Faded Leaves - Revlon Punk

Short random post! This is Revlon Punk, from the Edgy Elegance collection. 

[Bottle to nail: Revlon Punk (2 coats)]

I'm glad I managed to pick up a few from this collection because they're all light foily/metallic shades which are super opaque and great as a base colour for light/sheer polishes. =)

[2 coats: Revlon Punk]

Punk is a very pale green, leaning slightly yellow. Two coats is plenty, and you can probably get away with just one carefully applied coat. Like a lot of these suede-type metallics, it tends to dry faintly matte and gritty so you can leave it that way or slap on some shiny topcoat!

Walking Dead - Halloween Challenge #5: Zombies

The topic of the day is 'zombies', and in no universe are zombies easy on the eyes (sorry, zombies, but it's true). So I decided to pretty much try for a weird-looking, maybe even gross-looking, manicure.

Here's what I started with:

[Two coats of Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

Nail Pattern Boldness' Madam Rose is a red and silvery-white matte glitter. With three thin coats, it could probably be opaque on its own. Nail Pattern Boldness really packs their glitter in their bottles! Orly In The Navy is a very dark, almost black, navy blue.

[Top: Sponged Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

Then, I sponged on Missha SV03 - a gray creme - randomly over the lot. Alright, I'll admit, in my enthusiasm for this creepy subject, I was going for a zombie's gray patchy skin over rotting flesh. (At first, I was going to do tendons and bone as well, then I decided to leave it a little abstract.)

[Top: Sponged Ulta3 Pacific Fever over Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

I added a little green to the gray for more of a rotting look. How does this look? I don't think I quite made it to icky zombie skin and flesh heights, but it did look a little gross in person. It definitely achieved a certain level of ugliness though!

Then I thought it would be interesting to try to make it something that I could actually wear out without getting bombarded by questions about my taste...

[Top: Nyx Enchanted Forest
Middle: Sponged Ulta3 Pacific Fever over Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

Glitter hides all flaws, right? Hmmm...not quite in this case, but close enough. This is the sparkly edition of zombies! Perhaps when Twilight vampires turn into zombies...? The glitter is Nyx's Enchanted Forest and it has all sorts of green holo hex suspended in a green jelly base. It's gorgeous, and I love how it looks like it's floating in that second picture above.

Here's the mandatory blurry picture for maximum shininess:

[Top: Nyx Enchanted Forest
Middle: Sponged Ulta3 Pacific Fever over Missha SV03
Base: Nail Pattern Boldness Madam Rose over Orly In The Navy]

So how did I go? 'Zombie' was a rather tough challenge for me, and perhaps I took it a little too literally. /o\

Pumpkin Parade - Halloween Challenge #4: Jack-O-Lanterns

Day 4 of the 'This is Halloween' nail art challenge! The theme today is Jack-O-Lanterns!

Here's how the final product looks like:

[Nail art: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black/Noir
Revlon Orange Fizz over Kleancolor Metallic Mango]

True to the theme, I hope! Now let's take it from the top!

[Kleancolor Metallic Mango]

I started with two coats of Kleancolor Metallic Mango. It's a gorgeous burnished bright bronze colour, wavering between chrome and foil.

[Top coat: Revlon Orange Fizz
Base coat: Kleancolor Metallic Mango]

Then I added one coat of Revlon Orange Fizz, which is an orange jelly with orange flakes. It didn't change the colour of Metallic Mango, but the flakes added some texture - which is what I wanted for a pumpkin-y look!

[Nail art: Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black/Noir
Revlon Orange Fizz over Kleancolor Metallic Mango]

Then with Sally Hansen's Nail Art Pen in Black/Noir, I drew on the pumpkin faces. A coat of glossy quick dry over the lot gave it a shiny look. You can see a little of Orange Fizz's flakes here.

I wanted to try to give each nail a slightly different face, but the middle and ring finger look pretty similar in the end.

