Karmic Flowers

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm old. I'm jaded.  I have TONS of Indie polishes now, and if I'm going to be seduced into buying another, it had better be on sale.

Unless it's the Fall-ographic collection from Amy's Nail Boutique.  Yes, it's holo and duochrome, and I'm a sucker.  This is Karma Chameleon.

Look at that lovely shift and glow. 

I wanted to do some nail art that I could pull off on my non-dominant hand, and I was inspired by this abstract flower look from My Nail Polish Online.  I love how the blues in her mani worked together, and I wanted to do something similar with pink and orange.

After drawing the stems of the flower with a black striper, I used a dotting tool and Too Cute-icle Gorgeous to make the petals.

It's an *abstract* look, see?  It's supposed to look that way on my right hand.

I wanted to see what it would look like with a stronger pink, so I dotted Priti NYC Jersey Beauty Dahlia over the orange.  I like it!

Amy's Nail Boutique has some spectacular, affordable holos that I really like a lot.  I love using holos as a background for nail art, plus they dry fast for a quick mani when you have to run out the door. This is a quick, fun nail art that is hard to mess up!

Cult Nails Art Deco

Hello, Fireflies! 

Today, I'd like to show you a little fun, bright, art-deco inspired mani using some Cult Nails polishes.

I started out with Cult Nails All Out, a yellow shimmer.  I knew it was meant to be a topper, and isn't opaque at all.  I actually thought it would be more sheer than it turned out to be!  It's not meant to be worn alone, so I didn't get a pix of that.

I was inspired by this swirled look by Rikki2007 posted on Nails Magazine Art Gallery.  She did her look with different neons, but that wasn't what I was feeling today.  I thought that Cult Nails Be Loco was bright enough, but not quite neon, to pull the look together. 

I probably should have used tape for cleaner lines, but I was lazy. 

Be Loco dries with the wax finish that Cult Nails has had in their last few collections.  For this mani, I preferred it shiny, so a little topcoat was in order.  I like to topcoat over my black details, anyway, to help them pop.

Bottle shot:  Cult Nails All Out, Be Loco, and my trusty black nail art striper.

I love it when a look is bold, fun, and simple.  What do you think?

Future Reflections of a Giddy Kipper

Hello, Fireflies!

I always feel a little bad showing you a polish that is so HTF.  All Enchanted Polishes are that way, but if you like them as much as I do, stalking a restock is the best way to get one. 

This is Enchanted Polish Future Reflections, from the Time to Pretend collection.  It's not retired yet, but it hasn't been restocked in a while.  I swapped another EP to get this pretty.

I love multichromes, and I love holo, so this collection fit the bill for me.  The whole collection is an amped up holo version of EP's Imagine collection, so if you like the colors, that's another way to go. 

As beautiful as it is, I've been in a nail art mood lately, and hardly any polish escapes being embellished these days.  I was inspired by a Pinterest that I couldn't find the original for.  It bugs me when that happens.

I thought that Butter London Giddy Kipper was a nice match for a diagonal French tip.

I added the swirls in white and gold with nail art stripers.  I tried silver first, but it just got lost in the holo. 

I love how this design compliments Future Reflections.

Bottle shot:  Enchanted Polish Future Reflections, Butter London Giddy Kipper, Milani Nail Art Gold glitter, and white striper.

Is it heresy to embellish such a coveted polish?  I hope not, because I have another EP to show you later this week where I do it again... uh, oh!

Forces of Nature

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm excited to show you these.. even though pretty much everyone else has already heard of these great Emily de Molly "Forces" polishes, they are new to me.  I wasn't expecting them to live up to the hype... but I admit it.  I love them.

Before I speak to each individual polish, I want to say something about the circle glitters in all three. 

I was, frankly, expecting to hate them. 

My nails are small, and typically, what I see with these large glitters is that they overwhelm my nails.  These circles were the perfect size - I could even get 2 on some of my nails!  I couldn't believe it.  I REALLY couldn't believe that these polishes looked as good on me as they did in all the swatches I've seen.

