Ombre Skittle Manicure in Blue

I was comparing blue polishes on a swatch palette the other day and discovered a line up that I thought would be nice for a medium to dark ombre skittle mani. The polishes I chose are Board Girl Blue by Sation, Suzi Says Feng Shui by OPI, Sapphire Silk by Orly, Natty by Zoya and Sailor by Zoya.

Photos show two coats of each per nail over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. I was so excited about the colors I forgot to wash the acetone residue off of my skin before taking the pics, my bad!

l to r: Sation Board Girl Blue, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui -- apologies for the rogue hair stuck to the door frame, it's one of John's... go figure!

l to r: Sation Board Girl Blue, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

l to r: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

Sation Board Girl Blue

l to r: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

l to r: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

l to r: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Sation Board Girl Blue

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

l to r: Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

l to r with thumb last: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Sation Board Girl Blue

l to r with thumb first: Sation Board Girl Blue, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

l to r: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

Sation Board Girl Blue

l to r: Zoya Sailor, Zoya Natty, Orly Sapphire Silk, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Sation Board Girl Blue

l to r: Sation Board Girl Blue, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Orly Sapphire Silk, Zoya Natty, Zoya Sailor

I know you love a skittle mani, Eleanor -- what do you think of this one? I don't do very many skittles but maybe I should do more of them. It makes the blue-lover in me croon with happy eyed blue lovin' bliss to see all these blues in one place!

love,

Liz

Sation Suede Shoes and Hare Polish Mad Chill

My friend Thithi over at ::pretty::tough::nails:: has been featuring fantastic swatches of new Hare Polishes from Nikole's latest collection, The Tropics Are Calling. So far she's done Neon Palm, Dancing Bird of Paradise, Washed Ashore and Flight of the Flamingos. Gorgeous on her, all of them! I hadn't felt the call but after staring at her photos for a while I found myself at Hare's etsy shop ordering Mad Chill, a royal blue jelly polish filled with neon blue, ice blue and white glitters in various shapes and sizes plus silver microglitters and silvery shimmer. Enabled!

I like to layer glitter polishes so I set out to pick a royal blue to serve as underwear for Mad Chill. I decided on Suede Shoes, by Sation. Suede Shoes is a medium royal blue shimmer polish with scattered silvery shimmer flecks. The components reminds me a bit of a royal blue version of China Glaze's Midnight Mission. It's not most Aunt-Liz-proof polish, though, very liquid with a strong drive to flood the cuticles. Luckily for me (and you!) it's not a stainer. Sheer on the first coat, the coverage is buildable with two coats being opaque enough for underwear but still a bit sheer and also a bit patchy. Were I to wear this by itself, I would definitely apply I third coat.

Photos show two coats of Suede Shoes over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite to protect from smudging and hasten the drying process.

Sation Suede Shoes

Sation Suede Shoes

Sation Suede Shoes, macro shot in the bottle

Sation Suede Shoes

at the window...

Sation Suede Shoes

Sation Suede Shoes

Sation Suede Shoes

Sation Suede Shoes

Mad Chill is a gorgeous highly decorative polish. On the nail it is a brilliant saturated sapphire, the kind of color that makes you hold your hand out at arm's length and waggle your fingers as you gaze upon them with blissful fascination. I love Nikole's ability to combine analogous colors, and she does it beautifully here. The blues she uses in Mad Chill give the impression of an iced Blue Curaçao liqueur cocktail, exotic and maybe a little dangerous.

Application of Mad Chill was a highly entertaining exercise. Because I was a magpie in a previous life I am regularly transfixed by the application of polishes with multiple components like this one. Watching the considerable load of glitters disperse across the nail surface had me spellbound. I did have a few instances of glitter stacking, but I attribute this more to user error (overmanipulating the polish) than to any fault with the formula of Mad Chill, which I thought was excellent.

I applied two coats of Mad Chill over my Suede Shoes base manicure and added two coats of Seche Vite to smooth the glitters. There were a few errant glitters wanting to hang on the free edge of a couple of nails. My remedy was to gently file them away with a glass file and a rounding motion like the one used to seal the free edge of the nail after filing. I did this in between the two coats of Seche Vite, so that with the second any tiny scrapes would be coated and camouflaged. It worked quite well.

Sation Suede Shoes and Hare Polish Mad Chill, bottle shot

Hare Polish Mad Chill, macro shot in the bottle

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes on the nail, Hare Polish Mad Chill in the bottle

ditto

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

at the window...

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

Hare Polish Mad Chill over Sation Suede Shoes

The glitters and shimmer seem to float over the blue pigmented base in the most lovely and mesmerizing way. This polish has amazing depth, reminding me of tissue paper collage. The silver microglitter is very reflective and sparkly in direct light and plays very well with the opacity of the colored glitters. I love the square silver glitters in Mad Chill, they really make the polish for me.

There's a lot of bold excited energy in this polish, the kind that pulls you onto the dance floor and won't take no for an answer. At the same time, there is an oceanic equanimity to the colors that speaks of a more private, self-possessed interior experience. It reminds me of the rising zest for life that makes it's way into your consciousness early in the morning with the yawning and stretching, effervescent and full of pleasure at being alive.

I love that feeling!

love,
Aunt Liz