Before & After: Misty Circuitry

Hello!!

With the beginning of May comes a new theme in my Nail Challenge Collaborative, and this month's theme is: Stamping! Oh yeah baby, you know I'm excited about this one!

I want to start off with a simple stamping job that I think is special because it plays off of a gorgeous indie polish, Fanchromatic Nails Misty Mountains:

Fanchromatic Nails Misty Mountains

After wearing it for a day, I struggled to find some way to stamp it that would create something fun. So I stamped with China Glaze Westside Warrior and Cheeky plate GA37:

Maybe it's just me, but I think this looks like cool electronic circuitry from some crazy old motherboard somewhere. I like that the stamping is bold, but the glitter still shows through, like diodes or something (me no speak electronics).

What do you think? Do you see it too, or am I crazy? Or, do you see it too, but I'm still crazy? :P

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other stamped manis linked below. :)

Hugs and love,
M.

Indie-licious Review: Fanchromatic Nails part 2

Hello!!

I'm baaaaack! And I have more Fanchromatic beauties for you. :) And despite the fact that I consider myself a fairly intelligent individual, I somehow have lost the ability to count--I have *4* more pretties for you today rather than 3. :) If you missed the first half of the review, you can see it be clicking here.

To jump right in where I left off, here is the beautiful Misty Mountains. This is a grey-green crelly with small and large gold glitters:

Fanchromatic Nails Misty Mountains in indirect light

Misty Mountains in direct sun

Mistyy Mountains in Shade

Misty Mountains in shade

The name for this could not be more perfect. When I look at it, I feel like I'm looking out at a distant mountain range in the morning, far enough away that all I can see is blue-green haze with small points of trees poking out. It has such a peaceful, serene feeling to me, and I couldn't stop staring at it when I had it on. This is another one that I'm going to have to get full size in my next order, if it's still available.

This is two coats with one coat of Seche Vite--it applied like a dream, no real hassle at all, although when I was marking the pictures I noticed that there are no visible large hexes on my middle nail. Shows you how much I loved the polish as is, I didn't even notice, because I loved the random placement effect so much. :)

Next is The Horse Lord.This is a blend of yellow, brown, blue, red and golden hexes in a gorgeous butterscotch jelly:

Fanchromatic Nails The Horse Lord, indoor natural light

The Horse Lord three-quarter profile

Aaand one last smile for the camera

I really love how the brown hexes blend beautifully with the butterscotch base, while the bright cerulean and yellow contrast with it. It creates a calming, but dynamic blend that I adore. This is two coats with Seche Vite on top; the formula was fine, with no major struggles to get the glitter to cooperate.

I can't decide whether I like it better that way, or layered over China Glaze Mahogany Magic:

Fanchromatic Nails The Horse Lord over China Glaze Mahogany Magic

Love that pop of blue

The blue, gold, and red pop even more over this, and the darker base give an almost soothing effect. Somehow it makes me want chocolate and a bubble bath all at once. Is that weird? >.>


Next is Spatial Anomaly, a silver-blue lightly scatteresmall d holo base with orange, gold, and blue glitters, and holographic hair glitters:

Fanchromatic Nails Spatial Anomaly

Spatial Anomaly in shaded indoor light (notice the smoothness)

Blurred to show the holo sparkle

In the first picture, the surface looks gritty, but that's a trick of the light--what you're seeing is holographic sparkle. Take a look at the second picture to see how truly smooth the surface is. Then, finally in the final picture, you can get a good feel for the degree of scattered holo glitter there is in this. :)

This is two coats of Spatial Anomaly, with topcoat. The formula was good and this went on easily. But these pictures don't do full justice to just how beautiful this polish is. I'm proud that I got the shots I did, cause I had to do backflips to get them--but that's because of the complexity and sparkle of this polish. It's stunning and unique; I never would have thought that the combination of the steely silver-blue base with gold and orange glitters would work so well.

Of course I had to see how this one looked layered, and I tried one layer over China Glaze Swanky Silk, for a soft metallic pairing:

Fanchromatic Nails Spatial Anomaly layered over China Glaze Swanky Silk

The glitter stands out beautifully in this combination, and I can't wait to try it over some others. Hey, I know--a blue-based purple!! :)

Last, but certainly not least, is Your Lordship. This is a deep olivey-green jelly-based polish with red, green, purple, silver and gold small hex glitters, and green, silver and black large hexes: 

Fanchromatic Nails Your Lordship, in indirect light

Side-shots R coolz

This is two coats, with topcoat. Of all the glitters, this was the one I had to play with a bit to get a mix I liked of different-sized glitters to lay the way I wanted them to. But it didn't require all that much effort, certainly nothing off-putting.

