Kunimitsu - Nail Potions

A few weeks ago, I got the pleasure of meeting up with a couple of nail polish aficionados here in Daytona.  I had been waiting for a special occasion to wear my new Layla holo - Coffee Love.

I love brown, I love holo!  Unfortunately, I tried to protect it with a topcoat, and it was too thick and dulled the look, but it's such a complex polish it was still pretty.

One of the people I met at lunch was Jessica, the owner and creative spirit behind Nail Potions.  Kunimitsu was the name of her beloved cat, who has unfortunately passed from this world, but lives on in Jessica's heart and polish creations.  Kunimitsu's silhouette is featured on all the labels, with the star pattern she had on her chest.

Calico is a mix of brown, black, orange, and white micro glitters in a clear base - very reminiscent of a calico coat!  I layered this over Layla Coffee Love to make Calico Love! I really love these polishes together.  The orange is so colorful, but not overwhelming in this mix of glitters.

I'm not huge in the milky-white base glitter fan camp, but there are a few that I like, and these next two from Nail Potions are among my favorites.  Seal Point Siamese has blue, black, and holo microglitters suspended in the white base. 

I really love microglitters, and most of the polishes I have with them are very densely packed and opaque with glitter.  These two are very different because of the white base.

Flame Point Siamese has blue and holo microglitters, and adds coppery-orange ones to the mix.  It's a very soft look. 

I love the sophistication that these polishes have.  If you're interested in Nail Potions, you can find her on Facebook, and she has a shop on Etsy, as well.

Lotsa Lilacquer!

I just love the intersections between geek girl and polish girl.  Lilaquer has a collection that pays homage to The Fifth Element movie, and I picked up a few.  They are as pretty as they are quirky!

First up, Zorg Industries:

Steel-blue grey with a slight duo-chrome shift, this polish just reads futuristic and industrial.

Leeloo Multipass was the polish that grabbed my attention first in this collection.  I never would have worn orange-pink before, but now I love it.  This is really a very sheer pale orange with a subtle pink shimmer.  Three coats, and you could still see some VNL.

An unexpected star of the show was Roo-Bee Rhod!  This is a real orange/pink duochrome that also evokes a little ruby red.  Two coats is much more opaque than Leeloo, also.

A little splash of Anti-matter of Opinion over Roo-Bee for an accent.  Gorgeous.  This glitter really shows more colors over darker undies, but I love a little subtle bling, too.

Another one of Lilaquer's polishes, Bakeneko, is from a different collection, but I'd heard rave reviews, so I decided to pick it up, too.  It's a Clarins 230-type polish, with the red shimmer, but it's really in it's own class.

One major reason is that Bakeneko doesn't need any undies at all.  The brown/red/green/gold shifts are inclusive in the polish itself.  It would probably shift darker if you did wear it over black, but it doesn't need it.  It's a gorgeous multi-chrome with a great formula.

Last, but not least, is a trio of duochrome topcoats that Lilacquer released in limited edition.  You might be able to find these floating around out there, but I don't know if she plans on bringing them back to her shop or not.  All of these are over a black creme, I believe.

Selkie is a blue/teal duochrome.  To be honest, I have amassed a small collection of these types of topcoats, and I rarely wear them.  There are so many interesting blue polishes out there, I don't often find the need to turn another color into a blue.  I have no complaints about Selkie, though, and it is certainly a pretty topcoat.

Lycanthrope is a gold/green topcoat.  Very pretty, and the slight shift to red is more unique than other topcoats in this vein.

At first blush, Kitsune looks a bit like Bakeneko, but it's more red, without the strong gold shift.  

I love how a topcoat can transform the look of a manicure.  These would also be fun to play with in nail art, changing colors within a nail.

Lilacquer is one of the Indies that has a great grasp on the duo/multi-chrome trend, and her polishes have good formulas, too!  Check her out if you like Indie polishes with a little something different to offer.

Naild'it? Mostly.

I love Indies and I love unique finishes, so I paired some fun undies with some fun Indies!

First up, a nameless brown-purple metallic from Cosmetic Arts.  This is reminiscent of NOPI Just Busta Mauve, but I haven't swatched them together.  I really like this color - not bad for a $2 polish.

