Nail Art is Hard, yo - On My Hands

Aussie Nails Christmas Challenge 15/12

I've been reading a lot of blogs to get ideas for mine, and I gotta tell you, there is some INCREDIBLE nail art out there. People who poo-poo the idea of nail polish as art really need to check out the people who can do rubick's cubes and all kinds of crazy shit on a teeny, shiny canvas which is also part of your hand. 

One of the groups I'm a part of on Facebook, Aussie Nails, is doing a special Christmas challenge with a new theme every two days. I got all over excited and put my hand up to join it, because I'm actually fairly good at painting - with normal paint anyway. I've even got experience doing stupidly tiny, fine designs from an amazingly overambitious project I completed recently.

I even still had all the tiny brushes hanging around. "Phsaw!" I thought to myself. "If I can do tiny tiny curls all over that painting with ENAMEL paint, then I can do a nice little Christmas tree design on my nails."
Now this might not surprise everyone, but it turns out I'm full of shit. Here is what I ended up with.

So...yeah. I'm sure you can kind of get the general idea of what I was going for - my idea was to make a gradient that looked like a snow covered Christmas Tree. But it turns out putting green over black makes it extraordinarily difficult to actually show the edge that you've so painstakingly painted, because they just end up looking the same colour. It also turns out sponging glitter over the top is MUCH harder than it looks, if you're not actually aiming for a globby mess.
The polishes I used were Loreal Colour Riche Vernis in Black Swan, Chi Chi in Show Me The Money, and Darling Diva's Bitch Panties, and they were all perfectly fine, so I can't even blame shoddy polish. The Loreal in particular is surprisingly good - the whole range is in mini sized bottles for around six dollars each, which suits me because I often don't want to commit to a full sized bottle if I don't know I'm ever going to use it again. The brush is also nice and wide, and the formula is really smooth. It also dries super shiny, and deals well with clods like me prodding at it to see if it's dry yet. 

So my first nail art attempt - not a resounding success. But hey, I gave it a bash, and I will tackle the next challenge with suitable humility, and perhaps a less ambitious idea.

Check out the other bloggers who took part!

Unrelated Writings

Just a quick update today while I work on some other projects in the background.
I've had a short article published on The Peach, an up and coming Australian site geared towards the female perspective, and if you're interested in knowing what I think about people with "weird" fetishes, head on over and take a look. It's nothing to do with beauty products of any kind, and the content is M rated, hence why it's there and not here - but, I'm still pretty proud of it. 

And if you're just here for pretty pictures, please placate yourselves with my manicure for today - Illamasqua Baptiste with Sally Hansen Prisms Ruby Sapphire and Max Factor Fantasy Fire over the top. I think playing "how many colours can I see on my nails?" will keep me entertained for the rest of the day. 

How To Do Nail Polish

There are a lot of nail and makeup blogs around that will tell you how to do things "right". The right shape to make your nails, the right colours to wear together, the right silhouette for this season - I'm not that kind of blogger. This isn't that kind of guide. This is for those of you out there who might have looked at nail polish, or girls with amazing nails, and thought, "That looks fantastic, but I couldn't do that." This guide is to tell you that yes, you absolutely can.

I always like to encourage people to try nail polish if they are wanting to experiment with femme, but they're not entirely sure about it all. You're never too fat, or too plain, or not fashionable enough for pretty nails - not that I think anyone is ACTUALLY too fat for any fashion you choose. But it can be hard to convince your inner critic of that sometimes. Not so with shiny, shiny nails - literally ANYONE can pull it off. There is such a staggering variety of colours and finishes and glitters and shimmers that there HAS to be one out there that suits anyone. So first of all, take a deep breath, and chill out. Don't worry if your nails are short, or bumpy, or your cuticles aren't neat enough, or if you have callouses. If you want to try nail polish, just do it. No-one will ever look at it as closely as you do, unless you're actually a nail blogger posting macro pictures of your manicures. I know it might feel like everyone can see that smudged spot where you pushed hair out of your eyes before the polish was totally dry - I know, because I've worn polish that's totally smudged to my eyes, and all anyone has said (if they say anything) is, "Oooh, shiny!" So fuck it, let's go.

STEP ONE 
Set reasonable expectations
Before you even start, come to terms with the fact your finished product will NOT look like The Swatchaholic's manicures. Remember my review of Cirque's polish, Fascination Street? Here is one of her swatches of the same polish.

 See how much mine suck in comparison?

