Fish Egg Friday, Part 2: Gradient Eggs

Welcome to another edition of Fish Egg Friday! This week, I went with a gradient Fish Egg mani.

 

To complete this look, I used the Gradient Tutorial bye Laynefingers posted here. Mine didn't come out nearly as smooth as hers, but I still quite like it, and plan on trying this technique again! The colours I used are both from the OPI Nicki Minaj collection: Pink Friday and Fly. Incidentally, Pink Friday has become one of my all-time favourite pinks - it's light, but still opaque in two coats. For the microbeads, I painted a thin coat of Gelous onto the bottom half of my nail then dipped it into the pink beads, waited a few seconds and patted them in place, then cleaned up the edges with a small nail brush to remove excess beads. I then painted Gelous over the rest of my nail and dipped it into the blue beads, following the same clean up procedure. I really like how this turned out! It's unique, and a great one-day manicure.

 Bonus #FishEggFriday: here's a Fish Egg french manicure I did a couple of days ago for /r/RedditLaqueristas.

 

To do this, I painted my nails normally with two coat of Nubar Classic Camel, let them dry, then did a french tip with Deborah Lippmann Fade to Black. I let it dry for about 30 seconds, then dipped each nail into black microbeads. The effect is even more delicate than the full nail fish egg look, and I doubt this would last more than a couple of hours, but it looks kinda neat anyway.

Floam your... nails?

Some people out there might remember Floam, a toy that's advertised as a "molding compound" that could be used to decorate just about anything.

A while ago, Nail-Venturous released a Floam polish, and it is flippin FANTASTIC.



Look at that. Just look at all its awesome glory! The colours are fantastic - bright neon yellow and blue, mingling together to look green from afar, but close up? Oh man...

This is three coats of Floam covered with one coat of Gelous and Seche Vite. I could have gotten away with two, but I wanted to make sure I had full coverage.

Application isn't the easiest, it can be a bit goopy and tricky to get even, but it's worth the minor quibbles. You will need a glitter tamer of some sort for a smooth finish, what I used above worked perfectly.

Floam is available from ninjapolish.com - track the restocks on this one, it flies off the shelves fast.

Side note: this is messy as heck to remove. It comes off easily, but that tiny glitter lingers for days. Oye!

Welcome to Fish Egg Friday!

If you're not following the nail blogging world, here's a summary:

Ciate got their knickers in a twist over nail bloggers using the term "Caviar manicure". Odd, seeing as how this particular look is not trademarked by Ciate, and in fact was debuted a year ago by Dashing Diva.

I'm sure a good part of the twisting came from the fact that bloggers were showing how to recreate this look for a few dollars, as opposed to shelling out $25+ for the Ciate set.

When I saw the #FishEggFriday tag on twitter, I knew I had to join in! I stopped by Michael's on my way home and picked up a mixed package of Recollections Microbeads in the scrapbooking section, raced home, and produced this:




I used Deborah Lippmann On the Beach as my base colour, then applied a coat of Gelous to my ring finger and let it sit for about 60 seconds so it wasn't TOO wet, then dipped my nail into the bead vial.

I was honestly surprised at how easy and not messy this was. I used a nail brush to clean up stray beads over a small glass bowl, but that was about it. The Gelous helped the beads stick nicely to my nail - no muss, no fuss!

I didn't apply a topcoat, and I'll probably take this off before I go to bed tonight. It does have a limited shelf life as the beads tend to slough off fairly quickly.

I'll admit I'm not totally sold on the look, but it IS different and very eye-catching, so I may try it a few times before I give up totally.

For more details on Fish Egg Friday manicures, check The Polishaholic's post here!

And check out more Fish Egg manicures at these posts below!
Sammy http://nailasaurus.blogspot.de/

Salla http://www.polish-em.net/

Esther http://fabfingertips.blogspot.co.uk/

Emily http://lacquerologist.blogspot.co.uk/

Danielle http://rocknpolish.blogspot.co.uk/

Anna http://prettydigits.blogspot.co.uk/

Susan http://www.thesubtleshimmer.com/

Melissa http://melissawhitenails.blogspot.co.uk/

Ivana http://zabranjeni-grad.blogspot.co.uk/

A Lacquered Affair http://alacqueredaffair.onsugar.com/

Cristina http://www.letthemhavepolish.com/

Stephanie http://sincerelystephaniee.blogspot.co.uk/

Tiffany http://2thelastdrop.com/

Jeanette http://the-swatchaholic.com/

Alli http://thedailyvarnish.com/

Deez Nails http://deez-nailz.blogspot.com

Goose http://www.goosesglitter.com/

Rie http://nailsandnoms.com

My latest Nerd Lacquer trio

Harlow & Co got a new shipment of Nerd Lacquer polish last week. When it comes to funky glitter polishes, I am a weak, weak person, so I ordered a couple! Unfortunately I only managed to get two into my cart before they sold out, but Katie from Harlow & Co was kind enough to include a sample bottle of a third polish with my order!

