Bah. All my brain power is busily being co-opted for schooling.
Anyhow, this is a quick mani done with one of the L’Oreal Project Runway polishes, The Muse’s Attitude, plus a-england Excalibur, both with serious holo topcoats. If you’re looking for swatches of either of these, I apologize; this is not the post you are looking for. *waves fingers*
On to the photos:
.Without the topcoat, Muse’s Attitude is a ridiculously pretty deep teal-esque green foil that shows a slight purple duochrome or flash at extreme angles. It seems as though it’s pretty close to Illamasqua Viridian, as I’ve observed the same thing about it, but I don’t own Viridian myself, so I can’t do a proper comparison. This was two coats; the first was streaky and the second was opaque. I don’t think it got on well with my basecoat, but I’m a bit used to that from drugstore brands. I apologize for not taking any pictures of it without the topcoat. I’ll definitely be wearing it again before fall is out, though, so check back again later!
Excalibur is The Perfect Silver. Seriously, I will probably never buy another silver metallic polish (ask me about that in six months and we’ll see how well I’ve kept to that promise) as long as I have this. I initially applied one coat and it was opaque, but I inflicted a few dents via kitten and did another to fix them. I need more a-england polishes. I need them until I have all of them. :)
Over Excalibur, I applied one coat of Glitter Gal Silver 3D/Holo. Over Muse’s Attitude, I used my standby Piper Polish Co. Spectraflair Topcoat. You will be seeing a lot of that over the next month, as I don’t have quite enough actual holo polishes to fill a whole month, and I love playing with it.
There’s really nothing like a holo nail for distracting you when you’re walking in the sun.
I bought Muse’s Attitude at a Walgreen’s, but I’ve seen them other places as well. Glitter Gal is available various places (Llarowe, Ninja Polish, Beautometry). a-england polishes are also available at all of those retailers, but I got this one straight from their site during a sale. Piper Polish Co. is on etsy. *whew*
I’ve been a bit of an Anglophile since I was young, a result of reading a lot of British children’s (and not so children’s) books and watching possibly too many Britcoms and dramas on Channel 9, the local PBS station, so I have a long-held weakness for things with British themes. When I saw L’Oreal’s new London Fall collection at a local drugstore, I initially resisted, but after seeing it again at another, gave in and bought the peacock-blue creme, Rainy Piccadilly. I’m still tempted by a couple of the others, but am holding out for now.
It’s a beautiful color, very rich and deep, and it does dry a bit darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle. I’ve found that quirk common with this sort of dark blue, though this one is a bit lighter than the others I own. I decided to pair it with Enchanted Polish Vampire’s Dessert, which is a deep brownish-red holo. It tends to look mostly black in full sunlight, but in bright indoor light, shows off the true color, which is a bit like a freshly dried scab over a wound that bled profusely. It’s quite lovely, and I think looks very nice with the rich blue as a contrast. The holo effect was fairly strong, though not crazy rainbows levels of madness, and it does mostly fade in the shade.
Both of these polishes were fairly opaque at one coat; Rainy Piccadilly was slightly streaky on a couple of nails where my base wasn’t fully dry, but perfect all the others. Two coats are ideal, I think, for depth of color and evenness. I’ve really liked the color and texture of both the L’Oreal polishes I’ve tried, and would definitely consider purchasing them as they release more appealing colors.
Both of these are intensely pigmented, and cleanup was a bit of a horror. Not a full-on-screaming-in-terror-AUGH-WOULD-YOU-JUST-LEAVE-MY-CUTICLES horror, to be certain; they’re a holo and a creme, not serious glitter monsters, but still, if you have the interest, cleanup is easier while they’re still slightly damp, or by the terrible habit of peeling after they’re fully dry.
Vampire’s Dessert is one of the many shades that is being discontinued by Enchanted Polish, at least for the time being. As of last I checked (August 4th) it was still available at Llarowe. L’Oreal is a drugstore polish, and you can probably find it at any of your local shops. I’ve seen them at Walgreen’s and Bartell Drugs for certain, and heard rumors that they may be on sale at Rite-Aid, so check your local equivalents. This one is limited, but you can also probably find a decent dupe for it in other places; it’s a lovely color, but not super-unique.
So I was feeling uninspired the other day, so I asked my peep-of-all-peeps, Ceci, what I should do. She told me I should do something surprising.
So this:
A rad peep of mine gave me a set of dotting tools for my birthday, but I haven’t busted them out until today. This being my first attempt, please forgive the smudginess.
I’m not particularly big on either patriotism or polka dots, so in a show of seasonal effort, I did dots in a red, white, and blue color scheme. Surprise! The base color is Ulta Into Astrono-Me?, which is a slightly dusty teal-trending navy blue with a blue shimmer. The red accent nail is L’Oreal Owl’s Lust, a brickish red creme that I love, despite not being a huge bright red fan. The white is Wet’n’Wild Mad Styles, an ordinary white creme.
Naturally I couldn’t resist a matte top coat. Right? Right. I should have waited a bit longer than ten minutes, though, as it smeared some in a few places. Otherwise, while it turned out pretty much okay, I’m not likely to repeat it. I might try using the dotters to do flowers or leopard spots or perhaps a more planned dotted pattern.
The WnW and L’Oreal polishes were gifts from a friend (you will see more loot from her tomorrow, and probably for months hence) — thank you, U.! :D The Ulta was bought at Ulta, as they were having a sale, so it was only two dollars. Woot. Essie, still from Ulta. I’m going to need a new one of those sometime soon. :3
Everything was either gifted to me or bought by me for purposes of wearing. Yes.
Vanitas Rex 