Happy Together! - Rainbow Smiles

For some reason my manicure makes The Turtles' song "Happy Together" get stuck in my head. Is it the rainbow of colour? Then there is the extra rainbow goodness from the holographic polish... Maybe it is just because there are so many happy faces all together on my nails?

So we have:
Thumb - China Glaze Gr8
Index - A-England Dragon
Middle - Spectraflair franken made from Rimmel Blue My Mind
Ring - China Glaze LOL
Little - Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Pink Rose Diamond

I made a little bit of a mess on my little finger by stamping a little too hard and smooshing my polish.

My stamping was done in Konad White Pearl and I used a Bundle Monster image plate. The plate itself is BM-304. On my right hand I used the negative image that is also found on this plate. I did an even worse job on my right hand I did on my left. This is what happens when you try to rush through a manicure in the morning before work. I also have a hard time trying to photograph my right hand. I know, any excuse.

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together...

Christmas at Midnight - A Franken by Mr R.

Mr R likes to get in and play around mixing and frankening. If I let him have his way, I don't think I would have any "pure" polish left because he would have mixed it all into something else. Today I am featuring one of his creations, Christmas at Midnight.

There are three parents for this offspring. Mr R used Fantasy Makers aka Wet N Wild Black for his base and added Satin Nail Enamel 17. Satin Nail Enamel 17 imparted a blue shimmer to the black and made it slightly jelly. I was concerned since 17 is a pink polish but only the shimmer was gifted to the Franken. Last of all, Daring Digits Robin was added for the glitter component.

To wear this I used a coat of OPI Black Onyx as my base colour. I would have used the Fantasy Makers Black but I could not find it. I wonder why? ;) I really like Mr R's creation even if he did want to sell it to me for $1. He even suggested that we start selling frankens. Not at $1 each thanks!

Eye Shadow Nail Polish - Settling

Depending on the size and weight of the pigments you put into your base and the base itself, you may discover that your eye shadow nail polish settles. This is nothing to worry about. In fact, this is the reason why you put those ball bearings in to start with. If you didn't you had better put them in now.

The image below shows Smurf Droppings and Splendid Shimmer after a week of sitting around with my other nail polishes. Most of Splendid Shimmer as settled out. It had fallen on an angle and so you can not see the pigment as sediment at the bottom. You can clearly see the pigment in the bottom of Smurf Droppings.

I had found that Splendid Shimmer appeared to stay in suspension longer than Smurf Droppings. Overnight Smurf Droppings will settle out while the appearance of Splendid Shimmer appears to be the same.

Now. Shake!

Everything is back to normal and you can use it again. Hurray!

After I took the first photo, I thought I had better add a label to Smurf Droppings too. Oooops!

Smurf Droppings - A Franken

Smurf Droppings was my first eye shadow franken and I deem it a failure. I thought I would get a nicely shimmery, vampy polish. Instead I received a coffee coloured mess. Granted it does have some shimmer that appears dark blue or purple in the bottle or direct sunlight. This shimmer and the blue colour is especially evident when the shimmer settles out of the polish. Mr R named this one Smurf Droppings. I am not sure I should allow him to name future frankens...

The pigment for Smurf Droppings is Everyday Minerals Starry Eyed.

After I finished making the polish and first swatched it on my fingers, I removed it right away because it was awful. Today I applied it again and used four coats to cover up nail line and bald patches. Seche Vite did not behave with this polish and caused serious shrinkage. It was so bad that it was pulling and crinkling around all edges.

In the sun the blue shimmer sparkles with a slight rainbow with purple and blue being the main contenders for colour.

To bring the polish into line with the name I decided to add some dots in Satin Nail Enamel 10 with N.Y.C. Color Casper dotted on top of that. It is just a wavering smurf trail across my fingers. La la lalala... My thumb was graced with a mushroom stamped in Konad White Pearl and Nail Enamel 10 dots. The image is from Bundle Monster's plate BM-302.

Dragon's Demise - An eye shadow franken

The eye shadow that I used in my tutorial/guide for making eye shadow nail polish was Dragon's Blood from Fyrinnae. I used all of the pigment I had to make my 5 ml bottle for the opacity and pigmentation that I wanted. The shadow is a dark red with gold and magenta shimmer. Below is a picture (on my shocking Winter grass) of the polish next to the eye shadow.

When I used the polish it dried to a brownish red colour. It reminded me of blood, dried blood. This is why I thought I would name this Dragon's Demise.

Inspired by a bunch of roses, I stamped with Konad White and Bundle Monster image plate BM-323 with the rose image.

