Emily Oh Emily!

One of my favorite boutique brands is Emily de Molly.

Here is Crystal Cavern:

Three coats. A hot pink leaning orchid loaded with a gilded shimmer. There are some small (tiny) flakes, but more like a large fleck than a flake (oh semantics!).

Under my flash the pink almost vanishes.

Here's another angle:

Here you can see the pink that really anchors it. 

This one is from around 2016 and, sadly, after a perusal of the site, is now discontinued. 

Though I will say her offerings are gorgeous and rarely let me down.

No affiliation, just a constantly happy customer.

Thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Spring Red

I am working on my untrieds in 2021 and that means a lot of indies will now get an outing.

Here is Emily de Molly's Dark Casanova:

Two coats, no top coat at this point. Great Emily de Molly formula. Super easy to work with.

This beautiful berry is loaded with a pretty blue shifting shimmer. I really had a tough time getting that on camera, but it shifts from blue to purple.

No longer available on her website, but you may rustle up one on someone's destash or blog sale.

Here's another image with perhaps a touch more shimmer:

You can see a bit of the purple on my middle finger.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Into the Woods

The thing that really got indies off the ground was the world of glitter. 

It seems to have been surpassed these days by multichromes and flakies, but there are a lot of neat ones still around and some oldies that are worth finding.

Here's a lovely oldie from Emily de Molly, Black Forest:

Two coats over black base. No top coat.

This has a fairly sheer crelly base that is fairly dense with pine green to emerald glitters. 

While it does take a little bit of work to situate the glitters, there is adequate coverage and it's so beautiful as a result: the black doesn't mar the green glitter at all, though it adds a smoky effect on the lower layer. Quite beautiful.

I think a glitter filling topcoat would have been a good bet.

I did decide to top it with a matte topcoat: old NYC matte. 

Wow. Just perfect! Glowing!

What you can't see is how as I move my fingers though the light some of the glitter almost disappears into the dark base, them pops out again in a luminous glow. Delightful!

This polish is about from 2012, so it's an early one.

Might be around on a blog sale.

I recommend it over a vamp or a black, I think the base is translucent enough to let a bright navy, maroon, or even forest green shine through. 

A little treasure.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Emily de Molly Reflection

Here is a semi-green, a blue clover green that pulled extremely blue when photographed.

Pretty as can be and two coats that were super easy to use.

A scattered flame and a readiness to show holo makes this such a win. Not a huge fireball of holo, but a beautiful shade and a respectable holo showing.

Playing with my old Lumix because it can be easier to use and does a better photo than the iPhone.

I am loving my A6000 by Sony, but the quickie jpeg file is too small and so frustrating. Perhaps it's just me and the menus. eep.

Here is some polygel info, and a photo I normally would ditch, but there is a great image of polygel "snot"

Take a look at the index finger up in the left hand corner. This is a result of the slip breaking down polygel and causing it to get on your skin. It is interesting how slip (what is basically perfumed alcohol and acetone) must be balanced: too much and you get this, too little and the brush just grabs on and causes brush marks. 

This goes away after a while, but really shows that I got a bit zealous. This was my non-dominant hand applying it and control was an issue.

Meanwhile, liking the more flattened polygel enhancements and loving the much easier grow out: less obvious and easier to fill.

Filing is also mitigated because there is less of a hump.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!!!

Solstice

Short terse winter so far. Though the winter has been abrupt, it's not been unfriendly.

Now the days will turn longer and the winter will resonate later in the day, rather than tucking itself away.

I did this mani about a month ago and wanted to post it, it's my rugged nail art attempt at capturing the mountains in late fall.

I used the Emily de Molly 07 round plate, but I did have some proportion issues. Minor by comparison to other things...

I love this one, but I wish the owl was smaller.

The gradient is an old batch (top to bottom):

Princessa Picking on Waikiki (what does that mean?)

Petite Banish

OPI Golden Eye

I used a Color Club royal purple and like the wolf and the deer and the trees.

Here's another:

The deer in this one kind of worked after I sponged a little more gold on the bottom.

I did get some residue due to my lack of skills at pulling off extra bits for isolated things. A work in progess.

Finally:

I like this one, too. More of a red purple like I used on the owl, but I can't recall the polish!

For me the gradient alone was a real win, I loved it.

Stamping, I need to work on these clustered images that need tape to pull off the extra items to isolate them.

Hope you have a wonderful Solstice!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Emily de Molly Fancy Sauce, Redux

I used Emily de Molly Fancy Sauce a few posts ago, but it wasn't the star, more of a key supporting player.

Here it is in all its glory!

I. can't. even. It is so perfectly lovely. The green/blue shifting opalescent flakies are changelings. There is a splash of holo, but it's more of an accent rather than a heavy dose, so it plays with the flakies rather than overpowers them.

I have two coats over a black.