I know you're gonna think I'm crazy for saying this, but...I love this for a Christmas polish. Something about it just makes me think of a vintage Christmas tree, from Dickensian times. And, with a quick little polish trick, I can turn it into a renaissance Christmas polish, too:

Fanchromatic Nails Your Lordship over China Glaze Starboard

Your Lordship over China Glaze Starboard

This is one layer of Your Lordship over China Glaze Starboard, and it just feels like the sort of Christmas you'd see celebrated in an English or Italian Castle in the late 1400s. I see boughs of pine, holly, and mistletoe, with sugared plums on beautiful gold plates in an elegant dining hall. Sigh...

And there the journey through the polishes and my strange interpretations of them ends, lol. Fanchromatic Nails is on vacation right now to adjust to the new changes in postage, but will be back open later this week; You can find the Etsy shop by clicking here. Also, Lynae will be introducing polishes from her new line, called 'I'm Your Secretary', on January 31st, 2013. As mentioned in the first half of my review, her polishes are three-free and cruelty-free; her prices vary depending on ingredients, but are competitive with (and on the less-expensive side of) other indie polishes.

Thank you for looking!

Xoxox,
M.

(Misty Mountains was purchased with my own money. The other polishes in this post were sent for my honest review.)

Indie-Licious Review: Fanchromatic Nails Part 1

Hello!

Today I have one of my favorite indie brands to show you. Fanchromatic Nails was actually one of the first indies I tried; I was sucked in by the prettiest red-brown polish I've ever seen, The Iron Price (you can see the post I did about it by clicking here). I originally bought a mini of this polish, and I loved it so much that I had to have a full size. And of course when I ordered that, I had to try out a few minis of her new polishes...I can already see the endless cycle forming...

But on to the review, lol. I have 6 polishes to review, and several of them I tried both alone and layered over another polish--all of this means a lot of pictures, so I'm going to split this up over two posts.

First up I have The Sea Of Grass. The Sea of grass is a light taupy-green crelly with hex glitters in shades of green, brown and yellow. The larger hexes are lighter in color, while the smaller glitters contain light and dark glitters; this creates an interesting contrast that highlights the muddy color of the base polish (muddy in a good way):

Fanchromatic Nails The Sea Of Grass in direct light

Fanchromatic Nails in indirect light

Angle shot FTW

This polish demonstrates what I like so much about Fanchromatic Nails polishes. Most polish-makers (including myself if it had been left up to me, and I would have been wrong!) would have made this a light green in an more typical avocado or lime shade, and would have put brighter yellow glitters. But Lynae takes it just a shade or two in another direction, and gives her polishes edge and distinction, and the polishes are better and more interesting for it. This isn't what you might think of as a 'pretty' color in a classic pink/purple/red way, but it certainly is exotic and beautiful.

This is one of a number of polishes in her line that is inspired by Game Of Thrones. I haven't read the books or seen the show, but these polishes have convinced me that I need to, lol.

In terms of formula, this went on evenly and well; the pictures show two coats. Oh, and btw? There is no topcoat on in the above pictures. None.


Next up: Bearded Lady. This is a burnt-orange crelly with fuchsia glitters in small, smaller, and mini-bar form:

Fanchromatic Nails Bearded Lady, indirect light

Fanchromatic Nails Bearded Lady, direct sun

Angle shot, anyone? Please ignore the tipwear, that was my fault, not the polish's.

I love the way the teeny glitters look a bit like stubble--but maybe that's just me, lol. Again this is a polish that most polish makers would have made a slightly different way--maybe a brighter orange--and I like the edge that the burnt orange gives the overall effect, I think it makes the polish so much more unique and interesting. Again this is two coats, although I do have topcoat on this, and banged up the tips a bit and didn't notice until I was processing the pictures. Formula was fine, no special care needed.

As I say, I love this polish--but it did not like me, and my skin did not want to play nicely with it. I sat down and talked the matter over with my skin, explained the value of teamwork and of positive collaboration--and it still refused to cooperate. Skin can be that way sometimes, sadly.

Because of that, when I experimented with this polish layered over different colors, it looked really gorgeous on the wheel--but not against my skin. So I'm going to do something I very rarely do, and show you Bearded Lady over China Glaze Swanky Silk and several China Glaze Greens,  but on nail-wheel shots:

Bearded Lady over  China Glaze Tree Hugger, Starboard, and Def Defying

Bearded Lady over China Glaze Swanky Silk

Finally (for today), I have Pack Of Freaks. This is a shimmery olive-green base polish with a combination of different glitters in gold, green, blue, red and purple. Some of them are small, some are large; some are hex, some are square. Unfortunately, between the shimmer, the holographic glitters, the regular glitters, and the incredible depth this polish gets with more than one coat, this polish freaked my camera out completely, and I had a really hard time taking pictures of it. I couldn't get it to focus on more than one nail, and often only one part of one nail.  Here is the best I could do--click on them to get a better look, and also check out the stunning pictures of this she has on her site:

Fanchromatic Nails Pack Of Freaks

This is two coats of the polish, with topcoat. I am more bummed than I can say that I couldn't get a stunning picture of this polish, because I adore it. I'm not normally a fan of glitters with a lot of different colors in them, but for some reason, this one really works and the colors speak to me. It's inspired by the show Carnivale (as is Bearded Lady), and it does have a definite circus feeling that makes me happy.

