What used to be Jade ~ Aurora

What used to be Jade ~ Aurora

Now purple linear holo

Do you remember Aurora that I showed you a short while ago?

It looks like this:

I was super disappointed in this polish because it didn’t look anything like the swatch pictures I had seen online. I don’t like being disappointed over my pretties, so I decided to spice it up a bit.

I poured some of it over into a smaller bottle. Then I added red, pink and purple pigments until I liked the colour. A good shake, rattle and roll, and then the polish was ready to apply.

This is what it ended up looking like. This is two coats and a layer of topcoat:

Isn’t it way prettier than the original?

The only downside is that the brush in the little bottle was really wonky and difficult to work with so I had it all over the place, grr. But that’s fortunately a problem that’s easy to solve.

Have you ever made good polishes better this way?

My own creation – magenta glitter

Today I’m going to show you a polish I made myself. I didn’t franken it, i.e. make it from other polishes – no, I made it from scratch out of suspension base, micas and glitters. And no, I don’t intend to be the next indie maker. My attempt of making my own polish is purely fun for the sake of fun and for my own use. So all you creative indie makers out there: Don’t worry about competition from me!

Basically I made a magenta/silver holo polish.

This is two coats:

I took a flash picture too. It makes some of the magenta glitters look black, but I can assure you that there isn’t any black glitter in there.

I did think that this colour would go well with black though, so I made two stripes on each nail and topcoated the whole thing.

Here’s my final mani:

And a low light picture:

It was fun making a polish on my own. I’ll definitely try it again, to see if I can make something really pretty. I was satisfied with this first attempt.

My first polish doesn’t have a name though. Have you got an idea for a name for it? Please share in the comments below! :)

Nail Mail from Russia again - and with love ♥

Once again I've swapped with my dear friend from Russia, Anastasia from Little World of ColouredNails.  The waiting time wasn't as long this time as it has been before. I think it took about 5 weeks this time. So yes, I was thrilled when the mailman arrived with my Russian goodies!!


Here's one half of the polishes: 

And here's the other half: 

 Let's take a closer look at them, shall we. 
First three up are Dance Legends. Lots of glitter, yay!

Dance Legend: 917, Aztec 8 and 920

Two more Dance Legends. I love the brand so I was happy to see five of them in this swap! These two are colour shifters - the left one is textured, and the right one is a flakie! 

Dance Legend: Sahara Crystal 15, and 529

Then there's a couple of brands I also recognize, Pupa and Jeanmishel. Pretty shimmers both of them: 

Pupa 726 and JeanMishel (name is in Russian :) )

Here's a pretty couple too, Eva and Bell. Eva is pink hologlitter and Bell is a blue/purple glittertopper: 

Eva 085 and Bell Glam Night sparkle 03

Then there's a brand I've been wanting to try for a while: El Corazón. This is a pretty pink with black "dots" that look like tiny poppy seeds. And Seventeen - a beautiful duochrome called 539

El Corazón Dotty Girl and Seventeen 539

Divage is a brand I've received from Anastasia before. They're so pretty, so I welcome another member of that family. It's a blue/red/purple/golden duochrome. Aurelia is new to me, but wow! She's absolutely gorgeous. I love the colour shift in her! 

Divage Special effects 4908 and Aurelia 405

Holo and glitter is always welcome. Dona Mirella is a silver holographic glitter. I can't see the name of the Max Factor, but it's black with silver shimmer.

Dona Mirelle 010 (I think) and Max Factor unnamed

The last polish of them all is very special to me already. It's a multicoloured glitter leaning green. And the best of it is that it's a frankenglitter made especially for me. I'm thrilled! ♥

Frankenglitter

 I also received a new handcream - perfect timing, because the one I got last time we swapped is almost empty. Then there's nail wraps and what I believe is a lip balm with cherry. It's something with cherry anyway :D

Handcream, nail wraps and maybe lipbalm

Anastasia also sent me a necklace with a cute pendant. 

There was also candy, but I didn't get to photograph that, sorry! 

