Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud Franken

This is a request from ages back- sorry it took so long!

Sally Hansen Opulent Cloud was released sometime earlier this year in the HD collection (don’t ask me why they tried to make it sound all hi-tech, it’s all just nail polish) in a range of bright colors, and a somewhat random grayish blue which is Opulent Cloud.  I could be wrong on the details, as there is no Sally Hansen here in Japan.

Long story short, lots of ladies were looking for this gray and couldn’t find it. It looked intriguing to me too, but Sally Hansen is dodgy on their animal testing policies, so I decided it was best to give it a pass. Then I got a franken request for it, so let’s see what I can come up with…

In some photos, it looks almost like a bluish steel gray, and in some photos, it looks like it leans more towards taupe. I decided to split the difference between the two and mix a franken somewhere in the middle.

The index finger is slightly more blue than the others. This was actually not too hard to make.  First, I mixed up a pea-sized about of medium gray from black and white.  Then I added a quarter-sized amount of Misa On The Edge, a medium blue creme. This gave me a slightly lighter bluish-gray creme.  From there, I added (gosh, the name label is gone but I think it’s Orly Golden Halo) to the mix. It’s a slightly pinkish color with a really strong gold flash. I painted the index finger with that, then added one drop of Essie Lady Godiva (creme chocolate brown) to the mix and painted the rest of my fingers.

Anyone have the real color? As you can see, the original looks very different in different lights. I personally like the bluish rather than the taupe but that’s just me.  But for a medium neutral shade with a gold flash, this is satisfying enough for me!

Lincoln Park Before Dark Franken

I love OPI’s Lincoln Park After Dark, which I got in a lovely package from a friend recently. It’s a really dark purple that looks almost black. I love dark colors, but today I wanted to show you how easy it is to franken a new color!

I know there’s a few folks who are afraid to franken, but today’s photos should convince you how it how easy it is!

Here is a simple franken: 3 drops of white to 7 drops of Lincoln Park After Dark. It yields a true neutral purple, like Grimace at McDonalds or cartoon grapes:

Just to show you what a difference a few drops of white can make, here’s the franken with the original LPAD on the tips:

To mix a new color without ruining the originals, use a brush from an empty bottle of clear polish or an old paintbrush if need be. Drip the dark color onto a palette or a muffin tin (I prefer a silicone muffin tin because I can just turn it inside out after the polish in it dries and it pops right out- no cleaning!) Then drip a few drops of white into the dark, mix with your brush, and apply! A new shade without altering the originals.

And because I just can’t resist glitter:

I topped it all off with a coat of Sinful Colors Blue and Purple Glitter.

Berry Jelly

Here is a nice berry jelly for fall that I made by adding one drop of medium blue (Misa On The Edge) to 20 drops of a creme red, and then one drop of dove gray to the resulting mix.  From there, I added about 10 drops of clear polish.

It’s more cool-toned purplish than it looks in the photo, but my camera gets wonky with blue tones.  Not a particularly unique color, but handy to make from straight-up red if you want a berry tone once in a while. I don’t really wear berries enough to warrant buying a whole bottle.

Nice, but it needs a little something else. How about some foil-y stuff?

This is technically “foil” but on a clear background. I got it from Glitterati Foil, but if you order from them, be prepared to be patient. Out of 30 foils I ordered, 8 were wrong or missing.  They were eventually sent out, but it was disappointing. However, I haven’t seen these kind of foils widely available anywhere else.

Ooh! Transparent foil!

The result:

It reminds me of an abstract painting. The same result could have been obtained with a striping brush, but I’m lazy. This took all of a minute and gave the nails an interesting look.

Migrating…

Nope, I’m not a Canadian goose, but I am thinking of migrating from WordPress, my current blog hoster, to Blogger.

WordPress doesn’t allow Javascript or Flash code to be attached to the blog, so no Google Friend Follower or other fun social tools (except for Twitter, which I don’t use because I’d bore my followers to death.) Plus Blogger has better blog templates and seems easier to use.

Anyone have any comments about a blog service they use and like? Or dislike? I’d like to hear what everyone thinks of his or her current blog hoster and go from there. I could also buy my own domain name, but dang, nails have cost me enough already. I’m not sure I want to add to that sum!

GR8 Pink Chocolate

Late last night, I heard a rustling from my nail polish stash….Upon further investigation, I found China Glaze GR8 and Orly Pink Chocolate in a very compromising position!

The offspring of half  GR8 and half Pink Chocolate  with a topcoat of gold glitter (CG Golden Enchantment) looks like this:

It yielded a warm , slightly dusty burnt sienna color that reminds me of New Mexico for some reason.

GR8 is a good polish to mix with cremes- the results can be very surprising!

Rusty Feather

I wanted to get a little more autumnal color on today, so here’s something a bit more seasonal and also super easy:

This is MAC Reflects Rust glitter and I just mixed it with some clear polish to get the shade above. It was opaque in two coats and smooth.

