Across the Galaxy Part 2

As I discussed in a previous post, I'm on a quest to find a blue polish to layer with Milani Teal to recreate Deborah Lippman Across the Universe on a smaller budget. This is my second attempt at it.

The blue polish in this attempt is Ruby Kisses Regaled Out Blue, which looked like the perfect color in the bottle. For this mani, I used one layer of Milani Teal between two layers of Regaled Out Blue. As it turns out, Regaled Out Blue is a little too opaque and covered the colors in the glitter. Based on swatches online, Ruby Kisses Blue My Mind and Deal With the Devil are also candidates for this. Since Ruby Kisses is a low-cost brand, I may try one or both of those to try to close the gap to my dream polish.

Broken Glass Mani

When I was thinking about what to wear under China Glaze Luxe and Lush, I wanted a dark color since they seem to show the flakes best. On the other hand, I didn't want to use black just because I've seen it worn that way a lot. Instead, I decided to go with a dark red.

The base color I went with is Borghese Bella Berry. Then, I added just one thick coat of Luxe and Lush. It's thick enough that I had to kind of pat it on to avoid dragging the particles back off.

This picture's a little blurry, but it shows the colors of the flakes in Luxe and Lush better. The shape of them reminds me of pieces of broken glass, which makes me wonder what it would look like over a lighter color, like maybe a light brown or tan. I'd also really like to see a polish with similar flakes, but in blues - maybe for winter.

Across the Galaxy

Today's mani is my attempt to recreate Deborah Lippman Across the Universe using less expensive polishes. I'm not often tempted by higher end polishes, which for me means anything more expensive than OPI at about $8, because I don't feel like there's enough difference to justify the price point. However, when someone else let me use her Across the Universe, I loved it. I've been on the lookout for a way to make it happen that would be a little more accessible for me.

This is one coat of Milani Teal over one coat of Revlon Top Speed Royal. It doesn't show up as well in the photos, but in person it actually looked a lot like Across the Universe. The main difference was that it doesn't have the effect that the glitter is floating in blue that the original polish has.

On the other hand, the glitter is really, really close. I think if I had a nice, dark blue jelly to layer this between, it would be perfect. A little Googling has revealed that Ruby Kisses has a couple of dark blue jellies, so I'm going to try to stop by the local independent beauty store and look for some of those soon.

Bits of Pink Mani

I didn't have a lot of time for this mani, so I decided to just stick with a little quick layering.

This consists of two coats of Essie French Affair topped with two coats of OPI I Lily Love You. Sadly, I don't think these two really go well together. French Affair's appeal is that it's super light and springy, but I Lily Love You made it darker. On the other hand, I think I Lily Love You would look better over something darker with more contrast. Oh well, you can't win them all.

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!

Purple Glitter Mani

Sadly, today's mani is not one of my favorites, so let's just get on with it, shall we?

The primary color in this mani is Confetti Happy Birthday!, which has a purple jelly base with pink micro-glitter. This polish applied easily, but is lightly pigmented, so even after three coats, it's a little patchy. Also, on the nail, the glitter doesn't really appear pink, but does add a nice shine.

For my accent nail, I used one coat of Happy Birthday!, topped with two coats of Wet 'n' Wild Back Alley Deals. This polish has a sheer purple base with small purple glitter and larger fuchsia hex glitter. I had to be careful not to drag the hexes off my nail during application, but otherwise it went on easily.

This mani chipped really quickly, and I think I would have been happier wearing Back Alley Deals alone. Also, I got a lot of shrink with Happy Birthday!, as this photo was taken less than 24 hours after application. I seem to have that problem with almost any jelly regardless of what top coat I use, so I'd love some suggestions on how to avoid it.

Pale and Pretty Glitter Sandwich

Despite the fact that  it was a trend way back in the spring, I'm still working on creating one that I really like. My last effort looked nice enough, but didn't really have the suspended glitter look I was going for. This one has flaws of it's own but does indeed create that look.

For this attempt, I chose Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Polar Bare for the jelly. This  polish is a very sheer off-white. I honestly couldn't even guess how many coats you'd need to use to get this opaque, it just isn't made for that. Application was smooth and clean up very easy. I used two coats under my glitter, which is KleanColor Aurora. It has large pearly white sequins, light and medium pink stars, and some smaller silvery glitter particles in a pink tinted clear base. Like most of the KleanColor glitters I've used, Aurora was very thick and a little gooey. I had to sort of pat the polish on to get the larger particles to lay down nicely on the nail. For this combo, I used two coats, then topped it with one more of Polar Bare. I finished with a Revlon quick dry top coat because I'd read that it was less likely to cause shrink in these jelly polishes.