But it's okay to suck in comparison. Don't let that stop you, because honestly, there are about five people anywhere who are as good as her. Just do what you can do, and you can clean it up when you're done. You shouldn't miss out on the incredible variety of shiny available in nail polish just because you're not the best of the best.

STEP TWO
Obtain nail polish
The cheapest possible way to do this is to contact a nail obsessed friend, and ask if they will lend you something. They will almost certainly be delighted to help you out, because sick obsessions love company, and nail addicts are some of the most obsessed people I've ever come across. (Keep in mind for a sense of perspective that I'm living with a Batman fan).
If you don't know anyone with nail polish lying around, you want to hit up your local chemist. There are some incredible polishes available online, but if you haven't tried it before, you want to start with something cheap and easy. (like me! Ha ha, couldn't resist) My go-to recommendations for absolute novices are the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri collection, or the Revlon Top Speed collection. Both are available in a wide range of colours at just about any chemist, and cost around ten bucks. They are both really consistent across the whole range, so you can just pick whatever colour you like and know you won't have to muck about to make it sit nice and smooth.

Here are some pictures so you can look this up on your phone and compare it to what's on the shelf.

As an optional extra, you can also pick up a base coat and top coat. Nothing is going to go horribly wrong if you don't, but if you want to wear nail polish on a regular basis, both of these will make sure you get the best out of your polish. Which of the astonishing variety of each product is the "best" is a subject of fierce and intense debate, so here are the two I use. I got them from The Nail Shop, which I want to jam in there because their customer service was just fantastic. Plenty of communication, posted really quickly, and they threw in a nail file and some teeeeny tiny diamantes as a free sample. So, you know, check them out.

INM Clear Bond base coat = $8.75

Out The Door top coat = $10. 95

I used to have a real problem with nail polish peeling off my nails in one great sheet after about half a day, which annoyed the piss out of me, and naturally didn't really encourage me to try nail polish more than about once every six months. But once I started using this base coat, it's not a problem anymore.
Out The Door is currently my quick dry top coat of choice, but I haven't actually tried any others. I read that some of the other oft-recommended brands can get gluggy halfway through the bottle, and I thought, to hell with that. This one does the job (ie allows my nails to dry in the 2.5 seconds I can refrain from fiddling with things), hasn't gotten gluggy and gross on me yet, and if you go to The Nail Shop they have a trial size available, in case you're only wanting to dip in a tentative toe.

STEP THREE
Obtain polish remover
Even if you decide to only go with polish alone, you'll need something to take the polish off again once you're done. Unless you want to go all natural and organic and find non-acetone remover, everything else is more or less the same. Acetone, which is the ingredient in most nail polish remover that does the actual removing, is not particularly good for you, so don't drink it or huff it. Oh, and try and keep it out of cracks in your skin because it hurts like you wouldn't believe. Not that I would know from experience.

This is my polish remover. There are many like it, but this is mine.

Now you can't just dunk your nails in a bowl of this stuff, so you'll need something porous to dab it on with. There are specific lint-free nail wipes available, but I get by with plain old cotton balls and cotton swabs.

Don't put these in your ears once they have polish remover on them.

STEP FOUR
Put the polish on your nails
I'd like to pretend I have a really careful way of doing this, but I don't. I just slop it on. I TRY to do this thing where you dab a drop in the middle of your nail right down the bottom, then sweep it to either side and up, because it comes out a bit neater. But most of the time, I just slop it on. The great thing about the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri for novices is that the brush is HUGE. You only have to paint, like, two stripes maximum to cover your whole nail. If you were careful, you could probably do it in one. This is awesome, because it gives you very little room to fuck it up. Some of the other polishes I've tried have tiny narrow brushes, which is super unhelpful when you're not very good at making it even, because every time you have to stroke the brush over your nails is another chance for you to make a big streaky mess.
If you're anything like me, the finished result will look something like this;

STEP FIVE
Hold Still
This is absolutely the hardest of all steps for me. I use fast dry nail polish, and a fast dry top coat, and I still inevitably end up dragging a hair through it, or dinging them on SOMETHING. Unfortunately one of my favouritestest polishes ever HAS to be allowed to dry slowly, so I had to figure out a compromise between my fidgety nature and my love of things shiny. Turns out X-box is a fantastic stop gap solution!

I call this the Nerd Grrl Position

So long as you're careful to keep the fingers curled under the controller from touching each other, playing a quick round of Halo or Borderlands is a fabulous way to keep your mind off your nails. You can twiddle the joysticks and pull the triggers perfectly well with just the pads of your fingers, so you've got something to entertain you AND you're keeping your grubby fingers off things until they're dry.

