Lacquer Slacker Liz: Finger Paints

Showing posts with label Finger Paints. Show all posts

Sunday, November 9, 2014

FingerPaints Queen for a Night

Queen for a Night was released by FingerPaints, exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply, as part of the limited edition Masquerade Affair collection for fall 2014. This set of jewel-toned lacquers contains four polishes carrying gold flake shimmers. Queen for a Night is a dark sapphire or midnight blue with duochromatic hints of purple bearing an abundance of golden flake shimmers that read as green through the base color. There are also some particulate shimmers in there to my eye, in purple and blue. This is one of those polishes that is quite dramatic in the bottle but loses some of that excitement on the nail. Never the less, it's a beautiful deep dark blue with noticeable green sparks coming from the flaky shimmers.

Application was drama-free, for the most part. The consistency of Queen for a Night is very fluid but not what I would call runny, and dense with flaky shimmers. It has a fairly smooth flow over the nail with a little bit of tumbling from the flakies. Self-leveling properties are very good as is the pigmentation. Two coats delivers completely even, opaque coverage. Cleanup is ok, with a bit of trace staining to the skin especially. If I find nail staining upon removal I'll leave a note to that effect as a post script. Queen for a Night dries naturally in average time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Queen for a Night over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

FingerPaints Queen for a Night

The shimmers in this one might have popped more had I been a little less generous with my application. I have a tendency toward thicker coats than I need, not the best habit to get into with applying nail polish as thicker coats are more likely to chip than thinner ones. But since I only wear my polishes for a day, typically, I rarely get chips unless I'm doing some heavy duty cleaning,

While I like Queen for a Night, I'm not in love with it -- yet. I'm a little disappointed that I don't feel more affection for it as it got lots of rave reviews out there on the polish blogs and in certain lights the green shimmers make it an almost perfect midnight blue. I think I'll need to wear this one again before I can reach a final verdict.

love,
Liz

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

FingerPaints Be My Baby

Be My Baby was recently released by FingerPaints as part of the Poolside Paradise collection, an awesome summery collection of six colors loaded with metallic shimmer. I stopped by Sally's recently and picked up two from this collection, Be My Baby being one. This polish is a medium-dark intense hot pink with strong red undertones and beaucoup silver shimmers that appear as pink through the base. It's got aspirations to neon and the shimmers are quite visible, giving it a flashy semi-metallic look. The bright reddish pink color keeps it feeling summery, although the look reminds me of Christmas candy.

Application was great in spite of the fact that my brush had a wonky bristle that poked out from the side of the brush, drawing tiny lines and dots polish on my skin as I did the corresponding edge of each nail because I didn't bother to trim it off. Aside from that bristle, the consistency of Be My Baby is fluid and smooth with a nicely balanced viscosity that makes it easy to control. FingerPaints brush is flat and sizable and holds quite a lot of polish so I had to take care to wipe it down at the neck of the bottle. But even when I forgot to do that and ended up with too much polish on my nail, Be My Baby never ran or pooled, and I was able to pick up the extra polish with my brush as I was painting. Just a really well-behaved formula! Pigmentation was also really great -- Be My Baby is practically a one coater if you have an even hand and use a medium to medium-thick coat. I don't have an even hand so I used two medium coats. Cleanup, thankfully, was easy and non-staining. Be My Baby dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Be My Baby over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

FingerPaints Be My Baby

Isn't this an awesome deep reddish pink for summer? It has an almost frenetic energy to it and has a very girly feel on the nail. For some reason it reminds me of that scene in Gone with the Wind where Scarlett pinches her cheeks in the mirror to bring some color to them.

Out of curiosity, I decided to try it with a matte topcoat. I don't matte many polishes that I wear. I love seeing swatches of polishes matted, but I guess I'm just not brave enough to do it myself. Plus I am in love with the clarity that a glossy topcoat brings to a polish. Anyway, when I applied a layer of OPI's Matte Top Coat over the above manicure it really brought out the red in the polish and gave it that soft, frosted glass Christmas tree ornament glow, with the shimmers adding a gleaming pink highlight to each nail.