I can't really say the same for Naild'it Brown Chicken Brown Cow.  The brown polish was so opaque, you couldn't see any of the glitter, except a few pieces of the red.

Where's the white glitter?  Where's the black?  It all melds into this brown mess.  The texture, unfortunately, is reminiscent of the one thing chickens and cows have in common.

I love brown polish.  Most brown polishes, anyway.  This one made me sad.

On to happier things.  The undies for the next mani was Finger Paints Meet Me at the Met, a metallic charcoal grey.   Again, only one coat, though. 

Now this is what a glitter in an opaque base is supposed to look like.  Even though the polish is silver, you can clearly see the blue, silver, and holo glitters in the polish.  I really like Naild'it Peacock Squawk - it's different from all the other blue glitter bombs I own.

This fall is the season of metallics, it seems.  Every collection is chock full of them, including  Cosmetic Arts.  I'm sure I have dupes for this color, but for a $2 polish it looks great and works well.

Naild'it Froggy Pond was the only polish that wasn't opaque in two coats, though it is very thick.  Rolling the glitter off the brush worked well with this polish. 

This polish is mostly microglitters in black, yellow, and green, but I loved the surprise purple circles! My husband thought they were like the lily pads in the Froggy Pond.

What do think of the metallic trend?  Will you be rockin' metallic manis?  Will you be layering with Naild'it glitters?

Doodle nails

These two manis were inspired by this Robin Moses teal filigree manicure.  I love her style, and I've tried to imitate a lot of her designs.. usually with only very limited success!

There's a lot of pictures, so come see the rest after the jump.

Work and Play Blue

For work, I wanted to make a mani to accentuate this dress I have with teal and grey circles, with silver and black.  Zoya Fei Fei, one of their new fall colors, seemed perfect, and I had been wanting to wear it since I saw it.

I really like Zoya polishes.  The formula is consistently fantastic, they have lots of different colors and finishes - though their cremes are amazing.  And, they usually have sales or promos if you order from their website.  Fei Fei is gorgeous, and I don't have anything like it!

I am learning to become a better stamper.  So many different things you can do with a stamp!  I used MASH 43 and Essie Nothing Else Metals to make  this circle pattern on my nails.

I really liked how it turned out! None of my students notice my nails, though.  It's okay, that's what I have the internet for. :)

My next look was something I put together for a day at the Zoo with my friends and their toddler.  I started off with Urban Outfitters Barstool (in a Seche bottle - mine was broken!) It was worth saving, though.  As many blues as I have, I can't turn down a muted, dusty blue.  I only used one coat (over glue!), because I knew I was going for glitter.

If you like microglitter like I do, you need this polish.  Wonderwall, by Dandy Nails, is amazeballs.  Two coats, and it meshes together beautifully.  I am loving this 'super secret' glitter technique by Otaku polish for applying glitter, too.  Really makes it easier, and I only have to dab a little to get in the edges now.

This polish held up beautifully all day through all kinds of zoo-experiences, and then peeled off easily because of the my glue base coat.  Glitter is fun again!

Would you wear blue for work and/or play?

Joining Bloglovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

ma, ma, ma, my Sonoma

Oh, how I have been wanting this glitter for a while, and it finally came up in rotation, and I snagged it.

I almost didn't.  My paypal was giving me issues.. one of my other polishes was cartjacked before I could get it fixed, but luckily, Clockwork was still in my shopping cart.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to try it layered over, but I finally settled on SpaRitual Fall In Love.  Because I had.  Fall in Love is a color I'm not sure how to describe.. it's a little bit pink shimmer, some gold shimmer, kinda terracotta, kinda copper...

Sonoma Nail Art Clockwork is a glitter melange of copper, bronze, and gold hexes and a few bars.  I think I got one in this mani... and I picked it off.  To me, bars are not worth the hassle.

Fall In Love did seem to match some of the coppery glitters, but I think I'll try this next over something darker to make the metallics pop. 

Sonoma Nail Art is one of those Indies that can be hard to come by, so you need to stalk her Facebook page to see when the next restock is.  Will you be stalking Sonoma Nail Art?  Or did you already get your favorite Sonoma polish?