Onto the swatches.

First is Cyance Friction - CYANCE FRICTION is a super bright cyan/teal with copper shimmer, large and medium copper hexagonal glitter, medium turquoise square glitter, and a gorgeous pink-violet flash. Opaque in two coats, and unarguably fabulous. Cyance Friction exists because Michael Shermer is so freaking awesome.


In the sun:


And a picture in the shade, to show the purple shimmer from another angle:


This polish was a little hard to apply because of the amount of large chunky glitter. It was very pigmented, and the rich teal base with that lovely purple shine is just awesome. It doesn't need a ton of glitter taming, but I did use a coat of Gelous before I put on my topcoat for some extra smoothing. I really like this!

Next up is Shiny, inspired by one of my favourite shows of all-time, Firefly. SHINY is a clear sky blue with sapphire shift, silver and white microglitter, ultrafine opalescent blue glitter, multiple sizes of silver hex glitter, plus medium square white and silver glitter. It's spacey, it's cool, it's synonymous with "fine," and it's very shiny indeed. Quite opaque in two coats, and surprisingly smooth with a single layer of top coat.



I didn't bother with the Gelous on this one as it was pretty smooth overall. Can you see the sapphire shimmer in there? I tried my best to capture it, but it's very subtle! This polish is beautiful, so icy blue with SO MUCH SHINE. It really is shiny, in all the best ways. It's jam packed with tons of silver glitter, and that sapphire shimmer just makes it for me.

Last but not least is a Harlow&Co exclusive: Han Shot First. HAN SHOT FIRST is a deep dusty teal with giant gold square glitter, medium square turquoise glitter, gold small and micro, smallish holo hex. FAB.



Check out the crazy glitter in this one! Holo glitter, huge square gold glitter, shimmer, and more all packed into that gorgeous base. This may be my favourite of the bunch! Easy to apply, even with that huge gold stuff in there. The holo doesn't come out to play quite as much as I'd like, but that's ok, it's definitely there and shows up like crazy in bright light. I used one coat of Gelous under my topcoat for this one.

I had a little trouble getting the larger glitter out at first in these polishes, but then I had a lightbulb moment, stuck the bottles upside down overnight, and tried applying again this morning - success! I actually had trouble with TOO MUCH of the big glitter rather than not getting any.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this small haul of Nerd Lacquers. If you haven't had a chance to try them yet, start stalking the Etsy shop and Harlow & Co for updates - it's worth it.

I think I'm having better luck with Connect the Dots

My first attempt didn't go so well, with a minimal number of bar and large glitters. Yesterday I thought I'd try again, with a layer of CtD over Deborah Lippmann's On the Beach, my favourite blue.



This attempt was MUCH better! I still had to coax some of the bars out, but I had much better luck with the large glitter, and even got a number of bars!

I'll have to try this again to confirm, but I think it just needed a good mixing.

Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air vs Revlon Whimsical - now THIS is a dupe!

While picking up Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop, I could not resist grabbing Glitter in the Air to do a true dupe comparison with my bottle of Revlon Whimsical. I was convinced I'd be able to tell the difference between these two on the nails the same way I could with Candy Shop, but...

Yeah. I couldn't.

By the way, I'm giving away two bottles of Revlon Whimsical here :)

The bottles:




Close up:



They look pretty damned identical to me. The Lippmann looks a touch milkier, but not much.

Side note: this is the first time I've ever gotten a Lippmann bottle with a flawed brush - one of the strands was super long! You can see it poking through the polish here. I took a pair of scissors and cut it off.

The brushes:



The Lippmann brush is a bit shorter and wider than the Revlon brush.



This is four coats of each polish with no base coat.




Two coats over OPI Alpine Snow. The Lippmann had a bit more glitter, but that may have been a coincidence.



Two coats over Deborah Lippmann Shape of my Heart. Again the Lippmann appears to have a touch more glitter. Incidentally, this is my favourite way to wear this polish!




Two coats over Revlon Dreamer - another beautiful way to wear these lovely polishes. In this case, the Revlon had slightly more glitter than the Lippmann, confirming that it's more a random luck thing than a glitter concentration thing.

Unlike Candy Shop, in my mind Whimsical is a true dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air.  If you have one, you don't need both! The only difference I saw was that GITA has more tiny pink glitter - the Revlon doesn't appear to have any, but it's so subtle it's barely noticeable. The application for both is similar - fairly easy, though you'll want to wait a minute between coats to prevent the glitter from moving around.

My bottle of Whimsical is already looking a bit low from the number of coats it takes to get a decent application, but I'm not too worried - I have a bottle of Glitter in the Air as a backup!

