Glitter Galore

Okay, so at this point I have quite a bit of glitter! Nice.

This what I've purchased after four months:
 
 Right now I just keep it all in a big clear container--you know, the ones with the opaque lids.  But if I order any more, I'm going to have to come up with a better way to store it!

The Battle of the Black and Whites

I mentioned before that I've supported indie polish developers. I have bought a few black and white topcoats, and I've also tried to make my own with black and white glitter that I've purchase online. I cheated with my own: I added black and white glitter to a bottle of Wet n Wild #469, and it looks and applies quite nicely. Here it is compared to other brands I've bought:

Mine is on the far right. But also pictured are: Lac Attack Ocelotta Spots, Cover Band Sticks and Stones, and my favorite of the three, one called Black Tie Affair. Two were purchased from Etsy; Sticks and Stones was bought from someone on eBay.

You can never have too much black and white polish!

Franken Attempt With Purchased Glitter

So, I used a bottle of Wet n Wild clear polish and some of the glitter I purchased to make this. I bought maybe twelve colors/sizes/types of glitter, and I used several in this one, in addition to a little pink nail polish for tint. Not bad for a first attempt. In my opinion, at least.

I'm already trying to decide what glitters to get next! I've read on other blogs that there's a special base you can buy in order to make your own polish from scratch that does a bit better with the glitter you add, so I've ordered some. There are some very pretty glitter polishes being made, especially the glitter topcoats. I'm rather partial to glitter. Over the years when I've worn polish, I've never really felt my manicures were complete until I added some type of glittery, shimmery topcoat. I mentioned before that I love cremes because you can experiment with the way they look if you have a variety of topcoats. Well, glitter topcoats are the best for this, in my opinion. I've purchased quite a few glitter topcoats from the stores (brands like China Glaze, Milani, and OPI), but I've also supported "indie" nail polish designers and I've purchased a few from Etsy as well. But there's nothing like making your own!

So I liked the blue and white so much that I just had to add more Milani Gems to a couple more bottles of clear shimmer/glitter nail polish.

Here they are, in all of their beauty:

I just like glittery opaques so much.  In a way, these remind me of the glitter-based pink polishes like Lippmann Candy Shop (which I own one of) and Claire's, well, Candy Shop (and I have two bottles of this).  Here is a side by side of my glitter-based green with Claire's Candy Shop:

Mine on the right, of course.

My green (like the blue, yellow, and white) doesn't have as much glitter as Candy Shop.  I mentioned before that since I'm using Milani Gems to franken with, I can only get so much glitter density.

I hear, however, that there are places where I can buy glitter that works in nail polish.  It's special and solvent resistant.  I tried sometime last year making my own glitter nail polish with glitter that I bought at Michael's, and while it looked nice for about an hour, it soon turned into a mess.  So I'll buy nail-polish safe glitter and see what I can do with it!

Another New Franken: In Blue

I used the same Milani Gems as I did for the opaque white glitter polish--only I added a little of both blue and white creme nail polish to the bottle to get a pretty sky-blue tint.

Franken Manicure

So today I tried the white glitter franken.  Here is a quick shot of it on:

I must say that I like it.  I would like it with more glitter, but I guess that's something I can control only if making polish from "scratch" instead of blending existing ones.  

Experimenting With Frankening

Been away for awhile. Actually, I kind of forgot that this blog existed. But I'm back now! Still buying polish like crazy and always looking for somewhere to store it. But you know what's better than buying polish? Designing your own! Nail bloggers have termed it "frankening" when you take existing polishes and mix them together to create something new. Artsy-craftsy type that I've always been, this is right up my alley! My first franken is a store-bought glitter polish (Milani Gems) mixed with a store bought white.

I know for sure that more of these will follow. I've found a place to order glitter of my own, so that I can add the colors and the amounts that I want, and I'm also looking into buying bottles for them. This is fun.

Wizard of Ooh Ahz

I was in Sally's Thursday, and they were having a special--$1.00 off of China Glaze. That, coupled with the discount from the discount card, meant pretty good prices. I'd originally planned to order some more CG polish online, but this totally beat online prices, since I didn't have to pay for shipping! I got all six from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection, and I ALSO copped a bottle of CG Emerald Sparkle, because I feel this color DEFINITELY should have been included with the collection. And plus, Emerald Sparkle was on sale for only $1.99. For less than twenty-six dollars, I got seven bottles of polish! I think that's a great deal for this brand.



I wore Dorothy Who? today. In the bottle, it looks like a pure blue. On my nails, however, it looked like it had teal undertones, like it was even sort of greenish. Also, the photo below doesn't do it justice. The flash makes the color appear to be sort of transluscent, but on my nails, to my eye, it looks opaque. This is three coats:

Big Lots Haul

A week ago I went to Big Lots. I occasionally find stuff there for good prices. I've bought video games, books, craft supplies, and cleaning supplies there, but I've generally stayed away from the food and cosmetics. However, upon finding out that nail polish doesn't really go bad, I decided that this store might be a good place to shop for polish.

This is what I walked away with: two blister packed two-packs of Revlon polish: Power Walk Pink, Twinkled Pink, Wine With Everything, and Rose Zing. Each bottle is the standard half-ouncer. I also picked up some Sally Hansen polishes--four packs of minis. Unfortunately, the colors are not labeled. Each package comes with a mini nail file. Since Big Lots sells discontinued merchandise, I know these polishes haven't been in "regular" stores for quite a while. The back of the packages say copyright 2008, so I figure these are at least two years old. The blue package claims to be from the "Xtreme Wear" line. There is a metallic rust orange, a metallic royal blue, a metallic silver, a metallic deep red, and a metallic teal. There is a purple package of polishes from the "Xtreme Wear" line as well: a shimmery pink, a shimmery fuchsia, a shimmery purple, a shimmery dark turquoise, and a shimmery jade green. The pink package contains colors from the "Diamond Strength" line. There is a lighter shimmery pink, a fuchsia creme, a shimmery wine-red, a shimmery mauve, and a shimmery light tan. And finally, in the black packaging, there are polishes from the "Lacquer Shine" collection: a shimmery magenta, a shimmery dark purple, a shimmery blue, a shimmery red, and a shimmery reddish-black.

Quite an assortment. I'm a big fan of Sally Hansen polishes, so these will be fun to eventually use. There are twenty unique colors, all miniature sized (.13 oz). The Revlon polishes pictured are the only Revlon polishes that I own, so I'm not sure how they will perform on my nails!

I spent maybe twelve dollars, including tax, for everything purchased. Big Lots frequently puts their own price tag on merchandise, even though they leave the original price tag intact.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure

I did a lot of reading about this product before I purchased it. I waited until it went on sale, and then I got two bottles at the buy one, get one 1/2 off price. Still, it was $12 for only two bottles of polish, which I consider on the pricey side.

Lots of people don't seem to be a fan of the brush, but I LOVE it. It's wide and thick, and it does a very good job of covering my nails in one swipe. While their color selection isn't that great (too many browns, pinks, and reds as usual), I ironically picked two neutrals for my first purchase. I got colors that I can wear to work or to play, Choco-Latte and So Much Fawn:



For the past couple of days I've been wearing So Much Fawn. This product claims to have a base coat and top coat built in, and I didn't put on a base coat before painting my nails, but I did top with Seche Vite. As with any other polish I've used, it started to chip around day two, so I consider this to be pretty good.

I would like to buy four more bottles of this in different colors, simply because I love the brush so much! I have my eye on Commander in Chic, among other colors!