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.

Today's NOTD: OPI Princesses Rule!, Claire's Night Sky, and OPI Save Me!

This was one glitter bomb of a mani.



I put three coats of OPI Princesses Rule! on as a base, then sponged on a layer of Claire's Night Sky, a fantastic navy and holo glitter, and finally sponged on Save Me from the OPI Nicki Minaj collection.

When I got out into the sun today, I thought I was going to go blind from the disco ball on my nails.

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.

Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop dupe?

I was going to do another topcoat experiment for my next post, but I came across the rumoured Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop dupe at my local Claire's yesterday, so instead we have a comparison post!

As always, you can click through to see larger versions of the images.

The polishes:



Claire's Candy Shop, and Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop.

A close up:



I immediately noticed that the Claire's base colour is a brighter hot pink, whereas the Lippmann is more of a milky candy pink.

The brushes:



The Lippmann brush is a little shorter and wider. Again, you can see the difference in the base colour. You can also see that the Lippmann version seems to have more of the smaller glitter than the Claire's version, which is heavier on the bigger glitter.



Side by side, the difference is obvious - Claire's brighter base shows through. Application wise, the Lippmann polish is smoother and lays flatter than the Claire's version, possibly due to the difference in the amount of small vs large glitter.

Are they true dupes of each other? Definitely not! But they're close enough that you don't really need both, and if you've been dying for Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop but didn't want to put down the $20 for a bottle, the Claire's version might satisfy your craving!

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).

Lynnderella - Snow Angel

I finally got a chance to swatch one of my latest nail mail goodies - Lynnderella Snow Angel! I received this and Connect the Dots from llarowe last week and I am SO excited.

This is my first swatch after an incident with my chef's knife took a good chunk off my middle fingernail :( I'm torn between filing the rest down and waiting for it to grow out to match! This is the first time I've ever had longer fingernails and it's definitely taking some getting used to - gotta learn to be more careful when chopping veggies!

The bottle:




Close up of frosty glittery goodness:



I wasn't sure what to put underneath this. I've seen a lot of swatches over plain white, but I ended up going with a polish from Jacob (of all places) called Pink Chiffon.



It's a super sheer, super milky pale pink, very pretty and light, and it made a nice background for Snow Angel.

Sun:



Shade:



I used three coats of Pink Chiffon, then one coat of Snow Angel, and two coats of Seche Vite to try and smooth it out. As with all heavy glitter polishes, this takes major topcoat to smooth. Application was quite easy, and the glitter itself was very well behaved. The polish is a tad thick, but it went on smoothly with no clumped up bits of glitter to worry about.

The overall effect is very subtle, girly, and pretty. I'm not 100% sold on whether I love this yet or not, but for now it'll stay in my polish collection and I'm sure I'll reach for it again.

Techno Beat by Dare to Wear

A.K.A. GLITTER BOMB





From left to right this is:

1 coat over white

1 coat over pink

1 coat over black

3 coats on a bare nail

I picked this up on a whim during my last order at Nail Polish Canada, and was absolutely floored when it arrived. This thing is so absolutely PACKED with glitter in a pink jelly base. Holo glitter, bar glitter, teeny tiny micro glitter.. you name it, this has it!

For all that glitter, it's surprisingly not goopy and relatively easy to apply. You have to do some coaxing to get an even coat, but it's not that bad. It builds quickly on its own to completely opaque, and is absolutely dazzling in the sun. It's so girly, so candy shop pink that it makes me want to squeal when I look at it (and believe me, I am NOT the squealing type!).

Today's manicure: pink and girly!

I've been seeing a lot of pink gradients on the polish subreddit I frequent, so I figured I'd give it a try!

This is a random Sally Hansen Diamond Strength pink (random because the label fell off. Oops!), topped with a bit of butter LONDON Tart with a Heart, and a generous coat of Seche Vite for shine.



I tried a few varieties of this before I settled on this combo, and here's what I learned:

- Super sheer, buildable shades work best. Seems obvious, but I had several failures when I picked a polish that was too opaque!

- Glitter covers a multitude of sins. If the gradient isn't quite perfect, this will cover it up!

I really like this look! It's subtle, shimmery, feminine, and oh so pink.

