Epic Layering - for a lazy polisher like me!

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A little background to my layering:

My nails have been a fright of late, due to the far too much swatching, peeling off my glitters (yikes!), and skipping the nail balm/cuticle oil routine. So I needed to keep them nails painted to strengthen them, and stop removing the lacquer every 5 seconds!

How did I manage to keep the same polish on for a full 3 days? By layering another polish on top every day!

Here's what they looked like step by step:
 Day 1:

The Dream Girl - 2 coats - white light

The Dream Girl - 2 coats - white light

 The Dream Girl from Spooky Bones - a brand I found on etsy - is a dark muted purple shimmer. In low light it looks a lot like the colour of pencil lead with a purple tinge. The shimmer is really pretty, as you can see in the (crappy) photos, it is green and pink and makes what could be a blah colour come alive!
I had a bit of cuticle drag probably because I didn't wait long enough between coats. I just left it like this because  knew I'd be layering it.

Moonbow over TDG - 1 coat - white light

Moonbow over TDG - 1 coat - macro

Next, I applied 1 thin coat of Specialita Hits Phenomena Moonbow on top and put on 1 layer of top coat. Moonbow is a colour shifting glitter top in a clear base. The colour shift is seriously gorgeous in this one! The dominant colour is the blue & green you can see in the centre of the nails and that shifts to purple & pink. But there is also some gold and orange visible at certain angles which just equals GORGEOUSNESS!

I didn't particularly like how sparse the glitter was, but it was getting late so I left it like that for the first day.

Day 2:

Moonbow over TDG - 2 coats - white light

Moonbow over TDG - 2 coats - white light

Moonbow over TDG - 2 coats - macro

 So, the next day I added another coat of Moonbow and was delighted with the results. It certainly looked better on the base with more glitter. I only regret not getting any photos showing the pink & purple colour shift better! It's a bit difficult to do using my lamp :( 


Can you guess what I did next?

Day 3:

1 coat Hefesto added to the mix

I added a holographic top coat of course!!! Specialita Hits Hefesto arrived a couple of weeks ago and I actually didn't touch it until this manicure. I think I must have been trying to preserve the tiny 6mL bottle it came in!!! And JAYSUS it looks amazing!!! From an average distance it really looked like a dark purple multichrome linear holographic. Then when I looked close I could see the individual glitters peaking through and all the colour shifting and rainbowness of it all blew my mind!

I really couldn't believe I hadn't done more layering in the past. I'm just seriously lazy. And I adhere to the 'take off the last thing you put on' rule when it comes to clothing, makeup and jewellery because whenever I add that 1 extra bit of pizazz to a mani it usually ends up ruining it! Not in this case though!!!!

Now here are a bigillion more pics for you to ogle!

 

 Crazy awesome, right?!

And here's a bottle shot

L-R: The Dream Girl, Moonbow, Hefesto

I've recently bought quite a few layering polishes (like colour morphing top coats) so I really ought to try out more combinations and share the results with you all.

BTW keeping my nails painted for 3 days straight really helped them so I'm going to try to keep on leaving manis on til they grow out and are stronger!

xxx
NPA

Cult Nails Scandalous & Captivated

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Hello ladies & hopefully gents,

Bring on the weekend already!!! Feeling tired and cold, and maybe a little grumpy, but my polishes are cheering me up!!!
I'm a grump because I miss Buster and Charlie!!! Had a skype date tonight with mum and the boys had been groomed and Buster had been digging so he had mud all over his paws and mush!!! Charlie was all cuddly, burrowing in to mum's neck and it made me mega jealous!!! I just want to cuddle them again!

Good news is I'm going home for 3 weeks in June-July and then I get to spend a couple of weekends up there at the end of July for family birthdays!! That means the boys will be spoilt rotten with my overbearing love! I just have to hold on - and should probably stop looking at their photos so much, just makes me sad!!!

Enough of that though, I have Scandalous and Captivated to show you.
I picked up these 2 in Maria's last $5 sale (there's another one this Saturday FYI!). Enjoy.

Scandalous - 3 coats - white light

Scandalous - 3 coats - white light

Scandalous - macro

 Scandalous is a squishy coral jelly. It's a little bit milky so you get a nice coverage after 3 coats - unlike true jellies that tend to be a bit more transparent. It's very flattering and reminds me a lot of Essence Ballerina Backstage in On Your Gracile Tiptoes but the formula is so much nicer, not at all sticky.

