Dreaming of Dawn - Covergirl Midnight Magic, Miniso Japan Purple

It's been awhile! I was very busy and left Ev to fend for herself awhile there. But I'm back now and I come bearing gradient plus decals!

[Dreaming of Dawn]

So I started with Miniso Japan Purple as my base nail polish. I reviewed the nail polish here. Then I hunted down a nail polish which would give me a subtle colour change, and ended up with Covergirl Midnight Magic, which we have reviewed before a couple times. Midnight Magic is a blue foil with gold, green and pink microglitter, and if you apply it in thin enough layers, you can build up its opacity slowly. That means it makes a pretty good nail polish to use for making gradients. I didn't use a sponge, just applied straight to the nail with the brush, but in thin layers.

[Base: Miniso Japan Purple
To the tips: Covergirl Midnight Magic]

After that, I used a decal over the lot of it. I wish I could tell you more about the decals, but they were a gift and there was no brand that I remember. It was a decal of feathers and dream catchers I believe, but most of the art couldn't be clearly seen once applied to my nails.

[Decal on top of the following:
Base: Miniso Japan Purple
To the tips: Covergirl Midnight Magic]

The end result is a cool-toned mani that looks strangely witchy to me for some reason. Anyway, it was an easy mani for a fun result!

Lace it up - MdU Black, Hit the Bottle Chromeo, Born Pretty BP-L045

I have so many manis I did from 2016 which I haven't yet posted, so have a look at a rather old stamping manicure I did.

[Delicate silver and black]

I used Covergirl's Midnight Magic as the base polish, and I stamped over it with Hit the Bottle's Chromeo, a silver chrome stamping polish. I didn't like how the silver stamp on the index finger's nail turned out, so I stamped on top of that with MdU Black. 

[Born Pretty Stamping Plate BP-L045]

The pattern I chose is the one in the lavender box above. As you can see, Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L045 is full of lace stamping patterns. I have to admit, I don't think I've mastered the art of stamping lace patterns. The ones with particularly busy patterns don't tend to result in sharp clear lines. But I'll keep on working on lace patterns!

[Base: Covergirl Midnight Magic
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Chromeo, Born Pretty BP-L045] 

On the right hand, I didn't stamp with MdU Black. I tried to stamp with different parts of the pattern on every nail so it would look more like lacy fabric stretched across my nails, rather than the same lace pattern repeated across every nail. 

 

[Base: Covergirl Midnight Magic
Stamping: MdU Black, Hit the Bottle Chromeo, Born Pretty BP-L045] 

I think perhaps I'll try again with black nail polish. It certainly looks more like lace when it's in black. 

Basket Weave - Covergirl Midnight Magic, Hit the Bottle Chromeo, Stamping plate A by Cheeky

More stamping but with old plates this time!

[My metallic weave]

The base is CoverGirl's Midnight Magic and I have stamped over it with Hit the Bottle Chromeo, a silver chrome stamping nail polish. Now as for the stamping plate...

[Stamping plate A by Cheeky]

This is jumbo stamping plate A by Cheeky which I bought in 2012 on Amazon. I looked through Amazon and was amazed that they do still sell it and you can find one here. Back in 2012, I bought it and then left it to languish in a drawer until I dug it out now to test it out. There really are a lot of patterns here! Look at how shiny this untouched stamping plate is, hah.

The pattern I chose is the one with the dark pink rectangle around it. The stamping didn't go too badly I think.

[Base: CoverGirl Midnight Magic
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Chromeo, Stamping plate A by Cheeky]

The only hard time I had with this pattern was stamping it on straight. As you can see, some of them are more diagonal than straight, oops. Oh well. I think it turned out pretty well. Chromeo is a basic silver chrome but it stamps like a dream.

As for the stamping plate, I'm not crazy about this 2012 Cheeky stamping plates. I tested some of the other designs from a couple other plates and some of the lines were just too fine. Even when you could pick up the fine lines, they were often barely visible on the nails when stamped. That's not to say that the plates are a write off. I found most of their geometrical patterns tended to be better, probably because they had slightly thicker lines.

Winter Fuzz - Covergirl Midnight Magic, OPI Warm and Fozzie

I was super amused to see the post Jme put up yesterday featuring Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant in Midnight Magic, because that was exactly what I had just put on and photographed on my nails! I had picked this up a month or two ago half off and only now decided to use it. So I decided to edit these up and post them today as I had added a little extra to my mani. =)

[Staying warm this winter?]

A gradient of shiny foily goodness! After all, what can be better than one sparkly foil polish... but TWO sparkly foil polishes...

[Bottle to nail: Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant in Midnight Magic (2 coats)]

As Jme has mentioned, Midnight Magic is a blue foil polish but with an amazing mix of gold, green and pink microglitter. It also appears to have a somewhat duochrome effect at certain angles due to the pink microglitter. Excellent formula - this was two coats but could easily do with one thick one depending on nail length.

[2 coats: Covergirl Outlast Stay Brilliant in Midnight Magic]

A super gorgeous polish, but not only that... it's a dupe for Zoya Fei Fei and OPI On Her Majesty's Secret service! Check out this awesome swatch test featuring all three (Covergirl, Zoya and OPI).

[Base: Covergirl Midnight Magic (2 coats); Tips: OPI Warm and Fozzie]

Anywhooo, I was admiring the sparkly finish and the large foil particles in Midnight Magic when I realised it reminded me of the finishes in some OPIs I own. OPI Warm and Fozzie was just sitting on my desk so, oh happy days, I smacked some on a sponge and set about making a gradient!

[Base: Covergirl Midnight Magic (2 coats); Tips: OPI Warm and Fozzie]

OPI Warm and Fozzie is a foily bronze shade but look closer and there's particles in pink, gold to green, and bronze to gold duochrome! I've included the photo at an angle above to show you the bright gold visible!

Both polishes were an awesome match and due to the colours and particle size, it was super easy to get a gradient without mucking around with multiple sponge layers (this was just one layer).

[Base: Covergirl Midnight Magic (2 coats); Tips: OPI Warm and Fozzie;
Stamping: China Glaze Millenium]

Then I got bored today and stamped a snakeskin pattern (plate BM215) in a silver chrome (China Glaze Millenium) over the top of one nail. It looked a bit too stark just over the top so I lightly sponged the two base polishes over the top again for a more subtle effect. =)

I love playing around with polish, don't you!

Smokey Steel - Covergirl Midnight Magic

Hey ho! I was at Target looking for something and as usual, I couldn't help but stop by the make-up aisle of course. Lo and behold, a sale on all CoverGirl nail polish! At $2.95, it was hard to resist. There weren't any colours I particularly fancied, but the following did catch my eye.

[CoverGirl Midnight Magic]

At first, under poor lighting, I thought CoverGirl Midnight Magic was more of a mid-blue with gold glitter. As you can see, I was pretty wrong.

[CoverGirl Midnight Magic]

This is an odd duck to me. It's a blue foil, with almost greenish undertones, and it has gold, green and pink microglitter. At certain angles, the pink microglitter comes across more strongly and the nail polish looks like a bluey-lavender-gray colour instead.

All in all, it makes for an interesting, pretty foil and I rather like it. :)