Holographic Half-Moons

I've been slacking a bit lately, haven't I? Well... yes. And also working on a featured-polish post, but that's no excuse for neglecting to post a bit now and then! 

I do have a good one today, though!

Mmm, holographic! I have a hard time wanting to do fancy nail art with holographic polishes, since I feel like they're plenty fancy on their own and I don't want to distract too much from the inherent awesomeness. But on the other hand (hah!) I feel weird just painting my nails with one color anymore.

This time I just did a freehand half-moon over China Glaze When Stars Collide, using Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Black Tie. The duochrome in Black Tie got overwhelmed by the holo of When Stars Collide, but it still added a bit of subtle dimension to the moons. I think a creme would have just been too flat next to the holo! 

The pic was taken in direct sunlight, to best show off the holographic effect. These new China Glaze holos aren't as strong as the Color Club set I have, but still lovely, and this color in particular is gorgeous even without the holo effect. Also, I *was* able to use topcoat (NYC Grand Central Station) without dulling the rainbows.

Dotted half moons

More dotting practice, and the first one that I'm really happy with! I think I aced the dots on this one :D

It helps that I love the color combination to pieces of course!

I did the half moon freehand over the base, rather than using hole reinforcers as a guide, which doesn't work well for me due to my nails having a high curve. 

The base is Orly Fowl Play, which OMG LOVE. Purple and color shifting flakies and shimmer! So glad I bought this, might need a backup bottle.

For the moons I used Wet & Wild Mauve Frost, and the dots are the light brown shimmer from that Simple Pleasures set I despise for shitty formula (but hey, they work ok for nail art details). 

31 Day Challenge Day 18 - Half Moons

My first half moon turned out a bit awful, I think due to how highly curved my nails are; my guide stickers didn't want to stay stuck down anywhere but the middle. So this time I just grabbed a short striping brush and freehanded the moons, which turned out much, much better!

I really love how this turned out! I used Revlon Scented - Not So Blueberry for the main color, and Nicole by OPI - Follow Me On Glitter for the moons. Fabulous nails, and oh so easy to do, too!

Not So Blueberry has a subtle duochrome that's obvious in the bottle but that I didn't see on the nail at first, but then kept popping out and making me wonder if I was going crazy! So pretty.

I was playing around with hand positions, and I just have to share this one even though the colors came out wonky for unknown reasons:

Love that! Even though it's not true color it just looks so fantastically dramatic! Unfortunately I don't think I can re-create that pose without a lot of practice and fussing, this pic was a lucky accident. I'm definitely gonna have to try though!

I'm not sure yet how I feel about scented polishes. I own two, this and a bubblegum scented mini from Claire's, which smells super yummy and helped make up my mind to give in to the duochrome lust for this one, which... doesn't smell quite so yummy. It's not bad, exactly, but I'm on the fence about it scent-wise. Color wise, it's 100% love!

What do you think? Scented nail polish, yes or no? Or it depends?

First half-moon

The other day I stumbled across a display of Wet & Wild's Sparks and Stripes collection. Fantastic set of glitters. Four repromotes from the Spoiled collection, and two new polishes, one of which I'm showing off today along with my first attempt at a half-moon mani:

For this I started with two coats of Wet & Wild Wild Shine - Wild Card, let it dry, and marked off my moons with old garage sale price stickers. Then I added one coat of Revlon - Smoldering, removed the stickers and topped with two coats of Wet & Wild Fast Dry - Stars and Stripes. 

I have a weakness for holo glitter... and this is not only holo, but holo STARS and two sizes of holo bar glitter. I've never seen a polish like it. 

The stars required fishing and fussing with to get them placed, the base is super thick and goopy, and the bar glitters are sparse, but it has a really cool look (and the thick base helps keep the points on the stars from sticking out and snagging on things). I placed the stars with the first coat, then intentionally avoided getting any more stars in the second coat to smooth out the surprisingly few snaggy bits.

For the rest of the collection, I have some fantastic nail art planned. Hopefully it will turn out as well as I imagine it...