Monday Mani: #52WPNMC with Picture Polish Tail Feather, Girly Bits What the Deuce, and A England Saint George

Week 35 of the 52 Week Pick N Mix Challenge is "patchwork" or "bright & happy".  I went with bright and happy.  I always think of yellow when I think "happy" (as most people probably do), but my first mani for this challenge was an epic fail.  I also think of bright green when I think happy so I went for something I haven't tried before and did a faux ombre on a diagonal with green.  I got a little impatient with applying the top coat so I had to do a little patch job to attempt to correct the smearing, but other than that I am SO stoked with how this looks.

Featured on bottom is three thin coats of Tail Feather by Picture Polish, a lime green bijou holo that leans to the mint side and is a little sheer.  Application was easy and did a good job of self-leveling (which it needed).  The middle color is What the Deuce? by Girly Bits, a kelly green holo shimmer that is saturated with color.  GB is always great, and I'm loving this color.  The darkest green, and last layer, is Saint George by A-England, which is described as a teal, but I would argue is more of a forest green loaded with holo.  I put skinny white striping tape on the two fingers that feature all three colors.

I'm definitely loving this nail art look and am going to try for some more faux ombres with other colors!

Indirect sunlight on the patio, afternoon sun

In the shade under trees

Somewhat direct afternoon sun

Indirect lighting on the patio, afternoon sun

Complete and direct afternoon sunlight

Monday Mani is about showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased through lifestyle shots. So many swatches out there are captured under lighting and conditions that aren't common of every day. My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not. Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices. Professionals blogger swatches are perfect - here's my life lessons from a handmade artisan.

Disclaimer: All reviews and opinions are my own. Products were purchased with my own money. No affiliation with Picture Polish, Girly Bits, or A England and their respective products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tribute to Blogger Colorful Crack: Manis for Gosia

Gosia of popular beauty blog Colorful Crack recently announced her retirement from her blog due to other commitments.  Her friends from the blogging community are coming together to create manis to wish her good luck on her next endeavors.  #manisforgosia

One of Gosia's favorite indie polish brands is Superficially Colorful Lacquer.  She swatches the new collections for the brand, and I noticed a trend of her creating an awesome accent nail for each swatch.  Pulling from my own SCL collection, I created a monochromatic mani using Eye of the Storm and accented the ring nail with a sparkly coat of Imaginary Narwhals to create my mani in honor of and inspired by Gosia.

Eye of the Storm is a very dark and cold blue, somewhat metallic, with a little bit of holographic glitter. In some lighting it leans more navy and in others it leans more blue.  It dries semi-matte with a hint of sparkle.  Imaginary Narwhals is a silvery holographic micro glitter polish with occasional silver stars in clear base. It's fun and sparkly, but you have to fish a little for the stars.  After two days, you can see there's minimal tip wear!

Indirect lighting on the pool deck

Shade lighting on the lawn

Disclaimer: all products were purchased by me.  No affiliation with Superficially Colorful Lacquer and its products.

Monday Mani: #52WPNMC with Girly Bits Just My Cup of Tea'l and Polynesian Sunset

It's Week 34 of the 52 Week Pick N Mix Challenge with this week's prompts being lilac and teal or pastels. Considering I have a most-likely-diagnosable problem with the amount of blues and purples I buy, I figured why not give the lilac and teal a shot. Luckily for me, I have the perfect duo of untrieds to fit the bill.  From my stash I picked from one of my favorite indie handmade brands, Girly Bits. Pam released a custom polish trio in June 2014 exclusive to the GBCF Facebook group, two of which happen to be a purple and a teal. For the purposes of this nail art challenge, I'm arguing it's a lilac. ;) 

Since these were released as customs, they were available only one time to a select group of people and did not have an official description. As provided by Pam at the time of preview for purchase: "This teal leans slightly more blue than #islandtime and it has more aqua shimmer and less gold. This purple is slightly darker than #endlesslove, with prominent pink shimmer and silver holo sparks in addition to the base holo." I applied both colors in thin layers (with top coat), and both, as is my usual experience with GB, were super easy to apply and dried quickly. I had not discovered the pink shimmer (which I thought at the time was a pink flash) of Polynesian Sunset until later under the lighting of my bedroom light fan, a very pleasant surprise. I enjoyed Polynesian Sunset for two days with very minimal tip wear (only one minor chip), which is also my typical experience with GB, as a monochromatic mani. I later applied Just My Cup of Tea'l ruffian style, mimicking nail art from this post.  Both are jam packed with holo and stunning colors.