Captivated - 1 coat over Scandalous

Captivated - 1 coat over Scandalous

Captivated - 1 coat over Scandalous - macro

Next I layered 1 coat of Captivated over Scandalous. They are a perfect combination. Captivated is a mix of opalescent orange and pink glitters in a coral/pink tinted base. Again with the great formula. Icing has a dupe out called Tiger's Blood, a cheap alternative if you can get your hands on it.

Captivated - 2 coats over Scandalous

Captivated - 2 coats over Scandalous - macro

 Lastly, I added 1 more coat of Captivated which made my nails that much more bright and vibrant, not to mention sparkly!!

I don't think I used any top coat for these pics and you can tell it dries pretty darn smooth! I definitely recommend these 2 as very dreamy summer shades! I can't wait for Summer to roll around again so I can get some decent wear out of them!


xxx
NPA

Picture Polish MONROE

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I was so not a fan of the name they chose for this polish - I don't think a vampy red with scattered holo dust says 'Marilyn Monroe' at all but I do like the lacquer!

PP's are a wee bit pricey so I tried not to shell out on Monroe, but I justified the buy, by the fact that I didn't have anything else like it... kinda :p

Monroe - white light

Monroe - white light

Monroe - macro

Monroe is a deep, dark red (the first photo is colour accurate) - which leans more pink/burgundy than bloody - with scattered holo effect. It's formulated like a jelly so it looks really squishy, which I LOVE! It does need 3 coats to be opaque and fix the unevenness of the 2nd coat (especially round the cuticles). Definitely leave a few minutes between coats to minimize the cuticle drag.

Now who thinks the name "My Bloody Romance" is a better name than Monroe? Or Bang, Bang? Way more appropriate, but whatevs PP naming competition people!!!!!

Anyone else mad for Monroe?

xx
NPA

Darling Diva Space Beetle - layering & Toxic Avenger comparison

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Hey,

I've got some rough swatches of yesterday's Space Beetle layered of a few different base colours as per a reader request.

Here are the base colours L-R: ChG Holly-Day, Mode Glamazon, Depend 171, ChG Millennium

Now with a thick-ish coat of Space Beetle on top:

You can see in these shots complexity of the holo particles. The maker uses 3 different types of holo: coarse and fine grade spectra flair as well as fine grade glitter powder.

Here they are 1 by 1:

ChG Millennium

Depend 171

Mode Glamazon

ChG Holly-Day

So basically Spae Beetle is is a holo topcoat with a little bit of a pink/green duochrome to it. I'm not really sure if I like it layered... Maybe it's just a case of finding a colour combination I like.

Now here is the comparison to Toxic Avenger:

In the bottle you can TA is darker, seems to have more colours and stronger holo effect going on.

You have probably guessed but in these pics Space Beetle is on the index and ring finger, Toxic Avenger on middle and pinky.

In the photos - maybe just because they're under a lamp - Space Beetle gets a bit drained of colour, the pink is stronger. But TA is really different. Although the have the same general colour shift, this is 3 coats of SB vs 2 coats of TA and TA is more dense and darker.

Happily though, I discovered I quite like SB worn alone and 3-4 coats does give good coverage. I think with some playing around you could probably manage to find a base coat topped off with SB that looks similar to TA.

Actually here it is layered over black:

So a bit darker than TA but it's approaching it! Maybe a charcoal...

It's a pity I couldn't take these pics in sunlight :( But I hope they give you a better idea of what Space Beetle is like.

xxx
NPA

Darling Diva Polish - Space Beetle

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Ahoy, hoy ladies,

About a month ago I found Darling Diva Polish on Etsy and promptly placed an order!
The owner makes a dupe of Clairns 230, affectionately 'Unicorn Pee', entitled Ringer! Naturally I snatched that up as well as a multichrome linear holographic called Space Beetle and a baby blue based glitter called Jennifer.

I haven't gotten swatches of Ringer yet - but it is seriously gorgeous and from what I can tell from other blog's posts on Clairns 230, a near dead on dupe!

For now, enjoy Space Beetle:

Bottle Shot

Macro

For the photos above, I layered 2 coats of Space Beetle over OPI Black Onyx. SB applies very easily, with a somewhat thin formula. I can't really imagine wearing it on its own because at 3 coats I still had considerable VNL. However I haven't had any time to experiment with it.
SB has a silver to pink colour shift with hints of gold, green, orange and blue . The linear holographic effect is very strong indeed! It actually reminds me of Dollish Polish Toxic Avenger, only much sheerer, like an TA top coat. I will have to do a side by side comparison for you.

I really enjoy these sorts of 'oil spill' multichromes! How about you?

You can purchase DDP lacquers HERE

xxx
NPA