Review: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Party Grenade with Rainbow Neon Gradient!

Since I started my new job, I have the money to buy alllll the indie polishes my little heart could desire. It's not a good idea for me to then go to Llarowe because I ordered the most enormous package of polishes you could imagine.  Such a good parcel day when that got here.  Anyway, my goal with this delivery is to try to find new ways to show you indie polishes.  It's too easy to just slap on a base colour  with the indie polish on top.  I must find a way for that to take a lon time!

Femme Fatale Party Grenade is so packed full of square, diamond, hex, matte, shiny, holo and misc glitter I can't even find words to describe how amazing it is.  It even applies well - this is just one coat on each finger.  You get a better result if you fish around a bit but you don't need to, and it doesn't get too thick if you do. 

   I wanted a crazy base colour to go with this amazing polish so I figured it was time to a proper rainbow gradient.  Starting with two base coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, I went to work with 12 different neon polishes.  Using both sides of three little pieces of makeup sponge, I sponged three colours on each nail, keeping one polish in common on each side of the nail to keep the rainbow smooth.  So if I used a, b and c on one nail, I'd use c, d and e on the next, etc. I used China Glaze, American Apparel and Urban Outfitters polishes but there's just too many to list here.  If you want to know one in particular, just let me know in the comments.   

The Verdict: I'll definitely be doing more of these horizontal gradients, as they look so cool.  It's almost like having a duochrome polish frozen in time - looking from the sides makes the polish look completely different.  Party Grenade is so amazing too - I love all the difference shapes of glitter.  Especially when there's so much glitter in the bottle and it looks like this!

Checkered Fancy French Nails and Not a Rainbow in Sight!

I love glitter, blah, blah, I think you get the picture by now.  HOWEVER, you haven't seen me to do a checkered pattern with matte square glitter now have you? HUH??? Yeah, that's what I thought.  It's that kind of day.  Not even a sparkle or rainbow in sight, too!  Cos that's a good segue.

I knew I wanted to do checkers with this matte square glitter I ordered off Impulse Co on Etsy, the trick was trying to find someway of incorporating it without me having to spend a year doing it full coverage on all my nails.  The obvious choice with black squares is white but I wanted to do a bit of twist, with a slight gradient on my tips.  To do this, I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then sponged on said white, Sally Hansen Wet Cement and Grey Area on the top third of my nails.  Once dry, I used my usual technique to apply the glitter.  I started by centering a piece right at the end of my nail, then made a diagonal row out to the sides, lining the glitter up corner to corner.  I then just filled in the gaps.   

The Verdict: I'm kinda proud of my for not only getting my square glitter to line up nicely, but that I did so without using a single rainbow or sparklie.  I'd say that I'm growing up but that's not true and I kinda wanna do this again but over a neon rainbow...mmmm sparkly rainbows.  This cool too though :D

Horizontal Neon Rainbow Gradient with Square Glitter Overlay!

I'm getting back to routine now I'm setting into my new job.  A new activity appears to be spending large amounts of time on a weekend day spending a lot of time doing the most crazy nails I can think of.  I've had this square black glitter for a little while now and wanted to see what it would look like over a horizontal rainbow gradient.  So that then. 

I've done this style of gradient before and I should have used a lighter purple, like I did last time.  Anyway, same process, starting off with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Taking a small piece of makeup sponge, I then painted on stripes of my twelve different colours, using the same polish on the edges of each contiguous nail, to make it blend better.  I'm going off memory here, but the pattern goes something like this, starting from red on my thumb: Floss Gloss Fastlane, Urban Outfitters Tiny Shorts, UO Ringo -> Ringo, China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard, CG Turned Up Turquoise -> Turned Up Turquoise, American Apparel Neon Blue, UO Blue Velvet -> Blue Velvet, UO Bandeau, Zoya Charisma -> Charisma, UO Hottub and Revlon Pink Lingerie.  Can't remember SQL for my job but I can remember the names of 12 polishes I used a week ago >.<.  Anyway, once that was done I went to work with the black square glitter.  I used the usual trick here, doing a line down the middle then building out either side. Omg this is so much text, you know the drill with glitter by now.

The Verdict: I'm sad that my purple was too dark on my ring finger to really see all the glitter in there.  It too so long!  And you can't even really see it in person!  Sigh.  I love this kind of gradient though, it looks like what I want duochromes to look like, if that's a thing.  And I love square glitter too.  So yay?