As you will see in the nail art photo, my index finger is not pictured.  To my surprise, the lilac layer pulled up with my vinyl upon removal.  While I patched the screw up with the teal polish, I felt it wasn't camera ready.  I have had the teal on since Thursday with extremely minimal tip wear, only one chip (I'm sensing a theme).  Girly Bits polishes are VERY hardy.

In the shade with indirect lighting

In the shade

In the shade with indirect lighting

In the shade

Monday Mani is about showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased through lifestyle shots. So many swatches out there are captured under lighting and conditions that aren't common of every day. My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not. Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices. Professionals blogger swatches are perfect - here's my life lessons from a handmade artisan.

Disclaimer: All reviews and opinions are my own. Products were purchased with my own money. No affiliation with Girly Bits or their products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Mani: #52WPNMC - Elevation Walk A Little Farther and Girly Bits Winter Sanctuary

Week 32 of the #52WPNMC is about Outlines.  I wanted to try out my new zebra vinyls from Nail Vinyls and thought this was the perfect prompt to do so.  Now, as we've already learned, I don't own any neons, which, I have to admit, make for a pretty stellar zebra pattern.  So I had to make do.

Walk a Little Farther is from the January 2015 collection by Elevation Polish and is a soft baby blue with intense blue micro shimmer.  I wore it for one day on its own and got several compliments.  The shimmer is not that prominent unless under more intense lighting.  Formula was on the thick side so I actually created bubbles during application.  My nail chemistry has a harder time with EvP so I'm still working on my technique with it, but overall I would say it's a nice creme.

I laid down my nail vinyls and applied the sparkly gorgeousness that is Winter Sanctuary, a collaboration between Girly Bits and epic blogger Cosmetic Sanctuary.  It's a stunning medium to dark cobalt blue shimmolo with a hint of purple and a scattering of holo microglitter in it.  Now, I didn't put on enough to see the hints of purple, but I for sure see the lovely sparkliness of the microglitter.  This has quickly been put on my favorites list.

Here's my epic fail whale confession: I'm still perfecting my technique with vinyls in trying to figure out when to take them off for clean lines.  Instructions say right away, so the balance is trying to get the second polish on in one coat.  As a result, I tend to put on too thick a coat.  When I put on the PDQ top coat from Colors by Llarowe, it smeared Winter Sanctuary.  So I waited longer on the right hand before applying the quick dry topcoat (which seems counterintuitive, honestly) and it smeared a little less, but nonetheless smeared.  So not quite sure about that, but I'm hoping it's user error.

I definitely want to wear both these colors again, in a more monochromatic look to enjoy their full beauty.  Perhaps each with just tips for a little pizzazz (I'm starting to get bored with a monochromatic look, which is what I usually do to fully enjoy the beauty of polishes).  I'm loving the zebra look so I'll still be experimenting with those to get my technique perfected.

Let me know what you think in the comments!  Any tips or suggestions as to the smearing?

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Indirect shade lighting

Direct sun lighting

Monday Mani is about showcasing beautiful indie polishes that I've purchased through lifestyle shots.  So many swatches out there are captured under lighting and conditions that aren't common of every day.  My intention is to show mani's under typical lighting and wearing conditions so you can decide if the beauty is right for you or not.  Please note that although colors are accurate on my computer monitor (Macbook Pro), colors do vary among devices.  Professionals blogger swatches are perfect - here's my life lessons from a handmade artisan.

Disclaimer:  All reviews and opinions are my own.  Products were purchased with my own money.  No affiliation with Girly Bits or Elevation Polish and their products.

An InLinkz Link-up