Polish All the Nails

Let me set the scene.  Imagine it's two years ago.  I was just starting this blog and had become obsessed with indie polishes because I liked the glitter.  Then, on the horizon, comes a magic collection of "flakie" polishes.  Why would you care about flakie polishes?  Well, they were these plain looking bottles of weird shaped glitter that just happened to explode with amazingness when you put them over a black polish.  Unfortunately they were only sold at Sally Beauty store and I missed out on all but two of them.  Given they were sold on ebay for up to $70, I never got to complete the collection.  I very nearly actually died when I found out that Finger Paints were doing another collection of flakies, the Kaleidescope Collection.  So much so that I made my friend Kirsten drive me to a Sally's in Etobioke when I live downtown.  Let's take a look at the full collection, now, shall we?

One of the first polish brands I became obsessed with was Nfu-Oh.  They had the most fabulous holo and flakie polishes in unique bottles and the only place to get them from was a questionable site.  I eventually couldn't stand it any longer and had to order 61 and 51, the holo and flakie, respectively.  I've had both of them proceed to sit in my drawer for 18 months because I could never do them justice.  Every time my base colour would be wrong, or not smooth enough and it would be unsatisfactory.  Finally, finally, finally I found a way to make the multichrome flakie 51 match the brilliance in the bottle, and all is right in the world.  Let's take a look at one of the most breathtaking single polishes I own, shall we?

Look everyone!  Polishes you probably can't get because you live in North America (statistically) whereas they're only available in Australia!  Woo!  Or, to put a more positive spin on things, let me show you some of the spoils of my recent trip to Australia!        As you may know, I just got back from two weeks visiting my family and friends and I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't show you some of the local polishes.  I have a few to go through but I'm going to start with the clear stand-out: Australis Speck-tacular, a rainbow flakie polish!   It's quite appropriate that is is an Australian polish as it's the closest I've seen a flakie come to opals, one of the main gemstones from Australia.  Much like my only missing polish from the Finger Paints Special Effects collection (can't remember the name), Speck-tacular is packed full of rainbow flakes.  I love the flakies that have all the colours, just makes it so...

I blog a lot.  Like, a LOT.  It happens that I actually do my nails twice a night: once, something experimental, like fancy nails or giraffes and then again with something a little more work-friendly.  I like to try indie polishes for the most part, as they tend to be interesting to look at and give me something different.  Last night, however, there were just....issues.  Let's take a look at Fever Lacquer Dirty Dancing in the Moonlight. I was really interested in this polish cos look at it, it's a flakie for crying out loud!  It also seemed to avoid the whole red-orange-green spectrum too which I was excited about, I have those covered.  I have to say though, my first impression of this polish was a bit off: it came wrapped in two diapers.  I want nothing to do with children so this put me off right from the start.  It also ate the label, to the point where I can't really read it.  Then, when I decided to try it, it was just really...

Oh Flakies, why can't I resist you?  I was doing so well, managed to go a week without buying any polish and what do you do?  You show up in my Trade Secrets in your Zoya set and whisper in my ear that I've been good, there are only three of us, it'll be fiiiiiiiine.  Just pick me up, pay for me and all will be well.  DAMN YOU AND YOUR SIREN SONG! Anyway, let's take a look at the three new flakie polishes from the Zoya Fleck Effect Collection - the red flakie Chloe, the blue Maisie and the green Opal. Formula and application was pretty standard for these kinds of polishes, each you see here is two coats.  These flakies are nice but the only real standout in this collection is Chloe. Maisie and Opal are almost exactly the same, to the point where I can't really remember which is which in the pictures below.  Chloe, however, is different even to the Finger Paints flakies, being mostly red with a little green and blue mixed in.  All these pictures ar...

The other day I had quite a lot of fun reviewing five different flakie polishes from Ludurana .  While fun, I felt there could just be MORE.  The polishes tend on the sparse side and it just was too subtle for me.  Why not, then, COMBINE ALLLLLLLLLLL THE FLAKIES!! What you'll see below is quite the stack of polishes.  First up, two coats of my favourite black, Rimmel Black Satin.  I think I might do a review soon of my favourite blacks, whites, reds and top coats, might be interesting.  Anyway, to start off I added one coat of Essie Shine of the Times .  Next, a coat of Finger Paints Flecked , the blue-green flakie.  Next, I added two caots of the yellow-blue Ludurana Chuva.  I wasn't totally happy so I added coats of Sol and Vento! And here you have it, quite possibly my busiest nails ever! You're going to want to see the close ups on this.

OMG guys, I finally got a hold of one of the Finger Paints Special Effects!  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Ahem, excuse the excitement but I don't cope especially well when I want something and it's magically sold out and you can't buy it anywhere, as is the case with Special Effects collection from Finger Paints.  It's an embarrassingly long time to the one and only Sally Beauty store in Toronto and I made it three times to see if they had these, to be told the first two times that they'll totes be getting them in and then the last that one person bought two cases and they're sold out.  You can't even buy these online, save for a ridiculous ebay auction.  My wonderful friend Other Laura (as I'm Laura) managed to find me a bottle while in the States and omg is this pretty.  Flecked is a flake glitter top coat, with pieces shifting from blue to green.  I have a couple of other other flakies like Shine of the Times  but was always a littl...

I was in my local beauty supply place today and FINALLY FOUND SHINE OF THE TIMES.  I couldn't believe it, it's so pretty in the flesh.  I've had a couple of non-top coat flakies lately like Joe Fresh Twilight and Kleancolor Chunky Black Holo and they all flash orange and green - not my favourite.  This one, however, is all copper and pink and gold and awesomeness, so glad I finally found it.  Below you'll see it layered over China Glaze Electric Beat.  I've seen a lot of this over black but I love it over the blue.  Reminds me of the rainbows you see in a lawn sprinkler in the summertime. On top of that, I got a new camera!  A Canon T3i and while I don't have a macro lens yet the picture quality is amazing.  Please bear with me while I get used to using it :)

As a part of my trip to Buffalo I finally found a Sephora with a (212) - Sephora in stock!  I'm so glad I picked it up as I haven't seen anything like this one before.  Dark olive green, copper flakes and holo glitter sound like a lot but it looks great on.  Dark with a gleam of copper, so good.  Application was good as well, full coverage in two coats but I preferred to add a third just to cover off any bald spots.  Very unique, I like!