Show Me Your Nails 2.0

[Tamara76]

Due to some technical glitches with the original Show Me Your Nails Thread, I am starting a new thread with @vegchililover78's blessing (She says "hello," by the way!).

Please share your nail looks, nail art and manicures!

...And don't forget to check out @Beadshopgirl's Nail Stamping Thread for stamping inspiration! ❤️  

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Nailed-It/The-Nail-Stamping-Thread/m-p/3328865

[RGbrown]

@Saradestin 

I've seen several mentions of some polishes not looking as vibrant IRL as they do in the swatch shots on the site, so if you do decide to purchase, definitely spend a little time looking up customer shots of the ones you are considering.

I've got a few Live Love Polishes (before they changed names), and the formula is perfectly fine on the ones I have, they make lovely stuff. The brushes were awful back then, but they've swapped over to paddle brushes now, so they should be much better. Aside from grousing about some of the swatch shots, I've seen tons of rave reviews for the brand, as there are several addicts over on Reddit lol. @WinglessOne has a few too, both LLP and Mooncat, that I seem to recall she likes.

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown @Saradestin  Yeah, I suspect Mooncat boosts vibrance and saturation during digital photo editing. They're certainly not the only beauty brand to do that, but it's kinda frustrating when it comes to nail polish. I also assume their polishes are applied over a white or black base color to amp up pigmentation in their photos. Always a good idea to look for other people's photos, especially natural daylight photos. 

I do have a few polishes from Mooncat and several from their previous Live Love Polish brand. I was so happy to see the brush update, I almost repurchased all my old LLPs (well, the ones available with the rebrand) just to get a wide paddle brush and a cap I can actually hold and maneuver well. 🤣 LLP's brush + cap = 100% terrible. Nearly any other brush would be an improvement, so Mooncat's brush is a huge upgrade. 

My favorite LLP shade that's available from Mooncat is Vaporize. My 2 favorite Mooncats are Mercury's Tears and Rue Morgue. But really, each shade I own is a good performer—though Ultrahot needs more building up than the others (or a black or white base color). I might order a couple other polishes from the current sale. In fact, maybe I'll finally grab Access Denied. Might as well add Millennia too. 

Can't wait to see what you pick up! 

[Saradestin]

Thank you for your always valuable feedback @WinglessOne. It is always great to know from someone who actually has some polishes from the brand. I a, glad to hear that you are overall happy with them, because I placed my order the minute the sale started just in case the shades I wanted run OOS 😅. I got Supervillain, Raven, Smokescreen and If Frogs Had Wings. And as I got a magnetic polish, they include the magnet for free! I know I had to skip buying one and keep using my “chapuza” tool 🤪 Your favorite Mooncat polishes look gorgeous! 

[WinglessOne]

@Saradestin  Hooray for free magnets! I was hoping you'd order a magnetic polish. 🙂 I'm very interested to see how Smokescreen looks, aside from Mooncat's photos. And hey, I ordered Raven too! (Because of course I placed an order. And went overboard.) You ordered a good variety of formulas/finishes. Hope you enjoy them! 

[Saradestin]

Yay! You placed your order as well @WinglessOne ! 😃🎉 I will be posting the manis with my new polishes once I get them. I am very curious about Smokescreen so it will probably be the first one, maybe even mixed with another polish if I feel they look beautiful together. Looking forward to see the ones you picked in action and with your always trustworthy thoughts.

[Saradestin]

Thank you so much for the info @RGbrown ! Yes, I read a lot regarding the swatches and people’s complaints that they were not looking like the real polish. In fact, I didn’t need to read the comments to suspect that the pictures were retouched; they were looking too vibrant. I have looked for swatches elsewhere of the ones I picked and they look beautiful, so let’s see how they look on my own nails! I am sure that I will like them more than the pictures I have seen, for some reason I always do. 😁

[WinglessOne]

Here’s what I’ve worn since Oct. 30. After much frustration and foul language, I ditched my original Halloween mani idea(s) involving Whats Up Eyegazer. That magnetic topper fought and defeated me, and I’m still too annoyed about it to explain what happened. 🤦‍♀️ (I should’ve photographed that whole ordeal.) Admitting defeat, I was too drained and irritated to hand draw/paint any designs on my nails at that point, let alone stamp anything. So I decided to slap on a simple morphing green and purple look and call it done. 

Bottom left: see that little divot in my middle nail? I dented the polish before the top coat fully dried; that photo was taken a day or 2 after the other 3, which were taken right after application.

