Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?

I'm always drawn to polishes that create a star field effect with light glitter in a dark base. This is Finger Paints contribution to that genre, Where Art Renoir? On the other hand, I'm super annoyed by polish names with punctuation in them, but I like this polish a lot any way.

Sorry for how beat my cuticles look in this picture!

Scintillating Purple Mani

I'm on my way out the door to Nail Night, but first, a quick post. I've seen a lot of example of layering glitters on blogs, so I decided to try it for myself in this manicure.

The glitter I chose for the first layer is Finger Paints Purple Palette, a light purple, very sheer jelly base packed with small medium purple glitter particles mixed with some small silver glitter. This applied very easily, sliding on smoothly and not running at all. Given the sparkle, it wasn't easy to see through after two coats. I think it would be basically opaque at three coats due to the density of the glitter.

On top of Purple Palette, I added one coat of ELF Golden Goddess, which has a clear base with small gold glitter and larger gold holo hex glitter. The layering made the purple of Purple Palette look a bit lighter and added the extra bling of larger particles and a flash of holo. I finished with two coats of Sally Hansen Quick Dry Top Coat, which is thicker than Out the Door. After two coats, this was totally smooth. As you'd expect all this was pretty hard to remove.

This combo was SUPER blingy and caught tons of light. However, Purple Palette is pretty sparkly on its own. Overall, I think Golden Goddess would be put to better use over a nice creme or subtle shimmer. Used that way, I think it would look great as part of a holiday manicure.

Purple Haze Mani

For this manicure, I decided to try a new technique: gradient color. I've seen many versions of this on a lot of blogs, and I love how it looks. For some reason, I'd gotten it in my head that this was going to be really hard, but I think it turned out well, particularly for a first effort.

I started with a base of Essie Nice is Nice, which is a pale lavender creme. The texture of this formula was nearly perfect. It applied very smoothly, with no tendency to run or pool. On the other hand, the pigmentation was very light. It took three coats (thin ones) to get rid of some bare patches and be opaque.

Next, I used a small piece of makeup sponge to dab an uneven layer of OPI Planks a Lot on top of Nice is Nice. After a little experimentation, I found that it worked best to start from the tip and work my way toward the cuticle. This helped ensure that the darkest color was near the tip. I also added some additional dabs of Nice is Nice to blur the edges. Finally, I repeated the sponging process near the tips with Finger Paints Purple Palette. I finished with two coats of Out the Door to eliminate the slight texture that came from the sponge.

I have gotten more compliments on this mani than any I've done in a while. It's fairly subtle (comparatively), with just the right amount of sparkle from Purple Palette. I could use some more practice to avoid making strips instead of having the color fade smoothly, but I can definitely tell you to expect to see more of this technique.

Dewy Rose Manicure

I bought the two polishes I used for this manicure together because the colors such a good match. It took me a while to get around to using them, but now that I have it won't be long until I use them again.

The main color for this mani is China Glaze Fifth Avenue, which is a dark, dusty rose creme. The formula on this was very nice. It was a little thick, but went on smoothly. It was almost opaque in one coat, but took two to get really even coverage. For my accent nail, I used Finger Paints Hue Left a Message?, which has a translucent pink base with lighter pink glitter. On it's own, Hue Left a Message? is pretty sheer. When layering it over Fifth Avenue, the similarity of the base color gives the same color glitter a subtle, starry effect that I really love.

The only surprise was that Fifth Avenue dried significantly darker than the bottle color as you can see in this picture.

No one should look this closely at my cuticles.

I think I was attracted to this color because it reminds me of one of the first nail polish colors I remember owning in middle school. I had a long sleeved t-shirt the same color that was the softest, most perfectly broken-in shirt, and I wore it all the time.

What about you, do you have any colors that you like for nostalgic reasons?

Sunny Petals Mani

I'm currently running behind on blogging because of getting ready for, going on, and recovering from a cross country business trip. It was a great experience, but all phases of it ate up a lot more time and energy than I expected. So, I'm going to be posting more frequently over the next few days to get caught up.

This first catch up post features some Super Nail brand flowers that I got at Sally's toward the beginning of the summer. I'd had my eye on them for a while, but once I had them, it was hard to decide exactly how to use them. They're real dried flowers (although I think they're dyed to give them consistent color). In the end, I decided to go with something simple, to keep the focus on their delicate prettiness.

I started with a base of Finger Paints Tangerine Tint. This polish is a medium orange creme with just a little pink. While it's nowhere near a coral, that little hint of pink keeps this shade looking spring/summery instead of creeping into fall or Halloween territory. I had no complaints with the application or pigmentation. The texture of the polish was a little thick and gooey, but despite that, it flowed on very smoothly and was opaque in two medium coats. The dry time on it's own seemed to promise to be very slow. I had no trouble at all doing all my painting, then applying the flowers and pressing them into plenty wet polish. However, once I added a layer of Out the Door, it dried and set in a reasonable 30 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, I don't think Tangerine Tint is really a very flattering color on me. It's beautiful in it's own right, but it brings out the wrong elements of my skin tone. Ultimately, I'm going to be looking for an orange creme with a cooler or browner base. Any suggestions?

An Introduction

I'm an unlikely nail blogger in many ways. I've never worn make up regularly, haven't worn it at all in...I'm not sure, but definitely more than a year, and I only discovered nail polish sometime last year. However, attending Nail Night as an excuse to bond with my ladies opened my eyes to the creative possibilities of polish and nail art.

Less than a year later, I've moved my collection into a three drawer craft chest, and I find myself casually throwing around the names of specific polishes I want, searching for just-the-right shade of this or that color, and watching blogs for announcements of upcoming lines. So, I've decided it's time for a blog. I'll mostly be posting pictures of my manicures, which will include everything from plain ol' polish to stamping, jewels, and decals, oh my! When it's relevant or I feel like it, I'll also include my review of the polishes I try and maybe a little info on nail trends I'm liking.

So, I'll begin with my nails right this minute.

I love metallic nail polish most of all, I think, and this one is part of my ongoing search for the *perfect* gold. It's Finger Paints Key to My Art, and it's not quite there, but it's my favorite so far. I'd like it to be a little warmer and yellower, but it's just right in the shininess and metallic-ness categories. My problem with a lot of other golds is that they're too green or too brown, so this is the closest I've come to an absolute winner. I also like the application, as it's thick enough to be easy to control but thin enough to go on smoothly. Some people might have a problem with the slightly visible brush strokes, but that adds to the "real metal" feel for me. This picture was taken with two coats and a top coat of Out the Door (also a couple days wear, which accounts for the biggish cuticles). It dries very quickly and barely needed the top coat, but I added it anyway to improve wear.

I'm currently waiting for a bottle of China Glaze Midnight Kiss to hit my mail box. Since it appears to be the gold version of my favorite silver (Cheers to You), I'm optimistic that it may edge this one out as my favorite.