Gold leaf nail art over Mckfresh Angel

Mckfresh Nail Attire is one of my favourite Aussie indie brands, made by a pretty damn cool chick. The Sunnydale collection was one of my favourites last year, and Angel in particular was one of most unique. It's a blackened purple base, with tiny silver specks and big blue iridescent bars, which are super thin and don't have any of the won't-lay-flat, looks-like-hair crappiness of many bar glitters. You can check out the swatch of Angel alone in my original post on the Buffy collection, but today I wanted to show you an experiment with gold leaf from Born Pretty.

I don't actually own a gold leaf topper yet, so I tried to make do with some shredded gold foil from Born Pretty. I used larger pieces in a mani for Artsy Wednesday a while ago, and it turns out that using smaller pieces is both better AND worse. Better, because you can pulverise the crap out of the foil. Worse, because it's super fiddly to apply. I used a cotton bud, much like the way I do glitter gradients, but since the foil is dry, I painted a slow-drying top coat over the original manicure first, to give it something to stick to.

Overall? I like the effect, but it seems like it would be so much faster just to cave and get a gold leaf top coat! I'm also considering dropping some of the foil into polish and seeing how stable it is - I've seen some nasty concoctions made from not-real-gold foil corroding in organic solvents though. We'll see!

Purple/gold gradient

I've always done gradients with two cremes, so I decided to mix it up a bit recently and tried a gradient with a creme (OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?) and a foily metallic gold (Hello Darling likeomg).

I really loved this on my nails, and I'm definitely going to try it out more often! I usually hate how foils look on my fingers, but this was spectacular, and my right hand looked awesome, so this is going to be my foil-wearing design of choice.

How do you wear polishes you don't "do"?

Kiko 274

Hola chicas!

After getting back from Spain I haven't really been in the mood for nail polish much - as predicted I massacred my nails while abroad (I ripped one of my right nails off at the nail bed which was every bit as unpleasant as it sounds, although I was trying on a pair of heavily discounted Zara shorts at the time, so I think that may be karma coming to get me). Since I got back I've been repainting the kitchen, so it hasn't really seemed worth it to do my nails.

Nonetheless, here is a colour I wore while away. My boyfriend found a Kiko store near the apartment we stayed in. He did mention that he thought pointing it out to me might be a big mistake, and so it proved. Nail polishes were €2.50 each, so I went predictably ballistic. I got so many that he had to put them in his case so that I wasn't over baggage allowance. True love, ladies.

This is Kiko - a sheer platinum comprised of gold and silver foil particles. It's much more sparkly in the flesh. Sorry for the subpar photography - this was in an alleyway in southern spain!

China Glaze Harvest Moon

This polish ticks my boxes. I love bronzey colours (I find them a great neutral), I love foils, and I loved the inspiration behind the Capitol Colors collection. Indeed, when this goes live, I very much hope I'll be by a pool reading the Hunger Games books...and hopefully not covered in sunburn and insect bites, as usually happens when I go away.

That said, this sat in my polish box for ages before I reached for it. I kept meaning to, but because I knew I'd like it, it seemed like the 'safe' choice. So eventually I picked it up last night and threw it on, and I don't just like it, I love it. The flecks are very slightly different colours (a bit like LA girl Copper Alloy, which I will get better swatches of one day....) so it sparkles orange and gold in the sun. It's pretty.

Chanel Graphake

As you may remember, I have a bit of a 'thing' for Graphite, and was pretty annoyed by the fact that I never bought it. I was so happy when OPI managed to dupe Peridot, but the Graphite-a-like from the Spiderman collection doesn't look all that comparable to me, so I skipped it.

But, I did want to have a go at Frankening something similar. This is what I came up with. It's mostly China Glaze Midnight Kiss and Cheers to You, with some GOSH black passion and China Glaze White Cap. I don't think it's gold and/or flakie enough, but it captures the same vibe.