Guide: How to make eye shadow nail polish

Requirements:

• Clean empty bottle
• Ball bearings
• Clear nail polish
• Mineral eyeshadow
• Funnel (optional)

You can buy empty nail polish bottles or use one that you have cleaned. I bought mine from eBay. They appear to be factory seconds but they do the job. I also bought my ball bearings from eBay. Try to ensure that you buy stainless steel ball bearings otherwise they WILL rust.

Method:

1. Place ball bearings into empty nail polish bottle. These will assist in agitating the polish base and pigment.
2. Fill your bottle approximately half full of clear nail polish.

3. Add some eye shadow pigment. I have only used mineral pigment. If you have a pressed powder, pulverise into a powder first. You do not want lumps in your polish. This process will be facilitated if you use a funnel.

4. Shake vigorously to combine.

5. Complete filling your bottle with more clear polish. Leave space in case you require more pigment.
6. Shake well.
7. Test. Add more pigment as required. Have fun experimenting!

Happy Birthday July!

A few special people I know celebrate their birthdays in July. I thought I would honour that with a manicure featuring red for the birthstone of July, ruby.

The glowing ruby shall adorn,
Those who in July are born;
Then they'll be exempt and free
From love's doubts and anxiety.

- From a Tiffany and Co pamphlet (1870)

I was going to use China Glaze's Ruby Pumps. Instead I used a red spectraflair franken christened Revhead Rainbow. The base colour is Rimmel Lasting Finish Double Decker Red. Surprisingly, I was able to wear this for three days before I had to remove it. That had to be some kind of record for me. And yes, this polish is much more holographic in real life.

As I did not have time to do anything too fancy, I stamped two images on my ring and middle fingers of each hand. Yes, I have fallen in love with using Nails Inc Cleopatra's Kiss. The balloon image is from the Australian themed Konad plate from ICNA. When stamping, I made sure that the "Happy Holidays" part was removed from my stamper. The gift icon was from Bundle Monster's BM-205.

Miss L's Lovely Lacquer - A Franken.

When I was mixing together a few polishes, the children wanted to get in and make their own too. Why not? It appeals just like mixing paint colours.

Miss L chose three colours for her Lovely Lacquer. She started off with N.Y.C Color Copper Penny. This is another one of those pretty colours from N.Y.C. but too sheer for my liking. Mixed in with this was China Glaze's Gr8 gold holographic from the OMG Collection. Adding this helped in making the polish opaque enough to wear without coat after coat after coat. Gr8 gives a subtle holographic finish and what little girl doesn't like to have rainbows on her fingertips? The best thing is that Copper Penny turns Gr8 into a lovely antiqued gold.

Miss L holding the bottle of her nail polish where you can just see a little of the rainbow in the bottle.

There was a final touch she made to her elixir. We bought some Satin branded nail polishes from a local chemist and one of them was Nail Enamel 24. Satin is made in Australia and on the bottle is a website that directs to www.neoncosmetics.com. I didn't bother putting in a link as this website has a placeholder and lets you know that the domain may be for sale.

Back to the nail polish with the imaginative name. It is a purple/magenta micro-glitter that is perfect as a top coat. The base appears to be clear but it is hard to tell because the glitter seems to colour everything. Liberal amounts were added to the polish but you can barely see it as the glitter is very small. When Miss L is wearing her polish indoors you get surprise glimpses of a pretty smattering of the glitter through the gold.

Miss L wants to share this picture of her wearing her Lovely Lacquer.

This is Miss L's Lovely Lacquer in low light to show the glitter. Shown is two coats without top coat.

It was difficult to catch the elusive subtle holographic part of this polish. This picture was my best and it looks as though I have a chip in the top left. I don't but that corner of my nail pulls down as my nail gets longer and this must have photgraphed as though I did not have polish on it! Bonus! You can see some of the glitter as well.

Open Your Heart and Nail Mail

Mr R and I were looking at LightInTheBox a few weeks ago and we decided on three image plates.This is the second time I have ordered from them and I find that shipping is not fast. If you are patient, you can have some image plates eventually and cheaply. We chose QA3, QA4 and LO01. It was LO01 that caught Mr R's eye and he had a manicure idea.

QA3 has Winnie the Pooh related images and QA4 has some Transformers with some odds and ends.

When the plates arrived, Mr R could not wait and had to rip the blue plastic off LO01 right away. I was told that the lock in the middle was his heart and the key at the bottom was the one to open it. He let me know that I was the one with the key. How sweet. I am sure Miss L will let me know about her heart's key after she sees the manicure when they come home from school.