I really like how these two polishes look together, and I enjoyed the final product, which look light and luminous but not bright. The obvious problem was some bubbling, which I'm guessing has to do with the patting method of applying the glitter. I also still got some shrink, leading me to the conclusion that these KleanColor glitters just don't play well with top coat. Finally, it was a little thick due to all the layer. All that aside, it looked great at a normal nail viewing distance, and I really liked wearing it.

Merry Christmas Mani

Merry Christmas to everyone who's celebrating today; I hope you have a great day. I'll be spending mine with various family members, and enjoying some traditional Christmas chili. I decided I wanted something festive, but not directly Christmas themed for today's manicure.

I started with a base of China Glaze Ring in the Red, which is a red jelly base with either red or silver glitter in a couple of different sizes. The glitter looks red in the polish, but appears to be silver around the edges where I've done clean up. This polish is actually incredibly sparkly and has a lot of depth in person. Unfortunately, it didn't photograph well, as it was really overcast  when I took the pictures. The texture on this polish was very nice, but it's quite sheer. I used three coats for these pictures, and it's not quite opaque. One more might have done it, but I was happy with what I had.

You can see the glitter a little better in this indoor picture. On top, I used some floral decals that I really like. Unfortunately, I don't have the package for these any more, but they are really good. They are very flexible and conform to the nail without any edges that stick up or peel off. I topped the whole thing with Out the Door.

I'll be posting a lot more over the next week (and in an ongoing way), so I'll see you soon! Happy Holidays!

Black Friday Mani

The title of this post may be a little misleading, since the manicure in question is neither black nor what I wore on Black Friday. My spouse works at a Banana Republic Factory Store, and they needed extra hands for the Black Friday sale, which actually started at 10 p.m. Thursday night. So, I worked from 9:45 p.m. on Thursday until 6:15 a.m. Friday, and then again from 5 p.m. Friday until 1 a.m. on Saturday. I'd say that's enough retail experience to last me a year! After putting in all those hours, I decided to reward myself with a few bottles of Banana Republic brand nail polish.

The base color for this mani is Banana Republic Pacific Taupe, a creme that I would say is a little warmer than what I usually picture as taupe. It's more brown than grey, which is part of what I like about it. It went on smoothly enough, but I had a lot of patchiness around the base of my nails after two coats. If I were wearing it alone, I would definitely have needed a third to even it out.

Instead, I decided to reverse my original plan and do some sponging around the bottom of my nails instead of the top. For this, I used Banana Republic Razzelberry, which weird spelling aside, is a lovely peachy pink small glitter. I think both colors look a little cooler in my pictures than real life because it was cloudy when I went out to take pictures.

While I like both of these polishes, I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have gotten them at full price. They're regularly $7, which is at the very top end of what I'm generally willing to spend. My polish budget is limited, so I usually only get OPI or other polishes in this price range if I'm really excited about the color or they're on sale.

Polish Mentor Franken

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with some of my good friends at the home of T, one of my crazy nail polish lady mentors. She showed me some of her efforts at mixing her own frankenpolishes. I fell in love with this one, and it just so happened that I'd prepped my nails to manicure them when I got home. So, voila, my friend's franken.

 This polish has a dark navy base with blue and iridescent small, square glitter. She told me what the polishes she used were, but sadly I don't remember, so we'll just have to appreciate the pretty.

 And here's a close up, so you can see the lovely depth of the glitter in the jelly base. You can also see that my hands, particularly my cuticles, are still suffering from the neglect they suffered while I was doing transcription as a second job. However, I've been giving them some TLC, so hopefully they'll be recovered soon.

Halloween Mani I

I love Halloween, which seems to be a pretty common "affliction" among beauty bloggers. Speaking for myself (and I suspect more than a few others), it gives me a chance to dress up in the kind of over the top stuff that get's you funny looks the rest of the year. Plus, as I've already mentioned, fall is my favorite season, so a super fun holiday in the middle of fall?! Love it! I haven't had time to do quite as many Halloween manis as I'd like, but I do have a few that I'll be showing y'all over the rest of this week.

As an opener, I have this simple accent nail mani using a fun Halloween polish. Fantasy Makers Creepy Pumpkin is an orange jelly base packed with fine orange and yellow glitter (mostly orange). It went on easily and had a medium dry time with Out the Door on top. It's pretty sheer, as I used three coats here and you can still see through it a little. I think I'll use a similarly colored base next time. For my accent nail, I used three coats of Creepy Pumpkin over one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme.

Creepy Pumpkin and Night Glow are the only Fantasy Makers polishes I picked up, as the others seemed to be just plain dark colors or glitter in black. Am I missing anything? Were there others that you loved that I'm over looking?

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.

Sparkling Grape

Just to let you know how behind I am, this is my Labor Day manicure. I was originally planning to go to a cookout at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house on Labor Day, but we decided to move it to Sunday instead due to forecasts of bad weather. Finding myself short on time, I decided to do another bright, simple manicure.