STEP SIX
Clean up
This is where your cotton and caustic chemicals come in. As you can see, even with our expectations set nice and low, my polish always looks like shit until I clean it up a bit. There is a really neat trick I learned from Natalie Dee, where you dip a cotton swab in nail polish remover and kind of scrub it around your cuticles to get rid of the really big fuck ups. But if you're bored already, don't sweat it.
I usually leave it overnight to "cure" - I know, I know, it's kind of gross to think about a chemical cocktail "curing" on your nails, but it really is much easier to mess about with it the next day. In the morning, I just wash my hands with soap and water, and scritch the excess off where I don't want it to be. The soap makes it come off your skin really easily, and I would take a guess that leaving it overnight probably allows the oils in your skin to seep out under it as well.There is lots of advice around about how to clean it up properly (some of it involving tiny brushes), but for an absolute beginner, soap and water is fine. You don't want to be fucking around all day with something that might annoy the crap out of you after an hour.
Once your're done washing, we're done!

Voila!

 Try not to mess with it for the first day, and see if you like it. Don't fret if you've smudged it, or chipped it, or it's not sitting perfectly symmetrically. Here is a picture to illustrate how other people will actually see your nails in an every day setting.

Yes, I am always holding coffee

Looking at this picture, do you notice that there is a little bubble in one of the nails? Can you tell the thumb is actually painted a little unevenly? Of course not, and neither will anyone if you go out with nail polish applied as inexpertly as mine are.

But more importantly, while you've got in on, have a think about how it makes you feel. If you're going to go to all this effort, you want to get something out of it, right?

Does it make you feel gross, like there's something on your skin you can't get off? You can actually feel nail polish to a certain extent because your nail has a great many nerves running under it, and for some people this sensation is creepy as hell - in which case, nail polish isn't for you.
Does it not really make you feel anything at all? Is it just a patch of your body that is inexplicably a funky colour? Then nail polish probably isn't for you either. But hey, you tried it, and that's the important thing.
Does it make you feel a little girly, and somehow, inexplicably fancy? Then you're like me, and you've just discovered one of the most accessible parts of femme fashion. There are millions of cohorts out there more than happy to drag you into their shiny, glittery, holographic world. Congratulations!

Cirque Fascination Street Review - If I Was A Princess

After my loud proclamations of feminism yesterday, I'd like to confess a deep dark secret.

I fucking love Disney Princesses.

I own this. For really reals.

 There, I said it. Judge away, you have every right. The movies are sexist and racist and dumb as a pile of bricks, and the whole court of Disney Princesses are a dreadful example to little girls everywhere, and I would be mortified if I had a daughter who wanted to be them.

But...but I still love them. They're just so damn beautiful. And elegant. And did I mention beautiful? I mean, just look at Belle, my favourite of the Disney princesses. She's smart, and well read, and looks ADORABLE doing anything. And her HAIR! Her hair is ALWAYS perfect - even when she's been running it sits in perfect little ringlets over her forehead.

Even her WTF face is gorgeous.

Moreover, everything always turns out right for a Disney princess, and I think there is a part of me that has always been desperately, painfully jealous of that. But enough of my childhood trauma. You're probably wondering why on earth I'm confessing this to the internet at large.
It's all because of Cirque's stunning polish, Fascination Street.

If I was a princess, I would have all my dresses made from this nail polish. It's that fucking beautiful. And shut up with your logic about dresses not being able to be made from nail polish, because if I'm a princess we're clearly already well out of the realm of common sense and physics as we know it. If I was a princess, I could have whatever I wanted, I want dresses made from this.

I'd heard about Cirque through the nail blog grapevine, and the reviews were always droolingly good. I admit, because I'm that kind of negative person, this made me a bit skeptical. But holy shit you guys, it really, really is THAT good.
You can actually wear this straight up with no colour underneath, which is a real rarity in holographic polishes. I first tried it over my normal base coat and it went crazy streaky, but I have read this is just something that happens with holographic polishes sometimes. The second time I tried it I used no base coat, and it went on like butter. Well, no, not butter. It didn't run down my fingers and make an oily mess or anything. Icing maybe? Something smooth and creamy that stays right where you put it? Let's go with icing. Sparkly, sparkly icing.