But, it needed a little something else, so I busted out a large Fauxnad plate that has a feather pattern.

The feather took up more space on the nail than I intended, but it was kind of a fun pattern. It makes me feel like a ’20s flapper. The Fauxnad is definitely tricky to use and I smudged my pinkie, which is why I’m not showing it to you here!

Pink Frosting

No, I’m not turning into a pink-lover, but here’s a glittery pastel for today. These were from a set I made for my show, but someone stepped on them and broke one of the spare nails, so the set was unsellable.

This is made of 1 drop neon pink (take your pick of the many neons out there, I used a Color Club) and 7 drops of white. From there, I added one teeny smidge of black to make the color a little more dusty.  After that, I topped it off with a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust, which is one of my favorite glittery topcoats.

After that, I added the decals and a little rhinestone on each nail. This style is a little too cutesy for me, but since I had to either wear it or toss it, I decided to wear it!

This was one of about a gazillion sets I made for a show and didn’t sell, but there has been quite a lot of action at my Etsy shop, so that’s been really nice. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Japanese Nail Art 10

Time for some Japanese nail art! In general, nails here have been getting a little more conservative as people cut back. An acrylic manicure with tons of stuff attached can easily run $150 here, so people seem to be choosing more wearable styles that are more reasonable. But I still found a few over-the-top pictures to show you!

As always, these are collected from Japanese nail art sources and are not my own work.

Long gels with pressed flowers, confetti glitter and rhinestones. Barbie Salon, Tokyo.

I might have shown these before, but the carefully applied whipped cream with hot fudge always cracks me up. I’d be nibbling on it for sure!

Perfectly serviceable French tips with….a giant rhinestone and chain? They must have used some pretty powerful glue on these. Above images Rie Nail Salon, Tokyo.

Some Halloween nails from Aoyama Prim Salon, Tokyo…complete with 3-D donuts.

More Halloween nails from Justa Salon, Tokyo.

Some music nails and lots of rhinestones on clear tips.  The Japanese seem to prefer the design facing outward, but I prefer the design to be right-side up as I look at my nails. 

Giant preppy argyle claws.  Both images above from Justa Salon, Tokyo.

And, just because:

Who doesn’t need a rhinestone trucker hat? Those look like real Swarovski crystals to me, so it’s probably aabout $200 dollars worth of rhinestones.

 

Silver Konad Polish

I’m working through my requests and emails and I really want to thank everyone for your patience! I’ve gotten some emails about Konad metallic stamping polishes in silver and gold. They are problematic for a lot of people, it seems.  They’re too darn sheer and they don’t show up well.  I got silver and gold bottles on seperate occassions and found them both to be rather useless.

But, if you have a bottle of metallic Konad Special Polishes that you’ve given up on, don’t despair! I added some super-metallic silver pigment to mine, and lookee what I got!

I used a Body Shop Shimmer Cube in silver and added it directly to the bottle of Konad. I recommend the finest pigment you can get, because chunky ones will just fall to the bottom of the bottle as the polish is so thick.  A bum note about the Body Shop- they were bought by L’Oreal, who engage in animal testing, and so I’m not buying anything from them again. I know they have an earth-friendly image, but that’s just the marketing.  But I swear I bought the eyeshadow while they were still an independent company!

The base color is OPI Ink with a coat of Hot Topic Purple (sorry, no names!) added on top. I wanted a dark base to show you how the silver really pops.  OPI Ink is a nice color, but it’s a little too blackish on. I wish it looked more like it did in the bottle, but a thin coat of that Hot Topic gives it a nice depth.

If adding pigment to your Konad polishes is too much trouble, the China Glaze Romantiques and new Khromes work well with Konad for metallic stamping.

Easter Dress Pink

This is not a fall color at all, let’s say this one is for the gals down under!  I had a frilly Easter dress when I was a kid that was exactly this color.

I’m always on the lookout for a good, safe pink that goes with my ghostly hands, but I’m not really crazy about pink. The pales blend in with my skintone, and the beige-toned ones make me look ill. Forget about the corals!

But a cool-toned slightly blue-based pink works for me, and I got to make one out of a polish I had almost given up hope on: OPI Movin’ Out. It’s a really sheer purplish/pink duochrome with teeny red (!) microglitter. It’s just milky enough so I’m not crazy about it over darks because it can look streaky, but there is no hope of this ever being opaque.

I added some (no-name dollar store) eyeshadow to Movin’ Out and mixed them in a muffin tin. The rather hideous lavender shadow (what was I thinking?!) was a little lighter than the base color of the polish, and then I added some bluish microglitter. It was still too sheer, so I painted it over a base of bright white (OPI Alpine Snow Matte). This is three coats.

Blurred to show the sparkle, but didn’t really work out.

I think it’s still too much trouble, but I wanted to use Movin’ Out. It’s such a nice color, but why did it have to be so sheer?