Pahlish Toxic and Timeless

Happy Friday, y'all! Today I've got Toxic and Timeless to show you. Just a note before I start with the photos, my bottle is from an older batch, has no bar glitter, and a darker, sheer teal jelly base. I think the barless batch was an anomaly, as was the sheer teal base. It's definitely a lot bluer than what's shown in the current listing, so I don't think this version exists anymore. Incidentally, I'm quite pleased with what I've got! Here is one coat over my franken, Across the Ocean. I had been wearing my franken for 5 days at that point, so I apologize for the growth. And for the cell phone picture, haha. I just really wanted to show you what this looked like!

Then I decided to layer 2 coats of Toxic and Timeless over Nails Inc. Kensington, the dark teal jelly/creme that was sold with the Wyndham flakie. Here it is on day 1:

I put this on just before finals last semester, so I had no time or energy to think about the state of my manicures. I made an excellent choice though, because check out the wear on this mani. Day 10:

There's growth and a bit of tip wear, but it never lost that glossy shine. I am quite pleased.

Toxic and Timeless is quite thick, but it's not unmanageable by any means. I despise greenish yellows, chartreuse, all that fun stuff, so I'm quite surprised to say that I love the bright hexes in this. They just...work. And when you add an additional coat of Toxic and Timeless, the sheer teal base turns the hexes into an awesome lime green.

I don't have any other Pahlishes, but I think Prayers for Rain and Like Calendars Dying are calling for me. Added to the ever-growing wishlist...

Have you tried Toxic and Timeless, or any other Pahlishes? Did it wear as well for you as it did for me?

Franken: Across the Ocean

Since it was released, Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe has been a favorite for many polish addicts. I briefly succumbed to the hype, but realized pretty quickly it wasn't actually my thing, so it went off to someone who would appreciate it more. I am a big teal lover though, and figured I would like a similar polish in that color scheme, so I decided to make one. Because I am so super creative and original (/sarcasm), I'm calling it Across the Ocean.

That is 5 coats. I kept it really freaking sheer because I didn't want to lose the glitter.

It's got quite a bit of depth. Not sure why I've got a bottle of Essie drying drops in the above picture, but we'll just go with it.

Boom. Glitter. It wore really well on me too- 5 days, no chips, no tip wear. Just the expected growth at the cuticle end. It makes a pretty great base for Pahlish Toxic and Timeless, which I'll be showing you on Friday.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're having a great week!

Top 30 of 2012! (part 2)

Today I'll show you my favorite indies. To be fair, I don't own many indies, 13 or 14, but for the most part, I really like the ones that I have!

HARE King of Carat Flowers

Unique glitters in a light grey base? Sold. And hello, there's square glitter!!

HARE Cast in Bronze

Application with this one was difficult, but I can forgive that for such a beautiful color. And look, more squares!

HARE Star Tropics

Can you tell I like square glitter? This was my mani for New Year's, and while it is quite thick, the end result is fantaaaaaaastic.

Across the Ocean

This is a franken that I made over the summer! Although I'm not an indie seller (and do not ever plan on becoming one), I threw this one in here because it doesn't really fit in anywhere else. I'm sure you can guess what my reference was when I made this ;)

Contrary Polish Firebrand

I've told you time and again of my love for reds, vampies, and jellies, so it makes perfect sense that I love Firebrand.

Contrary Polish Inky Fingers

Just a note: Inky Fingers is more purple than it looks in my picture. It's like the dark, inky, moody sister of Sephora Pantone Parachute Purple. Excellent formula, and really cool shimmer.

Contrary Polish Anna Maria

Contrary Polish makes some really cool, unexpected shimmers. Murky teal with yellow shimmer? LOVE.

Twili

This one was a custom, and I am absolutely in love with the result. Great formula, and the balance of shimmer to base color is just perfect.

Pahlish Toxic and Timeless

I have an older, barless version of this polish, and it is just so freaking cool. The wear is amazing too. I wore this for ten days! When I get to blogging about this properly, you'll see the end result.

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Even though this was released in 2011, it has a spot on my list because it's that awesome. Yes, there are 75083672308573028 different versions of this out there, but this has the distinction of having the only bar glitter that I don't hate. I actually like it. What.

Thoughts? Do we have any indie favorites in common? I know it took me a very long time to warm up to indies (aside from Lynnderella, whom I ordered from a few months after she opened), so I'm curious, have you jumped on the indie bandwagon?

Thanks for looking and commenting, and I hope you're doing well!

Franken Friday #7: Death Mountain

Hey! Today I've got for you a franken that's not terribly unique, but one that I'm reasonably fond of all the same. You've probably heard of NerdLacquer, and for a while I lusted after her nail polish Warrior Ethos, but obviously, I'm not going to get ahold of that anytime soon unless I pay out the behind on Ebay or swap something else that's HTF.

I enjoy frankening, so I figured I'd go ahead and make my own version. I've also been plotting a series of frankens inspired by my favorite Zelda games, and this coincided with my idea for a Death Mountain nail polish. Death Mountain is a volcano just past Kakariko Village, so I went with a red.

This is 3 coats of my franken, with top coat, in the shade.