I wore this to my postgrad ball (which turned out to be a bit of a wet fish, but I enjoyed the opportunity to get my glad rags on) along with my favourite jewellery. Here's a picture of the polish with my bracelet. I was really pleased with the effect.

LA Girl Copper Alloy

Another gorgeous polish from the reader donated box. Thank you! I love this one  - it's got a duochrome red/copper quality to it and it's so firey and glowy. This ended up being four coats for reasons explained below, but three was fine, and it dries quickly so it's much less of a hassle than that sounds.

What I do not love is seche vite. Oy vey. I poured two bottles together so I could actually use the dregs, and it applied OK, but it shrunk so badly! It's pulled in 2-3mm on the sides and taken the polish with it. So I apologise that this mani isn't as pretty as it should be :(

Does anyone have any suggestions for top coats that don't shrink so much? I've really had it with SV ruining manicures...

More Color Club Foiled (Fall 2011) swatches

The rest of the Color Club Foiled collection that CC sent me for review. 

 Color Club Lumin-Icecent

OK... that's a pretty bad name for a polish. But sure, why not. Light blue foil with slight greenish tinge. Really nice one. Two coats. 

Color Club Cold Metal

Ordinary but very nice dark blue foil. One coat does the trick. :) Gotta love those. Dried super fast. Best five minute mani ever. 

Color Club Hot Like Lava

Favorite polish from the collection but worst photos ever! I don't understand what went wrong with my ability to use a camera but all of these photos came out blurry and very, very orange. And my skin looks bizarre in the first one. So annoyed. But the polish was great. Another one coat polish, super fast dry time. This was taken on the third day of wear and is a very aptly named for a hot pink foil.

Some Color Club Foiled swatches (Fall 2011)

I am super behind on Color Club swatches. :( Between what I've bought and what they've sent (such as this collection), I really could wear nothing but Color Club for over a month. It would be a pretty good month. Anyhow, the Foiled collection brought China Glaze Khrome to mind and I couldn't help comparing the two when I applied and wore the polishes, though the two collections actually feel pretty distinct. (Khrome was more metallic, Foiled is more... foil. Brighter, more sparkly, with more of a textured feel.)

I have a weird relationship with foils: I like them but I don't love them and yet I probably wear them more often than most other finishes. Sunlight does fabulous things to them but they're dull as all heck indoors. So I never plan to wear a foil. I only wear foils when I don't have time to do my nails. Application is very forgiving, quite a few are one coat wonders, most dry very quickly and it looks pristine for the first 24-48 hours. Absolutely perfect in a pinch. 

Almost all of my Foiled photos are actually NOTDs because they arrived during an extremely busy week... So I was a little put out when some of the Color Club Foiled polishes were somewhat thin and didn't dry quickly. But it varied from polish to polish. 

Color Club Antiquated

Silvery champagne. The above shows two coats but I think it could've used three: it was pretty thin. It dried very quickly though. Good staying power. 

Color Club Perfect Molten

Darkened seafoam. Two coats was perfect. Oddly, it dried slower than Antiquated. Still, much faster than many polishes. One of my favorites from this collection. 

Color Club Foil Me Once

Cool pink. This one I cursed. Three coats, took longer to dry than the other two, and then started chipping immediately. I was not a happy camper. 

Neutral & Festive!

I was trying to get myself into the holiday spirit - but not in a red/green/bells/holly/snow kind of way just quite yet - when I came up with this manicure! Not totally my idea mind you...I have a sweater from Kohl's that looks like this! (See it here.)

The nude base is Essie Brooch the Subject (which I showed you before here), and the gold dots are OPI Glitzerland. (See my full Glitzerland mani here, on Piff here, and on flinty here! We all have different skin tones and I think it looks fab on each and every one of us!)

I thought the effect was really cute and I got lots of compliments on it! It kind of reminded me of Kate Spade, but I'm not honestly sure why. And it did give me the beginnings of holiday cheer...(without being OTT).

