I apologize for a bit of brevity for the next little while. My cat is sick and we’re having to take her to various specialists. I’ve got a few posts in the queue, so there will still be updates, but I’m a bit distracted.
I am trying my hardest to avoid using my matte. Really, I am. But I desperately wanted to for this manicure, as Glitrix’ polishes look so darn pretty matte. I resisted, and here we are. Look! Shiny! (do not look at my raggy cuticles. the force compels youuuu)
Zoya Bevin was the base polish for this. Zoya’s site description is: “dusty, medium sage green with teal tones and a creamy opaque finish”. I generally agree. It’s less aqua than, say, Wednesday, which one of my friends was wearing recently and I crushed hard on until I reminded myself that the spoon swatch that I have of it is practically identical to Julep Miranda.
Sous La Mer is from Glitrix, and it’s a very pretty aqua polish with a bunch of glitter: large holo hexes, gold bars, tiny red hexes, plus some added gold shimmer. It’s neat, though the gold doesn’t show up as well on the nail. I’m betting it would stand out more if it were matteified, though. Just saying. ;) The big hexes are a little tougher to dig out of the bottle, but as you can see, I managed a pretty decent distribution, though some of them got buried by the second coat. It’s actually a pretty opaque polish.
This is the only indoor photo (the rest were taken at a bus stop. :3 Many of my photos are). I should have taken a bottle photo, but if you kind of take the one of Sakura from a few days ago and turn it aqua-green instead of pink, you pretty much get the idea. Seriously adorable little star-shaped bottles. She actually sells empties, too, if you’re interested in getting some for making your own tiny frankens.
One coat of Bevin on everything, another Bevin on the accent nail, and two of Sous La Mer on everything else. I really enjoyed wearing this, though I am considering getting a bottle of Seche or possibly Gelous to accommodate for the slight bumpiness of the glitter. It’s not really distracting, and actually shows up more in photos than it does to the touch, but I’m thinking about it.
I get my Zoyas from Zoya.com. Glitrix sells on Etsy.
(Click here for a semi-explanation of the title of this post because you are probably not a Buck-Tick fan, unless you are, in which case you are probably giggling right now. Otherwise, accept that I am a fan of a Japanese rock band, enjoy bad jokes, and go on and look at the pretty pictures.)
Seriously, people, these are ridiculous. They’re prone to brushstrokes, smell vile during application, and have possibly the worst brushes I’ve had the misfortune to encounter (especially Cool), but they are gorgeous.
I wore them for two entire days and had a little difficulty wanting to take them off even after that long, so I must have really enjoyed wearing them. Admission: I did spend most of today with them matte’ified, but I didn’t take pictures because I am trying to wean myself off the E-MAY, so you will have to take my word for it that they were beautiful like that, too.
The purple/red/blue one is HITS Mari Moon Dreamer, and the teal/green/khaki one is HITS Mari Moon Cool. On my left hand, I did Cool with two Dreamer accent nails, and reversed it on the right. All nails were three moderate coats plus Butter London Hardwear P.D. Quick topcoat.
There really are only two polishes visible in this entire post. They just have EXTREEEEEME DUOCHROME AAAAACTION going on. Dreamer more than Cool, but Cool still had some pretty intense shifts.
Both of these were gifts via the outstanding U., who is not so fond of duochromes as I am. They are, however, available for sale at Llarowe and Ninja Polish.
There are eight more pictures beneath the cut, because four images were just not enough.
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I thought about copper or red, but it was gray outside the window and I needed a pep-up, so I ended up with turquoise with a color shifting topcoat. Oh you guys. You guys.
Check this out:
Colors used are Julep Miranda (two coats) and one moderately heavy coat of Lilacquer Polishes Kitsune on top. On the ring fingers, I also used a single coat of Essie Matte About You because I was curious if it would look neat. It did, and still showed the duochrome. BONUS.
This one was out in the sunshine, and is the most color-accurate image. Miranda is a lovely deep aqua polish — I would have punched myself in the side of the head about ten years ago, had I heard myself say such things; how tastes change! — with a creme finish. Kitsune is a clear-based, color-shifting, sparkly topcoat that goes from gold and orange/red to green. It’s gorgeous and incredibly versatile, as it doesn’t change the color of your base nail polish at all.
I think Kitsune would layer beautifully over almost anything, but these kinds of topcoats are known for looking especially striking over black or other dark colors. I’ve got a couple of very pretty dark purples I might try later.
I am relatively unrepentant about my obsession with matte-ifying polishes. Pretty much anything except a holo is fair game by me. Holo glitter isn’t exempt, however, as you will see in a couple of days. :3
Now, the day after I did this, I was due to have the sort of dinner that gets capitalized: A Really Nice Dinner, with nice clothes and moderately decent table manners and everything. Aqua nail polish? Not terribly appropriate. Naturally, I ran out of time to redo my nails (and not incidentally, ran out of polish remover), so I had to do a very quick alteration. I layered on one coat of Zoya Jules, a taupey gold, and then more Essie Matte About You and the thing ended up being a bit like old gold and rather cool, if somewhat thick and lumpy in spots. Still, it toned down the mani considerably and matched my hair accessory, so I was pleased.
SUCCESS.
Julep polishes are available on their website here, though I’ve also seen them recently at Sephora. (I bought mine from a friend, as Miranda is no longer available on the website. ^_^) Lilacquer polishes are available on Etsy.
All polishes were purchased by me with intent to use them in ordinary ways.
Vanitas Rex 