A is for Aztec: Rainbow Kinda Aztec Nails

I swear glitter talks to me.  "Hey, you don't need to try anything new!  You can just use us again!  Who cares you've already done a bunch of glitter mosaics this week!  Doooo eeet" So of course I relent because glitter is amazing.  It's getting harder and harder to find an interesting base colour so I tend to fall back on my favourites.  That's how this ridiculous rainbow aztec-y mani came about.

To start, I applied three coats of the always amazing China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise.  It's just such a brilliant colour I can overlook the fact it gets a little streaky in the first few coats.  Evens out so it's ok.  I then went to work with the square glitter that came in the same pot as the hex matte glitter I've been using recently.  I found it easiest to start at the cuticle with your bottom colour then build a column straight up.  It's straightforward to then build out each side and seal with top coat.  This counts as aztec, right?  I want to get in on that sweet, sweet A-Z challenge going on over at RedditLaqueristas.

The Verdict:  Some of the glitter is a bit wonky but I'm happy with the overall result.  Certainly eye-catching for a non-holo mani, even though the green blends in more than I'd like.  Yay glitter!

Red Matte Glitter Checkers Over Purple

Not done with my new glitter yet.  The bright red square matte glitter caught my eye the other night so I chose a nice purple to contrast and got to work.  It's hard to say much more as an intro, it's the same glitter I've been playing with recently, from Borough Babe Supply. Cos glitter is awesome.   

To start, I applied three coats of Urban Outfitters Bandeau, a bright imperial purple creme.  I've used this colour tons but who cares, it's pretty.  The three coats are important when you're working with the larger pieces of glitter - you want to give the pieces something to sink into so they don't catch on everything.  I used my usual technique here but instead of the usual single column down the middle, I had to do a zig-zag, aligning the corners, to make sure my pieces were evenly spaced.  It was then just a matter of filling out each side.  I had the time to do all my nails but it's a pretty loud pattern and I liked the accent nail.  

The Verdict:  I love how this came out.  I had three different people ask if the checkered pattern was a sticker which I always count as a win.  It's nice when it comes out crisp and even.  Despite me wanging my middle finger between applying top coat and taking these photos, which is about two minutes :/ Go glitter for being versatile!

Teeny Tiny Glitter Quilted Nails

You guys know I'm a little bit cray about glitter by now so I'll spare you the defensive excuses-so-you-don't-judge-me bit and move straight to the glitter.  Because holy crap, look at this glitter would you.  I ordered some new glitter from LoveNailz and just *die*.  I got a whole mess of glitter but the ones that really stood out for me were the tiny holo squares in red, blue, purple and pink.  I had some free time the other day and knew I had to use this glitter, to its full potential.  I think I did that. 

Let me say up front that this was not a quick process.  You need a lot of patience, and that's fine, because I have that.  This was so time-consuming I only did two fingers.  TWO.  But if you have less time, the other three fingers don't take long at all.  This is what you do, for both complex and simple designs: to start, apply your two coats of base colour.  I keep using Rimmel Black Satin because it keeps being on sale and it applies nicely and is shiny.  Using a slow-drying top coat - I'm using Maybelline Color Show clear right now but it really doesn't matter - apply a stripe of top coat down the middle of your nail and lay down your first line of glitter.  If you're going to be particular about the positioning, it should be with this first line because you'll build out either side, using this as a guild.  Just keep doing it til you're sick of doing it, make sure you have something on each nail and call it good.  I have a tutorial (with video!) here, if you want to see more detail.

The Verdict:  I love this so much I can't even think straight, not the least because I finally have square glitter that's actually square and is reasonably straight cut.  Sure, this took forever to do but the holo glitter is so sparkly, it's so complex-looking, it's worth it.  If any of you are quilters as well, I just had to do a bargello pattern with the colours :)

Black and Gold Glitter Placement Art Deco Nails that I'm Angry At.

I've had this little bag of gold holographic square glitter sitting on my desk for a little while now, taunting me.  "I'm not that small!", it says. "You can totally start a mani with me now, at 11.45pm, and you'll totally be done by 1am!".  IT'S A LIAR AND I SHOULDN'T LISTEN TO GLITTER.   I was talking to my new friend Antonia and she had the great idea of doing an art deco mani with glitter instead of tape.  See how these two things came together?  Yeah, well, I love the idea and hate the glitter.  And my execution. 

