Copper Patina Water Spot

Hello Lovlies!

Today's nails are my first attempt at a technique I've been starting to see around the blogosphere. It's called a water spot manicure, and is a variation on water marbling. The trick to this one is you spray an alcohol based solution like hand sanitizer or perfume on the polish after putting it in water. There is a great tutorial here.  I chose to double dip my nails to get this really marbled, patina look, and I love the outcome... See here:

I started with one coat of Wet N Wild French White Cream. I then spotted on Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Green Tea, a fantastic dusty mint creme, followed by Essie Penny Talk, a super shiny rose gold/copper.

I did my manicure using pure rubbing alcohol instead of hand sanitizer, and noticed that with Penny Talk it broke it up more into chunks than into spots, which worked great for this manicure, but it is something to keep in mind. I love this technique though... it's going to be perfect for making nails that look like natural stones like turquoise or jasper.

What do you think about water spotting?

Until next time,
HeatherS

He's Going In Circle's Under Water

Hello Hello Hello.

I recently was stocking up on some cotton balls at Dollar Tree (because we all know how fast us polish lovers go through them) and I saw that my local had restocked all the 2 packs of nail polish that they sometimes have. This time it was tons of the old Maybelline express finishes, and I scooped up some beautiful shimmers, one of the matte finished ones, and a bunch of the water polishes (the super sheer jellies).

Now here is a confession... I kind of hate jellies. Now don't get me wrong, I adore the super shininess of them, and the OPI "sorbet" finishes are gorgeous, but in general I hate that they never seem to dry quickly and ALWAYS show nail line. So naturally it kind of surprised me that I got a bunch of super super sheer jellies, but immediately upon returning home I realized an awesome way to wear them... layered over pale holographic polishes.

This is my first attempt: China Glaze's He's Going In Circles (a super pale seafoam green holographic) topped with 2 layers of Maybelline Express Emerald Water (a very blue leaning green ridiculously sheer jelly).

Layering these two polishes just amped up the color of HGIC but didn't take away any of the holo effect.

What do you think? Are you a fan of jellies on their own or do you have to layer them?

Until next time :)

Not So Drab...

Hello!

Okay so today's polish I can't find swatches of anywhere. It shows up on no lemming lists, and there isn't a swatch on a google search to be found, which is a total shame, because this polish is capital B Beautiful. Seriously, I can't believe Scrangie wouldn't have this posted anywhere.

I found this lovely little girl when I walked into a beauty supply store on my way to work hoping to find OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry collection. When I managed to get the only one in the store (I just love being that lucky girl) I decided to do a quick scan around. I found myself at the Jessica rack, and while most of the rack (like 99%) was your typical reds, pinks, and nudes, the very last slot had this one lone ugly duckling that just screamed "Take me home with you!"... so I totally did.

This is Camouflage by Jessica, a metallic, shimmery, olive green with heavy golden tones.

This was really hard to photograph because of the gold to it. Really it's slightly greener (The second sunlit picture is most color accurate). I don't have anything quite like it in my stash, Zoya's Irene is too green with none of the gold, China Glaze Peace On Earth is too dark, more brush strokey, and has none of the shimmer.

A note on formula: This was a little weird... first off, CHEMICALS... this is so not B3F and stank to high heaven. It takes a while to dry even with a coat of Seche Vite and some dry drops. As for application, I found that it wasn't hard to work with per se, just odd. Some nails applied thick and almost...chunky, maybe? But they leveled out smoothly, while other nails were thinner. I suspect I may have just needed to give it a good shake, but anyway, oddness, and definitely a pretty one that is deserving of more blog-lovin'.

Until next time, be good humans.