(Bonus: It lasted FOREVER. I still have it on and its been...5 days?)

Are your nails festive yet or are you waiting until the holidays are closer? Are you planning any special manicures? I'd love to hear!

kittytokaren

Up Close & Lovely - OPI Designer...de Better

I ended up buying another polish from the OPI Muppets collection - and I'm glad I did! I absolutely adored Warm & Fozzie, and I very much like this one - Designer...de Better (dumb name), but it's not head-over-heels love.

My normal shot holding the bottle didn't really work out, because the polish is so reflective! Here are some other attempts...

A close-up so you can see the orange flecks in the silvery polish...

Designer...de Better is very boring colour from afar, but a very interesting colour up close! (Usually it's the other way around, right?) When you first clap eyes on it, it looks like a normal champagne/beige foil. Snoozeapalooza. But then you squint to get a closer look, as something isn't quite right...this champagne snoozer is actually a silver foil with orange or bronze particles in it - really cool! It's like something special, just for you.

Is there a polish you like better up close?

kittytokaren

Gold, part I: CG Midnight Kiss

I wore this once on my toes last winter with Party Hearty over the top and wasn't that wowed. Looking at it on my nails, I can only ask: HOW?! This polish is a total knock out! It's a slightly silvery, cool gold foil. SO sparkly. SO reflective. Just gorgeous!





It kind of changes colour with the light. Indoors, the creamy, silvery tones come out and it looks like a subtle, pale gold with high shine. I find the pastel tones of very reflective polishes often come out in low light, the same is true for the chromes I've reviewed. In the sun though, it turns into a total bling fest. Kapow!

So Fall... OPI Warm & Fozzie

Fall is my favourite season - I love burying my nose in a big fluffy scarf, finally getting to wear my plum lipsticks, how the air can smell crisp and like burning firewood at the same time...even the seasonal coffee flavours...but most of all - the fashion. And that includes polish, of course! OPI Warm & Fozzie is the epitome of fall, and honestly, it has become my new favourite. It's like the wintery sister of my all-time-fav - OPI DS Glow! It's somehow sultrier - more dark and bronze, but has the same kind of vibrance that DS Glow has with flashes of warm gold and twinkles of red. Absolutely gorgeous. Pics can't describe it...

I got so many compliments on this polish - even from polish n00bs. I'm even considering purchasing a back-up! Warm & Fozzie was initially going to be my only purchase from the Muppets collection, but because it's so fabulous I picked up Designer...de Better as well - hopefully it will be another special metallic/foil/amazingjdfla;dsjf for me to fall in love with!

What polish reminds you most of fall?

kittytokaren

Chanel Peridot

My new academic year's resolution -- besides to finish my qualifying exams at the end of the Winter 2012 quarter -- is to be more consistent about posting here!

Chanel Peridot

Got lots of compliments on this one. It felt more like a foil to me than a duochrome and oddly enough, the duochrome is more pronounced in the photos than in real life. Still, it was sparkly and bright. A little streaky on the application and you can see some evidence of brushstrokes. Three coats, thinner than I expected though. The photo was taken on the fourth day of wear and, as you can see, it was still chip-free!

Close-up on Peridot

So bright, it burns. :)

