To tell the truth, posting about nail polishes is really no fun compared to doing my nails or buying polishes. Who would've thought?! Duh!! However, I was forbidden to buy a few new ones I've set my eyes on until I posted this one, so here I am. :P
Meanwhile, I've been spending a lot of time ogling at sexy the Joestar family members for my next art project, specifically Jonathan, Joseph and Jotaro. They are from my favourite manga (now made into anime), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and are the men of my dreams! ~Swoooooon & Drooooool~ They are super tall (all above 195 cm), super shredded (massive and crazy muscle definition), pretty funny, always able to turn things around when in a pinch, and just absolutely fabulously sexy! If you're interested in my artworks, please come back for them when they're done. I've side tracked way too much here, so I'll get straight into the photos of the rest of my polishes.
Part 2: Non-colour shifting Polishes
This category includes everything that doesn't contain colour-shifting components, which is everything else that you can think of. I don't have a lot of special effect polishes, such as magnetic, soft/velvet finish, sand/sugar finish, and etc., so you won't be seeing any here. Solar and Thermo-active polishes don't really belong to my two categories, they change from one solid colour to another solid colour upon exposure to UV and temperature changes. As I mentioned before, they are chemically and physically different to the optical colour-shifting materials in the previous post, and since I don't have any, I'm not going to worry about them.
Brand acronyms (recap):
AE - A England
CC - Color Club
CG - China Glaze
DD - Different Dimensions
EL - Estee Lauder
FF - Femme Fetale (Polish)
HP - Hit Polish
LSL - Liquid Sky Lacqure
PP - Picture Polish
1. Smooth Metallics
Needless to say, these polishes have a metallic shine to the finish, which contain a mixture of metal pigments and mica (they are not the same). The silver metallic colour usually comes from Aluminium powder, while Titanium oxide and mica (Silicate) give a pearlescent shine. Due to the low metal content, the finish of the metallic polishes will never be the same as a piece of polished metal, but resembles more of a mineral ore.
This is when I'd like to emphasize the difference between metallic and chrome finishes. As you can tell from its name, the conventional Chrome finish requires plating of the Chromium metal onto a surface to create a smooth mirror-like surface. This is unachievable for nail polishes as chroming is a chemical process and has health and environmental issues. Therefore, all the so-called *chrome* polishes are not true chrome because they can't reproduce a perfect reflective mirror finish. If you want the REAL chrome effect, go with stickers or acrylics. The closest to a true mirror finish is probably the Layla Mirror Effect polishes. It's still very hard to achieve a smooth finish with these polishes. You'll need to really prep your nails and use a good smoothing base coat. The polishes also tend to drag, so additional coats and top coats are probably desirable if you're not skilled.
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| AE - Perceval, Chanel - Taboo, EL - Chrome Violet, Chanel - Bel Argus, Australis - Bun of Steel, OPI - Moonraker, Layla - Mirror Effect Metal Chrome, OPI - Birthday Babe, and EL - Brushed Gold. |
One more thing, Chanel Taboo isn't really metallic, but has copper/gold metallic flakes. Bel Argus is weird, it has a blue to purple colour-shift but is definitely more metallic than the plain colour-shifting polishes, yet the pigment is fine unlike the colour-shifting metal flakes. They're in the metallic just because they're fancy but whatever.
2. Mesh Metallics
Correct me if I'm wrong, I think Picture Polish is probably the first who coined this term for their range of nail polishes. I also think it's a rather accurate description for the appearance, which consists a relatively homogeneous mix of two or more fine metallic glitter (or flakes) suspended in a tinted base. The ones I bought have a smooth finish, but some can dry to a gritty texture, so a nice thick top coat would help. I have added some 0.008" gold and holo gold glitters to Glitzerland; therefore, giving it a more mesh-like finish. I like my version way better! <3
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| OPI - Glitzerland*, AE - Excalibur (new), Arezia (Sasa HK) - 3rd to last. |
The polishes I bought from my HK trip don't have any names because they are cheap and generic, they were less than 1 AUD for a mini 5 mL bottle! :D Haven't worn them yet, but the colour payoff and the formula are not too shabby.
3. Holographics
Or I call it, Rainbow Wonderland! I absolutely love love love these, not just because how shiny and colourful they are, but also the complex chemistry and physics behind it all! I mean light wavefront interference and diffraction, short wavelength X-ray lasers, synchrotrons, metalised PET (polyethylene terephthalate), phase and amplitude modulations are probably scientific terminology you either have never heard of or are just uninterested in, but I thrive on these theories and ideas and fancy equipment, and probably lived with (and for!) during the Ph.D years...
