(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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Also known as a picspam post of nails that I enjoyed, but which either didn’t get enough satisfactory photos to justify their own post, or I found too boring to talk about at length. It will give you insight into exactly how out-of-order some of my posts are. :)
I started with this, on June 29th:
That’s two coats of OPI My Private Jet (the brownish version) on the dark nails and one coat (!) of MAC Earthly Harmony as an accent. It was a pretty decent manicure; lasted about a day, wore well with my clothes, etc. I was incredibly impressed by the MAC polish — smooth, even, easily controlled. It made a great contrast to my other experiences with the brand.
When I checked the mail that evening, I discovered that I’d received some new toys and could not possibly wait to play with them.
Same mani, but with two layers of Glitter Gal Shade Shifters Soft Hidden Violet on the main fingers and GG SS Soft Daybreak on the accent. This photographed horribly. It was really lovely in person, and the duochrome is beautiful on both colors. Sadly, the light was unkind, or perhaps my photography is really that sad.
That mani lasted about six hours. Late that night, tired of looking at tipwear/shrinkage, I redid my nails entirely as the pale gold/pink look I posted a couple of days ago. After that came the polka dots I posted on the fourth (actually completed on the third), and then I could not deal with the spots after wearing them four about five hours and did this:
This was initially just BB Couture Award Medal and Layla Magnetic Purple Galaxy. My first magnetic experience was underwhelming, though the polish itself was actually pretty nice. I wore this overnight and hated looking at it in the morning, so I thought I’d see if I could add things until I liked it again. The BB got a topcoat of Lilacquer Lycanthrope (green-gold duochrome sparkly topcoat w/a clear base, very lovely) and the Layla first got three coats of Pretty and Polished Wine Night Out, then an additional topcoat of Lilacquer Bakeneko.
One more to show off Lycanthrope’s lovely green and gold shimmer:
But even with beautiful topcoats I still hated the gold and purple combo, so I wiped it out and redid my nails entirely.
This is how my manicures work at the moment; with a suddenly expanded collection and propensity for getting bored with my nails within hours of doing them, I change things up faster than I post. Be proud of me, though — there’s no matte in this post. ;D Also, I acquired a bottle of acetone and a cheap brush and am learning how to do proper cleanup! Go me! Next step: wrapping the tips. Hm.
All of these except the two indies and Glitter Gals were gifted to me by the mesmerizing U. The GG’s were purchased at Llarowe, where they are currently on sale, and Beautometry, where they are not. Lilacquer sells on Etsy, as does Pretty & Polished, though P&P will also be turning up on Llarowe soon.
In two days, I’ll be talking about a pair of superlative duo/multichromes — Hits Mari Moon Cool & Dreamer.
Zoya Lotus + Lilacquer Bakeneko topcoat = a gorgeous, shimmery manicure that I am very pleased by.
Lotus is a slightly dusty purple not too far (though more red) than a color I think of as Imperial Violet. It has a beautiful shimmer that seems to shift from red to gold, passing through pink in certain lights.
Bakeneko is a multichromatic topcoat that, from photos I’ve seen, does a pretty good job mimicking Clarins 230/Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I have never seen either of those beasts in person, so I cannot verify this for certain, but all three feature red-orange-gold-green shifting pigment and a purple base, and perhaps my photos will tell more. Also, I love the name — shapeshifting monster cats for the win!
This makes me so happy. Each Lotus-painted nail is two coats, except the pinky, which is three only because I initially was crazy and thought I’d put a matte on this manicure. Foolish human. What was I thinking? (Though I have to be square with you; Bakeneko looks pretty awesome matte. I might do that again later.) The Bakeneko nails are one coat of Lotus and two coats of Bakeneko.
I’ve really been playing around with two accent nails. I still can’t decide entirely how I feel about it, or if I prefer just one. For this round, I decided that full hands of sparkly, multichrome, oh my god that’s lovely would be too distracting and I’d probably walk out in traffic or something equally silly, so I went for just enough to make a point.
I like the way these two complement each other. I am a fan of coordinating sparkles. One is just much more subtle.
Here are a couple of extra pics with a bit of blur that really show off the shift and the shimmer in Lotus:
I buy my Zoya polishes from Zoya, and Lilacquer from her shop on Etsy.
I bought both of these with my own money and I wear them because I think they’re pretty. ;)
Ugh. I’ve devolved into terrible puns already.
First, I must mention that today was nail clipping day. I do this pretty regularly to keep my nails in good shape. They grow pretty quickly, so I usually cut them a bit shorter than I really want them, and they’re about perfect in a week or so. The images you’ve seen for the last week or whatever are my nails at about the longest I allow them to grow. Much longer than that and I start gouging myself.