I started with a base of Color Club Gimme a Grape Big Kiss, a bright, purplish pink jelly with a grape bubble gum scent. This polish applied very smoothly and easily. It was basically opaque in two coats, although I used three due to the persistent dark stains on my nails (grumble, grumble). On my ring finger, I added one coat of Klean Color Chunky Holo Fucshia. This polish has a medium pink clear base with medium-sized holo glitter. The glitter is much more obvious if you click the picture to enlarge it.

Interestingly, while I got a little shrink on this manicure in general, it was more pronounced on my accent nails. So, based on my earlier experience, I'd say the Klean Color Chunky Holo glitters don't like my usual Out the Door top coat. However, unlike Raspberry Rush, Grape Big Kiss dried to a nice, hard shiny surface. So, while this mani isn't anything particularly special, it was fun to wear.

Glitter Sandwich Sort Of

First, I want to note that I went back and added some information to my Ancient Glamour Mani polish review. China Glaze Sexy in the City stained my nails very badly, so you definitely want to use a base coat with it. I thought about posting pictures, but I didn't want to scary the kiddies. Seriously. That bad. 

Back in July, I attempted a glitter sandwich mani, which was a total failure. I still blame the glitter I used for that one, which has put me off Nicole by OPI glitters altoghter (these are just too pricey to not work well). Enough time has passed that I'm ready to try again.

For this attempt, I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Irish Green, a bright green, very translucent jelly. It applies very well, is not runny at all, and dried pretty quickly. Next, I added two coats of Klean Color Chunky Holo Clover, which has small holo glitter in a light green sheer base. Finally, I topped it off with one more coat of Irish Green and finished with a layer of Out the Door top coat to help it dry. Here's a shade picture to show the full amount of the glitter.

In terms of being a pretty manicure that I enjoyed wearing, this is a success. However, I still have to call it a fail on the glitter sandwich front. Irish Green is too sheer to change the look of the glitter much, and the glitter in Chunky Holo Clover is too regular to give the finished product that look of glitter particles suspended in jelly.

My only real problem with this was that the polish shrank really badly. I've heard that this can happen when using quick dry top coat over thickly applied jelly polishes, but this is my first experience with it. I took these pictures shortly after application, but by the next day my tips were fully exposed. The only way I could think of to explain what happened is by using my mad skills in MS Paint.

YIKES!

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?

Lava Mani

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a blog post someone did where they put a black crackle over a sparkly red polish and commented that it reminded them of lava. That idea really stuck in my head, and I decided to do my own version. Unfortunately, my Google-fu has failed me, and I can't find that original post. I'd love to give credit where it's due, so if you posted that and happen to see this, let me know!

For my version of the lava mani, I decided to use KleanColor Chunky Holo Scarlet for the red. This polish is fairly sheer, so I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow to give it a bright base. I followed that with two coats of Holo Scarlet, which went on very smoothly. It has a red-orange tinted jelly base, but somehow doesn't seem as gloopy as a lot of other glitter-jelly combos.

I topped it with OPI Black Shatter. Most of the time, I like it that Black Shatter has a thinner consistency and cracks more than some other crackles, but in this case, I was hoping for something that would look more like the skin of cooling rock on top of lava. I was thinking of something more like my Turquoise Stone Mani, so maybe the China Glaze black would be better for this look.

The KleanColor Chunky Holos that I picked up all seem to have the same holo glitter in different colored bases. In a few cases, the base color has enough of an effect to make the glitter look different. Holo Scarlet is one of those; it really makes the glitter look much redder. In this case, it glinted like hotter points in the lava. It didn't pick up well in the photos, but I really enjoyed it.

KleanColor Holo Chrome

I recently presented at a professional conference in Seattle, which is about as far as you can get from my hometown and still be in the continental U.S. I did my nails the night before I left, but my camera ate the pictures of that mani (boo!), so I'm skipping straight to the polish I applied while I was gone.

I didn't want to drag too much nail stuff with me on the plane, so I brought a polish I'd be happy to wear alone.

KleanColor Holo Chrome is a medium purple, translucent jelly base packed FULL of medium-sized holographic glitter particles. The glitter is large enough that you can see individual particles if you look at it, but small enough that they cover evenly and give that over all sparkle look. The application was good. It went on smoothly and wasn't too thick or gooey. I got almost opaque coverage from two thick coats.

The picture above was taken outside on a rainy day in the central Kirkland bus terminal. It was so grey that you really can't see the true amount of awesomess that this polish has to offer. So, here's a blurry picture taken in my hotel bathroom, which gives you a little better idea.

