Syrup & Succulents

Those of us entrenched in the nail world tend to know where we fall when it comes to nail art: Lovers, Haters, and Lack of Skill to Execute. I am decidedly in the last category; I love nail art, even the delightfully tacky over-the-top Japanese falsies encrusted with pearls and bows (although the functionality of said falsies means that I'll have to hold off until I can afford to hire a full-time maid).

I'm not much for attempting nail art myself, since any artistic talent I may have does not translate at all to nail polish. I bought a dotting tool set once upon a time and used it once. Luckily these "syrup nails" are easy to do, even for a nail art dummy like me.

 "Syrup nails" are basically a type of gradient manicure that uses a sheer jelly. In my humble opinion it works best with a polish that is very sheer--I feel it gives a smoother looking gradient this way. I did mine with ORLY Beverly Hills Plum, which is a beautiful translucent coral. This is 7 coats of Beverly Hills Plum at its darkest, plus 2 coats of Seche Vite and 1 coat of NYC Grand Central Station. One of my favorite things about wearing this manicure is that all the layers of lacquer gave them the super-glossy gel nails look, which I love. A commented that it looked like I had dipped my nails in blood, which the macabre in me also loved.

Unrelated to my nails, I bought four tiny little potted succulents, and I plan on doing the Blogger-y thing and re-pot them into tiny handmade pots. That's for next week :)

Galaxy Girl

Continuing with my vampies-in-spring thing, here is ORLY Galaxy Girl, another much-lusted over color from the Cosmic FX collection! I first spied this color on Lacquerized's blog in a tutorial post, and then proceeded to read every single one of her posts until I had figured out what color it was. I should also note that this color was the color that got me into looking up the entire Cosmic FX collection (and then promptly falling for each and every one of them). Plus, it really has such a fun name! Out of all the names for this collection, Galaxy Girl is my favorite.

Galaxy Girl is a striking foil-duochrome with a burgundy-purple base and turquoise and purple sparkle. It reached opacity in 3 coats. The formula is quite thin and a little watery, not the easiest thing to handle but not a complete nightmare either. I did notice that I got tipwear rather quickly with it...but it may be due to the Seche Vite (which I'm still testing, tentatively--I've confirmed it gives me shrinkage on occasion) so I'm holding off on blaming Galaxy Girl just yet, since I've never had any problems with ORLY's wear in the past.

Cosmic Daylights

My mani for this week is one of those colors that you've wanted for forever, and yet when you finally get it, it sits unworn in your drawer for months while you're distracted by other pretties. As previously mentioned, the ORLY Cosmic FX collection is THE collection that got me into polish, and Hailey's Comet is one of my favorites from that collection--teal is one of my favorite colors, after all, how could I not? Hailey's Comet is a dupe for OPI Catch Me In Your Net and Zoya Charla, but ORLY is definitely my favorite brand in terms of wear and price.

After wearing Hailey's by itself for a few days, tipwear was starting to appear thanks to the shrinkage I got while testing Seche Vite. I wasn't ready to give up my gorgeously sparkling tips just yet, so I patched them up with an extra coat of Hailey's Comet and did a glitter gradient mani with OPI The Living Daylights.

Hailey's Comet is a foil that applied in an easy 3 coats, and had a nice, thin formula that wasn't too watery. The gold particles among the teal was completely stunning! Topped with The Living Daylights, which is a mix of champagne gold, silver, copper, and teal hex glitters, made a great contrast. I don't much like it simply layered over the entire nail, but it's so much fun when done into a gradient mani! The dab method was most effective in depositing glitters with this mani, as the glitter pieces didn't seem to want to leave the brush.

Overall this is one of my favorite manis in a while! It really screams summer to me--I'll definitely be wearing this combination again throughout the warmer months.

The Gardens on the Moon

 

I'm attending an office party today, and the attire is business casual but I was in the mood to be glam! Enter ORLY Lunar Eclipse topped with Lynnderella The Garden of Even. I was originally planning on wearing The Garden of Even over ORLY Bubbly Bombshell, but then I decided to pick undies that would help the fuchsia glitters pop more. I hear jewel tones are still in.
 

Shown here is 3 coats of Lunar Eclipse, 1 coat of The Garden of Even. Lunar Eclipse had a great, thin formula as usual, and a stunning cobalt-purple color shift. It was part of the Cosmic FX collection, which is actually the collection that started it all, the polishes that birthed my obsession with polish, so I am quite fond of it out of nostalgia as well as because it's completely breathtaking.

The Garden of Even did not exactly apply completely even--it's from Lady Lynn's Summer Solstice collection, and contains "intentionally bleeding glitter" as a component to tint the base a translucent, slightly neon fuchsia. Unfortunately since the base is very thick (all the better to suspend the glitter with my dear!) while I had no problems with actual application and was able to get away with brushing it on like with a normal polish as opposed to using the "dab method", the slight tint of fuchsia in the base did apply somewhat unevenly because the formula didn't level well. It's hardly noticeable over a darker base like Lunar Eclipse, but I suspect it will be more obvious over pale underwear so something to keep in mind. Overall though, I'm extremely pleased with this mani and I can't wait to get to the party!

Lynnderella nail lacquer is available for purchase through her Ebay store for $22.50.

A Lavender Compromise

Today I was in the mood for a lavender, but shockingly I had none in my ballooning stash that was the precise shade I wanted...so I decided to get creative. I love layering--it's an easy way to get a lot of different, unique nail looks out of your stash, and can sometimes bring out the best in a polish that may look blah by itself.

 

This is what I came up with: my franken "Sweetsleep" layered over ORLY Pixie Dust. Pixie dust is one of my favorite ORLYs--a gorgeous dusty, shimmery blue, part of the Once Upon a Time collection. Despite its name, what it really reminds me of is Cinderella's gown in the Disney movie. It has a great formula for a pastel--3 thin coats to opacity--and I love to wear it alone, but it made a gorgeous base for Sweetsleep!

The Big Reveal

I may be the most inconsistent blogger ever, but I am pretty good about keeping my nails polished. This was a nail-of-the-yesterday, Orly Royal Navy. 3 coats, an amazing vibrant blue jelly with turquoise shimmer. The best parts of this polish likes to hide itself away indoors, where it simply looks like a shimmery navy, but once you step into the sunlight...BAM. It's electric! Believe it or not in full sunlight in real life the color is even more intense than this, bordering on indigo, practically searing your retinas with its intensity. This polish probably has a touch of neon pigment in it, seeing as it dries to a satin finish, and it definitely needs to be topcoated.