Under artificial light

Outdoors in the shade

Outdoors in the sun

When used on it's own, I put three coats on just to get it to the level of opacity I like. You could probably get away with two though, if you're better at putting it on really evenly than I am. The base colour is a soft purple, right down the end of purple where it runs into navy blue. In the shade, it looks like a lovely dark lavender, but in the sunshine the navy comes out much more strongly. As does the holographic rainbow effect, and that for me is the real gem.
The hologram effect in this is just ASTONISHINGLY strong, and such a complete rainbow. Comparing the rainbow effect on this to the Darling Diva I tried for my last review is like the difference between diamonds and diamantes. They're both sparkly as hell, but if you look really closely the shine on this is somehow...richer. More detailed, with more colours, and a really strong line of rainbow where the light hits it.

You could absolutely use this on it's own, but because I still haven't been able to shake that little goth inside me who is always asking, "Can it be any blacker?" I decided to try it with a dark base coat. This next lot of pictures are with the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Uptempo Plum that I used for the Darling Diva skittle nails.
(Just as a little bit of bonus reviewing, can I just say how bloody brilliant that Insta-Dri stuff is? The brush is wide and flat and just PERFECT, and the formula is thick enough that you really only need to use one coat. It's MAGIC) I was concerned the base might be a bit too red to match properly, but it turns out the colour in Fascination Street is actually dense enough to more or less cover up the base. I'm possibly just imagining it, but I do feel like the darker base does make the sparkle stand out more, even though I can't actually see that much difference in the overall colour in strong light.

However, when you have the beauty in the shade and you're not dazzled by the holographic effect, there is actually quite a difference in the overall colour when you put something dark underneath.

Outdoors in the shade

Inside, under flouro lights.

Honestly, the difference is a matter of personal taste. Both ways, it's just breathtaking, and the kind of polish that really will have you staring at your fingers every chance you get. Seriously, I've nearly dropped my coffee twice today getting distracted by my thumb nail. So, you know, maybe switch to a sippy cup if you're as distractable as I am.The other thing about this polish that is making me look a little less sophisticated than the average princess is the fact I can't keep them away from my nose. The site claimed that "Organic lavender and clary sage essential oils have been added to lend your hands a subtle scent after the polish dries." I remember reading this and thinking it was almost certainly nonsense, because, well, it sounds ridiculous. How could nail polish possibly smell NICE? But it actually DOES. It's not even a weird fake smell, just this ever so faint whaft of lavender whenever your nails get close to your nose. This seems to last at least overnight, and probably more like two days if you don't get your fingers all nicotine stained like I do. I have no idea how this works, but it's marvellous.

I had read from other nail bloggers about the idea of getting a "backup bottle" of your favourite polishes, and I gotta admit, the idea sounded ridiculous. It's just nail polish! How nice could it be? There will be another one. But now...now I understand. As soon as I first walked outside with this on, I wanted to run back in and order another bottle just in case. This polish is so gorgeous, and so easy to use, that I am totally willing to do a complete 180 on my previous scorn of backup bottles and happily stash a couple away so I can use it forever.

Anyway, that's enough fangirlish dribbling from me. You should head over to Cirque and check out their dazzling array - just don't buy any Fascination Street until I have my backup bottle. *glares*

I AM A Feminist - In My Head

I would say I hate to get ranty, but that would be a lie. This particular rant however has been boiling for a while, and due to a deluge of infuriating comments in the press lately (paging Carla Bruni, among others) I can no longer hold back.

When I see women in positions of power that wouldn't have been available to them without feminism say publicly that they're "not feminist", I want to kick them in the ovaries.

Not very PC, not very understanding, I know. I try to be tolerant, I really do. But when I hear people say things like, "We don't need feminism anymore", or ""I'm not REALLY a feminist," I want to kick them so hard their stupid eyes pop OUT OF THEIR STUPID HEADS.

*takes a deep breath*

Alright, now I've got that out of my system, I'll try and be reasonable.

The original soundbite that started what is now a frothing volcano of rage was from the newly appointed  Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer. When she was appointed to such a rich, influential company, obviously this was big news. Hoorah for feminism, some people said! We worked so hard, and now there is at least one woman in a position of economic power! Sure, there should be more, but hey, it's one, and that's awesome. Naturally, people asked Mayer about her opinion of the political movement that created an environment in which her appointment was actually possible. She said;


"I don't think that I would consider myself a feminist. I think that I certainly believe in equal rights, I believe that women are just as capable, if not more so in a lot of different dimensions, but I don't, I think have, sort of, the militant drive and the sort of, the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that. And I think it's too bad, but I do think that feminism has become in many ways a more negative word. You know, there are amazing opportunities all over the world for women, and I think that there is more good that comes out of positive energy around that than comes out of negative energy."