That's my great Russian swap. Thank you so much, Anastasia for making this a great one! ♥

Blue Frankenholoshimmer!

Blue Frankenholoshimmer ~ I only have eyes for you

Do you remember this post, where I showed you my latest frankenpolish? If not, then please go and read it – I’ll wait for you here while you do :D

Back yet? Alright, let’s move right on. I decided to use my frankenpolish for an entire mani instead of just for nail art.

The polish is pretty opaque, but it still takes two coats to make it look great. The polish applies easily and the drying time is reasonably average. Let me show you what two coats (with no top coat) looks like in the sun:

The holo isn’t the strongest but it’s definitely there. I guess the reason for it being less prominent is that I added quite a lot of shimmer to this polish. I love shimmer, as you may know :D Look at this pic:

I also decided to name my creation. I call it “I only have eyes for you”, and to honour that name I picked two other holos, namely Color Club’s Beyond, which is a fantastic black holo from their Halo Hues collection from this spring, and an Urban Outfitters holo called Silver Holo.

I dotted with the silver holo first, and then the black on top of the silver, attempting to make them look like little eyes, LOL! I topped it all with a layer of Catrice Quick Dry & High Shine topcoat, and here’s my final mani:

Another angle:

And the pretty holos:

Here’s an before and after picture from when I made the franken:

I really like this – it really shows how big a sucker I am for holos! I’m so glad to be able to finally wear them after having had them stored away for the entire winter!

Do you like holos as much as I do? If so, what’s your favourite brand/polish?

Milani ~ Magenta Metal - with franken-holo-hearts

Milani ~ Magenta Metal

Magenta with a metallic finish

...and a blue holoshimmer frankenpolish!  

Most of you should know by now that I am not a polish snob. I don’t strive to only own expensive, exclusive or hard-to-get brands. I like what I like, cheap or expensive, mainstream or not. I like Milani as a rule. I don’t own many yet, but I like the ones I’ve got!

The formula of Magenta Metal was good, the polish applied easily and was practically opaque after the first coat. I gave it two anyway – to give it the best conditions, and also out of habit. It didn’t make very much of a difference though.

I love the shine of this polish! Here’s two coats – no top coat yet:

Then I painted little hearts on it with a blue FrankenShimmerHolopolish which I’d made that very same day. I used my dotting tool to draw the hearts with, and then I made small dots around the hearts. One layer of Catrice Quick Dry & High Shine top coat, and here’s my final mani:

I didn’t have access to sunshine, but here’s a pic shot under a light bulb, so you can see that there actually is holographic effect in this frankenpolish:

And here’s a before and after-picture of the franken. I used Rimmel’s “Azure” as my base, and added Spectraflair and shimmerpowder in it until I was satisfied with the result. Oh, and I added four shaker-balls to it as well, to be able to shake it up properly! :D

Before and after the frankening

This mani came right out of the blue – I swear I didn’t know where it would end when I started it. But I like it! Do you? :)

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Hit the Lights ~ Nail art with Frankenpolish

Hit the Lights

Here’s a manicure I made with the one polish that I got for Christmas:

Let’s look at the redish purple first. It’s called “Hit the Lights” and it’s a Christmas gift for me, made by sweet Alice Snow. It’s a lovely purple with holographic microglitter, and a larger glitters, that aren’t holographic, but I can’t decipher what colour they were originally. They look like purple to me.

What I love about this franken is that the glitters aren’t chunky. Sometimes it feels as if frankening is about finding as much glitter as you can and stuff it into a bottle. I like that the glitter is kinda subtle in this polish!

The polish is mixed in a Color Club bottle, so I looked in my Color Club stash to find appropriate polishes to pair it with.

I started with Antiquated from the Foiled collection from autumn 2011. It’s a beige/golden polish, that I would never have bought on its own. It came with the set though, so I thought I’d try it out now. I must admit that I’m positively surprised over it. I’m not going to use it on its own, but it’s perfect for effects like here. It covers well in one coat, and is good for stamping too!

I taped my nails and painted like this:

That looks pretty cool in my opinion!