In the sunlight:

As you can see, I took a great deal of liberty with the colors, but I did say "inspired" right? Basically, it's a neutral-warm red jelly with a bunch of different hex glitters. Mostly red and gold, but with a fair bit of fine black glitter, and glints of copper here and there. I think that since Death Mountain is a volcano, my franken needs a bit of orange to warm it up and make it more fiery.

There are also a few holo hexes here and there, but I think adding those was a mistake. It seems like a bit much, and I don't really feel like it goes with the rest of the colors in the polish.

Thoughts? If you've got any constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it! Don't be shy. :) Oh, and any other Zelda fans around here??

Thanks for looking and commenting, and happy Friday!! Enjoy your weekend!

Franken Friday #6, and a Jelly Sandwich Fail

Happy Friday!! My lab finally has power back, and I'm hoping everyone else affected by that storm has gotten their power restored too. Today's franken is a blue-green shimmer that was originally part of a Funky Fingers mini-set. The original color was a light blue with yellow shimmer, and it was very very sheer. Sometimes I'd wear 4 coats on its own, and I still had a ton of VNL, but it looked pretty cool. I got tired of it though, so I added SHCSM Navy Baby, which darkened the base and tinted the shimmer. This is the result, in the shade:

Navy Baby is a very opaque polish, and I added enough that this polish is now opaque in 3 coats, which I think is pretty reasonable. In direct sunlight:

In the bottle, it looks like a blue-green duochrome with a red shift when angled away, but sadly that property doesn't actually translate onto the nail. It's all good though, because this is still completely unique in my collection.

Earlier this week, there were a bunch of blog posts dealing with jelly sandwiches, so I figured I'd do one just for kicks and giggles, and....yeah. Didn't turn out too well, LOL. Here it is, as a cautionary tale. 3 coats of Verity Deep Violet, 1 coat of OPI Last Friday Night, 1 coat of Verity Deep Violet, and 1 thin coat of Finger Paints Asylum.

Could've been worse, I guess, but it's still pretty bad. :P

Have a great weekend, and thanks for looking and commenting!

Franken Friday #5, and some weirdness

Hurraaaaayyy, the week is finally over! Friday is almost over too but.........whatever.

Today's franken is one that I made several months ago, and have worn several times, but have never actually photographed until today. Whoops. It's nearly opaque in one coat, but I used 2 for good measure. It looks like a fairly uninteresting blue-grey shimmer in the shade.

In the light, however, it looks a lot more interesting. Blue, green, and silver bits of shimmer, and there's a bit of orange too, though that was pretty much impossible to capture.

A closer look at the shimmer:

I don't remember what exactly I used, but I know the shimmer is from Sally Hansen Mandarin Mantra, a very old sheer orange shimmer. If I recall, that one was only good for layering, and I'm not a big orange fan, so I used it up for this. I also used Revlon Royal for the blue part, and as a result, this franken smells horrendous. I don't know what it is about Royal, but it smells really...skunky. I think I also threw in some black or grey to darken it.

Now for the weirdness. Remember this franken that I made back in January? It's pretty clearly a blue-toned green, right? Well, not anymore. I pulled it out this morning, and well, this is what it looks like now.

It's still holo enough, but I'm really weirded out by the fact that it's so olive now. Unfortunately, olive doesn't seem to play too well with my skintone, but it's not that bad, I guess. And I could always add more blue to get it back to the way it was, but at any rate, it's something to keep an eye out for while frankening.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Franken Friday #4

Happy Friday!!! It's been a while since I posted a franken...just haven't gotten around to wearing 'em lately, I guess.

The Milani holos were my first foray into holographic polishes over a year ago, and I wound up with HD (the silver one) and Cyberspace (the blue one). HD is still my favorite of any silver holo out there, but I've also acquired OPI DS Sapphire and China Glaze 2NITE since then, and honestly, those are a lot more interesting than Cyberspace, so I figured I'd franken with it.

As you can see, there's no longer any trace of the holo, but I'm okay with that. I started with a 70% full bottle of Cyberspace, and the other 30% is Ruby Kisses Regaled Out Blue and Verity Aqua Blue in a roughly 2:1 ratio. The Milani holos have a very interesting type of shimmer- rather than normal particles, these are more like shards of shimmer. You can see it more closely here:

Pardon my weirdo thumbnail shape...I nicked it on something and was too lazy to file out the unevenness before taking this photo, lol.

Thanks for looking and commenting, and have a great weekend!

Green Spam for St. Patrick's Day!

China Glaze L8R G8R - 3 coats, no base coat

Chanel Peridot - 3 coats, no top coat

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Color Club Snakeskin - 2 coats, no top coat

Don't Mess With OPI - 2 coats, no top coat

Illamasqua Rampage - 3 coats, no top coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker, 1 coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham, 1 coat

Illamasqua Rampage + Pure Ice Heartbreaker + Nails Inc. the Wyndham + Essie Matte About You

Hard Candy Envy, 2 coats, no top coat

Green Holo Franken, 2 coats, no top coat

Green Franken, 4 coats

Sinful Colors Mint Apple, 3 coats, no top coat

Ulta Tip the Scales, 3 coats, no top coat

Essie Pretty Edgy, 3 coats, no top coat

Thanks for looking, and I hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day!