I just...I have so many problems with this. 

Firstly, being so dismissive of the efforts of all the feminists before her that made her current position possible reeks to me of the dropkick partner who gets you to support them through university, then dumps you as soon as they graduate. It's a shitty, shitty thing to do. 

Now, let's try and wrap our heads around this logical fallacy here - "I don't think that I would consider myself a feminist. I think that I certainly believe in equal rights, I believe that women are just as capable, if not more so in a lot of different dimensions". So, you think women should have the same rights as men, and are just as capable as men, but you're not a feminist?

Mayer is hardly alone in her bizarre doublethink experiments though. Katy Perry proudly declared, ""I am not a feminist, but I do believe in the strength of women," while receiving an award for Woman of the Year. 

Just let that sink in for a minute. She said this ridiculous thing that totally dismisses the entire women's rights movement, while receiving an award. For Woman of the Year.

Here's a little shock for you both....YOU ARE  FEMINISTS.You think women are strong? You think women are capable? You think women should have the same opportunities as men? To quote Caitlin Moran, "What do you think feminism IS, ladies?"

Mayer's (and others) dismissal of the entirety of feminism because there are parts of it she doesn't agree with is an attitude I've come across all too often, and it infuriates me beyond belief. I understand why some people are unhappy with aspects of present-day feminism, I really do. There are a lot of problems. There are transphobic elements, which I find awful. There is a lot of dismissal of issues relating to women of colour, and poor women, all sorts of women who aren't white and middle class. And I absolutely agree this sucks. It sucks big sweaty donkey balls, and I don't agree with the people who support these opinions. But as someone who identifies as both poly and queer, hating the people who are supposed to be on "my side" is a dilemma I am familiar with. 

The poly and queer movements are enormously diverse, despite both being built on a relatively simple premise. Queer people like playing with people who may or may not be the same gender as them (or any specific gender at all) and poly people like playing with more than one person as a time. Simple. Only it's not. There are people who try and preach that anyone who is monogamous is "unenlightened" or just not as "evolved" as poly folk, and I find this attitude so self centered and patronizing it makes me sick. There are queer people who have called all bisexual women "vectors" (as in vectors for disease) to my face. I'm sure you can imagine how sick this made me feel.There are poly people who insist if you have any rules at all in your relationships, you're "chaining" people's souls, and I think this is a wholly unreasonable expectation to place on people. There are queer people who think being attracted to someone of the opposite gender is a betrayal of your identity and your fellow queers, and I think this is nonsense.

But I'm still poly. I believe in having the opportunity to pursue more than one romantic partner if I choose to. I'm still queer. I still really like playing with women, and it's important to me to have the opportunity to do so.

So what do *I* do, when faced with a cause I believe in that happens to have attracted some people I really don't agree with? Unfortunately, in the case of these two groups, I backed out. I stopped going to any poly or queer events, and I more or less removed myself from the whole community. But you know what? This was the wrong thing to do, and I was wrong to do it. And if you do the same with feminism, you're wrong too. Yes, there are people in the feminism movement who believe that all heterosexual sex is rape - I do not. There are those that believe all men should be killed off - given that I am currently living with a man, it's pretty clear I don't agree with this either. But feminism is too important to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you don't agree, speak up. If what you see being portrayed as feminism isn't something you want to be a part of, MAKE it something you want to be a part of. If you don't like the negative connotations that "feminism" as a word has, goddamit, take it back! If people use "feminist" as an insult around you, tell them bloody well not to. If you don't feel like feminism is diverse enough, or that your kind of feminism isn't being represented, wade on in, plant your feet, and be a part of it. Nothing will get done if we all worm away from the core idea - that women deserve the same rights, power, and influence as men - because we don't like every little part of what everyone in the movement says or believes. It's just too fucking important.

We can't let this word be taken away from us. Words have power, words shape actions and thoughts, and if we have no word for feminism, it will have no form. It will have no voice. And it will be forgotten.

Darling Diva Review - Holographics Are a Girl's Best Friend

Have you ever looked at a nail polish and thought, "It's nice, but I really wish it was more holographic. More glittery. More...fabulous." I know I have, and these polishes from Darling Diva have answered a need I only just recently realised I had. 