Thumb & middle: LynBDesigns I Only Gamble With My Life (1.5 coats) sandwiched between Cirque Colors Kelly Jelly. IOGWML is a gold/copper flaked thermal that’s bronze when cold and gold amber when warm. Kelly Jelly is—wait for it—a plain kelly green jelly. The thermal shift is kinda subtle beneath this jelly, but it’s noticeable in person. Eh, it might’ve been more noticeable if I’d skipped the green base coats. 

Index & ring: Cadillacquer Eivor (3 coats). Still the most reactive thermal in my collection, and I figured it’d cheer me up. It’s jade green when warm and deep berry when cold, shifting to dark navy in its coldest state. Lots of copper, gold, pink, and red flakes, too. It was good at 2 coats but I decided to deepen the color with a 3rd. The temperature-activated shifts of this polish are crazy and I love it. 

Pinky: Orly Clover and Over (2 coats) topped with 1 coat of Cirque Colors Kelly Jelly. I wanted to give Kelly Jelly some metallic luminescence. I accidentally got some air bubbles on both nails (far more on one pinky than the other) and liked the way they look within a Halloween context. 🤷‍♀️ On Nov. 1st, I considered painting a sugar skull on both pinkies and/or thumbs, and now I kinda wish I'd done that. 

The 3 polishes I used for layering: 

I Only Gamble is in its mostly cold state here. It shifts deeper bronze when colder.

[CookieGirl1]

What a bummer about your "failed" polish, @WinglessOne!  That's depressing.

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  Yeah, it was not a fun experience. But at least now I'm willing to thin the heck out of the whole Eyegazer bottle, vs. testing a small puddle of it + thinner first. I haven't touched that bottle since October 30. Hopefully I can get it to perform better. 

[CynthieLu]

That sounds like a unfortunate nail saga you went through @WinglessOne 

These do look lovely 😍  

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @CynthieLu ! 

[Shosh85]

@WinglessOne  Sorry this didn't go as planned, but they turned out beautiful! Thermal and magnetic polishes are on my list to try soon! 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Shosh85 ! Thermals are lots of fun, even if they're potentially short-lived: the average lifespan is 6-12 months (afterward they lose their color-changing ability), and they have to be stored away from sunlight and heat. So when buying a thermal, make sure you love each of its thermal shift states because someday it'll be stuck in one of those states forever. 

EDIT: d'oh, I meant 6-12 months. You should get at least half a year of color shifting fun out of a thermal, possibly a full year, and heck, maybe longer than that depending on how/where you store the bottle. 

If you get one and/or a magnetic polish, I'll be interested to see how you like 'em! 

[Shosh85]

@WinglessOne  Thanks for the info on thermals! I had no idea! Knowing that will keep from going crazy and buying a bunch 😉

[WinglessOne]

@Shosh85  Ha, I said that too. At first. 🤣 

Also, I just edited my post with 6-12 month lifespan info, not just 6 months. Still short lived, but some polishes might keep color-shifting somewhat after a year. 

[Titian06]

I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience,  @WinglessOne ! 😔  However, the resulting mani is lovely.  You can't go wrong with purple and green! 💜💚💜💚

[WinglessOne]

Thanks so much, @Titian06 @Saradestin @RGbrown @itsfi ! Someone asked why I was so aggravated over that dang Eyegazer and look man, you just don't understand... I had a creative vision, dang it! 🤣 But Eivor definitely made me happy again. 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Ugh, yuck, so sorry that Eyegazer was such a massive pain, but your resulting mani is fabulous! 😍 Eivor is gorgeous, I love all of your layering combos, and purple and green is such an excellent combo 💚💜✨

[Saradestin]

I am sorry you had such a disappointing experience with Eyegazer @WinglessOne . But the many you ended up with looks very beautiful. I love Eivor so much. And I have liked Clover and Over since the first time I saw it. Gorgeous mani! 

[itsfi]

@WinglessOne,  ack, sorry to hear about your Halloween mani plans not going the way you wanted them to. It lead to these greens and purples and they are gorgeous!! 😍 I love the sandwich you made with I Only Gamble With My Life and Kelly Jelly. I actually like the look of them paired together more than as separate polish shades, though they are pretty worn that way as well. 

[RGbrown]

It is time to start getting your Black Friday lists ready! 🛍️🛒🏷️

PPU has put up their annual indie sales page; there's not a lot on it yet, but it'll get much bigger as we move through November!

polishpickup dot com/pages/indie-black-friday-sales