FingerPaints Be My Baby with matte topcoat

Unfortunately, as you can see, I got some dried bits of the matte topcoat on my brush when I did the thumb nail of my left hand. I need to clean the neck of that bottle. When those bits fall down into the polish, that's when you get those white chunky bits. Anyone who's had a bottle of matte topcoat start turning out white bits will tell you it's worth the time and effort to keep the neck of the bottle free of dried polish. I've had several bottle of matte topcoat ruined this way before I learned what caused it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed wearing this puppy, it made me feel high maintenance -- in a good way. Glossy, it's got an excited, volatile air to it. The soft glow of the matte look is so pretty and very flattering on the nail. Be My Baby makes me want to go back and get the four polishes from this collection that I passed on. What do you think?

love,
Liz

Friday, July 4, 2014

FingerPaints Red, White and Hue over OPI Skull and Glossbones

Today's is an appropriately patriotic manicure if you happen to be from the US. No nail art from these shaky hands -- a simple but effective glitter topper is more my speed!

Red, White and Hue, brought to us by FingerPaints, is a glitter bomb with red, white and blue hex glitters in two sizes suspended in a clear base. This cutie-pie is meant as a topper but could probably be sponged on to opacity to avoid having too much of the base on your nails. For undies I chose OPI's Skull and Glossbones, a pale creamy grey or greige color.

Skull and Glossbones applies very nicely for a pale color. The consistency is fluid and thin but not runny, with excellent flow over the nail. The first coat is streaky, but those without ridges will probably find that two coats gives complete coverage. Because I was going to top it with beaucoup glitters, I stuck with two also. If I were to wear Skull and Glossbones by itself I would probably do three coats. Skull and Glossbones dries naturally in good time to a glossy finish. I love this polish, it's my go-to substitute for white when I need something light underneath another polish, and I find the color plays nicely with most all colors of glitter.

Red, White and Hue possesses the fairly thick consistency coincident with a suspension base. The glitter to base ratio is fairly even-handed, with a medium amount of glitters per brushful. You can paint this polish on as you would a non-glitter for minimal glitter coverage, or plosh and spread (dab) to get more coverage. I wanted lots of glitters so I ploshed and spread what amounted to two coats of Red, White and Hue for this manicure. It wasn't hard to do but I did manage to get a couple of glitters lodged in one cuticle and a few others protruding over the free edge. I find cleaning up as you go along works best for glitter bombs. If you wait too long the polish will dry and then those glitters are the devil to remove from cuticles and skin. Red, White and Hue dries naturally in average time to a textured finish. To smooth it out, I used a coat of Gelous followed by a coat of Seche Vite and then later when it had dried down a bit I added a final coat of Poshe.

So yes I ended up with quite a bit of polish on my nails but the look is too much fun to worry about that! Photos show a base manicure of two coats of Skull and Glossbones over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Poshe topped with two dabbed on coats of Red, White and Hue with a smoothing combo of Gelous, Seche Vite, and Poshe to finish.

FingerPaints Red, White and Hue over OPI Skull and Glossbones

I am enjoying this random chaotic splattered look. It received compliments from the folks at my optometrist's office when I went for an eye exam on Wednesday.

If you're celebrating the 4th, have a safe one!

love,
Liz

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Addendum: Finger Paints Sparkle in the Sky -- Glossy!

After wearing Finger Paints Sparkle in the Sky matte for a day, I decided to see what it would be like with a nice glossy topcoat. I used my favorite topcoat sandwich for this: a layer of Seche Vite followed by a layer of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food followed by another layer of Seche Vite. The result was glossy with only a hint of texture from the gritty natural finish of Sparkle in the Sky. The topcoat deepened the navy blue base and intensified the scintillating glittery sparkle. Beautiful!

Photos show the Sparkle in the Sky manicure of my last post with three layers of topcoat.

Finger Paints Sparkle in the Sky with glossy topcoat

Sparkle in the Sky is definitely worth seeking out, it's a fun sparkly polish that looks good matte or glossy. I found mine at Sally's on sale for $3.49.

I don't know of any places locally (Durham Raleigh Chapel Hill triangle, NC) to go dusty hunting and it's something that finding this polish has piqued my curiosity about. (whoa, awkward sentence construction alert!) I've never done it! It's not the same as finding something on sale, is it? I guess it could be, right? If anyone has a favorite dusting hunting tale or has come up with a clarifying definition of what dusty hunting is, please share!

love,
Liz