Over the top of the One Horned Goat franken oomphed with extra Speck-tacular, I stamped with Konad White Pearl. Taking pictures was becoming bothersome and the best one was captured with the iPhone.

When I first ordered from LightInTheBox, I purchased two plates. They were KD4 and A35. I was very impressed with KD4 with the Angry Birds stamping well. Sadly, they are too large for any finger but my thumb really. :( Someday when my nails grow a little, I may get a slingshot on my thumb with a bird flying through the air. Mr R and Miss L would love that. The other plate, A35, was terrible. I was looking forward to some Easter images but I rid myself of the plate when I discovered it would not stamp. Perhaps the engraving is too shallow?

One Horned Goat? - A Franken

When something is called Unicorn Puke and it is purple, how could you not want it? Yes, I missed out on Cult Nails Unicorn Puke. Maybe I was not reading the right blogs? I also try to ignore brands that appear to be difficult to get to the bottom end of the world. That could be it too. Yes, I also missed out on getting the re-named Clairvoyant.

Oh well, I have some flakie polish. Let's try to make something. I decided to make up a purple rather than using one out of my hoard of polish. Rimmel 60 Seconds Blue My Mind was mixed with N.Y.C. Color Redhead. I lightened the colour with N.Y.C. Casper. My heavy hand and the fact that I mixed this under artificial light without the picture speaks volumes about how much this colour does not resemble Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant.

For the flake component I used Australis Crystal Colour Top Coat in Speck-tacular. In the 13 ml bottle I frankened in, I probably used 8 ml of this... And still there was not enough flake. I did have a jelly polish. A jelly, very subtle flake polish.

Close up on the nail

This would not do at all. With what was left in my bottle of Speck-tacular, I set to work oomphing up the flakes. Somehow, I think I would like more flakes but after three coats it seems as though that might be almost impossible. They were a pain to catch out in the sun so I had to make do with an indoor picture.

Why call it Seductive One Horned Goat? It is definitely no unicorn. This franken is like a fake unicorn from mediaeval times, a goat with one horn attached to the middle of the head. A dismal failure for duplicating but still a nice enough polish. I like the jelly finish and the colour. I am not sure if I would overcome the disappointment of not having much flake but be satisfied with the little glimpses of magic that pop through.

Rainbow Serpent - Spectraflair Holographic Top Coat Franken

When I bought Spectraflair, I spent a lot of time stuffing it into different coloured polishes to make them holographic. Why do that when you can get a similar effect from putting Spectraflair into a clear polish and layer it over the top? This is how my version, Rainbow Serpent, was born.

The Rainbow Serpent would be the one of the best known entities from stories of the Dreamtime, especially to non-Indigenous Australians. You can read some of what Wikipedia has to say about the Rainbow Serpent here.

Take one bottle with clear top coat. In this case, it is Rimmel Superwear. Add Spectraflair and ball bearings. Shake! Because this is not a suspension base, you need to shake it each time you use it to disperse the Spectraflair pigment. Over time, the particles settle out of the polish.

Such a pity that the rainbows are hiding in my pictures. Today I swatched this over another one of my frankens, Mystic Fire. Rainbow Serpent will dull the colour of the manicure in low light but you can still be surprised with tiny sparks of rainbow fire. But on to some pictures with some of the rainbows showing.

The more you layer, the stronger linear holographic effect you get. And the duller your manicure becomes with low light. I managed to get this picture with the iPhone with three layers of Rainbow Serpent and it was more holographic in reality.

Love is a Godmother's Magic - Manicure upgrade

I couldn't leave well enough alone and I had to do something over Godmother's Magic. Flicking through the third series of Bundle Monster plates, I decided to use two designs from BM 317. I thought that they were perfect with all of the hearts because love is a kind of magic.

This is my franken, Godmother's Magic of two coats and Seche Vited. Later on I stamped with China Glaze 2030 and then Essie Good to Go on top of that. I love 2030 for stamping. It is such a pretty and easy to manage gold chrome. Sadly, the only place I could easily and cheaply buy it from no longer ships China Glaze outside of the US.

Godmother's Magic - A Franken

I saw Barielle's Elle's Spell on several blogs and I wanted it. Mainly it was because I wanted to give it to my Strumpet. The name itself is close to her name and it is pretty with that flakie goodness. Sadly, I could not seem to get my hands on it. eBay even failed me as it so often does with quite a few brands. If it is China Glaze, OPI or Orly you are in with a good chance and you are most likely able to get it significantly cheaper buying it from the United States than buying it in Australia. Even with the postage.