Getting too excited here, lol, all I'm going to say that makes more sense here is that you have two types of final visual effects: linear and scattered. For example, in Futuristica and 2NITE, the glitters are different in size but they all reflect and refract light in the same direction; hence, appearing as one big rainbow. The Oztoic chrome shatters and the OPI designer series (DS) are examples of the scattered effects, where the holographic particles are irregular in size and the light bounces off in all different directions.
Most linear effect holographic polishes are made with SpectraFlair® pigment, which is an industraial trademark material. The particle sizes (14, 20 and 35 microns) are much smaller than the finest holographic metal flakes (50 microns, or 1/500"). You can still create a linear-ish finish with the metal flakes, it just won't be as smooth and satin-like as the SpectraFlair®, which is expensive and hard to source.
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| CG - FYI, CC - Harp On It, DD - Black Dahlia, FNUG - Futuristica, CG - 2NITE, Ozotic - Chrome Shatter 914, CG - LOL, OPI - DS Amethyst, Ozotic - 607, OPI - DS Reserve, and AE - Briar Rose. |
4. Glitters
OMG, I need to shut up because this post is getting way too long and boring for some! Anyways, endless combinations of fun and excitement can be created with glitters of all different sizes and finishes. I'll just let the pictures do the talking, which is what I'm supposed to be doing all along...
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| Medium to Large Glitters: Innisfree - Pro91 and Pro93, HP - Pixie Dust, Peacock Plumage, Lily Pad, Mardi Gras, Light Show, and Funfetti. |
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| OPI - The Living Daylights, FF - Evening Tide, OPI - Pink Yet Lavender, FF - Lucent Ametrine, Suspended Starlight, Galactic Shards, and CG - Techno (over purple base). |
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| Fine Glitters: CG - Glistening Snow, Kleancolor - Holo Blue, Holo Chrome, Midnight Seduction, Kiss Goodbye, and Chi Chi - Glitterati Purple. |
Boring, but you can't live without them. The base of everything and anything, or just something subtle and cute for the lesser attention seekers. For OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape, it was really similar to CG - Refresh-ment but on the thinner and yellower side. I really didn't like it, so I just mixed in a whole bunch of different pigments to get a muted blue-green colour of no name. For Essie - Like To Be Bad, I added a tiny bit of 0.008" Silver holo and Red glitters for extra cuteness.
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| Revlon - Midnigt Affair, CG - Up All Night, Essence - Forget-Me-Not, Nubar - Faded Jeans, Essie - Barbados Blue, PP - Sky, OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape*, CG - Refresh-Mint, Marcia (Sasa HK), CG - Light As Air, OPI - The Color To Watch, PP - Wisteria, Kleancolor - Cobalt, and b collection by Bloom (Kmart). |
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| CG - Merry Berry, EL - Red Cherry, Inglot - 931, CG - Something Sweet, Essie - Like To Be Bad*, OPI - Princesses Rule!, Inglot - 866, CC - Sun N' Fun, LSL - Cosmic Dust, OPI - Will You Mari-achi Me?, Essie - Rock Candy, PP - Beige, and OPI - Cosmo-Not Tonight Honey. |
The extras:
A closer shot of the Korean nail polishes I was raving about, the Innisfree polishes also have an interested and not off-putting fruity smell. Excuse my nails, I can't stand them being long and have crappy cuticles. The pink and blue glitters are slightly on the neon side, but I really enjoy their mix of colour, size and shapes. Way more interesting than OPI has ever offered! Yes OPI is overrated imo, formula is a hit and miss and the colour range can be redundant, so meh meh meh compared to these cuties!
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| Korean Polishes: Innisfree Eco Color Pro: 93, 91, 69, 72, 73, and A'pieu Aurora VL02. |
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| Pro93 over Cosmic Dust = Super cute! <3 |
The Storage Unit:
Another contribution from my husband, this is a Magic: the Gathering card storage box. I know, WTF is this nerdy card game! It's made from strong corrugated cardboard and is conveniently sized and segmented for my nail polishes. ;) It's weight tested for 200 lb and the dimensions are 15" (L) x 13" (W) x 4" (H). If you can ever bring yourself to go into one of those nerdy gaming shops, they're cheap and worth your money, only if. LOL!!! Of course mine has been covered by pretty fabrics, so it doesn't look as nerdy as it really is. ^^
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| Where they sleep, day and night, away from sunlight, like a vampire's coffin. :P |
Next Post: I might stay away from nail polishes for a while, but I still have some Franken polish stuff to post. There might be some reviews of makeup and skincare products instead, or more of my obsessions with manga and anime and their characters. I have two art projects planned, just can't wait to draw sexy buff men! :P
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