Watermelon nail art

Watermelon nail art

The polishes I used were:

- Guppy 19 (neon pink creme) & Nicōle by OPI You're An Angel (warm pink jelly w/ golden glass fleck) for the base, also Sinful Colors Forget Now (dark pink jelly w/ glass fleck) near the eponychium to give the pink watermelon flesh some depth.

-  As for the gradation, I first sponged along the free edge with an opaque white creme, then with NYX Girls Sour Apple (chartreuse shimmer) and a franken of mine (lush light jelly green w/ golden microglitter), then applied smudged, squiggly lines of Rimmel Camouflage (mid-toned green w/ golden shimmer) with a nail art brush.

- The seeds were painted with white & brown acrylic paints and a nail art brush.

Prom Dress Disaster franken & LaRosa Hot Purple

Franken - Prom Dress Disaster, 3 coats over 1 coat of Color Club Pucci-licious

Franken - Prom Dress Disaster & LaRosa - Hot Purple, 3 + 1 coats

Blue Skies franken

Franken - Blue Skies, 2 coats

- Wet 'n' Wild Nocturnal (a super dark true jelly) + clear
- China Glaze Nova (mixed size holo glitter)
- H&M Hello Kitty Glitter Purple (slighty-larger-than-regular and small purple glitter)
- Pure Ice Strapless (blue microglitter)
- Saffron silver glitter (large and small silver hexes, similar to OPI Crown Me Already)

H&M Cool Summer & Midnight Fowl franken

H&M - Cool Summer, 2 coats

I have the allergic flue from Hell right now, so I'll make this short and sweet. Cool Summer is a H&M Hello Kitty polish from either last summer or the one before it. Purple shimmer with blue and pink microglitter, nice enough formula, great brush.

H&M - Cool Summer & Franken - Midnight Fowl, 2 + 2 coats

I skipped on OPI Merry Midnight a couple of years ago, and when Orly recently came out with Fowl Play, I was the first one clicking the order button on eBay. Much to my dismay it was darker and dustier than Merry Midnight, so I decided to make it more to my liking. The recipe is under this bottle pic:

 Franken - Midnight Fowl

- Orly Fowl Play (just a bit, no more than 1/10 of the whole bottle shown here)

- New York Summer Hot Purple (dark purple jelly)

- GOSH Rainbow (orange to green duochrome flakies)

- Pastel Manicure M22 (iridescent blue round glitter)

- Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor (iridescent blue square glitter)

- Misa Honeybunch (white glass flecks)

- Nfu-Oh 054 (green to blue duochrome flakies)

That's all for today, folks. Now, please excuse me while I go and die... -.-

Spectra Shield franken

Franken - Spectra Shield, 2 coats

This simple yet super pretty franken is definitely one of my favourite concoctions ever. Spectra Shield consists of a nearly full bottle of Flormar Supershine Miracle Colors U16, a few scoops of SpectraFlair fine grade pigment and a few drops of (any generic) dark purple shimmer polish. It's a fair bit more holo IRL than in my pics, and perhaps slightly more purple than in the first couple of pictures.

Bloody Halloween nails!

Bloody nail art for Halloween!

My nails haven't been this long since November '09, but it's only because I still haven't found the time nor the energy to file them down to my preferred '2/3 of nail bed and 1/3 of free edge' length. But hey, they're the perfect length for some creepy Halloween themed nail art! The base colour is a nude creme franken of mine and for the dripping blood I used several different polishes including Maybelline Berry Water, an ancient L'Oréal Bordeaux Noir and China Glaze Stroll. I didn't use a special fine brush here, just the polishes' own brushes.

Grey franken & nail art stickers

Grey franken, 1 coat & nail art stickers

There's nothing special about this franken, it's just Wet 'n' Wild's black & white cremes mixed together. I just don't see the point in buying a separate grey creme polish when I can make one myself... The result isn't a completely uniform grey but you can see the tiny separate black and white pigment particles, which I think is pretty neat. And it's a one coater! I found these Lolita-esque stickers at - of all places - a flea market, but I think they were a little too small for my nails. :/

Blueberry Shake franken, Jesse's Girl Confetti & crackle swatches

Franken - Blueberry Shake, 2 coats

This franken consists of Eveline 421 (a dupe for Essie Splash of Grenadine), some blue, a pinch of black and a whole lot of Depend's unnamed white glass fleck polish.

