DizzyNails

 This mani started with two coats of Milani Pink Flare.

 I was patient to let Pink Flare dry for a while before applying the next layer as I didn't want to have any shrinking or other problems.  I think I waited at least 30 minutes!

 Next, I dabbed on a coat of Rainbow Honey A Little Kindness.

 I used two coats of Gelous and a coat of Butter London P.D. top coat, to boot, letting some layers dry for a while in between.  It was really smooth in the end and I didn't have any shrink.  Hooray!

 I took these pictures in early morning sun that was very warm and golden.  In some pictures (several of the sunny ones) I have adjusted the "temperature" to try and reflect more accurately how the polish looks in most lighting.

 Also, you can't appreciate the full beauty of the purple-pink iridescent shimmer in A Little Kindness.  It's so very pretty in real life and looks more pinkish in these pictures.

 These are magical fairy princess nails if there ever were any!

 This post is full of many, many pictures, just so you know.

 I started my manicure journey yesterday with two coats of the ever lovely Milani Dot Com.

 Can I just state the obvious here?  This polish is STUNNING!

 It was very sheer and almost runny on the first coat, so I was quite surprised and pleased that everything pulled together so well with the second coat.

 No top coat here because I had plans to put Lynnderella Mercurial on top.

 Okay, so I don't even want to post these sad pictures because this combination gave me grief, Nation.

 But we're all here to live and learn, right?  Right.  Here I had added two coats of Lynnderella Mercurial (learn more about Lynnderella at her blog here), a coat of Lynnderella Glitter Tamer, and then a coat of Poshe.

 The problem, the thing that drove me nearly crazy yesterday, was that the Glitter Tamer gave me a meeeellion tiny bubbles.  I'm just not having great luck with it yet, for various boring reasons.

 You can't see the bubbles too much in the above picture, thankfully, but UGH, they are there.  Trust me if you can't see them in any of the pictures.  All eleventy billion of them were there mocking me.

 Also, I just wasn't happy with how the pictures turned out anyway.  Mercurial is maybe a bit hard to photograph!

 Okay, now here we are today.  The picture above is under my little Ikea lamp on my polish painting desk, thus the extreme gold tone of the lighting.  I was trying to show off the awesome and complicated shimmer in Mercurial.

 Here I have used two coats of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, one well-worked coat of Lynnderella Mercurial, a coat of Gelous, a coat of Cult Nails' top coat, and finally a coat of Seche Vite.  (I used a base coat, too, of course).

 I love LPAD, and this is weirdly my first time ever wearing it.  It does remind me a lot of a-england Lancelot in the final effect, though, so maybe I could have just used that and saved a coat in the process!  LPAD leans ever so slightly more purple, though, where Lancelot looks mostly just black and has a teeny bit of red to it.

 I digress!  At any rate, this mani is a major success for me.  Hooray!

 Mercurial is still hard to capture in photographs, but hopefully you have an idea of its extreme and moody awesomeness.

 My favorite part?  On the thumb nail here.  It's really hard, if not impossible to see, but there is a ginormous black hex glitter near the middle, a little to the right, and a little toward the top.  LOVE IT!

 I love me some surprise crazy glittah.

 Oh!  And if you hadn't noticed, my nails are shorter today, yes.  I had a little break starting on one, so I just took them all back to nubs.

 I'm fine with the nubs.  I've actually come to really like them short now.

 Blue Lightening reminds me of other similar gorgeous blue to purple duochrome shimmers (the names escape me at the moment, but I'm sure I have at least several dupes or near dupes).

 I was definitely a little disappointed that I needed two coats on a polish that advertises being a one-coater.  Ah well.

 Love Potion No. 99 is a wondrous array of purply glitters, including many large squares and small holo pieces.  Reminds me of salsa!!  Call me crazy.

 I was in a hurry and only used two coats of Seche Vite over this whole mess - which, sadly, did not smooth out the texture near enough.  It was quite bumpy to the touch, even though it doesn't look too bad.  Should have gone with some Glitter Tamer or Gelous under the SV!

 I'm having better luck with the Glitter Tamer now that I've used up some and have a bit more room to add lots of thinner.  It seems to need lots and lots of thinner regularly, but it quite a good thing really.  It does add incredible shine.

 I think the overall look of this mani was more on the purple side.  My camera, of course, decided to show you more of the blue.

The other day I was thinking about my favorite vampy colors, and I remembered Dior Purple Revolution.

I was looking for it on my blog, here, but couldn't find it. What the heck?

I forgot all about it but then remembered again tonight. I searched through old photo albums and finally found it! Along with it, I found this situation that you are looking at right now.

What is it, you ask? Milani Blue Flash topped with Sephora by OPI Flurry Up!

This is from December of last year!! Oh me. Oh my. I do not know what happened that I forgot to post this before. (As an aside, I did search fairly good for this and also the Dior Purple Revolution mani on DizzyNails, with no luck - but if by some crazy chance they already got posted and I just couldn't find them, then consider this just a beautiful encore!)

How cute is this?! Seriously. So cute.

Oh, you wanted to see that Dior I was talking about? The one that I love so very much? Here she is.

Two utterly glorious coats of Dior Purple Revolution 906.

It practically applied itself, and look how pretty it is!!

Almost black, I know. A weakness of mine. I believe, if my memory serves me right, that this was a Sephora exclusive color from last winter.

And my wee little baby nubs. I kind of miss them, honestly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this random little blast from the past!

Well, folks, I survived a fairly uneventful New Year's Eve at my house, doing mostly nothing. :) Oh - I did do MY NAILS. Here they are!

It's two coats of OPI DS Radiance (basic silver foil) with two coats of Milani Jewel FX Silver. I got the Milani off Cherry Culture. I haven't seen it anywhere in person.

I've seen some others do a similar variation with the gold glitter version and it has looked way more smooth and perfect and amazing. I ask myself why?

I think they must have used a toothpick to place some of the glitter pieces, because mine certainly didn't want to smoothly, evenly, perfectly coat the nail.

In any case, for a lazy application with no tricks or fuss, it still looks pretty sweet! When I look down at it, it kind of reminds me of a hammered metal effect. Very cool!

I used two top coats over it all and it's actually not too bumpy feeling. It's by no means glass smooth, but it's smoother than you'd think by just looking at it.

I'm starting to think I might need another short break from glitter after this one. ;)