Orly - Cupcakes and Unicorns over Etude - #21

Direct sunlight.

 I can't take a dark cream and not layer something shimmery, glittery, and/or sparkly over it! That's just not my style.

Orly Cupcakes and Unicorns is a clear based layering polish with tiny duochrome flakes that range between gold, pink, magenta, and orange. Mixed in are some red bar glitters as well.

Indirect sunlight.

It's hard to quantify how many layers this is. While I applied to each nail only once, I had to pat the glitters on in thick layers to get all of the bar glitter to come off of my brush. Anyone who messes with big glitters knows what I'm talking about. Taking the application style into consideration, this was nothing out of the ordinary. I did not put a top coat over this, and it dried surprisingly smooth with some nice shine to it. I'm used to glitters like this needing a top coat.

Etude House - #50

Direct sunlight

This nail polish was an absolute nightmare to photograph, but oh honey was it worth it. 40 photos and this is the only one that shows the polish's true potential.

Etude House's #50 is a navy blue based nail polish with tiny duochrome flecks that range between magenta, purple, and blue. In the picture I used three coats and no top coat, so this polish is slightly less opaque than Etude's other nail polish offerings. The layers even out beautifully, however, and does not leave the nail feeling thick. The formula was great, with no pooling, gloppyness, or weird bubbles and clumps. This gets an A+ in my book!

Cult Nails - Iconic

 This was a very, very confusing nail polish. I can't really put what it is into words so I just decided to overload you with pictures. So... here we go! Everything is in indirect sunlight unless otherwise stated.

Fluorescent light

Fluorescent light

Application was rather difficult. I had to apply this in really really thin layers and be very light with my brush, otherwise the polish would clump or look really weird. I didn't use any topcoat so you could see how lumpy the polish was around the flakes, which is to be expected, but overall this was a more difficult polish to work with.
That being said, the color is amazing. It's different at different angles and light levels. Sometimes I get a very deep red with a hint of shimmer. Other times the flakes are really visible, and they're the multichrome all-the-colors-of-the-rainbow flakies I love. The shimmer itself isn't as noticeable as it is in the bottle, but I still feel like it adds to this polish.

Sally Hansen - Aisle Be There & Essie - Ballet Slippers

Oh, there's that blingy bit that I know I crave! After a day in the nude (heheheheheheee *gigglesnort*) I decided I wanted to add something sparkly and blingy to the mix! Unfortunately it decided to rain today... so I'm stuck with indoor pictures. Eh. You take what you can get, right?

I tried so hard to capture this on the nail, but it's not showing up as well as it is in the bottle in this picture. So let me help you. This is actually a flakie. Very tiny flakies, but they are flakies as opposed to simply being glitter. The flakies change from pink to purple/orange depending on the angle and lighting.
This is actually one of my favorite polishes because it's a present from my little brother. He was 11 or 12 at the time and I had already moved off to college, but he said he bought it because he thought of me and he wanted to get me an early Christmas present. Will's always been sweet like that. He also has never thought about money when it comes to presents. It continues to shock me to this day. Some of my most expensive polishes are from him, and he's never once thought twice about it. This past Christmas M had made a comment on switching from Diablo 3 on the console (I can't remember which one) to PC, and Will remembered that and without thinking twice, coughed up the $60+ for M to be completely set up with the game. He might be 15 now, but his allowance isn't any more than $6.50/week (1/2 your age, minus at least $1/week to be put into savings). That's my little brother for ya.

Finger Paints - Flashy over China Glaze - Crimson

Ohhh my goodness, this is a beauty! I know most people are sick of this multichrome flakie (a la Essie Shine of the Times, Sallie Hansen Hidden Treasure, Color Club Snow-Flakes, etc.) but I don't think I will ever ever get sick of this, especially when layered over a dark base.

These pictures are more blurry than my typical already blurry pictures, but I find that it captured the multi colored awesomeness better.
One thing that's always been an issue with flakies is their application. Applying them like regular polish doesn't work - you have to pat it on and then smooth it out. For some people it's a pain... I'm just excited to get my multicolor madness on my nails!
Do you own any flakies? Are they as multi-colored as this beauty?

Cult Nails - Baker

 

This polish has been sitting in my untrieds for about a year now. With Cult Nails closing up shop, I figured I would wear some more of their colors. Also, they've been sitting right in front of me instead of hanging around in my Helmer... something about easy to reach for stuff being nicer to put on?

Baker is a nice brown with gold shimmer throughout. It's a sheer polish, and I have on two coats above, but another coat would have easily made this full coverage.

Unfortunately for me, this does not compliment my hands very well. I'm not quite lobster hands here, but it just doesn't look right with my skintone. Phooey, because I really like it. I actually wore it for 4 or 5 days before the chipping as so bad I had to replace it. I wish I'd replaced it sooner though, looking at my nails, because my nails took a lot of chips and one really bad tear. I was pretty hard on my nails this past weekend, though, so I guess it's to be expected.