Franken - My heart bleeds for you

I received the latest Layla order today and did a whole lot of swatching.  I actually really enjoyed it.  I swatched all the Layla Mirror polishes and I can't wait to show them to you.  

But first here is a monstrous custom polish I created and called 'My heart bleeds for you'.  The idea was magical in my head, but oh dear it's not a nice outcome in the end.  But hey, I'm here to show you the ugly creations, not just the pretty ones, so listen up on how not to create this.

In my head I imagined a red jelly with gold flecks - check.

Then floating in the golden blood polish were sparkly golden holo hearts - check.

Unfortunately the gold hearts are lost in the richness of the red jelly and don't even look gold anymore, and they seem to stick out something terrible.

One of my worst yet.  I hope this post makes other frankens feel better about some of their FRANKEN FAILS!  They happen to everyone.

More about → Franken - My heart bleeds for you

Holo holly holiday nails

Here is my latest holiday mani.  The base is a new custom polish I made, which is a few shades darker than the Fairway Green polish I made. I called the polish Holo holly.  And of course I had to add some red to make the holly complete.

I put one layer of JQ red glitter which I bought of ebay earlier this year.  It's strange glitter cause each piece curls slightly, rather than laying flat.  Seche Vite smooths it right out, but the bends in the glitter make it look rough.

Here is Holo Holly on it's own.  Unfortunately there was no sun, so I took a few photos with the macro LED light to show the holo off.

And on a non-nail relate note: Mum said I must have killed a china man, cause we've had some rotten luck over the last week or two.  My husband dislocated his shoulder on Saturday night during a baseball game, bye bye season for him!  My son tripped up the stairs and smashed his front teeth on the tiles, chipping the front of one off and pushing it right back up into the gum (poor little fella) Our pool solar heating has gone kaput and I spent $100 on a new probe and it still doesn't work.  And today our TV started going brrrrrr, brrrrrr, brrrrr and wont even turn on.  Come on, enough already ok!!

More about → Holo holly holiday nails

Rona Caribbean Blue pigment custom polish

I recently got some more frankening supplies from the Aussie supplier Beauty World.  Previously I have got some of the Rona Volcanic Sparks powders which I made into a top coat.  They also have two other Rona pigments.  Caribbean Blue and Volcanic Fire. 

Firstly here is Caribbean Blue, which again I made as a top coat.  This is two coats layered over black.

Remind you of anything?

Aqua blue shifting through to purple.

I really couldn't believe how much this one is almost a dead on dupe for the Models Own Aqua Violet.

Of course I did a quick comparison swatch.  From left to right: Index Caribbean Blue, Middle Models Own Aqua Violet, Ring Luna Blue top coat.

Same order, from left to right: Index Caribbean Blue, Middle Models Own Aqua Violet, Ring Luna Blue top coat.

Caribbean Blue and Models Own Aqua Violet are basically identical.  They are all in the same colour range, but Luna Blue pigment from TKB just has slightly larger particles.

I've got a few grams of this pigment, so I think I will do some mixing with tints to make an actual polish, not just a top coat.

More about → Rona Caribbean Blue pigment custom polish

Custom polish - Coinage

Lynderella's latest collection has a polish called Change in it, and I fell in love with it the instant I saw it on her blog.  Unfortunately she doesn't ship internationally, so if you want to get her polishes you have to find someone in the USA that would be willing to buy on your behalf and ship to Australia.

I had someone lined up who kindly offered to arrange it for me, but I missed the opening of her shop by 4 hours and therefore missed out on getting included in the order. DOH! 

So I figured I will pull out all my glitters to see what I could mash together.

I created this custom polish, which I have called Coinage.

I really struggle photographing glitters, so you will see this polish in various lighting and tones as I took photos over two days.  I actually wore this polish for four days, which is like a record for me.  I just loved it that much.  This was three coats, with no underwear.  I was really happy with the opacity.

