Seeing Spots- some nail doodling to tide us over...

Hi y'all! I'm still coughing my fool head off and feeling gross, so I dipped into my photo archives to share something I did not too long ago while I was doodling. Sometimes I enjoy just putting various polishes together to see what I can come up with.

I'd love to tell you what polishes I used for this design, but I can't. Most of those colors I mixed myself from various polishes in my collection, and I honestly don't remember how I achieved them. However, this is a very simple look to achieve.

First, I imagined a V going down the center of my nail. I painted the three base colors, one in each triangle. After that dried, I began adding dots with whatever color I thought would mesh well with the backgrounds. I started with the large silver center dots on the turquoise bit, then added smaller pink dots on top of the silver ones. Finally I filled in the blank spaces with the sparkly blue dots. The side triangles are more simple. Finally I added black stripes to better separate the three sections. A quick coat of topcoat finished things off!

Hopefully I'll be feeling enough better to get a post up soon. If not, I'll dig into the archives again! Til next time!

The robots are coming to take me away!! :D

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Hard Candy - Beetle

You may have noticed by now that I tend to be drawn to interesting polishes- duochromes, holos, things that don't look typical. I love iridescence, I love sparkle and glitter and shimmer. I am a total magpie, so when I saw Hard Candy's new polish Beetle in the display, I absolutely fell in love.

It's such a hard color to describe, for me. Depending on the angle of the light, I can see purple, magenta, green and gold in it at varying times. It's a beautiful foil polish that is absolutely stunning on the nail, and it wears like iron on me. These photos were taken 7 days after I applied the polish, and I hadn't even applied topcoat after that!

The photo to the left shows more of the variations of color that show up. I wore this the day of the impromptu polish party, and my nieces absolutely loved it. They gathered around while I was painting their nails and tried to decide how many colors they could find in it.

Then one niece asked why it was called Beetle. I loved this, because I was able to describe how beetles' wings are iridescent and reflect many colors, just like this polish. We also discussed the term "duochrome," and the roots of it- duo means two and chrome means colors.

Unfortunately, they then asked why this would be called a duochrome if more than two colors show up, and I had no answer for them. I think they forgave me for it, though. They certainly seemed happy enough with the holo polish on their own nails!

I had lots of fun wandering around my father-in-law's property looking for photo ops. He's got so many lovely flowerbeds, but almost nothing was in bloom this time of year! Of course, he did have some gorgeous pansies in the back yard that I didn't find until after I'd finished taking photos. That's ok, though... I'm happy with the shots I got.

What do you think of Beetle- is it your kind of polish, or do you tend to stick with more traditional colors?

Hard Candy Beetle was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Deborah Lippmann - Between the Sheets

I'm a simple girl with simple tastes. I've said for years that nail polish is nail polish is nail polish, and that I had no idea what could make a $16 polish so much better than a $1 polish. I've maintained that my Wet n Wild polishes, as long as I use a good base coat and top coat, are just as good as anything that comes with a fancier name and a fancier price tag.

Then I got polishes from Deborah Lippmann. First of all, they come in a sturdy plastic box, clear so that you can see the delicious color inside. The box is strong, and made me feel like I was getting something with a little bit more value. It's a nice touch, and I appreciate it.

After I opened the box, I was struck by just how solid the bottle feels. It's a square bottle with a little pedestal on the bottom, and to be honest, there's a lot of polish in it (.5 fl oz/15 ml). It feels substantial in my hand. At this point, I started talking to my husband about it, how silly I felt. I know I'm easily swayed by packaging, whether it's cute or elegant. But I didn't want to fall for this polish's packaging and be biased about the polish's performance. I wanted to give this polish a fair evaluation, and be willing to tear it to shreds if that's what it needed.

So I waited a day or two to apply it. I've got patience, I don't have to pounce immediately. But as soon as I got that bottle in my hand, I got excited. It doesn't smell quite as strong as other polishes, so that's a major plus. But as I started to apply it, I was absolutely stunned by how creamy and gorgeous this polish is to use. The color was almost opaque after 1 coat. My nails practically painted themselves!

I tweeted about it halfway through doing my nails. My friends laughed at me because I don't normally rave about a polish like this. But this polish was an absolute dream to apply, and as it dried, it didn't lose that wet glossy shine I love so much. Two coats dried quickly, and dried glossy. I had to call my husband in to see!

So today, we went to play cards, and as I was shuffling the deck, my husband noticed that my nails seemed glossier than usual. Nothing changed but the polish, but if my husband notices my nails something has to be different! He said the color looked rich, deep, and they made him think of a custom paint job on a fancy car. I think the color is juicy and inviting, to the point I can't stop looking at my nails.

After wearing the polish for two days, I've got minimal tipwear. No chips, no problems other than the tips, and that happens no matter what I'm wearing. I feel like the only way this polish could get better is if it cleaned my bathrooms for me!

So, I thought to myself... what else can I test? I decided to see if it would work with Konad stamping. Surely it can't be this fantastic and work with stamping too, right?

Wrong. I got the best stamp I've ever done from this polish. It's not quite opaque, and I don't think I'd try it on black. But on light colors, this stuff is a dream.

At this point, I can't think of any other tests to do with it. I'm wearing it with nail decals, and while my poor topcoat has had a time with them, the polish is still in perfect shape. It's official- the packaging, the product, and the performance of Deborah Lippmann polishes really are worth the extra money. If you feel like spoiling yourself, grab one of the creme colors- if you're anything like me, you'll feel like a million bucks!

Polishes were sent to me by PR for consideration.
See my disclosure statement for more information.

Paint splatters can be FUN!

You know, I admit it. I am totally a child of the 80s. I love neon, I love wild prints, and I love paint splats. This set of nails reminds me of a sweatshirt I had in grade school, only the shirt was white instead of black. But what better color than black to make colors pop?

You can see how vivid the colors are. I can't lie, I want to keep these all for myself! So much fun, but at least I can redo them if I decide to!

This set of nails is made with a custom-mixed rainbow of acrylic paints, so that they have the same level of intensity. I love the black base, and the topcoat makes the colors so intense and glassy!

I won't lie, I can see doing this design with shimmers, metallics, glitters... monochromatic colors, analogous colors... I think it'd be fun no matter HOW I mixed it up! It's just downright FUN! Oooh, imagine white splats on a black background, with the occasional splat of red! There are so many ways to do this, and I don't know if any are better than the others. You'll definitely see this pattern again, if only on Etsy! Speaking of Etsy, these will be going up as soon as I finish this post.

I'm so excited to add that I've got some surprises coming up soon! I'm planning some videos, both of some of those dramatic, color-shifting polishes in the sun as well as some technique videos. If you have anything you'd like to see, feel free to leave requests in the comments!

And oy, I've just looked at the clock to see that once again, I'm catching 7:30am from the wrong side. I think I need to go to sleep. Man... one of these days I'll get my internal clock set right again.

...maybe. :D