TL;DR, my nails are pretty short today, thus I went for a dark color because I sometimes find them a little overwhelming on long nails.
This one is a NotD featuring ORLY Royal Velvet, a blue/violet duochrome; Nfu Oh 53, a translucent blue polish with orange-red-green shifting flakes, and my singular favorite, Essie Matte About You.
The post is titled the way it is because I find Royal Velvet to be annoying in application — thin, streaky, and difficult to control — to the point where I’m nearly tempted to buy Mysterious Curse, its clone from the ORLY Dark Shadows collection, as I’ve read that it’s thicker than Royal Velvet.
This was three coats of Royal Velvet with one fairly thin coat of the Nfu Oh on my left and two on my right (hence the differing amounts of flake — I did eventually match them, but I liked the way fewer looked and kind of wish I’d left them both with one. It also murdered the purple right out of it, as the Nfu Oh is blue-based. The extra flakes were pretty, though. ), and then a whopping slap of E-MAY. I am deeply in love with flakies under matte. The effect makes me very happy.
When not buried under matte, Royal Velvet tends to appear mostly blue, as the shimmer is intense and tends to overwhelm the base color in all but the most intense of light. After being matte’d, it seems to turn into a more proper duochrome, if you will, in that it shows both purple and blue in equal measure based more on the angle from which it is perceived. It’s still hard to photograph, though, and definitely shows up best in more diffuse or yellow light. The above photo was taken with my desk light off — see how much more purple it looks? That was way more visible in person, too.
I’m enjoying this mani, but I’m still feeling greenish, so I may go back to that after tomorrow. Still, isn’t this pretty despite my horrible application and smudging around the edges?
I buy my ORLY polishes mostly from Ulta, especially when they have specials. They are available other places online, too. The Nfu Oh was a gift, but I presume you can find them online. Essie came from Ulta.
Not all polishes in this post were bought by me, but none were given as promos. Just birthday presents. :)
Today we will be ignoring some terrible polishing errors as well as my usual rumplefingers. I swear they’ve been like that my entire life (though biting my nails for years certainly didn’t help), and it doesn’t matter how much I moisturize my hands. I will be scary as hell when I get older.
Eventually I had to actually bring some bolder colors back into my life, right? (Aqua isn’t bold? Hm.) Today I wanted some sparkle to counteract the relentless rain and cloudiness that this “spring” has been drenched in. The rest of the country is having heatstroke, and I’m still wearing out my winter coat. Thus, I pulled out MAC Bad Fairy for a quick hit of glitz. It’s not the only dense glitter in my collection, but it is one of the brightest I’ve currently got.
However, wearing it as a full mani seemed like a little too much for me, especially since it involved the pain of glitter removal in the not-too-distant future. So I paired it with Cult Nails Cruisin’ Nude. Might seem a little strange, but Cruisin’ Nude has an absolutely amazing pink shimmer running all through it that I felt balanced it out pretty well. Brilliant glittery red/pink/orange duochrome versus creamy tan with pink shimmer? I’m down with this.
It’s a pretty fun manicure, though I will admit that I showered too soon after finishing it and managed to ding it up pretty fiercely. Plus, all photos are in relatively dim household lighting because it was aspiring to emulate the Great Flood out today. The rundown on this is: two coats of Cruisin’ Nude on each finger except the accents, which are one coat Cruisin’ Nude as a base, then three coats of Bad Fairy.
Sparrrkle. This is the first time I’ve really worn Cruisin’ Nude and I am seriously loving it. The contrasting shimmer sets it apart from the other neutral polishes I have. The formula was also stellar, and I could probably have used one coat, unlike Bad Fairy, which, along with being slightly bitchy to work with, is a pill to get fully opaque. Not to be harshing on MAC, really, since I’ve experienced the same thing with similar types of polishes from other brands.
I should also mention that I am testing out base/topcoats again. I’ve tried a few, but I just got Butter London’s matte base and I am loving it. I’ll have to see how it responds to my Zoyas, as they’re the ones I’ve found to be the most picky so far.
I bought Cruisin’ Nude directly from Cult Nails during a sale, and I regret nothing. It is beautiful, and hopefully it will stick around, so if I ever run low, I can buy a second one. Bad Fairy was an LE from a couple of years ago, and I got it on the secondary market. You might be able to locate it on eBay or the like.
All polishes were obtained through my own efforts to hand money to deserving people in exchange for beautiful things to plaster on my nails. Rather badly, in this case. Hromph.
Vanitas Rex 