Seriously, outside in the sun, this stuff is just super glitter-tastic. I just have two caveats. First, it took two coats of Out the Door topcoat to make this feel smooth, but if you use a thicker top coat it might be fine in one. Second, Holo Chrome chipped pretty badly (you can see one chip in my pinky nail in this picture). As I said, I did use thick coats, so I wonder if doing three thinner coats would help.

Glitter Sandwich Trial Run

I've been seeing and hearing a lot about the "glitter sandwich" manicure online and in my little circle of crazy nail ladies. For this mani, you put a layer of a glitter polish better layers of a jelly polish that will let the glitter show through. I finally did my own, and I'm frankly not that crazy about the results. I consider this my first draft with more to come.

I started with two coats of Revlon Mystical from the Just Tinted collection. The whole point of this polish collection is that they are lightly pigmented, translucent jellies, so they seem perfect for the glitter sandwich. I expected the polish to be runny, but it was actually pretty thick. I didn't have any major problems with the application. It was oddly hard to clean up though (which explains the overworked look of my fingers).

Next, I added Nicole by OPI Step 2 the Beat of My Heart. This polish was a pretty big disappointment. It has a basically clear base, with plenty of tiny holo glitter and some large heart-shaped silver, pink, and purple glitter. There were plenty of hearts in the bottle, but it was almost impossible to get them out and onto the nail. I've had this problem with other large glitters, but I'd hoped this would be better since it's a higher end brand.

I finished with one more coat of Mystical. I actually really liked how the small glitter in this polish looked under Mystical, there just wasn't enough of it. I'll definitely be trying this again with a more glitter-packed polish.

Chunky Holo Mani

If you look at my polish Wishlist, you'll see there are several Nfu Oh flakies on there. I really like this look, particularly layered over black (if you haven't seen these, MeganChair of Polish or Perish did a great post showing quite a few of them over different base colors). However, these polishes are a little pricey and only available online, so I haven't gotten any of them. However, KleanColor, which is already one of my favorite less expensive brands, has helped tide me over until I can get my hands on some by having KleanColor Chunky Holo Black in their line up. The large hex sequins in this polish tend to group together, creating something that resembles the Nfu Oh flakies.

For some reason, my pictures of this just really didn't show how great it looked. In person, this is a dark, shiny black covered with large, sparkly bits that shift in color from blue to green to gold to orange to bright red. It really looked great, and I'm disappointed that I can't show that off.

Anyway, I started with a base of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. This polish goes on smoothly without pooling. It also dries very quickly, so it's great as a base. I only used one coat for this, and it was completely opaque. It dries to a sort of satin finish.

I added two coats of Chunky Holo Black on top of that. This polish has a purplish jelly base color and is fairly sheer. You'll definitely want to layer this if you prefer totally opaque colors. It has both large hex sequins and smaller glitter, both of which have a holo effect. I also swatched this over white, and this picture actually show the colors a little better.

On one final note from the complaint department, both of these pictures picked up some bubbling that wasn't visible in real life. Obviously, the bubbles must have been there, but you couldn't see them on me or the nail wheel. I've been having a lot of trouble with bubbling lately, and after some trail and error, I think I've determined that sitting under a ceiling fan set to "gale force" is the culprit. I've started making myself turn the fan off to do my nails, but it isn't easy when it's 95 outside!

Nail Night Mani - Across the Universe

The second best thing (after the great company) about nail night is getting to try out polishes I don't own. We all pile a bunch of polish on the table, peruse each others offerings, and try something different. This week, I got to try out a polish I'd only seen online, and yall, I think I'm in love with Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.

 

Lissa, this beauty's owner, advised me that it takes at least three coats to get it fully opaque, so it would be good to put it over something else. I started with one thin coat of Revlon Top Speed Royal. Royal is a bright medium blue - royal blue - and is thick and easy to control. It could almost be a one coat polish, though I'd do two to make sure the color was even if I were going to wear it by itself. As the name implies, it dries very quickly. On top of Royal, I put two medium coats of Across the Universe. This polish has a dark blue, transparent, jelly base full of small light blue glitter and large, green and blue, hexagonal glitter. Due to the thick jelly texture of the base, the glitter appears to float in it. It was also easy to apply. The messiness of the application here should be attributed to me paying more attention to chatting than polishing rather than anything to do with either polish. Here's a closer picture to show the depth you can see in Across the Universe.

I finished off with two coats of Out the Door, which was enough to make it smooth and glossy. In the interest of fair warning, it did take quite a while to dry in spite of the top coat. I LOVE this polish, and I think I'm going to have to get some for my very own. 

On a final note, I know that the name of this polish is a reference to the Beatles song, but for some reason whenever I think about it Under the Milky Way by The Church pops into my head instead. So, I'll leave you with that (I couldn't actually find a video of the original version of this song, which is what's in my head, so you'll have to settle for this audio only version).