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. :)

China Glaze: Hunger Games - Smoke & Ashes

Let's be honest: If you're a Hunger Games fan, you will get this polish, even if you think it's not your cup of tea. Who isn't supporting District 12?!

I thought this was just a black with a little bit of shimmer, but whoa. The shimmer is seriously incredible.

All of these pictures are 1 coat, no top coat.

Here you can see the shimmer looking a little bit blue but also a little bit green. It depends on the light!

Formula is absolutely spot on. Yet again, this is one perfect coat. Dear China Glaze, I love you.

Smoke & Ashes really does mostly just look black probably 85% of the time. If you look at it from close up, you can always see the shimmer, even in low light. But then in the sunlight... well, you've seen the picture! Some seriously gorgeous blue shimmer.

A lot of people have said that this is a blackened blue base, not a true black, but I'm going to disagree. Even if it is something like #00001D in hex, with just the slightest amount of blue, my eyes sure can't see it. They just see black with pretty blue shimmer. Yes, when the light catches it, it sure looks blue, but I really think that's just the shimmer.

So to sum up: crazy opaque black with crazy beautiful blue shimmer. Yet another Hunger Games polish that I love so much more than I expected to.