Matte flakies gradient

Here is a mani I wore earlier this week.  My base is one coat of OPI DS Fantasy, I then applied sections of three flakies polishes, the first is blue at the top, then green and then yellow.  The flakie polishes I used were Inglot 203, 204 and 205. Then I decided to make it matte, because flakies look awesome matte.

The Inglot flakie polishes are packed with flakies, which is good, cause the bottles are tiny.  This was just one dabbled layer of each of the Inglot polishes.  I never remember to matte any polishes. I must try to remember to do it more often. I particularly like the soft touch feel that matte polishes give.

Ozotic reswatch spam - 606, 607, 609 & 617

Define: Lazy blog post - blog post in which the blogger posts new swatch photos of previously shown pretty polishes and doesn't provide any other commentary other than polish name. Also known as spam post. Example follows.

Ozotic 606

Ozotic 607

Ozotic 609

Ozotic 617

Ozotic polishes are available from Picture Polish and their various network members around the globe.

Smitten polish - You're Turning Violet, Violet

Purple lovers, grab your bibs and set your mouths to drool.  Today's beauty is You're Turning Violet, Violet from the recent Confection Collection by Smitten Polish.  The lovely Noelie from Noelie's Nails has created this line and if you don't follow her blog your should, because she has the most stunning nails that are always perfectly painted.  Now, let's get onto this polish.

Firstly, holo glitters, why are you such a PITA to photograph?  I like taking photos of glitters in the shade, or preferably on an overcast day, because that way the glitters don't reflect to much light and you see the polish better.  But with holo glitters it means they look so one dimensional and you don't see any of their multi-shifting colours. Damn you!

You're Turning Violet, Violet has different sizes and shades of purple and blue holographic glitters, all in a fantastic purple jelly base.  I applied three coats on it's own, cause I wanted it to look exactly like the amazingness that is in the bottle.  The formula was very easy to work with and I didn't require any clean up for these photos. I also applied this over a PVC glue peel off base coat, so I know removed will be easy peasy too!  This did dry rough and I put on two coats of Ulta 3 Non chip and a coat of Seche Vite to make sure it was glassy smooth. Even with 7 coats in total, this never felt too thick and I had no shrinkage, I just felt like my nails were bullet proof.

In an effort to capture the sparkly goodness, I took these photos under the bathroom light.  The purple jelly base appears darker, but you can start to appreciate the multicoloured sparkles in the polish.

The polish feels like a purple version of China Glaze Atlantis, except with different size glitters. A complete stunner!  

Smitten Polishes are available from her Etsy Store, and updates on Noelie's Nails blog.

This polish was sent to me for review

CrowsToes - Absolum - your potions master

After seeing a photo of CrowsToes Absolum - your potions master over on steffels blog, I made sure I snagged a bottle of this off Llarowe last time it was in stock.

This is my first CrowsToes polish and I have to say this lady isn't stingy with the glitters, it was jam packed.  This did mean that the formula is quite thick, but I like thick glitters.  I really hate a runny glitter where you lift your brush out and the polish runs off with all the glitters.  This was sticky and the brush was coated in glitter, which meant applying a single layer using the dabble method worked perfectly.  Don't bother trying to brush this on because you will find the thick formula hard to work with (or if you want to brush it on, just add some thinner to your bottle).

This is one coat of Absolum - your potions master layered over one coat of OPI DS Fantasy, all on a PVC glue peel off base coat.

Here is OPI DS Fantasy on it's own.  This is another polish that I picked up from the beauty supply store at the same time I got the OMG polishes.  It's absolutley stunning and this is just one coat applied over PVC peel off base coat.

I peeled this off in the shower and it took about two minutes to do. I was really easy to remove once you lift that first edge and it was actually rather fun to peel it off in an icky, pick at your scab kind of way!  Here are my peeled off tips, of which there are only nine cause I lost one down the drain. 

What amazes me about the PVC peel off base coat is that it really sticks to the nail well. I thought cause it peeled off that it wouldn't last well, but as you can see in Alanna's wear test, it lasts just as good as any other base coat.  It is so much easier to peel off in the shower, and I think I would always do it there, or at least after soaking my nails for a few minutes in water.  I've used it for four glitter manis so far and I've noticed no adverse effects to my nail surface and my cuticles are loving not being soaked in acetone.  Have you tried the PCV base coat yet?

China Glaze No Plain Jane with flakies gradient

The next polish from the China Glaze Bohemian collection I tried was No Plain Jane.  I wanted to fancy it up a bit rather than wear it as a straight mani, so I applied Cult Nails Clairvoyant from about 1/3 of the way down the nail, all the way to the tip. When that was dry, I put a second coat of Clairvoyant on just the last 1/3 of the nail.

Some of these photos really show the tinted purple base in Clairvoyant, but mainly because my photos were picking up the bronzey colour shift in No Plain Jane.  In real life the gradient was very smooth.  None of these photos show the full colour shift, was was a bit weird, cause the base colour in No Plain Jane went bronze and the flakies in Clairvoyant went blue. So while the main colours matched well, the duo chrome colour shift in both polishes actually clashed a bit.

The tips were a bit thick and I did get some shrinkage with Seche Vite, but nothing too horrible.  I like the idea of the flakies gradient, I will have to try it again.

A little OMG spam

A few months ago when I was in Sydney I grabbed quite a few bottles of 2NITE, DV8 and TMI from the China Glaze collection.  They were they only bottles that the shop had left.  I bought them specifically to sell (one has to pay for their nail addiction somehow!) and as I was swatching them for my ebay listing, I thought I may as well post the swatches here.

2NITE - Cornflower blue.

DV8 - Teal blue

TMI - Salmon pink

There is something really special about the original OMG collection.  No other holo polish from any brand has ever come close to the ultra fine linear holo effect of these ones.  The holo effect in 2NITE is one of the best.  DV8 and TMI don't show the holo as much, and I wonder if my bottles were thinned a little if they would show more.  These swatches were two coats with no base or top coat.