First up, Oceanic Forces. 

This is everything a teal jelly glitter polish should be.  The jelly makes for light and dark areas, and the large and small holo and blue glitters distort the light to give differences in depth, just like an ocean bed. 

Cosmic Forces is a dark purple jelly with holo glitters that flash pink, purple, and blue. 

I was so surprised by the flashes of blue!  That holo circle glitter on my pinkie is flashing the most beautiful cobalt blue.  Awesome formula; beautiful polish.

Dark Forces is a black jelly with silver holo glitters that flash all the colors of the rainbow.

This was the only formula that gave me a little trouble - I needed three coats to even it out, and getting the circle glitters out of the bottle was a real hassle.  I don't know why this one was difficult, because the other two Forces were easy and lovely formulas.

I can't believe how the circle glitters look so awesome and different in each of these polishes.  Really great combinations of colors and textures in all three of these.  I'm glad I finally caved and got all three of them!  Emily de Molly is an Australian Indie, but she does sell through stocklists that ship to the US, like Llarowe.

Which is your fave?

Matchy Monday - inspired by my Indian-print dress

Hello, Fireflies!

Today, I have a simple, but beautiful color polish to show you:  Barry M. Copper.

I love a microglitter like this that has flashes of other colors.  The pink and chartreuse are what drew me to pair it with one of my favorite dresses.

This dress has, what I like to think of as, an Indian-style print.  Some areas of the dress are tan with a pink hue, like here:

And other parts have this pattern with greens and blues and even rust colors.  I love how this makes the polish seem more green and gold!

One of the reasons I like changing my polish every day is to see what inspiration I get from what I wear - even if it's to pick out the right purple to wear with my t-shirt!  Are your nails inspired by your outfits?

Stamping Sunday - Glitzy Glam

Today's stamping challenge is "glitz and glam."  So, I picked a glitzy base - gorgeous Zoya Carter, a purple Pixie Dust with pink glitter.

I like it with topcoat, too!  Sparkly!

I stamped with Pueen 08 and Maybelline Bold Gold - because what's more glam than gold?

And, for the ultimate touch of glitz, I added silver square studs in two different sizes, incorporating them into the stamped design.

Bling, Bling!!

Bottle shot:  Zoya PixieDust in Carter, and my go-to gold stamping polish, Maybelline Bold Gold.

It was fun to do, but way too much for me to wear on a regular basis.  I love the look of studs, but I usually end up picking them off! What's your idea of a glitzy-glam mani?

Zoya Blue Ombre

MOAR Zoya today, Fireflies!

When Zoya has a BOGO, I am always there.  They had a back-to-school promo I took advantage of - Earth Day is always a good day to stock up, too.

I started with Zoya Raven.  It's the closest thing to pure black that Zoya has at the moment.  You can't really tell from my pix, but it actually has tiny flecks of silver.  It's a nice black, but it took me 2-3 coats, so it won't replace Cult Nails Nevermore for a one-coat black.

Well, I like black nails almost as much as the next gal, but I rarely wear just plain black nails.  So, I was inspired to do this ombre technique from Fundamentally Flawless. 

I added a layer of Zoya Neve, covering all but the very edges of my nail.  I thought I had enough metallic blues, but I needed Neve.  It has a really neat pink and blue shimmer!

Leaving a little bit of Neve exposed, I covered the center of the nails with Zoya Sailor.  This was dustier than I thought it would be, but is a nice counterpoint to the shimmer of Neve.

How did I not know about Zoya Crystal before?  This is gorgeous - I love the mix of blue and gold together in this polish. 

As the final highlight, a tiny stripe of Zoya Rocky.

So easy, you can do it on your non-dominant hand!  I just wish I could take the pix quicker - before I ding a nail.  And also, I need to figure out how to do better lighting for that hand.  I get all twisty trying to get a good pix.

Zoya pretties!!  Raven, Neve, Sailor, Crystal, and Rocky.

What do you think of this ombre striped technique?  I love that there are so many ways to do it.  A great way to show off my Zoyas, too!