My metaphorical middle finger to Ottawa's weather

We had 20 cm of snow yesterday. Ugh! It's been so nice lately, and then BAM, massive snowstorm.

This is my middle finger to Mother Nature manicure.



From left to right: Barielle Grape Escape, Barielle Blossom, China Glaze Gaga for Green, Barielle Swizzle Stix, and China Glaze Wicked Style on my thumb, all topped with various floral Konad stamps using the white special polish.

I like this! I kinda wish I'd used an orange instead of the peachy-pink Blossom for some extra pop, but overall I'm happy with how this turned out.

The Foil Method: Removing stubborn glitter polish (redux)

Back around Christmas, I posted a brief guide to the Foil Method to remove glitter. I wasn't overly happy with it, so I decided to do re-do it.

The contender:



an incredible glitter bomb from Nicole by OPI: Kendall on the Katwalk. This is a beautiful colour, shimmering with blue, purple, and green bits, dazzling in the sun or any bright light. You just KNOW this is gonna be a huge pain to remove!

The supplies:



Sally Hansen acetone based polish remover, lint free cotton pads, and squares of tin foil.

Do not use pure acetone for this method, it's much too harsh and will make your nailbeds hurt. I choose to use lint-free cotton pads, but any kind of cotton ball or cotton pad should work. Some people even use felt! The tin foil bits don't need to be that large (you can see the size I used here, they're just a bit bigger than the pads), just big enough to wrap the top half of your finger. I picked up a massive roll on sale and now I just keep it in with my polish supplies because I use it so much.

The method:



Saturate the cotton pad with polish remover. Really drench it! Press it firmly onto your nail. I try and wrap it down over my tips as shown in this picture.



Place a square of tin foil over your finger and wrap it up! The goal is to make an airtight enclosure to keep the polish remover from evaporating.



Continue until you have all five fingers wrapped. I don't recommend trying to do both hands at once - it's a pain! I've done it a few times and found it cumbersome to apply and remove the foil, not to mention that you're completely unable to do anything while your fingers sit!



Wait 3 - 4 minutes, then grasp the tinfoil around one of your fingers and pull it off while pressing against your nail bed. It should all come right off! If it doesn't come off easily, slip the foil back on your finger and give it another minute.

You may have some bits stuck under your nail or around the cuticle, especially with heavy glitters. Use an orange stick or nail cleaner to remove this - it's often just leftover glitter and comes off easily.



This process is incredibly drying, so make sure you use cuticle oil or lotion and drench your fingertips! I put on a big dollop of Lush Lemony Flutter and let it soak for a while before moving into my manicure for the day, which is why my fingers are so shiny in this picture!

Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012

After waiting what feels like FOREVER, the new Deborah Lippmann Spring 2012 collection is finally in my hands!

First up, On the Beach, described as Rich Riviera Blue.



Rich is right. This blue is just eye popping! Pure, clean, bright, and lovely. This is two coats over a base coat (Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat), with no top coat - yep, it's just that shiny. The first coat was sheer and a bit streaky, but two coats fixed that.

Next up is Mermaid's Dream, described as Seafoam Splendor.



This is one coat layered over On the Beach. It's a very interesting polish, it feels almost like you're applying a thin layer of cool liquid metal over your nails. The finish is officially described as a glittered shimmer, but that isn't quite right - it's very unique. I have nothing like it in terms of finish or application, it's almost like a micro glitter combined with a foil.

And finally, some layering experiments. I left these two images full sized, so you can click through and see close up just how Mermaid's Dream looks layered over other polishes.

All swatches are one coat of Mermaid's Dream layered over a base colour. From left to right:

Black creme (DL Edge of Glory), Blue creme (DL On the Beach), white creme (Sally Hansen White On), silver foil (Sally Hansen Celeb City), gold foil (Nicole by OPI Not a Gold Digger), mint green (Sally Hansen Mint Sherbet), three coats of Mermaid's Dream on its own, and finally a layering experiment: On the Beach, Mermaid's Dream, and one coat of Essie Shine of the Times.

Click these to enlarge.

Natural light:


Flash:

Vintage nails

I had a lot of fun last night doing this! I set out to do a stamping mani on top of China Glaze For Audrey with a matte finish, but once my nails were painted I figured I'd try my hand at some vintage wallpaper styles instead.



The base is China Glaze For Audrey.

The stripes and dots were done with my Konad stamping polish. This stuff is great for doing nail art - super opaque!

The vintage roses are a combo of Sally Hansen Fuchsia Power and Deborah Lippmann Shape of my Heart, with China Glaze Holly Day and Sally Hansen Mint Sherbet for the leaves. This is where I realised I had no leafy greens in my collection - must rectify that today!

The polish I'm holding is Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, which just arrived at my office this morning. Check out the MASSIVE box it came in! I cracked up laughing when the FedEx guy walked in with this.



