Experiments with liquid sand

I have been putting off this post for a week, because I have been overwhelmed lately, and I can't think of a chatty way to encapsulate my recent life. So I'm going to skip the life bits and get to the polish bits.

I bought one, and only one, liquid sand. Not because I don't love the texture (I do!), but because the only brand that has it here is OPI, and OPI costs about $17 a bottle here!

Still, a lot of bloggers have been gushing about it lately, so I was curious to try it out. The thing is, based on the swatches I've seen, liquid sands are still a largely unexploited resource. I see some glitters, but mostly cream based colors, sometimes with a shimmer. This frustrates me greatly- you have a whole new kind of polish to play with, why are you making creams? And why are the shimmers you make almost exclusively one-note? Where are my holos, my multichromes, my blingy glitters?

So I decided to rectify this problem all by myself. The polish I have is "What Wizardry Is This?" which is a pretty crinkly texture, so a single coat of another polish on top still leaves the texture very visible. After a quick stash raid, allow me to present you with the best of my experiments:

Disclaimer: these swatches are very far from perfect. A number of these polishes are streaky or sheer with one coat, so the base shows through. The idea here is only to showcase the potential of liquid sands to work with a variety of finishes.

Creams:

Sunlight

The convention!

So I did it, and it went well!

This past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was Icon, the biggest annual Israeli Sci-fi and Fantasy convention. I opened a nail art booth with all kinds of geeky designs. I posted a teaser last week with my superhero wheel, and now I'm back with the rest of my designs.

Sadly, I wasn't able to bring a camera with me to the convention, so I only have photos of my sample wheels. Hopefully next time I'll be able to get a camera! Especially since there were customers who had me do designs I didn't do samples of- one girl did all ten fingers with Disney princess themes- an apple for Snow White, a glass slipper for Cinderella, etc.

Two other things of note, before I begin the picture spam: One, I had plenty more ideas than I actually created, so if there are some gaping holes in my geekdom please forgive me! I'm hoping to have a more comprehensive set of geek designs by the time the next con rolls around. Two, this time I partnered with my friend Hannah, and some of her designs will be featured here.

Onwards!

Starting with the geek basics of course, Star Trek and Star Wars! I wouldn't be the geek I am today without these very powerful influences in my childhood. Plus my parents met at a Star Trek convention, so there's that! It's in my DNA and everything! 

(I don't know what happened with that Darth Vader nail... I'm gonna have to redo it for sure.)

Hit the jump for lots (and lots and lots) more designs!

WOW Cosmetics

I think this is an appropriate subject for my "triumphant" return to swatch posts, as in "Wow, it's been ages since you did a swatch post!"

Well yeah, it has. I don't really have any excuses either. I know I'm going to have to retake a large number of my swatch photos- looking back at them over two months later, I'm not really happy with any of them. The ones from WOW are ok, hence this post now.

So here's the deal with WOW cosmetics: They're a domestic brand, and they have some really affordable cosmetics, plus their spread of polish colors is interesting. They don't have a ton of colors yet, but from what I've seen I like what they have.

I have three for you today:

Click the jump for close-ups and reviews!

NOTD: Addicted to turquoise

Ok, there's a clear pattern in my choice of colors lately. Behold:

Yeah... as pretty as this came out, it's time for a new color scheme in my life. I haven't done anything outside of blue-green at all in the past month at least, huh? Except for a two-day stint with Essie's Smokin' Hot, which I didn't even bother photographing.

Not to say that I don't like this mani- I do! I just need to pace this color a little more.

So most of my fingers are OPI's Cuckou For This Color topped by Essie's Matte About You. I love mattes, i really need to do them more often! Accent finger is Cuckou again, but topped by a layer of Essence's Choose Me! and Revlon's Blue Mosaic. Picture is with three days of wear, although I reapplied the matte because after a day or two it wasn't as matted anymore, it looked more like a dull shine.

Funny thing, accent nails are becoming incredibly popular here lately. I've always done them, but apparently they're in fashion now because someone from the local Big Brother wore it? Weird. I don't watch Big Brother, never have, never will. But I guess it set a good trend?

I got myself a very pale grey, so i'm going to give newspaper nails another shot tonight. I've done them with sheet music before, but I'm gonna use an actual newspaper, I think :)

NOTD: Crackle + glitter + turquoise = gorgeous!

Hi everyone!

I've been neglectful lately both of my nail art and my blog here. But I have a fun NOTD to share with you today!

Remember a while back how I promised that Perfect Chic Peacock would look awesome under a black crackle? Well it does!

Sunlight

Shade

More about this under the jump:

NOTD: Green to blue gradient

This was a fun experiment. It didn't go perfectly, but considering the circumstances, I think it turned out really great.

So, do you want to know what eight layers of nail polish (including top and base) looks like?

And now you know! Honestly this caught the light a little weird- in photos it makes the transition from green to blue pretty abruptly, but in reality it's much more gradual. It's definitely at least in part due to Chic Peakock, which always comes out a bit bluer than it really is. But either way, I really enjoyed doing this, and I'll wear it for as long as I can!

Unfortunately since it's so heavy on the polish, I predict much shrinkage in this manicure's future. I did everything I could- wrapping my tips and whatnot, but physics will be physics.

Here are the colors, listed from top to bottom:

• Green Olive by Perfect Chic
• Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Orly
• Cuckou For This Color by OPI
• Peacock by Perfect Chic
• Smashing Blue by Perfect Chic (this is on my next Metalix swatch set)
• I used a black base to make the colors pop, 393 by Wow Cosmetics.

So yeah. Pretty heavy on the colors there! It's verrrry slightly dented in a couple of spots, but they're minor and not worth redoing.

It's been awhile since I've done a swatch post, so I'll probably put one of those up next.

NOTD: Glitter gradient, French style. And Christmas?

Hello people!

I got China Glaze Twinkle Lights as a gift from a friend not too long ago. Now, it's a fairly Christmas-y color, which leaves me with two dilemmas: One, it's the summer, and two, I'm Jewish.

Oh well!

So I decided that since green and red and yellow are all kinda summery colors (especially when they're vivid), this is going to be a summer color. I actually have a summer dress that's nearly perfect for this polish, I'll post pictures at some point.

I've never done a glitter gradient before, but I really like how this one turned out, so I'll probably do it again in the future! Perhaps a full nail gradient too (I just picked up Revlon's Blue Mosaic today, it looks like that would be excellent in a gradient)

Behold:

One frustration with this is that the black jelly I used was really difficult to work with. I don't think it normally would be, but the polish deteriorated after I did that booth a month ago and it sat in the sun for hours and hours :/ It's a pity, this was a really pretty black, for a nameless brand. It had a great jewel-tone feel. It still does, but now it takes a lot of effort to put on properly. I got myself a new black today, but when I got home I discovered it was a cream. I'll have to deal :P

I'm planning to go watch the Avengers when it's available in theaters here, and I'm going to be doing Avengers-themed nails to commemorate the occasion. It might be a good while before that happens (work is busy) but keep your eyes opened for that!

NOTD: Shattered mosaic

I just picked up Fowl Play by Orly last night, and I couldn't resist the temptation to give it a whirl today:

So that's Fowl Play- don't think of this as a proper swatch, because it's not really. But for the lighting it's in, that's pretty much a true to life color!

Now, the design- there are a lot of colorful things going on in this design, I tried for a mosaic-y kind of look. Mostly it's nameless brand random things, although you can see a bit of Essie Pouf Daddy in there (love that color, hate that name).

It is WAY sloppier up close, now that I'm looking at it. But I still like it! And I learned a few lessons trying this out, next time I'll probably do better!