My usual tactic with glitter is to start with three coats of base colour to give myself a nice deep starting point, then lay down stripes of top coat and stick my glitter on.  This bloody glitter is so small that this doesn't work.  You get too thick a base and it just disappears and is generally uneven.  So as well as being so small it sent me cross-eyed, it can't even stay straight.  I had to baby my top coat with the thinnest coats.  This just isn't as crisp as I'd like it to be.  It is sparkly but as soon as I took these photos I wanged my thumb so it's all warped and then broke the corner off my middle nail this morning.  I swear this whole thing is cursed :C

The Verdict:  I like the idea here but my execution sucks and the glitter is just way too small.  I'll try this again with bigger glitter, see if I can't get patterns like this going for a better art deco mani.  Sorry Antonia.

This is What 640 Pieces of Glitter Looks Like On One Hand

So I got some glitter in the mail last week from Glitties.com.  In it, was a bunch of glitter colours small square glitter in a mixture of metallic and holo finishes.  You surely know what's coming right?  With a long weekend of not much happening because I'm Australian and have no family in Canada?  That's right.  ALL.  THE.  FREAKING.  GLITTER.

I posted a picture of this on Instagram earlier this morning and the response was predictable: awesome, but who has the time?? I DO.  I will sacrifice as much time as I need to to show you maximum sparklies!

Right, so I did the usual start, three coats of black polish.  My top coat is running low so I tried an experiment with the glue that came with my nail foils which is pretty much just PVA glue.  It worked ok, and was good for not creating build up but gets glue everywhere.  If I had to rank adhesives, it would go new cheap top coat, glue, old cheap top coat that's gluggy, Seche Vite.  You will cry trying to use Seche Vite to stick glitter on.  Use it for when you're done.  Anyway, so usual technique with the glitter which is to start with a column down the middle of your nail then build out each side.  With so much glitter, do very thin stripes of top coat at a time.  It gets very thick very quickly and your glitter can look uneven.  For the ends of my nails, I stuck the pieces on then trimmed them when they dried.  I cut the pieces beforehand for around my cuticles. 

The Verdict:  I wish my gold glitter was properly gold, I wish I'd added that extra bit of glitter on the ends of my index and middle fingers, I wish I'd cleaned up just a bit more but otherwise I guess it's ok :P.  It's just when you spend this long - I'm not even sure how long really, at this point - you want it to be perfect.  NEXT TIME I WILL HAVE PERFECTION.

New Years Eve Nails with Sparkly Silver Holo Squares!

Finally, a holiday made for me!  New Years Eve has been designated the sparkly night and that's actually a lot of pressure for me.  What, you mean I have to choose just ONE sparkly?  But I'm sparkly all year round!  I decided that since I usually dress up in all black, why not go simple with black and silver nails.  I'm glad I did because OMG the sparklies. 

I'm not going to talk so much about how I did this mani - you'd be just as well off having a look at either my tutorial or at another mani I've done recently with square glitter.  This is was done using two coats of Essie Licorice with square silver holo glitter on top.  I will recommend one thing though - if you're using glitter this small, stick to two coats of base colour.  Any more and by the time you get a few layers of your adhesive top coat on your glitter can get a bit uneven.  Let's just look at the pictures, shall we?  After all,  I finally got the rainbows to show up properly, thanks to the awesome flash my bf got.  There's two videos too!

The Verdict:  I don't even really have words for how happy I am with how this came out.  I was expecting it to be sparkly but the fact it gets almost linear holographic rainbows is just..... :D. So sparkly, and :D.  Happy New Year!

31DC2014 Day 7: Black and White! Eh.

So yeah! Woo! Black and white!  Like, yeah, that's a thing!  All the black glitters!  Over white!  So black and white!  Woo!  There's not the most to say really. 

 I wanted to do black glitter over a white base so I started with a coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then two coats of GOSH Stardust, a shimmery white polish.  I then patterned over the top with rectangle, circle, star, "square" and bar using the usual process.  Slow drying top coat, glitter columns then glitter with the orange stick.  Nothing revolutionary.  Not bad though.  I really should be doing this early in the day though....

The Verdict: Eh.  It's ok.  I should have gone with a flat white base maybe?  I don't know, just not super feeling this.  That's ok, metallic tomorrow is another day.