NOTD: Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

Hello!

Today is officially Mardi Gras, so I have my second celebratory Mardi Gras manicure today. This one I made on purpose, lol! I set out to make it sparkly and glittery and gaudy in that awesome Mardi Gras way. Let's see if you think I pulled it off. :)

I started with a base coat of Milani Hi-Rez, one of Milani's very chunky, but still awesome, holographic polishes. It's a sort of a dark lilac shade which I thought would serve as a good backdrop for the rest. Next I did a quick saran-wrap pattern over it with China Glaze's Rare And Radiant, to give it a bit of iridescent green shine in spots. After that, I put on a coat of Hit Polish's Bourbon St., a fun glitter in Mardi Gras colors. And last but not least, I stamped swirls of beads being thrown through the air with Bundle Monster plate 224, using Butter London's British Racing Green and Manic Panic's Blood Thirsty:

This is a good shot to see the iridescent effect

Love that pretty glitter. :)

To show that it doesn't look so busy when you actually see it farther away. Not that I care if it's busy, lol!!

This angle gives a great shot of what Milani Hi-Rez looks like :)

Now I want to find a place to eat crawfish, dance to Zydeco, and wear some beads!! Who wants to join me?!?

Also, I just wanted to point out that this is basically the same design I used on my hot chocolate manicure (which you can see here for comparison purposes); although I did add some saran-wrap background here, it's otherwise the same technique with different colors. The two together show just how versatile a single stamp can be when you just vary it a bit, I think. I've never before been inspired by one design I was doing to do the same thing for another purpose, so I just had to share that part with you. :)

Here's hoping that your good times are a-rolling! If they aren't go make 'em roll!! :)

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: Zoya Pru

Hello!!

Today's prompt is to do a mani with a duochrome, flakie, or a holo. These are my three favorite things in the nail polish world, and trying to decide between them...aaggooonnnyyyy...

So, I decided to use all three!!

First I started off with a base of Zoya Pru, which is a beautiful purple-orange fleck-finish duochrome like nothing else I've ever seen:

Zoya Pru, with one day of tip-wear...sigh...

Zoya Pru

The pictures I'm about to show you are varied and strange, because I wasn't home when I needed to take these, and I experimented a bit. So next I have Zoya Pru with one coat of Zoya Maisie on the accent nail:

Zoya Pru + Zoya Maisie

I absolutely adore this combination, these two polishes feel like they were made for each other. The flakies in Maisie really play up the flecks and shift in Pru...So pretty. :)

Okay, but there's still some holographic to put in somewhere...So what I decided to do was put Maisie on the rest of the nails since I loved it so much, and the put Milani 3D, a holographic glitter, on the accent nail. The cool thing about this is that 3D doesn't cover opaque in one coat, so you can actually see the flakie underneath! The bad news is the light really didn't want to cooperate with the polish to create a good picture. I couldn't get true color and the full effect of the combo in one shot, so you'll have to compile these in your head...:

Look at that flakie peeking out from under the holo glitter!!

Color's a bit more true in this one, and you can see a little of the holo sparkle, but not much

Tell me that effect isn't cool under that holo...

Full sun to show the color best. By the time I was able to get to full, good sun, I had crazy tip wear and dents in my polish...sorry...:(

I never expected that the flakie would show through the holo, but now that I knowit shines through under a light coat of the glitter, I'm going to exploit this in the future.

So there it is, my duochrome/flakie/holo melange! Hope you saw at least one polish that you liked. ;-)

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other duo-flake-lo manicures linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.