Eyeshadow to Nail Polish Fun with LA Girl Palettes!

I confess, I still have a thing for David Bowie. I mean, the 80s version with the crazy makeup.  That long-buried desire was probably what motivated me to buy this wacky eyeshadow palette. Pale jewel tones? Pale METALLIC jewel tones that I will never wear in a million years? Yes, I blame you, DB. ::skitters away, humming ‘Golden Years.’::

LA Girl is a drugstore brand aimed at teens, but it’s vegan and cruelty-free. This is great, especially for affordable mass-market cosmetics.  I can’t speak to its qualities as an eyeshadow, because I haven’t found an occasion to wear metallic gentian purple eyeshadow anywhere yet. Plus, in 90 degree weather with 95% humidity, I’m sure no cosmetics will perform terribly well. The texture is very, very dry and powdery with very little binder, which might not be great for eyeshadow but makes a lovely polish. In fact, it is so powdery that I’d recommend wearing a dust mask when working with this, unless you want your lungs to be very colorful. This is the 10 C0lor Palette called “Nightlife.”

To make eyeshadow into nail polish, you’ll need some clear nail polish, a little mixing dish (I always use a silicone baking cup for easy cleanup) and an brush or applicator to get the polish out.

The short version of how to do it: Use a brush to loosed the eyeshadow into your mixing dish, then add clear nail polish drop by drop. Swirl it around, and test the opacity and thickness as you go. When you’re satisfied, start painting your nails! There’s more in-depth tutorials here and here.

Since the finish on these eyeshadows was metallic, the resulting polish was also metallic. The metallic shine on the eyeshadow does go all the way through, it is not just a dusting on the surface. I hate that! Due to the metallic finish, the polish was a bit brush-strokey, but not too awful. I found the paler colors lacked a bit of oomph, but  this palette yielded some pretty nail polish shades.

This is two coats of each shade with a coat of Seche Vite. You will need a topcoat with these, since it lacks shine on its own. If you like a satin finish, you could leave them as-is, but they don’t wear as well. I did a pedicure with the warm gold polish- we’ll see how the polish performs and I’ll report back.  I will spare all my lovely readers the view of my toes. 😉 Usually these eyeshadow frankens wear pretty solidly on me, at least as well as regular polish.

The subliminal power of David Bowie also made me buy two more of these palettes in different rainbow shades, which I will show in the next few posts. Thank goodness LA Girl isn’t too expensive, or he’d be really dangerous to my wallet. In Singapore, where cosmetics prices seem double or triple the US price, these cost me around $12USD each. Scandalous, I know, but it seems like a deal when a single MAC eyeshadow is around $25-30US.