Metallic accents

I love when I'm playing around with a mani, and I add that one touch that just brings it together, or makes it special.  It doesn't happen that often, but when it does, I'm so proud of what I've created.

This mani starts off with a base of CQ Vintage, an unassuming neutral with a secret - it's a subtle color changer.  It's one of those colors that sometimes looks grey, sometimes off-white, sometimes light purple, sometimes beige.  

I was wearing a dress with neutrals, black, and silver/grey-ish purple accents, and I thought these colors would go together in a cloud mani to go with my dress.  OPI Black Onyx for the first layer of clouds, and Essie Nothing Else Metals for the next.  Simple, yet impactful.

 Right hand:

I did a couple of manis that I showed you earlier with Lilaquer polishes.  Here, I took Lilacquer Bakeneko and stamped gold Charlie-Brown-ish zigzags in different orientations all over it with Maybelline Bold Gold. I love how the shimmer just peeks through the stamp.

Here's another gold stamp with Maybelline Bold Gold.  Chain link in different directions over Lilacquer Selkie, Lycanthrope, and Kitsune.  I think it looks especially good over the green and red and seems to bring out even more of the duochrome in them.

Do you like to do whole manis with metallics, or accent with them?

Leftovers are better the next day...

For some reason, these swatches didn't make it into earlier posts...  so now you get a swatchfest!

I had such lemmings for this color, and eventually found a buy one get one 50% off sale at a salon, so it was MINE MINE MINE.  This is OPI Thanks a Windmillion, a dusty light green from the Holland collection. Like most OPI colors, it applied nicely, was opaque in 2 coats, and look at that shine.  No topcoat here.  My hands do look a little red.. hmm.. maybe I was clutching the bottle too tightly? ;)

I picked up this Revlon in a swap at the CFL Beauty Bloggers' meeting.  I have slowly been collecting more yellows.  I used it as a base for nail art, so I used 2 coats, but it could have used three.. or maybe 4.  Like most yellows, it is a little streaky, but I love the shimmer that gives it it's name:  Sunshine Sparkle.

This is Barielle Falling Star.  I'd never seen a blue with copper glitter in it before!  It's beautiful, and I just couldn't cover it with nail art, so I wore it by itself.  Barielle makes great polishes.

This is CQ Twinkle, a lovely silver shimmer (It doesn't appear to be a foil or metallic), with Chameleon Cyclone over it on the accent nails.  Chameleon is an iridescent polish, very very sheer on its own, but is great as a layering polish to change the color of whatever you put it over.  Can't wait to try it over black!

Next up is China Glaze Rainstorm.  This is a jelly blue with shimmer.  It's very, very sheer - I think this was 2 and a half coats and you can still see VNL.  I was using it as a base for nail art, so I wasn't worried about it being sheer, but if you were going to use it alone, you'd need at least 3 coats.

I picked up a few polishes from indie polish Not Too Polished.  This is Peach Blossom, with an accent of Color Club Turn the Other Chic, an orange layering glitter.  I wasn't too excited about Peach Blossom on the nail - it was a little goopy and hard to work with.  I am still looking for the elusive perfect creamsicle color...

Can you hear the beat?  The Electric Beat, from China Glaze.  This is one of my fave blues/periwinkle colors.  It's more blue than Secret Peri-wink-le.  I love this color!

Hope you enjoyed this totally random collection of colors!

Idyllic Aboriginal Inspiration

I had been lemming CQ Idyllic (and a few others) ever since I saw a swatch of it online.

It's a gorgeous multichrome - purple, bronze, green, brown.  I love these colors that evoke a warm hearth to me.

I saw this dotticure on Lucy's Stash based on an Aboriginal pattern, and I loved it. I didn't want to cover all of Idyllic, so I used it as an accent.  The whitish dots are Color Club Oh La La, and the brown dots are Color Club With Abandon.  I had a really hard time finding the right brown to match Idyllic, and I still wasn't 100% happy with this choice - maybe I should have used a tan color

On my right hand, I tried it with Essie Matte About You on the accent nails.  There's something beautiful about a shimmery polish when it's mattified - look at that glow from underneath the dots.  In the end, though, I preferred the glossy look with Seche Vite.

Which do you like? Matte or glossy?  Would you mattify the whole manicure?

Daisies, take two

I love getting massages.  We have a massage therapist that comes to the house every now and again, and my husband and I treat ourselves to full-body massages.  I like making it a whole experience - I set up the I-pod to play soft music, I light a candle, and this time, I painted my nails in anticipation.

I started with a long-time lemming - Butter London Trout Pout.  It was... a little disappointing.  The application was no where as nice as BL British Racing Green, and the color wasn't so much the soothing salmon I thought it to be, but turned out almost neon-bright.

I decided to try the Robin Moses daisies again, now that I'm *cough* better at nail art *cough, cough*

I drew some lines with China Glaze Gaga for Green, and added in the daisies with Sally Hansen White Tip.  Then I painted in the centers with CQ rustic dream, a beautiful coppery duochrome.
A little black dotted in the centers completes the daisies.  I also used CQ Diamond Envy on the other fingers to tone down the Trout Pout a little.  I just dabbed it on in a similar pattern as the white daisies.  Seche Vite to topcoat, and done.

Right hand:

So, this time, do they actually look like flowers?

Golden-Green Comparison

I know I have dupes in my stash - it's inevitable when there are so many polish lemmings you must fulfill...  So I gathered some of my golden-green polishes to see if I had any dupes.

I see 2.. maybe three.

On my thumb is Maybelline Color Show Twilight Rays.  It is really an olive green color with gold flecks, but it looks almost black indoors.  Not even close to the others.

On my pinky is SpaRitual Optical Illusion.  This one would probably look more like Twilight Rays if it were layered over black.  As it is, it doesn't look anything like any of the others.  I don't know how many layers it would take to look like what it does in the bottle.  I think this was 2 coats.

These next 2 are pretty much identical in color, as well as name.  They are both called Golden Green.  The index finger is from CQ, and the middle finger is Models Own.  I can't tell the difference, except the CQ was cheaper. Both applied nicely and took 2 coats for opacity.

On my ring finger is Jessica Iridescent Eye.  It's a smidge lighter and brighter than the other two ... but it's so close.  I don't have OPI Spotted the Lizard or Chanel Peridot, but I understand they are alike to Jessica Iridescent Eye, so I don't feel the need to own either of those.

It's a bummer that Jessica IE has so much color shift in the bottle, but it doesn't translate much to the nail.  I didn't get any of the blue or copper on my nail.

This is a pretty popular color, so I'm sure there are even more dupes out there.. hopefully I won't be tempted to buy any more of them!