Zoya - Dea

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: No
SOURCE: www.zoya.com during their recent buy 1 get 1 free sale
COMMENTS: This is one of those colors that is easy on the eyes because it looks so rich and creamy ( like milk chocolate?) Works well as a neutral. This totally needs some nail art - something whit or cream-colored thrown in... but I don't feel like doing any tonight...
Btw, the bubbles in the mani are from my basecoat, not from this polish.

UP NEXT: Something white

Followup - nail supply store glitter frankening (large photos)

I recently decided to try out two glitters. The first has primarily flashes of blue and green in a mostly grey base. It looks really cool!

However, once the grey stuff hit clear nailpolish, it seemed to dissolve in it. I tried to salvage it by adding holo glitter, which sank to the bottom, but this is basically a franken fail. The glitter may work for sprinkling/dipping, but I haven't tried that yet.

The second glitter is chock full of silver and multi-colored sparklies. It looks holographic to me because of the prismatic effect you see when the container is moved from side to side.

So here is what went into my franken from the last post as well as two new similar frankens:

L to R: Ulta - Devious, Holo glitter, clear nailpolish, Love My Nails - Dazzling (this is to keep the glitter suspended. Any polish with glitter suspended in it, such as Wet n Wild - Hallucinate, should do)

Below are the three frankens I created:

#1: My first of  these frankens, has lots of glitter and clear and purple polish at about a 2:1 ratio
#2: Attempting a jelly - lots of glitter, much more clear, a bit of LMN Dazzling, a few drops of purple
#3: Jelly-ish - Mostly LMN Dazzling, a little clear, a few drops of purple, less glitter, two drops of black

Photos below are of two coats of each. The batch on the left have two coats of topcoat, and on the right, no topcoat.

Here they are again.

I like them all! Which of the three is your favorite?

ABOP Franken - Deep Purple Holo

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes, 2  coats of Beauty Secrets Fast Dry
SOURCE: Frankenpolish made with Ulta - Devious, clear polish, and holographic glitter from a beauty supply store.
COMMENTS: I think this is my favorite franken so far! However, the quick dry topcoat had a blue tint to it, and placed directly over the polish, it killed some of the sparkle. I used a non-quick dry on my right hand and then the quick dry and that turned out better. It appears that I actually prefer holographic glitter (scattered color) to the holographic pigment that  comes in most holo polishes. I'm already planning to make another bottle of this but with alot more clear than purple so it's a jelly-ish holo. This just needs a bit of light - both indoors and outdoors - to really shine.

Indoors:

Outdoors:

 
UP NEXT: Something brown

Zoya - Crystal

*Thanks for the comments on my last post!


APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Not in photos. Later put on one coat of Quick Slicker and it took about 10 mins longer than usual to fully dry.
SOURCE: Zoya website (www.zoya.com)
COMMENTS: I took advantage of a recent sale to order more Zoya polishes (though I of course haven't worn most of the ones I already have!). Crystal is one I've had my eye on since it came out, and I love it! The gold foil with the blue is a fabulous combo, and I highlighted the gold by putting a thin coat of NDB - Golden Bikini on the tips. Though not pictured below, this is really stunning with topcoat.

With flash:

UP NEXT: Something purple

ABOP Franken - Green holo

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes - Quick Slicker
SOURCE: Franken made with a Golden Rose silver-ish holo and a dark blue and yellow (can't remember which). Tips are made with franken of clear with holo pigment from beauty supply store.

COMMENTS: I wanted a true green holo and made this a few months back. The holo is somewhat elusive, and having no natural light to take my photos doesn't help matters. I decided to jazz up the tips with a holo pigment franken, then didn't like it so much. Soooo I fixed it by using a striper brush to add a line of the green to break up the tip section. The best part? Hubby-approved! He complimented me on them just out of the blue.
*Don't forget you can click on the photos to see them up close and personal!

Below - what it looks like most of the time.

UP NEXT: Something blue

American Apparel - Manila

APPLICATION: Streaky - like many yellows
COATS: 2 - I made the second one much thicker than the first and it settled/leveled well.
TOPCOAT?: No
SOURCE: American Apparel Online store (though there is a store within a mile of where I work - I just can't take the time in my work day to get to it!
COMMENTS: I've heard so much about the great formula on these polishes, so I was disappointed when this started out streaky. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt though - since it's a yellow. It did clean up easily and the color is saturated, gorgeous, and shiny! Well worth it, I think. All photos taken in morning light outdoors. Have a beautiful day!

UP NEXT: Something green...

NYC - Sun Goddess

APPLICATION: Smooth
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Yes
SOURCE: Walgreens/Rite Aid/CVS/Target - can't remember
COMMENTS: I'm trying to go through the main rainbow colors for my next polishes, so after my red mani, I had to choose something orange. The treadmill was waiting for me, so it had to be quick. In addition, I didn't want the orange to look like part of a leftover halloween costume, so it couldn't be a standard orange creme. Sooo... I grabbed this wonderful textured shimmer from NYC. Sun Goddess is not quite opaque at two coats, but that doesn't bother me because it's gorgeous!

Oh yah, and I didn't bother with cleanup...

UP NEXT: Something yellow - ish...

Color Club - More than just a set of nameless reds...

APPLICATION: Smooth on all
COATS: 2
TOPCOAT?: Only in photos of the complete manicure
SOURCE: Ross Dress for Less
COMMENTS: When I first saw this set of reds with no names and in a package that didn't reflect the actual collection, I said to myself "Who needs that many reds?". Well apparently I feel I do (I don't really, but I convinced myself I could franken with them). So... I decided to do a mani with the four cremes and the red glitter. The last two bottles in the set are red shimmers, one of which also has a flash of gold shimmer in it. I used the first five in the not-so-great photo below.

I think the cremes are actually a jelly-ish formula because I still had visible nail line after two coats.

Chloe-style tips done with Nina Ultra Pro -Black and an then everything topped with an unnamed Elle LDL (from 9-pack in Ross) gold shimmer topcoat.  Finished off the mani with one coat of Quick Slicker.

With my nails so long now, I'm still getting used to seeing such large areas of color, so after some time I felt the need to break it up a little more. I used a Color Club Art Club striping polish to add a line. These photos were taken before I threw on another layer of topcoat.