Looking at Elle's Spell it seemed as though it was something that I could make my own version of. It was not like I was going to get the real thing and be disappointed with what I had. Elle's Spell is just a red with flakes. Right?

Rimmel's Celebrity Bash came in a five pack of Rimmel polishes for $5 at a discount store. I have probably worn it once and I decided it was a good candidate to sacrifice to my cause. Nubar 2010 is a polish I strongly desired when I first saw it. I have no argument that it is a stunning polish but I was not wearing it. Over black it has a black opal beauty but it lacks some of the other colours that make it perfect. Although you can get blue and green from the flakes they tend towards the red end of the spectrum. Adding 2010 to Celebrity Bash would also make it more jelly-like rather than a creme. I probably used 2 parts of 2010 to 1 part Celebrity Bash. Looking at the final result, I could most likely add more 2010 but I did not have any more room in my bottle.

I had a terrible time taking these pictures as it is Winter and a wind is increasing the chill. Since the sun was popping in and out from behind clouds I had to try to wait for a decent amount of sun. I know my photography skills leave much to be desired but if I tried being a professional, I think it would take the fun out of it. Here's a shot that shows up the flakes slightly more.

This one is for my Strumpet and Godmother to my children. <3

"Splendid" Eye Shadow Franken - An Experiment

I do not wear eyeshadow. There is a skill in applying it that I can not, will not master.

What do I do with all of these loose mineral eye shadows that I have been given?

Use them as nail polish pigments!

I used the clear from Ulta3 from a bin dive at the supermarket. Two stainless steel ball bearings (if you believe the eBay listing and only time will tell) were fed into an empty 5 ml nail polish bottle also bought from eBay. The bottle was half filled with the clear polish from Ulta3.

For pigment, I used Splendid from Everyday Minerals.This most likely came in a starter pack when I was trying out mineral foundations many years ago. Splendid is no longer available but it would be a pretty eye shadow to wear if you were not skill deficient like me. It's a beautiful lilac colour with shimmer and was added to my nail polish bottle. I used an old piping tip (from a disposable icing set) as a funnel to try to easily get pigment through the mouth and neck of the bottle. It worked to a degree.

Shake, shake shake and a glorious nail polish is formed when the pigment is dispersed through the clear. Top it up with more clear and shake to combine. Each pigment would work differently and may not be suitable. It all comes down to experimenting. Add less so that you have a layering polish. Add more than one pigment to see what you can get.

Mr R named this one Splendid Shimmer. In the base I used, it looked quite thin but two coats applied well. There is a subtle shimmer that translated from the pigment in the eye shadow to appearing on the nail. It is too early and too frosty to be able to go outside to try to get a better picture than the one below.

The thing that surprised me was that the pigment remained suspended in the base overnight. I am very happy with the result of this experiment. There is an earlier attempt that I may share with you another time. Mr R named that one... Smurf Droppings...

In the beginning...

Very recently I was ill for quite a while. Spending a lot of time in bed with plenty of fluids and bed rest also gave me A LOT of time to spend online. That meant that I viewed many nail blogs. I found that I could not comment on the work of these very talented people without an account.

Nail polish has been an obsession of mine for a little over a year. I am a classic nail biter that gave up and discovered the beautiful rainbow world that is nail polish. My nails are still terrible. They peel and break without any decent length to them. While this does not make for compliments or stunning pictures, they are my nails that I get to lavish with love and colour.

There has been a little frankening going on at my house and I thought that having a blog might be a way to capture those things that I have created. My children have caught the bug too and I am sure that I will feel the pressure to record their creations as well.

So, this blog was born out of my desire to show my admiration for the talented bloggers and as a way to "scrapbook" some of my nail mis-adventures.

Ice Cream Cake - A Franken

I thought about the combination for this franken over and over again while I was in bed recovering. In amongst my nail polishes there was N.Y.C. Color's Angel, a pretty white polish with shimmer but very sheer. It was not something I was going to bother wearing and it was put aside for frankening. Rimmel's Nail Tip Whitener was added to make the mixture more opaque. The last addition to this creation was OPI Extra-Va-Vaganza.

You would think that the resulting mixture would be white with orange and gold glitter. A name was already waiting, something along the lines of Shattered Soul. Extra-Va-Vagnza had other ideas and revealed that it is very multi-coloured. Added to the white it did not appear the very orange type of glitter that I knew I could not wear a lot of, hence the use in the franken to make it (hopefully) more wearable. To me, the resulting franken was much like vanilla ice cream cake with those sprinkles that they like to mix in.