City Under the Sea

Today’s franken is a recreation of a polish that went to live in the U.K. with my friend Vikki. I decided to mix up another one, since she liked the color so much.

The polishes I used to make this one are: Wet ‘N Wild Black Creme, Wet ‘N Wild Psycho glitter, and NYC Skin Tight Denim.

I filled an empty bottle half full with WnW Psycho, the added 1/4 each of Skin Tight Denim and black. I added ballz, shook the mixture well, and was rewarded with this beauty:

This one was tricky to photograph, so I took a couple shots in different lighting.

The multi colored glitter really stands out against the deep blue base like tiny underwater twinkling lights. Your own personal “City Under the Sea”…right at your fingertips!

Lime Sherbet

You know you’re a true nail polish junkie when you find inspiration for polish colors at the supermarket!

On this particular grocery trip, it was lemon lime sherbet that caught my eye. Delicious, and what a pretty color, too. I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to franken this shade, so I got to work. I had an extra bottle of Pure Ice Electric, a vibrant lime green creme, just begging to be used. Pairing it with a white creme such as NYC French Tip White will soften the green and give it a more pastel hue.

I mixed 1/4 Pure Ice Electric into 3/4 of the white creme (NYC French Tip White).

It almost looks good enough to eat, and reminds me of a hot summer day!

Now if only all this icky snow would go away!

Myspace!

Yes…I am officially on Myspace now!

I need some friends!

Click here to view my Myspace page!

The Matte Family Has Expanded!

Once I began frankening these matte polishes, I couldn’t stop!

Today I have a few more members of our “matte family”. I think these will be the final bunch…for now.

As with the rest of the “family”, these were all made with Nailtek Foundation II as a base, and pigment for the colors.

First up, a raspberry pink. This one is a little more vibrant than the previous set of mattes I posted, but hey, a little variety is good! Especially when it looks like this:

And our family wouldn’t be complete without a purple. When I originally decided to do a purple, I was aiming for a dusty grey shade. I fell in love with this cheery grape and didn’t have the heart to tone it down.

Every family has a problem child, and the last polish is it. It seemed like a good idea to include a yellow in the matte collection, but it proved to be a challenge. After a lot of experimenting, I ended up with a weird golden olive color. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not, but after swatching it, it’s grown on me. I used black, yellow and gold pigments. The gold shimmer is prominent even though this polish has a flat finish…giving it an “antique” look. Definitely not a color for everyone…but I thought I’d include it since it was different!

I had a lot of fun making these matte polishes…I hope you enjoyed them! <3

More Matte!

What, you thought I’d stop with just one?
Armed with a plethora of new pigment samples from wonderful ladies, I set out to come up with some colorful friends for “Cauldron”. I’ve been busy swatching, and today I have the first three to show you!

All of these frankens are made with Nailtek Foundation II as a base.

Grey is a hot color right now…so what’s hotter than a matte grey? This was simple to make. I mixed together 2/3 back polish with 1/3 white to get the shade of grey I was aiming for, then added it to my Nailtek. If a lighter, dove grey is what you want, add more white and less black.

This strange green is reminiscent of Misa’s Dirty Sexy Money, but darker. It’s definitely an odd shade, but I like it! I made this with a teal pigment sample (TY, Miriel!) and a few drops each of plain black and white polishes (for the greyish cast & to give the mixture some opacity).

This interesting blue was just an easy mix of a little pigment (from the brilliant Elma, who came up with the matte franken idea) & Nailtek!

That’s all for today…stay tuned for more!

Double, Double Toil and Trouble…

Fire burn and cauldron bubble!
Now, you’re probably wondering why I am quoting Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I promise, there is a reasonable explanation, and it does involve a cool new franken!
You’ve probably seen the really awesome matte nail polishes from brands like Knockout and ManGlaze. These cool polishes dry with a flat finish that give your nails a unique look. I was chatting with my friend Elma (a fellow polish lover) a few days ago, and she gave me a brilliant idea…to franken my own matte polish! She suggested I try using Nailtek Foundation II, a basecoat that dries matte. I’m well stocked with Nailtek, since it’s one of the best base coats I have ever used. In fact, I credit Nailtek’s Foundation II for really improving and strengthening my nails (I was a horrible nail-biter a few years ago…shhh, don’t tell anyone). You can purchase it at some beauty supply stores, or online at etailers like 8ty8beauty, Transdesign, or many others.

Another plus is that the empty Nailtek bottles are great to use for frankening once you rinse them out with some acetone. I had a half full bottle handy, so I decided to add some black to it.

I used Petites brand (found at WalMart and drugstores) in Night, a plain black creme. The Petites bottles are tiny, so I poured most of it into my half full Nailtek, bringing the mixture level right to the bottom of the bottle neck. I added a few ballz, shook the mixture, and silently prayed it would work!