Nerd Lacquer - Entirely Unlike Tea

This is my first time trying Nerd Lacquer. I picked up a few from Harlow & Co just before New Years and I was sooo excited to try them! I had about 15 new polishes to try, but this one stood out for its subtly gorgeous colour.

This is Entirely Unlike Tea - a semi sheer pinky nude with tiny silver glitter, and just a touch of larger round glitter. It has a bit of a pearlescent quality in the finish, but it's super subtle.

The texture was a bit watery and extremely sheer on the first coat, but covered nicely on the second. At three it became almost opaque, but it had just the slightest visible nail line in bright light, not enough for a fourth coat though.

This picture was just taken at my office, hence the Sharpie as opposed to a polish bottle. Three coats, topped with Seche Vite. It was a bit less shiny on its own so a topcoat is recommended if you want that glassy finish. The glitter itself lays very flat and was completely covered with one coat of Seche Vite - a thinner top coat would probably get the same result.



I kind of wish there was a bit more of the larger glitter, just enough to see a few more pieces on each nail like I have here on my little finger, but that's about all the negative I can say about this beautiful polish.

I love how delicate and lovely this is, but still with a glitter kick to it so it's not your bog-standard pinky nude polish. I couldn't capture this on film no matter how hard I tried, but I did notice it looks pinker if I tipped my nails almost flat in one direction, and more nude in the opposite direction, almost a duochrome effect, but barely there.

New Year's Eve nails - maybe?

I wanted something simple and pink this morning, so I went with Sally Hansen Champagne Toast. It's a sheer pink polish with iridescent silvery shimmer. This was easy enough to work with, but the frosty tone meant that brush strokes were going to be an issue. I had a bit of that, but it wasn't excessive. I didn't get any bubbling or notice any other issues with the formula itself.

Even with three thin coats you can still see my nails underneath, showing just how sheer this polish is. I could have made it opaque in four or five coats I suppose, but I kind of liked how it looked here so I didn't bother.

Natural light:




Indoors, no flash:




Indoors, flash:



I quite like this, and the name fits the occasion. I'm not sure if it'll last the entire day, but for now I'm happy with it.

Deborah Lippmann - Glamorous Life

Woke up this morning with an urge to paint my nails a pale neutral pink/beige type colour. Looked through my collection of about 100 polishes and realised I had not a single one in that particular range! Lots of reds, tons of blues and purples, whites, blacks, NO pinks or beige! The closest I had was Deborah Lippmann's Glamorous Life, so off I went.

In sun:




And in the shade:




A beautiful colour, a nightmare to apply. Bubbly, streaky, brush-strokey agony. But oh what an amazing colour. This is three coats of extreme frustration, super slow application with just the right amount of polish. I'll have to keep practicing to try and get this stuff on just right because it's just so pretty, but I'm wavering on if it's worth the bother.

Sigh

I don't even know how I did this!




On a more positive note, can we talk about how gorgeous MO Pinky Brown is in sunlight? Wow. Like liquid metal! Sorry for the crappy cell pic, I'm at work and forgot my camera at home!

Models Own Beetlejuice collection - Pinky Brown

Yes, these are all pictures of the same polish. This crazy colour is Pinky Brown, from the Models Own Beetlejuice collection. I painted this late last night, so no sunlight pictures unfortunately.

Taken in my bathroom under normal lights:


Taken in my bathroom under normal lights:


Taken in my kitchen under fluorescent lights:


The colour shifting in this polish is just crazy! It goes from gold to copper to pink to purple as you move your fingers. After coming to work this morning I can definitely say that the effect is more pronounced in the sun!

It's rather sheer, and you really need to shake this polish before applying, but the coats build quickly. I used three thin coats to get the pictures above, and the results were gorgeous. No streaking, no brush marks, and a perfect bubble-free finish. I really love this colour!

Models Own is a UK based company, but I managed to pick these up at Harlow & Co in Canada.

Christmas party manicure

This is what I ended up wearing to my work Christmas party. Simple, yet so fun! Zoya Gems & Jewels Kissy layered over Izzy. Izzy is nice enough I suppose, and Kissy is fun, but the two really don't sing unless you layer them together. The duo is just unbelievably sparkly and gorgeous, with the holographic bar glitter flashing in the sun. Definitely a new favourite combo! I wasn't overly impressed by this collection when I first saw it, but I've since changed my mind about these two.