Franken - Blueberry Shake & Jesse's Girl - Confetti, 2 + 1 coats

Confetti, a sheer blurple duochrome glass fleck, is similar to the Sally Hansen HD polishes of last year.

Franken - Blueberry Shake, Jesse's Girl - Confetti & various crackles, 2 + 1 + 1 coats

The crackles used are, from index to pinkie:

I: IsaDora Black Tag

M: Depend Dark purple

R: Depend Blue shimmer

P: IsaDora Spraycan Blue

Shaken Not Stirred franken

Franken - Shaken Not Stirred, 2 coats

Ohmegosh, SUN!!! For whole three hours, it's photo taking time! So, I've been eyeing China Glaze's discontinued Shaken Not Stirred for what seems like years. I recently came across a bunch of discounted Eveline brand lacquers, and since they were so cheap at 1€ apiece I decided to grab a couple of extra ones to use in frankens. For the base colour I used Eveline 421, a light purple that leans pink (and which is nearly identical to Essie's Splash Of Grenadine) and then I added whatever glass flecked polishes I had, more specifically Misa Honeybunch (semi sheer white base), Sally Hansen Diamonds (clear base) and Depend 105 (super densely packed with glass flecks, simply made for frankening purposes). Photos of the original polish can be seen at Crystal Polish, Polish Me Happy and Polish Mayhem - I think my version is a tad more pink but I've managed to satisfy my craving for the moment.

Blue, teal & turquoise spam! Pt. 3

Franken - Envy Me, Carl, 2 coats

I mixed half and half of H&M Envy Me and Spending Cash With Carl to get this unbelievably gorgeous deep teal shimmer.

Franken - Envy Me, Carl & Precision - After Dinner Mints, 2 coats

 Orly - It's Up to Blue, 2 coats

Orly - It's Up to Blue & Nubar - Blue Silver Glitter, 2 + 2 coats

I was disappointed by It's Up to Blue - it looked horrible against my skin - so I topped it with Blue Silver Glitter from Nubar. OMG sparklefest! The glitter is tiny and two coats gave just enough coverage the green-ness of the Orly to shine through.

 Franken - Under the Sea, 2 coats

 DICI - 046, 2 coats

HOMG this is the most metallic polish EVER, it's incredible and must seen with one's own eyes! DICI is a Chinese brand available on eBay and is chock-full of toxic ingredients judging by the smell. It applied beautifully, probably thanks to all the carcinogenic stuff that's in it.

 Maybelline - New Year's Blues, 2 coats

 Revlon StreetWear - Midnight & Models Own - Blue Sparkle, 2 + 1 coats

Blue, teal & turquoise spam! Pt. 2

 Franken - Lady Sings the Blues Across the Universe, 2 coats

I wanted to create a franken that'd settle somewhere between Deborah Lippmann's Lady Sings The Blues and Across The Universe. I used a super pigmented dark blue, added a drop of black and lots of clear polish to get a jelly base that was opaque enough with two coats, but still managed to keep that squishy jelly look. I then added a ton of goopy silver hex glitter polish from Saffron and blue fine glitter lacquer called Mirage from La Femme - both UK brands - and finally Models Own Emerald City, a super dense green glitter.

 GOSH - Blue Monday, 3 coats

Blue Monday was *barely* opaque with three coats, I could still see a bit of VNL myself. Next time, I'll use either underwear or layer it over a similar colour.

Unknown brand - Blue glass fleck, 3 coats

Another eBay find, the brand name was written in Chinese and I don't know any Chinese, so under 'unknown brand' label it goes. I absolutely adored this lacquer and I hope I'll come across a backup bottle someday.

 OPI - Russian Navy Suede, 2 coats w/ top coat

The OPI suedes lull you into believing that they dry incredibly fast, but I think otherwise after denting Russian Navy *badly* after over an hour I had finished applying it.

OPI - DS Glamour, 2 coats

DS Glamour is one of the most coveted semi-HTF VHTF lacquers out there and much loved by the community... I thought it was just okay. *hides*