Playing with Pigments

Today, I have some really cool pigments to show you!
Pigments are fun to experiment with. There are so many colors and finishes available…the possibilities are wide open! My friend Gabrielle, who runs The Edge of Sanity sent me some pigment samples from Coastal Scents to franken with.

Look at all the pretty colors! It was difficult to chose which to start out with, but that silver holographic was calling my name. Just look at it!

For the polish base, I’m going to use clear (Revlon Colorstay Clear Sealant).

I transferred the clear polish into an empty bottle, filling it 3/4 full, leaving room for the pigment to mix easily. Using the handy paper funnel trick, I added about 1 tablespoon of the pigment into the clear. After adding in a couple ballz and shaking, here is the result:

WOW! I never tire of holo goodness! I own many beautiful and blingy holo polishes, and this one will fit in nicely with the “family”!


Different lighting to show off the sparkle:

This spectacular beauty is definitely a keeper! While it is similar to Color Club’s Magic Attraction polish, it is lighter and the holo glitter is not as coarse.
I look forward to experimenting with the other pretty pigments Gabrielle sent me, so stayed tuned!

Uglies? I Think Not!

Recently, I received some “less-than-desirable” polishes from my friend Michelle at A Stroke of Color.  She was confident that I would be able to doctor these into something a little more appealing.  Mission accepted!

Now, these are both Sally Hansen polishes & I’ve peeled the labels off (of course!).  We will start with the darker, metallic rose colored polish. It isn’t too horrible…but can certainly be improved! Since it is a full bottle, I am going to split it in half and make two different frankens from it.

Now that the polish is divided, I’ve chosen some colors to add in: Wet N Wild Black Creme, Essie Who’s She Red, and Revlon Colorstay clear.

I added 1/4 of Essie Who’s She Red, and 1/4 clear into one of the bottles. The Essie is a very opaque red creme, so adding some clear polish gives the mixture a bit of a shiny “jelly” finish. And by using a creme polish, I’ve toned down the metallic properties in the original polish. After adding in a couple ballz and shaking, we now have a lovely dark pink shimmer!


I’m very pleased with how this turned out! The color is very versatile, and would look great on a variety of skin tones.
Now let’s not forget the second bottle we set aside! For this one, we’ll keep it simple and just add in 1/2 Wet N Wild Black creme. I love using black to franken with because it is a simple way to completely change the appearance of a polish. Remember our metallic rose we started with? Well, take a look at it now:


This vampy purple has a beautiful deep shimmer that almost glows! It reminds me a lot of OPI’s now discontinued Black Tie Optional.


Thanks, Michelle, for sending me these polishes to work with!

Green Glitter Makes Everything Better!

Hello Franken-friends!

I was shopping at Wal-Mart a few days ago, and came across a craft glitter set that was on clearance.  It was Marsha Stewart brand, and looked like it was left over from Christmas. I usually prefer cosmetic glitter when frankening, but decided to try this since most of the bottles in the set were very fine grit. And, well, just look at the gorgeous green on the far right!

For the base, I decided on clear (NYC brand clear) with a few drops of Sally Hansen Emerald City for a subtle tint.  I filled the bottle up 3/4 full, leaving room for my glitter.

Using the paper funnel method, I added my glitter. I wanted to make this particular polish extra sparkly, so I used a lot of glitter (approx. 1 tablespoon).  After adding my ballz and shaking, I let the polish sit for about an hour while I busied myself with other things.  I was slightly disappointed when I returned to the polish and found the glitter had settled at the bottom.    Usually when this happens, I consider the polish a FAIL, and move on to the next.  But I was so mesmerized by the color, I refused to accept that this polish was not worth keeping. I gently shook the bottle again, making sure it was mixed well, then swatched it on a nail wheel.

Talk about WOW! I didn’t even wait for the swatch to dry before I was quickly doing a full mani.  I could not stop staring at my nails!  As much as I hate having to shake polishes before I use them, I’m willing to make exceptions! This is DEFINITELY a keeper, as you can see by the many photos I took!




I will have to try out the other glitter that came in the set soon…hopefully they will be just as stunning!

Hidden Beauties

Hello, my fellow frankeners!

If you’ve ever been to a  dollar store, chances are you’ve seen the somewhat scary display of nail polish. While some real gems pop up every so often, most of the polish consists of old watery, blah colors.  But as we all know, appearances can be deceiving.  The dollar store is a frankeners’ goldmine!  It doesn’t take much to transform those yucky polishes into dazzling pretties!

Today, I’ll be using one of the L’Oreal Bijou polish as an example.  These have been popping up at dollar stores in 3-packs, and you can’t beat that price!  While some of the colors are magnificent on their own, the “Facet” line of polishes tend to be extremely sheer (the blue and purple in the photo). But they have great potential!

We’ll use the blue polish, called “B.Adorable” in this example. Let’s start by emptying out about half the polish. I keep several extra empty bottles handy for this purpose. You can set the extra aside to experiment with later. Your polish should look like this:

Now we need a darker color to mix in, to give the polish some pizzazz! And the aptly named “Purple Pizzazz Frost” by NYC is an excellent choice. Of course you can use any medium to dark purple to achieve the same effect.

Slowly pour the dark purple into the half full Bijou bottle. Since the Bijou bottles are tiny, you shouldn’t need very much. Be careful not to overfill the bottle. Your polish line should be even with the very bottom of the bottle neck like this:

Add an extra ball in. Most of the Bijou polishes already have one ball in the bottle, but adding another will aid in mixing faster. Shake, shake, and shake some more until the polish is uniform in color. You should now have a lovely medium purple shade with subtle blue stringy glitter!