All that box and padding for one teeny tiny bottle of polish. Sadly, there's a second box just like it on the way tomorrow with On the Beach inside (they shipped separately for some crazy reason).

Deborah Lippmann: The Stripper to Go vs. light glitter polish

Day two of the great Stripper to Go Experiment! After my success with removing black creme polish, I had to up the ante.

Today's contenders:

One coat of Essie Good to Go base, two coats of Revlon Dreamer creme polish, two coats of Revlon Whimsical glitter polish in a jelly base, and one coat of Seche Vite.



I really loved the way this manicure turned out, and I have to admit I was reluctant to remove it, but it must be done. If you don't have Whimsical by the way, definitely try and find it - the sparse glitter with teeny tiny microglitter is lovely, feminine, and sweet. I tried to wear it alone without a base colour when I first got it home, and gave up after four coats - definitely get something pretty and blue for underneath!



I digress. Onto the results!

I wore this polish for about 24 hours before attempting to remove it.

Left hand:



Right hand:



The mitt after cleaning:



I'd be lying if I said removing the glitter polish was as easy as the creme - I really had to work at it, especially for the last two nails I successfully cleaned. By the time I got to my right thumb, the mitt had failed completely and barely made a dent in the topcoat. I ended up adding some of my own polish remover to the mitt and finishing the job.

I'd rate this a partial success - the mitt removed the polish from 9 out of 10 glittery nails, albeit with some elbow grease. On the flip side, it had to contend with six coats of polish plus some glitter, which is still rather impressive.

From what I can tell, the mitt primarily fails because the polish remover evaporates before you can get to the tenth nail. For my next experiment, I might try covering the mitt with its foil packet to see if that helps the problem.

Girly Bits

This is my first time trying Girly Bits, a small independent lacquer creator with some absolutely beautiful stuff! I ordered five polishes to start off and swatched them all today.

As always, images can be clicked to find the full sized version.

First up, Into the Night, a black jelly, jam packed with multiple colours of glitter, holo glitter and pink shimmer.





This one sparkles like CRAZY. It's also a topcoat hog - I used a coat of clear polish and then topped with Seche Vite for a smooth finish. Application was easy and not at all streaky, even on the first rather sheer coat! By two coats this had built nicely, but by three it was perfect.

If you want to save on coats, my middle finger has a coat of black creme polish (DL Edge of Glory) with one coat of Into the Night on top, and I can't tell the difference. A lovely sparkly polish for glitter lovers!

Note: this is the standard PITA for removal - use the foil method!

Next up is Sailor's Delight - a deep red-orange jelly with incredible gold micro-glitter that sparkles like mad!!





I have to agree with the description - it DOES sparkle like mad! This colour reminds me of blood oranges - gorgeous and rich. Application was a breeze. The swatch shows three coats topped with Seche Vite. I can still see some VNL, but not much! A fourth would probably make this completely opaque, but I didn't bother as I thought it was beautiful as it was.


Stormy Skies - a medium grey that leans to the dusty teal side. It has a hint of micro-glitter that shows gold or green, depending on the skies.





A lovely dusty blue-grey with tons of hidden sparkle. It's very subtle and lovely, showing tons of teeny tiny glitter particles in the sun. Application on this one was a bit trickier and took a steady hand to keep it from being uneven, but it wasn't bad. Very sheer at one coat, it built nicely to almost opaque in three coats, with some VNL. I love this one, it'll be great for spring!

The next two colours will be quite picture-heavy due to the nature of the polishes - capturing all those lovely colours was NOT easy!

The first of the duochrome topcoats is Cosmic Ocean - a blue/green/purple duochrome, which is completely stunning and whose true beauty can not be captured by the camera.











Yes, ALL those pictures are of the same polish! I have to agree that this polish is very difficult to capture on camera - it shifts like crazy from a gorgeous deep cobalt blue to a forest emerald green. This is one coat over Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory black creme. Application was simple, just a stroke of the brush and it was perfect.

If you're a fan of blue/green duochromes at all, you need this polish! I love looking at this in the sun, it's mesmerizing.


Last but not least is Street Magic - a wildly duochrome, colour shifting polish that is meant to be layered over a dark colour. It will transform from a deep bronze to a brilliant green right before your eyes.











This one was even tougher to capture than Cosmic Ocean. The copper kept disappearing when I looked at the photos! The shifting put me in mind of Chanel Peridot, that same kind of gorgeous green to copper shift, though Street Magic delves more into the deep emerald side of green. Application was identical to Cosmic Ocean, one thin easily applied coat over a coat of Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory black creme.

Of them all, I think Cosmic Ocean and Sailor's Delight are my favourites for the moment, though I'm sure that'll change over time :)

Girly Bits can be bought via Pam's blog, or from llarowe.