It's all there in Black and White

With all of the colors I'll wear on my nails, the most eye-catching ones may just be a white or a black nail.  I use these in nail art a lot, but not so often on their own.  Maybe one of these will convince me otherwise.

Picture Polish White Wedding.  This polish was done in conjunction with Llarowe, and it's a very pretty white with a subtle pink/green flaky shimmer.  It's impossible to capture in photos, but it's there in Real Life.  If I was going to wear plain white, the shimmer makes it look like I did it on purpose, and didn't just paint my nails with White-Out, like I did in grade school.

Contrary Polish Frozen.  Part of their 2012 Winter collex, this is a glossy white with blue shimmer.  I really liked this.  I will say that if I plan on wearing white, I need to do a more careful polish application, because it shows every patch or uneven application!  Whites are fairly unforgiving.

Cult Nails Tempest.  This is a true white creme gloss.  This one is a little more forgiving because of the high shine, but leans a little more towards that White-Out look.  This is a great base for nail art, though.  One of my faves.

On to the blacks.

First up is A-England Lancelot.  Does this look black to you?

Would you believe that the first coat goes on red?  I think the second coat is supposed to reflect that red, but I just can't see it.  Not in any pix, not in Real Life.  It just looks black to me, and it makes me feel a little cheated because I want there to be red in there.

A-England Camelot.  The only way to tell these apart is to do one coat.  Camelot is pretty much a one-coat black, where Lancelot is much more red and streaky on the first coat.  Camelot is so thick and glossy that it freaks out my camera, and I couldn't hardly get it to focus on the polish.

Cult Nails Nevermore.  Another darling of the nail polish community, Nevermore is a one-coat black.  It is great for a quick, classy, vampy mani.

Do you like wearing black and/or white?  Would you rather wear it as a base for another color or nail art?  Any favorites?

Fancy, Flakie Browns

Ok, class, when we met yesterday, I told you there would be a polish you would get a glimpse of then, but you'd see again today.  Do you remember what it was? 

That's right!  Takko Opium.  I knew you could do it.

I think this polish is pretty unforgettable, myself!  Brown with a reddish-orange shimmer, it looks like burning embers.

I love brown and blue together, and I thought that this icy blue and pink glitter from Hit Polish, Retro Chic, would set it off nicely.  I really like the combo!  The blue looks so light, almost translucent, and the pink is so delicate with the brown. 

The second brown I want to show you today is from Koh Colours - Chocolate Brown!  Yes, with an exclamation point!  Apparently, all their color names are very exciting! Because they all end with exclamation points!

Love that goldent shimmer, but I wish it was more obvious on the nail, especially for such an expensive brand.

I added a little Nubar 2010, and....

....gorgeous.  Love the orange and gold flakies with the brown.  Here's a bottle shot:

The last fancy brown I have could be a brown, or a black, or a blackish-brown.  It's dark, so it's hard to tell!  I think it's brown, though.  Contrary Polish Candlelight.  Another subtle gold shimmer, but with larger particles than the Koh.

A little bit of Orly Shining Star, and there's gold shimmer... and blue?  I didn't see any blue in the bottle, but some of the glitter turns blue on the nail.  Surprise!

Browns are the unsung heroes of the polish world.  They're so versatile!  And they look great with a little bling, too.  Any fave browns out there?

The Darker side of Contrary Polish

I love wearing darker polishes.  I know I have li'l nubbins, but I don't care - I'll wear what I want!  I hope you will, too.  I want to show you a couple of Contrary Polishes I picked up that have a bit of a darker side to them.

Mystery.  I think this was part of Contrary's Holiday collection, but I'm not sure.  I found it on sale at Llarowe, and I'm glad I did.  I love brown polishes, and the gold shimmer in this one is so pretty.  Gold and brown are so nice together.

I wanted to do some nail art, so I picked a color that I thought would help bring out that shimmer.  This is Sinful Colors Zincing of You, and the beginning of Nailside's infamous cloud mani design.

I also really love blue and brown together, so I used China Glaze Adore, a metallic blue, to finish the cloud and to add some dots.  I'm loving all this metallic shimmer!

Lopsided bottle shot.  Oh, Blogger, why u no fix this?

Bright Night.  It's actually a bit of a dark night to me, but there is a bright blue shimmer to it, which adds some really pretty depth to this polish.

 

I was inspired by Robin Moses' design for 'Elegant Blue Tentacles" to do this version: 

I even did my right hand:

I used Barry M. Gelly in Blueberry for the 'tentacles', Barry M. Blue Moon for the dots, and added the iridescence with Sally Hansen Sea and Be Seen.  Bottle shot:
 

You like Contrary Clouds or Tentacles?


If you'd like to find out more about Contrary Polish, you can find them on Facebook.  She sells minis via e-mail through her blog, but you can buy full-size polishes through Llarowe, and some other e-tailers (she has a list on her blog.)

Contrary Polish - Love Lyrics

This collection really put Contrary Polish on the map.  It was the first collex from them that I had to attend several restocks and hustle to get the ones I wanted into my cart without getting cartjacked!  I only wanted two from the collection, and I'm really happy with the ones I got.

Feels Like Home.  This is a taupe color with a pink shimmer.  Contrary Polish's claim to fame is their shimmer.  I was considering not getting any of these because the shimmer from Creeping Moss, the first polish I bought from her, was .... meh.  This collection turned it around!

I love (and have) quite a selection of taupe polishes, and this one has a unique shimmer and is really quite demure and lovely.

Ain't no Sunshine.

If you can ignore the part about how he cheats on his girl because she's not around, it's a beautiful, melancholy song by Bill Withers.  And I feel the same way about this polish.  Grey/blue, but with a white flakie shimmer.

The color is reminiscent of Illamasqua Raindrops, but it's not a dupe, IMO.  I saw some nail art by Raggio di Luna that I thought would look nice with this color, so I did my version here. 

Are you loving the Love Lyrics collection?  Ain't No Sunshine is a clear winner for me, and the reason I stalked this collection, but there are some beautiful polishes here.  If you'd like to find out more about Contrary Polish, you can find them on Facebook.  She sells minis via e-mail through her blog, but you can buy full-size polishes through Llarowe, and some other e-tailers (she has a list on her blog.)

I'll have a couple more Contrary Polishes for you tomorrow, with some more nail art.  Stay tuned!

A good brown and .... a not so good one.

I love brown-toned polishes, usually.  I wanted to love Creeping Moss by Contrary Polish.  Technically, she calls it an olive-green with shimmer.  I call it muddy.  The shimmer is so hidden, there's no shine, no depth.  This polish was such a disappointment!  

The next combo I really liked.  It started with a color I wasn't sure about.  I don't have anything else the color of Finger Paints Catwalk Queen.  I'm not even sure what color it is.  Beige-yellow? Bile?

I topped it with KB Shimmer Band Geek.  I loved this polish in so many ways.  First of all, I was a band geek!  Alto and Tenor Saxophone, depending on the band.  Symphonic, Jazz, Marching... I was Queen of the Band Geeks!

Second of all, it's a beautiful polish!  I love different metallics blending together - copper, gold, bronze, silver - it really does look like a melange of band instruments.  Application was smooth, and it was pretty opaque in two coats. 

Would you wear any of these weird browns?