Next polish up is “Cold Metal”, also from the Foiled collection. I’m totally in love with this collection because all the polishes are well pigmented and great covering. I taped my nails once more, and painted them like this:

Now we’re talking, right? :D

I wanted my mani to be glittery, so I applied a layer of Sally Hansen “Disco Ball”, which is a plain iridescent glitter. It was a bit denser than I remembered it, but I actually think it makes the mani complete:

Here are the pretties in their bottles:

  

Were there polishes under your tree this year?

Nail Mail from Hungary

It's the second time I receive polishes from sweet Tünde in Hungary! 

She knew I was dying to try some new top coats, so she sent me two different ones, namely NYC Turbo Dry top coat and Miss Sporty Nail Expert Manicure for glossy nails. And then she sent me something else - something special. 

Take a look at what I got: 

The third bottle may look like Esssence "Blue Addicted", but it's not. It is in fact a Frankenpolish that she made especially for me! If that isn't the sweetest thing I've ever heard, then I don't know what is!!  It's a dark blue base, packed with blue glitters and also some green ones in between the rest. It's absolutely gorgeous. I had to try it on right away, of course. 

Look at the depth of this!!

I am totally overwhelmed! It's only the second time someone made a polish just for me, and I can assure you that it feels very good every time.

Thanks, Tünde, for doing this swap with me! ♥

PS. She sent candy too, but that magically disappeared...

OPI ~ Super Bass Shatter

OPI ~ Super Bass Shatter

Fuchsia jelly crackle with shimmer

Super Bass Shatter is from the Nicki Minaj collection from spring 2012. It was the only crackle in the collection, and the only one I’ve got. I had decided to give this entire collection a miss, but my boyfriend thought this one was way too pretty to miss, so he bought it for me ♥

A crackle obviously needs underwear, and I used a silver glitter franken I made – this is one coat, covered with a thick layer of Seche Vite.

Crackle time! I haven’t used crackle polishes enough to have had enough of them yet. I used one medium coat of Super Bass Shatter for this mani, and it crackled perfectly, showing the shining glitter underneath it!

The polish was very easy to apply. It didn’t dry just as fast as some other crackles do, so I had time to re-dip the brush in the polish for the bigger thumb nails without creating really ugly double-crackles!

On the pics above I’ve applied another thick coat of Seche Vite top coat. The franken dried up gritty, and the crackle also, so even with top coat over the franken and an additional layer over the crackle, this mani is still very bumpy! I don’t mind a little texture, so I’m ok with that.

I’m glad I have this polish in my collection. I’ll try it over other colours as well – I know that it looks more purple if applied over blue for instance, so I have to try that.

What do you think? I know that the crackle thing was huge just before I started blogging – but isn’t there still room for a crackle mani now and again? :)

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 9/10
Buy again: Yes

Glitter Review

Hi girls,

Here are three cool glitters:

'

I mixed some scoops of each of the glitters into clear polish. I wanted the glitters to be opaque on their own – I wasn’t interested in glittery toppers at this point.

Here are two coats of each swatched on a nail wheel:

And here they are on my nails – still two coats of each polish:

It doesn’t look very glittery, does it? Let me show you another picture, taken in the sun this time:

Wow, right? And here’s a blurred one to show you the holo effect:

The verdict is:

Pros:

- The glitter is quite stunning. I’m especially in love with the magenta!

- It’s easy to make an opaque polish of these glitters

- The price is reasonable for a relatively large amount of glitter

Cons:

- The glitters bleed once they’ve been mixed into a base, so it’ll only take a couple of hours before your base isn’t clear anymore (the clear base becoming more coloured and opaque), and diminishing the colour strength of the individual glitters.

- My polish chipped after less than 24 hours! And I’m talking big chips here!

- The polishes end up being very top coat hungry. I applied three coats of top coat, and they were still textured!

KKcenterHK has been so kind to offer my readers a 10% discount. 

Your unique coupon code is rainbowifyme (easy to remember, right? :D), and it’s valid until January 31st 2013!

Until tomorrow girls - let me hear your thoughts, please!