Deep Breath

Saturday is the premier for Doctor Who series 8 - Peter Capaldi is taking over as The Doctor, and they're doing a feature length episode (called "Deep Breath")

Of course I had to do themed nails to match!

I don't have my usual tools, so these aren't as great or clean as I wanted, but I still like them

Polishes Used:

essence Black is Back

essence Flame Fatale

essence nail art Tatoo pen

essence French Tip pen

Color Club Blue-topia

Orly Galaxy FX Gravity Bound

China Glaze Holographic Cosmic Dust

China Glaze Frostbite

Ardene Tigers Eye

- Thumb is a TARDIS, as usual.
- Index finger is continuing companion, Clara - based on her Christmas outfit, which I believe carries over for at least part of the new episode.
- Middle finger represents the 12th Doctor's new costume.
- Ring finger is, as usual, a Dalek, because even though I don't think they'll be in this episode, they're a huge part of Who (and I love doing Dalek nails …)
- Pinky is simply Orly's Galaxy FX polish, mainly because I couldn't think of anything else to add!

Galaxy FX Gradient

Here is the second ORLY Galaxy FX polish I bought - Intergalactic Space.

I wanted to try a glitter gradient with it - I wasn't sure if it would work, since the polishes are all so packed with glitter, but I had to try.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Firefly, from their Lustre Shine collection - two coats on all nails except my ring finger. This polish is a very pretty bronze to blue/green/grey duochrome. The colour shift isn't very strong on this one, but I still like it. If I was wearing it on it's own, I'd probably go for 3 coats, because it's pretty sheer.

I applied Intergalactic Space to the tips of my nails, then a second coat starting about 2/3 of the way up my nail. On my ring finger, I simply applied two coats.
This is a pretty complex polish - It's a grey jelly base with blue microglitter, small purple and bronze hex glitter, with a light scattering of medium round white glitter.

I love this one, I don't know how to describe it.

As with Gravity Bound, this polish is packed with glitter, so it can be a little bit goopy if you don't work quickly. Some reviews complained that the white circles were difficult to get. I only wanted them on my ring finger, and I had to wipe the circles off the brush while I was doing the gradient. There aren't many, but I probably could have had one per finger if I wanted to. Maybe I lucked out and got a good bottle?

Also, I just realized this manicure is pretty much perfect for ...

ORLY Galaxy FX

I saw these on a trip to Sally Beauty Supply, and grabbed two of them right away.
ORLY's Galaxy FX are jelly (or crelly - creamy jelly) polishes that are absolutely jam-packed with glitter. Oh my God the glitter.

This one is called "Gravity Bound"

The polish is a dark blue jelly base with fine blue glitter, small purple hex glitter and large white hex glitter.
This is two coats.

The polish is very thick, so it can be a bit goopy if you don't work fast.

Because of the glitter, it's a bit gritty as well. I had to apply two coats of my fast-dry topcoat that normally smooths everything out in one coat.

The polish is gorgeous, and I couldn't stop looking at it. It really does look like it was inspired by outer space - a nebula and stars.

Only drawback?
I guess the thick glitter and two coats of topcoat caused the polish to just pop right off:

Thankfully, this was after about 4 days of wear, so no big deal.

The other one I picked up is called Intergalactic Space - which I will post photos of another time. I have something in mind I'd like to try with it.

Party Nails

I don't normally wear dresses, so I have to buy one pretty much every year for company Christmas parties.

This year, I wanted to make my nails match.

The dress I got was black with metallic black polkadots - so my plan was to go with matte black nails and shiny drops on top, but it really didn't work out the way I had hoped.

Then I tried shiny french tips, which I am still terrible at freehanding, especially when I'm in a rush.

I finally settled on matte black with a feature nail of shiny black with fine silver glitter.

1 coat Avon Licorice on every finger except my ring finger, topped off with GOSH matte topcoat.

1 coat of ORLY Goth on each ring finger finished off with a normal topcoat.

Subtle, but it went very well with the dress!

Reddit Challenge - Inspired by Reddit

I've actually only been on the nail polish board on Reddit, so this was a bit tough. I was going to go with the main colours of Reddit (blue orange white) and do something with that, maybe draw the alien.

Then, I volunteered to help someone out by taking a series of photographs of how I do my nails, step-by-step, including any sketches or inspriation.
Well, I figured this was good enough - it was a manicure I've been meaning to do, and had a sketch of (I never do that), but just never got around to it.
Reddit inspired me to go for it.

On my thumb and ring finger, 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx

Other fingers 2 coats of ORLY Rock The World - I really like this one, it's a wine colour with gold shimmer.

Then comes the detail ... using my Claire's white detail polish, I painted blocks and stripes on my thumb and ring finger, and large french tips on my other fingers.

I painted over most of the white with Clare's Scented Banana and ORLY Rock The world. Then I used QUO by ORLY Instant Artist Black and Claire's White detail polishes to clean up the design.

The design is actually inspired by something - a dress I think? I haven't been able to find it since I did the original sketch.

It was a lot of work, but it turned out well!
There are several layers in some spots, so I'm not sure how long it will be until this chips.