The mixture did require a lot more shaking than a typical franken, so I added a few drops of polish thinner in as well. The Nailtek Foundation II tends to thicken a bit as the bottle depletes. Once the polish was mixed completely, I swatched the polish mix on a nail wheel, and anxiously waited for it to dry. I checked my swatch a few hours later, and was pleased to discover it was a success! Now, here’s where my Shakespeare quote fits in…

At first glance, this polish immediately made me think of a big, black cast iron cauldron! **cackles**
What’s neat about the matte polishes is that you can layer a shiny top coat over it if you don’t like the matte finish. Here is a comparison…the right nail has a coat of Sally’s Oh So Wet top coat on it:

I was so excited about my new matte polish that I decided it needed some friends! I’ll unveil the rest of the family in a few days, so check back!

Special Guest “Dr. Dee”

I have a special treat for you today!
Today’s franken comes from my lovely friend Dee from Makeupalley. She has come up with some brilliantly beautiful polishes, and she’s been kind enough to share one with us today:

Dee’s recipe for “Fashionably Late”:
I made this franken when a lovely mua-er posted a pic of Butter London Fash Pack. My franken is a slightly darker mushroom taupe creme with greyish undertones.
I started off with an empty nail polish bottle and added some Seche Vite. Seche Vite adds a really nice gloss to my franken so I can wear this nail polish with or without topcoat and still have shine.
Next, I added OPI Desire(sheer white) and Sinful Black on Black to the bottle. This made a lovely dark grey color. If a really nice grey is what you want than I suggest you stop here but if you want that lovely taupe that’s really hot right now keep going!
Elizabeth Arden Christopher St. Cappuccino(lovely chocolate brown creme) and OPI Bare it in Trafalgar Square are added to the mix and what you get is my frankenpolish Fashionably Late.
If you don’t have the colors I mentioned than improvise! As long as you have white, nude, brown, and black cremes this nail polish could be your next frankenpolish.

Here are the polishes Dee used:

And here’s the amazing result:

Thank you so much, Dee, for sharing your pretty franken!

I thought this was cool…

A few other lovely bloggers awarded me with this:

I thought it was very sweet! My blog is only a few weeks old, so I feel honored that people seem genuinely interested in it. Thanks, ladies!

Here are the rules for the recipients:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Here are some of my favorite beauty blogs, in no particular order:
-The Nailphile
-A Stroke of Color
-The Edge of Sanity
-Getcha Nails Did
-Neglelakkmani
-Scrangie
-Polish Pixie
-Nixxy’s Nails
-Misa Polish Blog
-Casual Lavish
-Alexlyndra
-Betty Brown’s Beautification and Banter
-The Polish Addict

And finally…a non-beauty blog that is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever read. I have to throw this in as an honorable mention…because it is awesome:
-Cakewrecks

Playing with Pigments- Part 3

I’ve been having so much fun with these pigment samples!
I decided to try one of the more unique colors, “Paradise Shimmer Tan Mica”. Despite the name, it is actually more of a rich, shimmery bronze than tan. It looks dazzling in the sample bag!

Clear is a good choice to use with this pigment. Since the pigment color is gorgeous on its own, we don’t want to distract from that. I’m going to use 2/3 full bottle of NYC Clear. NYC is one of my favorite brands to use in frankening because it is so cheap (less than 99 cents each), but the quality of their polishes is good.

Using a paper funnel, I began adding the pigment in. I was originally going to add the entire bag (approx. 1 teaspoon) but only used half. I added ballz and shook the mixture, and was surprised how such a small amount of pigment really saturated the clear!

I’ll be honest, I’m not usually fond of gold or bronze polishes. In fact, most I’ve tried have looked terrible on me! But there was something about this particular polish that appealed to me. It reminded me ofa darker Zoya Richelle, which is a bronze-y gold that I love.

Thank you again, Gabrielle, for sending me these to try out! The quality of the pigments was unbelievable! After experimenting with many different brands, I think I’ve found a favorite. I will be placing an order for more colors with Coastal Scents very soon. Which means more lovely frankens for you all to enjoy!

Playing with Pigments- Part 2

Back for more?
As I mentioned in my previous post, I received a ton of lovely pigment samples from a friend, and have been having a ball with them. Lately, I’ve really been liking shimmery white polishes, so I am going to try out one of the white pigments. This one, called “Inter Gold Sparkle Mica” is a pretty white with fine gold shimmer.

For the base, I’m going to use a combination of 2/3 clear (NYC Clear) and 1/3 white (NYC French Tip White Creme).

After adding ballz and shaking, I let the polish mix sit for a few minutes so I could accurately gauge how full the bottle was. You want make sure there’s enough room for the pigment.

I slowly added the entire packet of pigment (about 1 teaspoon full) into the mix using a paper funnel, then followed up with another bout of vigorous shaking! Now we have a soft white polish with a subtle golden shimmer.

It’s hard to capture the shimmer, but it really softens up the white and adds a touch of glimmer to the polish.