Rebooting a Glitter

I have to admit, I don't seem to have a ton of luck with those crelly/glitter combos.

Either I can't get translucency, or I get too much or I seem to be unable to apply the glitter in the right way.

I'd gotten Smitten Hydrangea off a blog sale and it was a very pretty subdued blue with some glitter in it.  But.

Everyone I know has a big "but". Come on Simone, tell me about your big "but" 

- Peewee Herman

It's a bit too sheer and a bit too hard to get much glitter.

I really just decided to take control of the situation.

Smitten Hydrangea over Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau and Milani Blue Flash

Yeah, there you have it. I gave in, added some CC creme base and then the glitter then topped it all with Smitten Hydrangea.

One coat of Milani Blue Flash didn't have too strong of a blue jelly base, so it blended in well.

Here's a photo of it all without the Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau:

More blue, since CC TMTYC is very pale, one coat Milani Blue Flash and two of Smitten Hydrangea.

I believe a bright blue like a bright periwinkle or a pretty violet blue would be a great base as well for Smitten Hydrangea.

Trying to work out these glitter/crelly polishes is a fun challenge because while there are frustrations, there are wins.
(there is a part of me that wants to decant some of this polish and toss in a bit of Milani Blue Flash, it's definitely an improver)

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

White Clouds in a Blue Sky

Here are two glitters that needed an outing.

Glitzology Partly Cloudy

A mix of blue and white glitter in a variety of sizes and shapes: white hex (2 sizes), square, and bar, then blue in small square and some lighter blue round as well as a pearly light blue square. Added all into a shimmering luster suspension base.

I got this directly through Glitzology on Etsy as a good will gesture when a polish I did buy didn't look anything like the one in the photo. Meanwhile, this is a freaking win. WIN I tell you!!!

It is dense, full of great shapes and that lovely shimmer base just sings with this glitter combo. It is two coats here over Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau. I wanted to utilize a base color that would show up the white glitters a lot, they are absolutely gorgeous.

Rave, rave, rave for this polish. Sadly Glitzology has closed her Easy shop. Sad because even though that one polish was a miss, this one is such a spicy little number. 

Reminds me of dancing water on the surface of a swimming pool. Dive in.

Different Dimensions Never Grow Up

If my enthusiasm for this one is less than out there, it is because this one is a bear of a polish. This is four coats. Four. Not only did I have to fish for glitter, nothing seemed to settle and level out.

Here you can see the lumpiness, and I have to say this photo mitigated it. My index (most distant) finger, looks like I've buried a small aardvark under my nail polish.

The white base was a bit too dense to enable the glitters to shine though and it seems like it doesn't capitalize on these great glitters.

My thought was to sponge apply the glitter. I'd heard that this was a good method and have tried it a number of times with mixed results.

You could say that my results were mixed:

Now this was a hot mess. While I did get more glitter onto the nail, it seems like I had little control and the mess was really bad around my nails.

I used acetone for clean up and it wreaked havoc on my cuticles. I still wasn't feeling the win on this one. Really frustrating.

Honestly what a mess. I even got glitter on my knuckle! Good grief!

So looking at photos online, it appears to normally have more of a translucent base. And, even worse for me, people make it looks like a great polish. I make it look like a bad franken!

I have mixed feelings. I love these kind of glitters, but I am not feeling the win. Might just thin and retry. We'll see.


Third, bonus....

Smitten Polish Winter Is Coming

I just had to reblog this beauty. No muss, no fuss. I love this baby. Three coats and all that blue glitter.

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Raining on a Snow Storm

Tonight a "pacific northwest prairie" storm rolls through. Lightening and thunder are dancing all around my neighborhood.

The rain scent lingers for hours in the air, long before the wind rushes the thunder storm into place like actors before a curtain rise.
Then the release of heavy rain into the soft dry fields of harvested wheat, lentils, garbanzos and other things that love the high and the dry that is summer in this part of the country.

Reminds me that summer is beginning to pick up its things and get ready to leave.

I tried on Smitten Polish Winter is Coming because I love white polishes with glitter mixed into them.

I love the bright sky blue glitter, feels like you are on a mountain top! The micro sized blue glitter sprinkled throughout also adds to the depth.

This is four coats. I could have probably done a two coater over a white, but I felt like four was the perfect number. I also think three would do you, too.

Dried pretty well, for a white, and wore extremely nicely as well.

The following day I popped on China Glaze Rain Storm

Two coats of Rain Storm.

It is, alone, a much maligned sheer polish with a tiny blue glitter. It really is quite a nice layering polish!
I wore it alone and it looked like a hard candy shell, which wasn't bad but it took a solid five coats to do much of anything of any interest.
New life as a layering polish, though!

Here are the bottles:

The flash brings out the blue glitter in ChG Rain Storm.

Now, as I finish writing this, the rain is gone, moving north as it does it will eventually run up against the Bitterroots and, not an equal match to those hearty mountains, become a toothless little rain shower.

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!