Here's a pretty self-explanatory nail design, the Swedish flag. I took some liberties with my interpretation, but I think it's recognizable for what it's meant to be. I did large flags on a couple nails and then small flags sort of scattered over a couple and the pinky, hell, I have no idea what that's supposed to be. I love the colors together on the nail, especially with the white!
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I've been seeing a lot more Ikat print buzzing around the interwebz, on Pinterest, tumblr, etc... shorts, skirts, tees, nails, everything. So I really wanted to give Ikat-inspired nails a try and I did a mix. I'm not sure how the Ikat dying technique works, but the technique on the nails is super easy, and it doesn't even require a steady hand. It's imperfect by it's very nature, so anyone can do it!
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I was in the mood for rainbow nails, but rainbows with some oomph. I sat down with four bright polishes and this just sort of happened. There's no real inspiration or idea behind it, I just started painting. The best things (and the most obnoxious, apparently) seem to happen when you start without a plan. I wouldn't suggest it in other parts of your life, like choosing a career for instance, but with paint, it's no big deal. Art is cool. Yeah.
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One of five new flaky beauties from Finger Paints' new collection for Winter, Twisted is a bottle of awesome. There are flakies of every color in this clear base, making it the Queen of Flakies in this girl's humble opinion. There are a number of great flake-filled polishes out there, with more to come, I'm sure, but until now to get such a rainbow-tastic look, you'd have to layer several different polishes to get this much fabulous on a nail. I applied two coats of Twisted over a plain black creme in these photos. I also took a few photos of this look mattified with Essie Matte About You which I've included in this post. It looks insanely beautiful either way, and whethere you're in the sun or in indirect light, these are traffic accident worthy nails. Each of the five polishes retail at $4.99 at Sally Beauty Supply and are on the shelves at some locations now. I've got a couple more to show you later in the week. They are AWESOME.
Finger Paints Wicked Glitter - $3.99 at sallybeauty.com
The newest Limited Edition offering from Finger Paints is supposed to emulate the glory of the OPI Alice in Wonderland glitters, but are world's apart in my opinion. Wicked Glitter is vastly different than it's supposed peer Mad as a Hatter. The only similarity shared by the two beautiful polishes is that they are clear-based multi-colored glitters. Wicked Glitter is dominated by pink and red hues, with a scattering of blue and gold, whereas Mad as a Hatter is more silver in it's base, with other colors in smaller measure dispersed throughout to give it a more taupey look at arms length. In truth, Wicked Glitter reminds me more of Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink.
As far as the application of this polish, it's not terribly opaque. In an opacity fight between Mad as a Hatter, Rockstar Pink, and Wicked Glitter, WG would come in last. It took four thick coats to get to the opacity shown in the photos. I like the variety of color in this polish when viewed up close, but the overall shade it creates is dull, and the small glitter pieces really just don't give off enough sparkle to make it really stand out. Add to that the sparse glitter, and it's not really all I thought it might be cracked up to be. All that being said, Finger Paints special releases are few and far between, and when they include unique and interesting shades, it's even more of an occasion, so you may feel it's worth it to pick up.
FInger Paints Art You Blue? - $5 at Sally Beauty
Another of the new and interesting Finger Paints polishes from Sally! Art You Blue is a deep gunmetal-tinged blue frost. The frost finish isn't scary, just an interesting full-on shimmer. The application was great on this one, it was opaque in two coats and the brush strokes pretty much disappeared as it cured a bit. The color reminds me of the NARS eyeshadow duo Underworld, a steely blue. It seems like you'd see this shade pretty often, but it's unique to my not-insubstantial blue polish collection. It's cool and smoky in most lights but in bright light it lightens up and feels a little more neutral. I adore this shade! Click for more photos...
Finger Paints - Tough Art to Follow - $5 at Sally Beauty
You may have noticed recently that your local Sally Beauty reduced the prices on a lot of their Finger Paints brand of polishes. So many went to clearance that I started to get a little scared, but then I stopped in and saw a bunch of new colors! Tough Art to Follow is one of the most interesting of the new selections, in my opinion. It's a lovely earthy olive creme and I am infatuated with it. For those of you who liked Illamasqua Rampage, you'll like this. It doesn't have as flawless of an application, but it's a rich green jelly with a dusty twist that I haven't seen before. Olive polishes seem to be hard to come by, so check this one out. The first coat is very sheer, and pretty streaky, and it requires careful application of three coats for opacity. I would normally not recommend a polish so highly that has this sort of texture, but the color is so interesting and pretty that I am definitely recommending it. If anyone has any recommendations for a similar polish with better application, TELL ME! Click for more photos...
I literally thought to myself the other day when picking out polish from my drawers, "I'm in a magenta mood." And I realized I had a polish named that, so even though it's NOT magenta, I went with it. Normally a "magenta mood" means I break out Color Club Power Play, but whatevs. I bought this a while ago from Sally Beauty because it really caught my eye, even though not too many core-line Finger Paints polishes scream out at me. In the store it had sort of a duochrome in the bottle which I've never been able to see on the nail, but the China Glaze-esque glass-fleck shimmer was outrageously gorgeous. This polish is very enigmatic; it's somewhat red in base but the bright deep pink shimmer takes center stage in the sunlight. The photo above was the best representation of the shimmer because in sunlight it was too bright for my poor little camera to contend with. So in the sun photos you see accurate color representation for sunlight but not in finish. The photo above is pretty accurate as far as indoor color appearance as well. As far as the finish, while the glass-fleck is amazing up close, at arms length it's more metallic in appearance. Catching a glimpse of my hand in my car's sideview mirror through a closed window, it looked like one of those black and white photos with one color spotlighted, it's so vibrant.
It is pretty darn pigmented but I used three coats because I detest finding hidden bald spots when I venture into the sun. The formula is very nice and smooth, like most Finger Paints I've used in the past. The brush is pretty standard, slim and round; very good for precision. Me likey.
Have you tried this particular polish? What's your favorite polish by Finger Paints? Click for another photo
FInger Paints nail polish, a brand sold exclusively at Sally Beauty Supply, is always good for a killer holiday shade or 6. This year I picked up three of the six-shade collection. The first I'm going to post is this gorgeous purple, Icy Iris. It's not really "icy", and to be honest it's not really Iris-colored either, but what the hell, it's awesome. It's my favorite of the three polishes from this collection that I purchased. You can get these at Sally for around $3 or so. This applied awesomely with two coats. One coat was nearly opaque but I always hold my nails up to light and check for bald spots, and there's always one or two, and for the sake of consistency I can't put two coats on one nail and one on the rest. The thought just makes me twitchy. Great pigmentation and the shimmer in this vibrant-yet-vampy jeweltone purple is really pretty as well.
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