Pretty straightforward and simple to do. Do they look like Jack-O-Lanterns or just scary, grinning faces on my nails? :O

Ev's Birthday #4 - Jme presents... LA Splash, LA Girl, Cheeky, Nail Pattern Boldness, Aphrodite Lacquer

Get ready for crazy picspam! I have been so super spoilt for my birthday this year... I saw Jme again the other day and she had EVEN MORE presents for me. They'd arrived a bit later than she expected, but to me it's like, birthday extension?? Oooh yeah, bring it on~ =)

[GORGEOUS GLORIOUS GLITTER GLUT]

I couldn't resist putting together this gorgeous macros of some of the indie polishes... but before we get to those, here are a couple other things!

[WITH SHINY INDEED]

Nail stickers... "WITH SHINY"! Jme knows me so well, lol!

[LA Splash: Golden Moss; LA Girl Glitter Addict: Celebrate, Incognito, Animate, Flamboyant]

Now, Jme was super sneaky and was all like, "Hey, let's order from Cherry Culture!" ..then when I sent her my list, she was like OKAY, I'M BUYING IT!" .... Soooo SNEAKY!! Anyway, from L-R up there, here's what I got! LA Splash Golden Moss, then LA Girl Glitter Addict in Celebrate, Incognito, Animate and Flamboyant. So many shinies!

[Cheeky Jumbo Nail Art Plates]

... and then Jme got me a bunch of CHEEKY XL JUMBO SUPERBIG MASSIVE STAMPING PLATES, OHWOWWWWW~!! I cannot wait to try these out, but at the same time, they are so beautifully pristine that I can't bear to break them out.... Eeeee~ =)

Now... on to the indies! Check out these babies!

[Nail Pattern Boldness]

From nail pattern boldness, I got Flipping Out Hard and I Believe I Can Fly. Look how amazing they both are!!

[Nail Pattern Boldness: Flipping Out Hard]

Flipping Out Hard is in the same general ballpark as Nail-venturous Floam but the base is a bright fluoro yellow and it looks like an even amount of yellow and blue matte glitter in the mix (compared to more blue in Floam - swatched here). The glitter is super dense too! I reckon opaque in two coats~ =)

[Nail Pattern Boldness: I Believe I Can Fly]

I Believe I Can Fly is amazingly gorgeous. That mix of glitter together with the rich blue jelly base is utter genius! There's silver and pale blue squares, and smaller purple and red hexes (?). The combination gives amazing depth and is opaque in two coats. Can't wait to wear this as a full mani!

[Aphrodite Lacquer]

Jme also gave me two polishes from Aphrodite Lacquer - Don't Copy Me and.... Custom..? That's right, I GOT A CUSTOM POLISH ZOMGGGGG, AAAAHHHHH~!! *runs around the room flailing*

[Aphrodite Lacquer: Don't Copy Me]

Don't Copy Me is a shimmery white jelly with black squares and tiny hexes. Depth is amazing as you can tell! I'm actually wearing this right now! Two coats is pretty good, but as it's a white jelly, it's still a bit translucent. You can probably go for three coats if you want complete coverage. The black glitter tends to settle, but it's fine after a good shake, no real need to go fishing.

[Aphrodite Lacquer: Custom polish]

Custom is miiiinnneeee, alllll mineeee!!! What a gorgeous mix! There's white, magenta and black squares, and lots of tiny lavender hexes... but not just that... hidden in the mix are these masssive purple hexes... you can see one peeking out at the bottom of the bottle in that shot above. The polish is chock-full of glitter and there's no issues getting a bunch out, but to get the super large ones require a bit of fishing. Super gorgeous, though... The question is... what polish undies to wear underneath! Oh, decisions...

[OINK]

 ...Finally! An adorable little piggy basket to store all my goodies in!! Thank you so much, Jme!!! Super spoilt to the MAAAAXXXXTREEEEEMMMMEEEEEE!!!! =D

Grim Greening Ghosts - Halloween Challenge #3: Ghosts

I swear this seemed like a better idea in my head! Anyway, here's my attempt for Halloween Challenge #3... GHOSTS!!

[Help! We're blobbbyyy~!!]

I'll try not to talk too much... =p I didn't want to use a plain black base so I decided to use Milani Enchantment from the Black Magic Halloween collection a few years back...

[Bottle to nail: Milani Enchantment (1 coat over black)]

Milani Enchantment is a black jelly with lots of superfine blurple microglitter. It would probably be opaque in 2-3 coats, but in the interest of easy removal, I layered one coat of it over a plain black creme (LA Girl Blackout, as usual).

