NOTD: Shylock

Why, thou, loss upon loss; the thief gone with so much,
and so much to find the thief...

and no satisfaction, no
revenge....

nor no ill luck stirring but what lights o' my shoulders,

no sighs but o' my breathing,
no tears but o' my shedding.

(merchant of venice, III.i.78-81)

Kleancolor, Golden Nightmare

I received this nail polish along with several other beautiful Kleancolors in a swap with Tiffani of Yardsticks 4 Lunatics!  Thanks, Tiffani! I hope to show the rest of my readers some more along the way. :)

Golden Nightmare is a black creme interspersed with square golden glitter (actually, I can barely tell whether or not it's gold or whether it's olive. We'll go with some green-tinted gold, yeah?) and shimmer of the same color. This is, quite frankly, what I wanted ChG Wagon Trail to be.  Wagon Trail looked somewhat dull most of the time, but Golden Nightmare patently does not--it looks like a plain black under indoor lighting, but flares to life under direct sunlight. Observe:

(Please click on the image for the best view of aforementioned sparklyflash. Thank you.)

I also found that Golden Nightmare is a perfect, fuss-free one-coater; it does, however, dry gritty due to the glitter:  two coats of topcoat are necessary.

Ah, there's that visible flash I was talking about.  It really makes my day. :)

Kleancolor, Tahiti Sunset

Um. . .

Staring at Kleancolor's Tahiti Sunset made me wonder whether or not I liked crazy glitters in theory.  I had all kinds of misgivings about this polish:  the yellow tone would make my stained nails look more stained, but it didn't seem to be dark enough to pull opaque. I was so sure I had plague on my hands, but I put three coats of its sheer, bronzy self to see if I could make it work.

In the pictures, it still induces a sickening reaction, but on the skin it wasn't... really bad as long as you weren't looking close up. The gold was nice. Glittery. A flash of red and holo glitter, occasionally, from its respective sources. but close up...

Ew.

are you kind of able to see what I mean? So glossy! So shiny! Even without sunlight! Still, barely passable on its own.

So I put it on over black:

This is two coats over Kleancolor's Taihti Sunset, and that was much, much better. Akin to watching confetti sprinkle through the night sky.  The gold that was so prominent in the previous manicure took backstage here when over black, but the red and the holo string glitter became very prominent, glaring under certain angles.

But see that golden shimmer there? Really, that's the kind of stuff that I live for.

I supposed that meant that I really did like funky glitter in theory.

Then I met the Lippmann collection, which you will be seeing this week.

Borghese, Stellare Notte

I feel the need to apologize for the upcoming images because they were taken during a cloudy afternoon (it's cold in southern california, which is... strange. I'm still recovering from a nasty cold I've picked up because of it), and although the duochrome effect of this polish was immediately evident, the camera didn't pick it up.

The next few pictures are me trying to get the shift to show up on picture.  It wouldn't. But you can kind of see that slight blue tint on the finger second to the left, right? Right?

Urgh. Anyway.

Stellare Notte applies in two coats--like usual, I found Borghese's brush to like giving me cuticle drag on the first coat, but a light hand saved the application process.  It is a moody old polish, one that reminds me of black pearls.  The purple to green flash on its deep blue-purple shimmery base is fascinating, constant, and subtle.  I got more than a few compliments on this polish, and it's warming me to the duochrome thing...

Urgh, I'll have to take these pictures again anyway.

Franken, Pink Pirouette

First hint that your nail polish obsession (I affectionately call it "My Crazy") is beginning to rub off on the people you live with:  they start making frankens.  After I came back to the apartment last weekend, a roommate of mine bounded in and said, look at this color! You should try it; I just made it.  And then you can post it up on your blog!

Apparently I'm not very good at hiding the Crazy in the closet.

 I'm... not actually sure what it is.  A pink-purple-grey creme-jelly thing. Sometimes, in indoor lighting, it even looks taupe.  I did know that it looked soft and sweet and feminine, and so I named it Pink (?) Pirouette, among other things, and this was the name that she liked.  It applied horrifically, and took two to three coats to get it to look the way it does on me; she claims that it took four on her.  On the other hand, it wears ridiculously well--I took it off due to ADD, and not because it chipped.

The recipe is as follows:
-1/2 bottle of a sheer pink (roommate used Artistry Happiness, which, I assume, leans slightly purple from the color that it became)
-5 or so drops of black (roommate used WnW Black, a nail board favorite)
-shake well.

(Do you see what I mean about the taupe, now?)

So, roomie, I hope you're happy! For what it's worth, I think this is an excellent color with excellent wear time. And, of course, right up your essie-loving alley. Good stuff.

Piggy Polish, Poet-Tree

While everybody's out there in search of the perfect mint green, why has nobody talked about Poet-Tree yet? I'll confess:  I bought it for the name, but it's just about trumped all the pastels that I own.  I love the color--it reminds me of that avocado kitchen color in the 60s. It reminds me of Jadeite.  It reminds me of vintage stuff in general. 

Jeebus, I love this color. It even made me bust out my long-shelved, favorite glitter-toppings, Chanel Illusion D'or and Pa A125:

Still one of my favorite NOTDs yet.

NOTD: blue skies

Accomplished with two coats of China Glaze For Audrey as a base, and then sponged with a basic white on a makeup sponge for a realistic, cloudy effect. :P Easy peasy!