I love the way this also has a blue flash to it!

As you can see, simply adding a bit of a darker color really gives new life to these sheer Bijous!

Frankenpolish 101: A Crash Course In The Art Of “Frankening”

First, I’d like thank everyone who has stopped by to check out my blog! And an ever bigger thanks to all the lovely ladies that have linked to me.  There’s a list under my links section to many other wonderful nail blogs that are definitely worth checking out!

Today, I bring you “Frankenpolish 101″.  Before I break down the simple steps of the frankening process, I’d like to point out a few things.

Creating your own polish can be fun and addicting, but it can also be  frustrating (not to mention, messy).  Don’t get discouraged if your first polish doesn’t turn out well. Frankening is all about experimenting!  I’ve created my fair share of hideous, blindingly ugly polishes that would make anyone shudder in disgust.  It’s a learning process, and even the most experienced frankeners have the occasional failure!  So let’s start with the basics you need to know…

Franken Supplies

A frankeners’ best friend is BALLZ! Yes, you read that correctly. Ballz help your polish creation mix together, and also save you from endless hours of shaking the bottle until you’re dizzy!  Ballz are often called ball bearings, or BB’s. There are many places you can buy ballz, most commonly they are found in the sporting goods/hunting section at stores like Wal-Mart.  I use Daisy Brand (purchased at Wal-Mart) zinc plated steel BB’s, 4.5 mm size. They do come in smaller size containers, and only cost a few dollars.

Another inexpensive frankening tool worth purchasing is a small art plate.  You can mix together a tiny amount of your combination in the plate to see how it will look.  It’s an excellent way to play around with different color combinations and saves you the aggravation of mixing together an entire bottle only to discover it isn’t what you wanted.  Paper plates can also be used for this, but I prefer the paint tray because it is reusable and less wasteful.  Again, you can find these at chain stores like Wal-Mart or craft stores for around $1.00 or less.  It is easily cleaned off using polish remover/acetone and a cotton ball, or my personal favorite, plain old felt!

You’ll also need something to mix your “test polish” with.  Toothpicks are a good choice, as well as cuticle sticks. Cuticle sticks, or sometimes called orange sticks, come in both wooden and plastic varieties.  They are also very cheap to purchase and can be found at beauty supply stores or drugstores.  I like using the wooden cuticle sticks because they are bigger than toothpicks, which make mixing easier, and I can clean them with acetone and get several uses out of one.

Once you have a color that pleases you, you’ll need a bottle to put it in!  Empty polish bottles come in a variety of sizes, and can be bought at beauty suppliers.  You can also clean out old polish bottles with acetone to re-use in your frankening adventures.  Empty treatment bottles (such as Nailtek) are also wonderful to use once cleaned.  The larger sized bottles will use up more of your supplies, so you may want to start off using smaller bottles.  Dollar Stores are a great source for buying polishes to franken with.  Those unappealing sheers take on a new life once a darker color is added!  Cheaper brands such as NYC, Wet N Wild, and others found in drugstores are awesome for making frankens, and cost very little.  On a side note, I like bottles that have peel off labels.  It helps distinguish between my “real” polishes and the frankens.

Mixing together different polish colors is a great way to exercise your creativity!  You can also use cosmetic pigments (such as eyeshadow pigments) and glitter to jazz up your frankenpolish.  If you’re using glitter, cosmetic grade glitter works very well.  I would avoid using craft glitter, unless it’s fine grade, because it tends to be too big and doesn’t mix well.  Glitter and pigments are best mixed with a clear or sheer polish.  If you are going for a darker color, like black, make sure you add a good amount of clear to it first.  This will help your glitter stand out better in the polish, and also avoid settling to the bottom of the bottle.  Using glitter and pigments can be tricky, since some brands or types just refuse to play nice with any type of polish.  Again, experiment with several kinds and see what works for you!

A quick little trick that will make adding pigments and glitter much easier (and less messy) is to make a small funnel out of paper.  Simple roll up a small square of paper (approx. 3 x 3 inches works well) into a funnel shape and tape together.  Make sure the hole at the end is slightly smaller than the opening to the polish bottle, but not too tiny. Voila!

Alright! You’re ready to franken!  Here is a step by step example to help you get started:

*For this example, I am using Wet N Wild Sapphire polish, frankened with Fantasy Makers silver cosmetic glitter*

Step 1

Place a couple drops of polish into your art tray.

Step 2

Shake in a bit of glitter.  Remember, start small! You can always add more in as you go along.

Step 3

Use an orange stick or toothpick to mix the glitter and polish together.

Step 4

Swatch the mixed polish on a piece of plain paper. If you are satisfied with the appearance of your franken mixture, go to the next step, otherwise repeat steps 2 and 3 until you get the desired effect.

Step 5

Taking your base color bottle (WnW Sapphire in this example), set aside the cap/brush and place your funnel into the top of the bottle.

Step 6

Slowly add glitter or pigment into the bottle. Same rule applies here…add a little at a time!

Step 7

Add your ballz! Two or three should be sufficient.

Step 8

Shake, shake, shake! Swatch the polish on paper, the same way you did with the test batch.  Add more glitter if needed and shake some more.

Step 9

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of your very own frankenpolish! Be proud of yourself, and enjoy your new pretty!

Hopefully this tutorial was helpful!  Please feel free to contact me with questions, suggestions, or requests!