I like this polish on its own, but I like it a little better layered over another polish--I think this is because I'm cheap and only got a mini and just want it to last longer, lol. So I chose two colors to layer it over; first, China Glaze Def Defying:

Fanchromatic Nails over China Glaze Def Defying

And then, second, over Color Club Ultra Violet:

Fanchromatic Nails Pack Of Freaks over Color Club Ultra Violet

Even just putting these pictures into the post I find myself staring at the different glitters. So...much...prettiness...

That's it for now, but day after tomorrow I'll post another three polishes from Fanchromatic Nails for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime, you can find these and many other polishes at the Fanchromatic Nails Etsy shop by clicking here. Lynae offers both full size bottles and mini bottles of her polishes; most are $8.25 and $4.25 respectively, although some that contain specialty ingredients are slightly higher. Her polishes are of course three-free and cruelty-free. :) And for those of you in the US like me, shipping is a flat rate of $3 per order! I love that...

Thanks for looking, and please do check out her shop. You can't help but find something (many things!) that you'll love.

Xoxox,
M.

(The Sea Of Grass and Pack Of Freaks were purchased with my own money. Bearded Lady was sent for my honest review.)

Polish Days Before & After: Christmas Bling

Hello!!!

Today's manicure is for Polish Days, and the theme is 'Bling'

I started with a base of Pretty Serious VT100 (indie alert!), a rich green with gold glitter:

Pretty Serious VT100

Pretty Serious VT100

Then I sponged a bit of Orly Sashay My Way on the nail at the bottom, working up a bit. Over that I sponged some Fanchromatic Nails Fistful Of Latinum (double indie alert!) to add a bit of variety to the glitter. Finally, I added some red rhinestones to make it even more sparkly and festive:

We wish you a merry bling bling

And a blingy new year!

I really love how this came out! Glittery and fun but not too glittery. Perfect for any Christmas Party, and I think I'm going to wear this on Christmas day.

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other participants in Polish Days, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: MAN-icure & Twin post

Hello!!

Today's manicure serves double-duty. The most recent entry in my twin post series with Dina was delayed a bit because of life events (you can see Dina's post by clicking here)...but it turns out to have been perfect timing because the stamp I need to use for that challenge is perfect for this month's Polish Days theme: MAN-icure, designed to highlight men's health issues, particularly testicular cancer.

For this manicure I stared off with Zoya Storm, a beautiful polish from their new holiday collection. Everyone has been gushing over this collection (rightfully so), so I'll save you my gushing here, lol. Suffice to say it's a black polish with holographic glitter that looks silver in the shade, and goes rainbow in the sunlight:

Zoya Storm  in direct light--the rainbow colors actually go a titch linear in the light :)

Zoya Storm direct light

Zoya Storm shade

Then I decorated it with a coat of Fanchromatic Nails Tar And Feather INDIE ALERT!), an interesting polish with red microglitter, plus black and white-silver shreds. The polish-maker designed this after the medieval torture method of tar and feathering, which was actually quite a gruesome way to die--a strange inspiration for a polish admittedly, and she notes on her shop site that her friends told her she maybe shouldn't make it, lol. But, I'm glad she did; since I love Halloween and horror movies, I think it's deliciously gruesome, also I admire her for going against public opinion and doing her own thing, but most of all, I think this is actually quite a pretty glitter. Then, I stamped the boxing gloves from Cheeky 34 using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, and drew little strings with the same polish coming up from them.

One of the biggest issues in men's healthcare is that men are often very reluctant to go to the doctor, and most conditions, certainly cancers, are much easier to survive if they are detected early. So, the symbolism of my manicure tries to capture this; the red, black and silver symbolize the physical damage and shattered lives that testicular cancer and other men's health problems leave in their wake, and the boxing gloves symbolize the power of early detection to beat those health issues.

Early detection can save your life

Give that knock-out punch by having regular check-ups

If you're reading this and you're a man, go book your check-up now! If you're someone who loves a man (significant other, father, brother, cousin, son, whatever!), please encourage them to get their check-ups even if you have to make the appointment for them and tell them you're taking them to a football game to get them there. :P

Thanks for reading. :)

Xoxox,

M.