well, ye'd have t' find it first! See if ye ken follow me crappy mappy.

I started with China Glaze Don't Honk Your Thorn, a pretty nude with the slightest shimmer/frost.

To give my 'sand' some texture, I did a dry brush technique to get the tiniest amount of Joss Desert Sunset on the nail. It has a little bit of glimmer, just like real sand! I'm feeling pretty clever at this point.

I use Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and BM 510, from their new Ocean plates to get the tiny treasure map (though it doesn't all fit on my finger!) and then Cici & Sisi 09 to get the wandering dotted path and a few GIANT footprints.  Seriously. Not To Scale.

Try following that path to the treasure!

X marks all kinds of spots.  Probably where my dogs hid their toys, really.

Bottle shot:  China Glaze Don't Honk Your Thorn, Joss Desert Sunset, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and a black striper.

Have you ever followed a 'treasure map'?  If this is how I make one, you can only imagine how I'd follow one...

Saturday Holo Spam - Indie Purple Edition!

Hello, Fireflies! 

Welcome to Saturday Spam! I have a few purple holos to show you today, all wonderful in their own way!

I Love Nail Polish Kings & Queens. Royal purple holo goodness.  Have you seen the new Summer holos? They're on presale now.  I couldn't resist getting a few.  Her polishes are buttery!

Aly's Dream Polish  Intense Blurple.  When Aly does a pre-sale, it's amazing! She puts everything up, and will make it to order.  She doesn't use Spectraflair, and most of her holos are scattered holo.  Look at this amazing pigmentation!

The Devil Wears Polish Lady Marmalade.  This picture doesn't do it justice - it's complex, with purple and pink holo flame. Her polishes tend to be a little on the thick side, but not gloopy.

Girly Bits Ho-Ho-Hope.  Forever a GB fan! This was part of her holiday collection, and it's a gorgeous purple.  In the next picture, I add to it!

Joss In A Violet Haze.  This is a white glitter holo with a purple shimmer.  Looks great over Ho-Ho-Hope!

And a bottle shot of Girly Bits Ho-Ho-Hope, and Joss In A Violet Haze.  Don't the purples match beautifully?

Do you love purple like I love purple? Have you tried any of these Indie brand polishes?

Saturday Spam, The Holos Part I

Hello, Fireflies!

I checked into the Vault, and realized that I have a few manis - mostly holos - that don't seem to have enough content for their own blog post, but I'd like to share them with you all the same.  So, I'm going to spam you on the occasional Saturday!

First up, a gradient I did with a couple of Joss holo-like glitters.  These have just enough micro glitter to shred the cotton I was using to remove them - but otherwise, they're not rough to the touch.  And, they're super, super sparkly.

Bottle shot:  Joss Your Mum Wouldn't Like It and A Calming Influence

The other look I'd like to show you starts with a lovely light blue holo from I Love Nail Polish, called Music Box.

I added OPI In True Stefani Fashion, a silver holo glitter-bomb... and a little something extra.  I like to think of it as my Rock Unicorn look.

Bottle shot:  OPI In True Stefani Fashion, and  I Love Nail Polish Music Box.

Are you feeling the holo love today?  Have a favorite?

A Kiss For A Crystal Holo Mystic

Hello, Fireflies!

Y'all know that I have a ton of nail polish.  If you didn't, well, I'm telling you now.  I have a lot.  So, when I tell you that there is a polish the likes of which I have not seen before, I think it's something special - and I kinda hope that you'll think it's special, too.

Otherwise, I feel a little stupid for getting so excited. 

Joss A Crystal Holo Mystic is one of those special polishes.  It's holo, but there's added fleck.  It has a nude background, but the red flecks make it look mottled and more red.  What color is it?  I don't know.  Is it holo or glitter? both?

The red in A Crystal Holo Mystic just called to me for more MOAR red!  This is Cult Nails Kiss, a wax finish red creme.  Gorgeous!

I just used the brushes the polishes came with to make these stripes - by turning the brush sideways, or adjusting the pressure on the brush, you can make wider or narrower stripes.  And, I don't have to clean a nail art brush!  I did use a dotting tool for the dots, but those are easy to clean.

I actually really liked the holo against the wax finish, but I had to try it with topcoat, too.  Times like these, I kinda wish my nails were bigger so I could add more stripes. I love how my thumb turned out!

Bottle shot:  Joss A Crystal Holo Mystic, and Cult Nails Kiss.

A funky glitter holo, and a wax-finish red.  I think they're both pretty unique polishes!

Sunday Stamping - Sunset Skyline

Hello, Fireflies!

For today's stamping challenge, we were supposed to do a skyline.  I thought first about how a skyline looks dark with the sun setting behind it, so I picked Joss Desert Sunset, a yellowy-orange-pink holo glitterbomb for my sunset-in-a-bottle.

It's gorgeous, but it's not like the first release of Joss holos.  This is a scattered holo glitter in a lightly tinted base.  Obviously, it's not opaque, either - and I'm not sure I could get it that way and have it dry before I dinged it all up.

I didn't have a 'skyline' stamp, but I had one stamp with a building on it... a house.  A Haunted House, to be more precise, from Winstonia 116.  I also loved this tree from Red Angel 115.  Both were stamped with Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

I wish the stamp had come out darker, but I kinda like how the skyline looks like a ghost town.

Bottle shot:  Joss Affinite Desert Sunset, and Finger Paints Black Expressionism

What is your idea of a skyline?

You must be jossin' me about these JOSS holos!

When Llarowe started carrying this line of Joss Lacquer, I'd never heard of them before.  But, it's a holo collection, so I searched around for some swatches.  Then, I had to have them all.  They are all pretty linear, decent formula - no buffing or special base coat needed.  Come see the pretties.

Alternate Dimension.  Oooh, I love a coral holo.  The texture, the mix of pink and orange, I swoon.  Every time.  Great color for this time of year, and they look great on so many different skin tones.  This one is ready for the beach.

I took a cue from the Crumpet, and decided to use both hands to swatch for a few posts. We'll see how long this lasts because I just broke my index nail down to the quick.  I'm not naturally ambidextrous either, so some of this posing felt pretty awkward... like how I felt at my senior prom.

Flash Diamond.  I almost didn't get this.  It's a pretty polish, but... it's silver.  How many silver holos does a person need?  I figured I could pay for shipping, or get this and get free shipping.  If you don't need another polish for free shipping and you have a silver holo you love, you probably don't need this, either.

Tantastic Glow.  This was the polish that initially attracted me to this collection, but it wasn't my fave on me.  I love nude holos, but this one is a little more champagne that I'd hoped, and not as holo as I'd wanted.  It actually looks more like a frost than a holo, don't you think?

Sudden Impulse.  Yeah, I get all kinds of impulses when I see a gorgeous reddish holo, and they usually involve my credit card.  Isn't this gorgeous??  This is definitely a star player in this collex.

Flamingo Dancer.  Little play on words here, as it's pink like a flamingo, and snazzy like the Flamenco dancer outfits.  Very clever, Joss, very clever.  Did you know that flamingos get their pink color from the type of shrimp they like to eat?  It's true.  I am also very clever.

Overall, not a bad collection, but I was a little disappointed by Tantastic Glow.  The pink and silver are pretty, but are usually a part of almost every other holo collection, too, so it's likely there are lots of dupes.  For me, Sudden Impulse and Alternate Dimension are unique and pretty enough to own.  Which ones are your faves?