[1 coat: Milani Enchantment (over black)]

Unfortunately the glitter is so fine that it looks pretty much like a plain black... it would have been sparklier in the sun but it was super rainy when I took these pics so no shiny to see here!

[Bottle: Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Glow in Dark in Glow]

I then used Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Glow in Dark polish (in Glow...) and stamped a couple of images on from my Bundle Monster plates: Bats on pinky (BM13), castle on ring (BM224), ghosts on middle and index (BM223).

[Stamping: WnW FM Glow over Milani Enchantment]

However, because the stamping layer was so thin, I had trouble with the images not glowing for very long after I turned the lights out, oh no! So I had to colour in the pattern a little with a little brush... hence the blobbiness, oh dear...

... and now for magical glowy pics!! =)

[In the dark: Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Glow in Dark in Glow]

Here's the bottle of polish - isn't it gorgeously glowy!

[In the dark: Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Glow in Dark in Glow]

And then my nails, complete with blobby ghost close-up!! This was pretty fun despite the troubles... especially trying to force my camera to focus in the dark... I think glow-in-the-dark polish can be really fun! Maybe I'll do a full glow-in-the-dark mani the next time I go watch a movie, hehehehe....

October Potions - Halloween Challenge #2: Watermarble

Since we joined the Halloween challenge that has posting dates on Mondays and Fridays, my Thursday posts are now moved to Friday temporarily. Today's challenge is watermarbling!

I've only done dry watermarbling before, so to stick to the spirit of the challenge, I attempted a normal watermarble. IT WAS SO DIFFICULT. Omg, how do people do this??

Anyway, here are my results! You get two for the price of one!

[Base: Revlon Lilychrome
Pale green: Essence Viva La Green
Mid-green: Kleancolor Leaves Jingle
Black: Ulta3 Black Satin]

What is going on here?? Unfortunately, I didn't have any mid to dark greens that didn't have glitter in them. :(  I do so love my glitter. So you can see a scattering of green glitter, which looks a little weird. But I guess part of Halloween is about looking a little weird.

On my ring finger, I actually did a double watermarble just to see how that would be like. Basically, I stuck my nail in for one coat, and when it had dried, I did another round. All in all...strange. I picked a green theme for a witchy look.

[Base: Revlon Lilychrome
Yellow/orange: Revlon Orange Fizz
Purple: Revlon Grape Fizz]

On my other hand, I wanted a more mystical, ethereal look, so I used colours which were a lot lighter and I used jelly polish. I did a double watermarble for my pinky finger here too, but that didn't quite work out as well.

For both watermarbling, I used a silver base coat so that the manis looked almost a little chrome.

It took me many attempts to swirl out some patterns on the water (I don't recall it being this hard when I did dry watermarbling!) and I'm still far from being at ease with this manicure method. But I think I could impart some tips so that you can learn from my painful lessons:

1. It doesn't really matter if your nail polish is of great quality or not...what you need is a thin nail polish if it's a creme. Anything that is thick or is a one coater will dry fast on the water, which will make your life so hard.

2. Jelly nail polish actually spread a lot easier on water than creme. So you can use jelly, just make sure to pick darker colours - so that they'll be more visible - and be ready to make more rings.

3. If you're having trouble where the nail polish dries on the water surface too quickly and doesn't spread out on the water, very gently shake the cup. It has to be so gentle that the water surface is rippling like that scene out of Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs are still far away, not when they're pretty close. :P  The slight vibration will help break up the nail polish a little and it will spread out. Keep up the vibration if necessary!

4. Tape around your nails seriously. I found the whole process to be quite mess free because of the tape. Clean up was easy.

5. I know people use toothpicks or other sharp points to swirl and make the patterns on the water, or even to gather up bits of polish so that the water surface is debris-free. I use the lead of a mechanic pencil. I click it a few times so that the lead is a little longer than usual, and when I'm done swirling, I just break off the lead which has bits of nail polish stuck to it. That's easier than having to clean off the tip of a toothpick every time I'm done swirling one pattern.

And that's it! I'm not great at this so I've no more tips. Hope that helps! :)