This polish has 18 different glitters and flakes. There is silver holo hex's in two sizes, gold holo hex's in three sizes, chartreuse coloured hex's, brilliant gold hex's, pale gold hex's, copper hex's, orange hex's, micro glitter in silver, brown, desert sand, copper and cinnamon, and gold, copper and bronze reflecks glitters.  Holey hell that is a lot of glitter in one bottle.  I can't believe I actually had that many gold toned glitters!

I was also gifted a bottle of Gelous to try as a top coat to smooth out glitters.  This mani had a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite and it was shiny and smooth.  I love Gelous, I can't believe I had never tried it to smooth out glitter polishes. It really does make a difference.  Thank you!!

More about → Custom polish - Coinage

Custom Polishes - TKB gold pigments

More frankens (or more accurately 'Custom polishes') for you today.  Sorry if your a bit sick of them, but I just can't stop myself making them.

These three polishes are again made using TKB pigments.  I purchased these pigments to use as eye shadows, because they are all shades of gold and brown, which I wear all the time.  Naturally, I had to mix some into a mini bottle of polish too.  Now my eyes and my tips match!

This one is Verdigris Gold.  It's murky and mysterious and is a green gold.

In this sun angle shot, you can see flecks of green and orange.  It's a very rich and interesting pigment.  It mixed in perfectly and was totally smooth to apply.

This one almost looks the same colour, but it is slightly different.  This is Antique Gold.

Lastly is Chamoisee.  This was actually free.  It was an off spec Antique Silver which TKB were giving away as free samples!  You can't get any better than free.

These really are the simplest polishes to make if you ever wanted to try making your own but were unsure where to start.  You literately just add about half a teaspoon of powder into clear polish (or suspension base if you can get your hands on it) and your done.

I'm pretty sure no one else but me will know that my eyeshadow and nails match :)

More about → Custom Polishes - TKB gold pigments

Custom polishes - Moondust TKB pigments Part 2

Here is the second installment of the TKB Moondust pigments.  Only two today, but they are both very pretty.  Both these polishes are two coats over black.  My polishes are very pigmented, made with 8 scoops of moondust in each bottle.  If I made these again, I would only use 5 scoops.

Lavender Luz shifts from blue to purple to orange, or so they tell me on the TKB site.  I don't think I captured the orange, but the blue to purple shift is nice and strong.

Luna Blue shifts from cyan to blue to red.  Again, it's that last colour shift on acute angles that I didn't get with the camera.

I ordered Models Own Beetlejuice on the day it was released, so I can't wait to compare those polishes with these frankens (when they eventually arrive from the other side of the world).  You can get a sample of all these five pigments for just $12, which is enough for about 8 polishes of each colour!

More about → Custom polishes - Moondust TKB pigments Part 2

Custom polishes - Moondust TKB pigments Part 1

Remember when I made the glass fleck topcoats from the TKB Star Bites collection?  There was Miranda Star, Shanika Sun, Cherika Star.  Well here are three frankens made with the sister pigments, Moondust, also available from TKB Trading.  

These are a much finer powder than the Star Bites, and they all still have a beautiful and strong colour shift.  All these swatches were two coats over a black base.  I accidentally made my polishes a bit too concentrated, I should have only added about five straw scoops in my mini bottle, not eight!

First up is Aisha Gold.  Layered over black this feels a little similar to Peripera Metallic Green, and even a bit Chanel Peridot-ish.  It even has the same blue colour shift.

Super sparkly in the sun, with a strong gold green base.

Here is the blue green shift.

Next is Crescent Crimson.  The TKB Trading website says this one shifts from red to orange to yellow.  I don't really see the red, much more pink, but it does shift to orange and yellow.  Very pretty.

The last one for today is Indu Rose. This shifts from indigo to purple to red.  Totally gorgeous.

You likely? Yes?

Two more to show you tomorrow.

More about → Custom polishes - Moondust TKB pigments Part 1