Here you can see the holo catching the light, though washed out under my lamp, I don't think it's at its best here.


I then put it over white

Wow! With flash now you can see that the iridescence shifts into the pink violet range.

Simply gorgeous. I love translucent flakies and their shift over other shades.

Taken using just a lamp, no flash. Though washed out,  you can see the index finger on the left shows it shifting into the tangerine and almost yellow. Nice!


Still on Emily de Molly's site as of this writing.

If you like flakies, you will enjoy this one!!

Special Sauce, Please!

Emily de Molly has this amazing mylar flake and holo combo called Special Sauce.

Wow. It is indeed!

Here it is over a new favorite of the old variety, Milani Showy Sea-Green:

This is taken with my iPhone and with a flash/lamp combo. I love this quite a lot and will be bringing it out some more in the future over other base coats.

A flashy green/pink/purple mylar flakie that is in a holo base. It's a stunner.

Here is Milani Showy Sea-Green alone:

I love this so hard. It's such a great vintage green. Like a 1930's kitchen tile.

Stunningly hard to not love this one. It's what the RBL Fire Queen should have been.

Meanwhile, without gushing too much. The formula killed.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Emily de Molly Plate 06

Here's a quick bit of stamping that worked out much better than I expected!

Emily de Molly plate 06 (round plate) using Milani Orange Graph (evaporated) over SinfulColors Peppered Amazon

I didn't really didn't think the orange would hold up against a really challenging base with so much oomph.

Evaporation helped a lot, so the orange didn't dilute badly into just a muddy mess.

I've blogged Peppered Amazon here before, but wanted to share that the plates are so well made and a joy to use.

I am not sure what the status of availability is on Peppered Amazon, I know SC brings out colors then tucks them away, then brings them out again, so it's hard to say.

I love this one, so bright with that silvery shimmer in the creme base.

Edited to add: Sinful Colors Peppered Amazon was a massive stainer!!! I used two coats of a treatment and a base coat and it still stained the heck out of my nails. Yoiks!!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Emily de Molly Bellisima

Here is a sweet polish that you need to own:

Emily de Molly Bellisima

I've put it over a nude, and I think it rocks better over a pale pink, white, blue or gray pastel or ice shade.

This is a true beauty.

Pink matte glitter and silver smaller glitter packed with a large lavender shade of pink glitter, then accented with a smattering of giant glitters. I love the fact that the large glitters are round, too.

This is never going to be a full cover polish, but it's packed with impact and you just need to let it shine.

If you live in Australia, where this brand is based, it appears to be on sale. Lucky you!!

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Happy Fourth of July!

I'm Head Over Heels for Emily de Molly

I love holos, in fact, I will now admit I have at least two helmer drawers full, plus half of another. Not counting the glitter end of the spectrum.

In an attempt to blog some of these, I'm hitting them as hard as I can. Limited access to sunshine, and missed opportunities with the camera, are something I try to avoid.

Holos and sunshine are like peanut butter and jelly, they go well together!

This is Emily de Molly Head over Heels.

This is a subtle linear holo that looks very beautiful in flash, but under my lamps it also is rather nice.

Left to right:
- One coat over black
- Three coats alone
- One coat over black
- Three coats alone

Nothing but a really soft, beautiful holo lavender purple.

Formula and application were quite easy, and two coats would have worked very well, too.

It's more than just a holo, it's a shimmer with a soft orchid undertone. A complex color.

If you are a holo purist, this might be too understated. The upside is that in the shadows it doesn't look all metallic, so it plays its hand as a shimmer.

Well played.

Here it is under lower, oblique light:

Gorgeous light gathering that really plays up more over black, though not a top coat sort of polish, as in it's got enough density to fly on its own dime, it still does fine over black.

Yet another purple holo that I really love.

Thanks so much for reading my little nail polish journal!

Note: sorry for the confusion, I just published this, then updated a comma on the Essie/Orly comp and this just slipped backward! Grrr Blogger!!!

Sometimes it's a Little Too Complicated

Indies, some folks hate them, some folks go crazy over them.

I have a distant adoration for them, but not many land in my possession because of price, limited supply and a combination thereof.

Here is Emily de Molly It's Complicated:

This is after a day of hard wear, on the ring finger you can see a pair of glitters hit the highway, but for the most part it was quite a solid polish

I have mixed feelings. 

One, I love the color, the white with the muted black and purple glitter works. Second, I adore white in the summer. 

But it did take four coats to achieve coverage and it took a bit of a spell to dry. I will attribute the latter to the fact that white can be a fussy color.

I purchased this through llarowe.com and can definitely recommend that online etailer. 

Emily de Molly is a pretty hot polish maker right now, so when stuff comes in it goes out fast.

This small batches practice by makers can cause frustrations and so patience is a must.

I almost wish this had more glitter and I could just put a few coats over a white polish base. 

[edited to add bottle shot!]

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!