I've been up to quite a bit lately. Attended a wedding in Seattle. Saw friends that I haven't seen in a long time (all of whom seem to be in wedding planning mode... so there was a lot of conversation about cakes and caterers, dresses and... more dresses). There are a lot of pregnant women in my life so I'm making quilts, burp cloths and other basic, easy-to-sew baby items. I have also started making quilts for Quilts for Kids, an organization that provides handmade quilts for children in hospitals. I don't get that much time for hobbies and volunteer work, so it's gratifying to be able to kill two birds with one stone on that one. Attempting to make a dress from a 1952 pattern... I suck at sewing darts but now I'm super picky about buying clothes because I'm so aware of how they're made and how they fit. I tried to herd my RAs and got a bit of participant running done in the last two weeks of the summer quarter. I'm doing a little bit of freelance editing for an academic in another country who needs a little help with English and English-language publishing. My own paper just got slung back to me for a second revise/resubmit and I'm writing this post while trying to force myself to read all the comments VERY VERY CAREFULLY so I can see exactly how dumb I am. (Seriously, I can't type numbers. It's a very bad thing to be bad at as a researcher!) I went to the dentist for the first time in three years: I needed two appointments to properly clean my teeth (ugh) and I found out that my previous dentist did a crappy job applying two of my crowns, and thus they need to be replaced (double ugh). Lots of dentist visits. Though I like this dentist and his office a lot: they're the most cheerful bunch of people and all patients get a flower at the end of their appointments. I'm getting LASIK in about a month, so there's been a lot of back and forth to ophthalmologists (and one day I'll spell that correctly on the first try -- I forgot the first 'l' again... at least I got all the 'h's this time). I can't wear glasses because all the glasses I've ever had have given me a splitting headache and my eyes seem to have developed an allergic reaction to all sorts of contact lenses in the past year. It's a sh*tload of money but I'm hopeful that it'll be a good investment. And I'm slogging through a huge backlog of NOTD photos and trying to get some of the summer and fall collections swatched. So I've been busy... and spending more money on fabric than polish lately. A history of cosmetics obsession translates really well to sewing and fabric choices.

Desperately duping graphite

I have a rule against buying Chanel polishes. I lust after them, I render myself completely broke buying them, I apply them with a frantic anticipation, I am disappointed. This is how it always goes. I adore a luxury purchase as much as the next girl, but every Chanel lacquer I've had has ended up in the swap pile. But Graphite...*sigh*. I adore Graphite. Quite apart from the fact that I'm not supposed to be buying polish at all, never mind Chanel polish, this one has my heart. So I went rummaging through my stash to see if I had anything similar that would prevent me from hitting 'purchase!'.

This is what I turned up: 'Mischa' by Andrea Fullerton, a brand available in Superdrug in the UK. The colour is definitely not a dupe, but it's in the same vein, and a very fine colour in its own right. It's a foil with dominant colours of pewter, violet, and gold. From a distance it looks like a dark grey with warm undertones, and it sparkles nicely in the sun. This is three coats, and longevity has been good (I'm on day four of wear today with no issues, although I will be removing it tonight).

But, I'm not convinced by the brand. The bottles are teeny - 5.5ml - and are priced at £5.50 each. At £1 a ml, these are more expensive than my Illamasquas (£13.50 for 15ml, although I nearly always purchase in a sale, making them more like £10 each). They're not even far off Chanel, which is £17.50 for 13ml. I bought four of these when I first started my internship, and the colours are really gorgeous and unique (I'll swatch some of the others in the coming weeks) but they are expensive given the small quantity you get. Not sure why I'm complaining, given that I rarely dent my big 15ml bottles, but the size of these does feel a bit stingy.

Are you ever put off polish purchases by the quantity you get in a bottle?

Many, many pictures of OPI Rally Pretty Pink

I spent most of the three days I wore this staring at my nails. Staring at them indoors, staring at the outdoors, staring at them during the day, staring at them during the night... and taking photos of most of that process.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink (outdoors in direct sunlight)

(outdoors in indirect sunlight)

(indoors in lightbox)

(indoors, indoor lighting, no flash)

I never thought I'd ever go so nutty over a pink shimmer! But it's so much more than just a pink

shimmer. It's a ton of gold foil (and green shimmer, perhaps?... though that might just be a trick of the light) suspended with a pink-purple jelly that can look like a slightly dusty magenta or a really rich red-leaning purple, depending on light and angle. Three coats -- could've used a fourth because it's jelly and the more you put on, the more shimmer you get! But three coats was sufficient. There was no color that it looked like "most of the time" (hence the many photos in different types of lighting situations). So changeable, so lovely. It sparkles so hard, it burns.