Snowy Night Sky

It's a very rare day that my husband has any opinion about what I should put on my nails, but I give all of the credit to this manicure to him!

This is the finished product. He wanted something that would be blue and black, like a night sky, with snow falling. I think I got pretty close to his vision! Getting there was pretty messy though...

I started with a single coat of white. This is Formula X in White Matter, and you can see it's not an opaque one coater. But it was good enough to act as a base for what was to come.

Doing a gradient with black is CRAZY MESSY, everyone. Trust me. Use liquid palisade, or tape, or something. Don't be an idiot like me and let it get all over your fingers.

Because even after using way too much acetone to try and clean it up, it's still not actually tidy.
This gradient was done using Formula X Dark Matter and Omni.

Over the gradient, I added a coat of Formula X Wham! I had a little trouble with the bar glitters (what's new?), and actually pulled one off a little later because it was so annoying, but I love the look of it. I just really don't like bar glitter.

This all-Formula X manicure is actually what I wore to an interview at Sephora that went quite well, so thanks to my husband for such a fantastic idea. :)

Illamasqua Viridian

I chose this polish from a need for a Christmassy manicure that wouldn't take any work. No nail art, no glitter removal, just something that felt appropriately holiday. And so it was that Illamasqua Viridian went onto my fingers.

In direct light, you can see how green and shimmery it is.

In indirect light, it's a little more teal and blackened on the edges, but it's still not a flat, boring polish by any stretch of the imagination.

This was just two coats of smooth, easy application. Unfortunately, I topped it with my current go-to quick dry polish, Essie Good to Go, and it does NOT play with with Illamasqua apparently! I had shrinkage like crazy, and it was the same when I used it over Glitterati a few weeks ago. Note to self: don't do that again.

And an out of focus shot so you can see how sparkly and gorgeous it is. :)


This is now one of my go-to Christmas polishes for when I want something really easy. What's your favorite easy Christmas manicure?

Red & Silver Dotticure

My roommate's mom visited us a couple weeks ago, and in the one week she was here she bought three bottles of nail polish. She's a woman after my own heart, apparently! When she went back home, she left them here for me.

I can't remember the last time I wore a Sally Hansen polish, but here I am! I figured they were free and already in my home, so I might as well give one of them a shot. I was actually really pleasantly surprised! This is Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle in Stunning Scarlet. It didn't make me feel like my nails were any stronger, but it was opaque in one coat, with zero application problems. It was actually a really lovely polish that I expect to reach for again in the future.
Over it, I dotted patterns vaguely reminiscent of octopi (octopuses?) in Zoya's Trixie.

Here we have the elusive right hand! I actually preferred this hand. Instead of trying to fit one and a half of the designs per nail, I only did one, and it looked a lot cleaner. If I use this pattern again before my nails grow out again, I'll definitely do both hands like this.

This isn't a manicure that really screams "Christmas!!" but I do think it's definitely holiday appropriate. It's only the beginning of December, but I'm already longing for more red and sparkly nail polishes!

Eureka! A meteor!

More Formula X! We're having beautifully clear weather this week, so I thought I'd celebrate with a bright color. So out came the pink!

Formula X Eureka. Decent formula, two coats to opacity. Application was a little tricky; going over an area twice tended toward balding. But a thicker second coat helped even it all out.

Meteoric is their black and white glitter. I'm in love with this. No bar glitter! Hooray! You can see on my index finger that there are larger hex pieces in there, but I prefer the thinner coverage on the other nails. There are also tiny holographic sparkles, but these pictures don't capture that. I'll just say this: if you like black and white glitters, get this one. You won't regret it.

The elusive right hand! Just to show the more even coverage across all the nails. No dabbing necessary.