I have a real thing with my makeup that it has to be noticeable - if I'm going to spend time spreading this gunk on me, I want people to NOTICE dammit. But at the same time, I have also always been deeply uncomfortable with the idea of drawing attention to myself - one of the reasons my personal style has always been relatively conservative. The most outrageous my wardrobe ever became was deep in the middle of my goth phase, where I somehow found the courage to go out in outfits like this;

Excuse the share house background

I fucking LOVED that coat. It swept the ground when I walked, and I had dip dyed the hem on it deep purple. I'd wear it with my PVC top that I'd brought home from Paris, and PVC pants, and just go NUTS with the eye liner, as you can see. It made me feel Fabulous.

But somewhere along the line the self consciousness overwhelmed my sense of fun, and I decided I couldn't wear things that drew attention to me if I wanted to be taken seriously. As a short, fat, geeky girl who suffered from bouts of depression, I figured being "wacky" with my wardrobe was just another obstacle I didn't need. 

It has taken me until...oh, about last week, to realise this is nonsense. Sure, I couldn't have worn my full length white satin coat to work. But my self conciousness had gotten to the point where I was uncomfortable wearing COLOURS for goodness sake - I have two perfectly lovely red dresses sitting in my closet that I haven't worn once in the two months I've owned them because I keep getting stressed by the idea it might be "too much." So I decided it was time to do something about this, and stop letting my concerns about what other people thought ruin ALL my fun.

Holographic nail polish has turned out to be a wonderful stepping stone for a tentative diva like myself, and Darling Diva came up as a recommendation on just about every review of holographic polishes I came across. It's also an "indie" brand, which means it's one woman show. Given the enormous variety and amount of glitter in her products, I like to imagine her living in some sort of fairy castle, where she just has to dust in order to get the sparkles for her polishes. I have a real soft spot for supporting people who start their own businesses. so I threw down my money, and one day a little package of pure sparkle showed up at my desk. 

Shiny, cap'n!

Because I have a tendency to get all over excited, I ended up getting three different polishes when I probably really could have been perfectly happy with just one. While these three look very different in the bottle, on the nail the differences are pretty slight.

Space Beetle has some copper glitter which is quite unusual, but while the listing claims it's a duochrome (meaning it changes colour in different lights) I haven't really been able to make that come up. In a certain light the copper glitter does seem to turn bright gold though, which is a nice surprise.

Bitch Panties doesn't seem to have much base colour at all, which is actually quite neat because it means you can put it over anything. And honestly, the amount of glitter in this, I don't really see how you could actually put in any colour pigment without making it into some sort of Tardis polish. Dangerous Driver has a relatively strong purple base, but not so pigmented that you could really wear it without something solid underneath. Like Space Beetle, it's listed as a duochrome, but like Space Beetle, I couldn't really get that aspect to show up. To be honest though, I wasn't really that disappointed - the duochrome isn't why I bought them. I was there for the SHINY, and shiny they bring in ABUNDANCE.

To show you how versatile these polishes are, I whipped up what is called in nail circles as a "Skittles" manicure, for fairly obvious reasons. 

Taste the rainbow! Actually, don't, it tastes pretty dreadful. 

For the sake of completeness, the polishes I used were; Revlon Top Speed in Ocean, Revlon Top Speed in Violet, OPI in I'm Not Really A Waitress (which I reviewed here), OPI in Every Month is Oktoberfest, and Sally Hansen Insta Dry in Uptempo Plum. 

While we're at it, where is my damn jetpack?

Then, I had to wait for it to dry. I make a point of almost always getting the fastest dry stuff there is and still find myself sitting there flapping my hands and whining impatiently like a toddler needing to pee. Remember Total Recall, when the girl had that wand she just tapped on her nails and they were changed? Why don't we have that yet? This is supposed to be the future!

ANYWAY, after approximately a million years, they were dry enough to put the shiny stuff over the top. I used Dangerous Driver on the index and ring finger, Bitch Panties on the middle and thumb, and Space Beetle on the little finger.  

And lo, it was FABULOUS.

The one negative thing I have to say about this polish is pretty neatly illustrated by these pictures - I really do feel like you only need to pick one. While Space Beetle is a teeny bit different because of the copper sheen, the difference between Dangerous Driver and Bitch Panties on the nail is pretty negligible. But hey, now I have LOTS of it, so it will be ages until I need to restock. 

Call me cowardly, but I also like that the sparkle tones down the brightness of the colours. These pictures were all taken to show off the rainbow holographic effect, but in less flashy light it basically ends up looking like a paler version of the base colour, because the sparkle is so densely packed. It's a great way for someone like me to get used to wearing something flashy and attention getting. I would feel comfortable wearing any of these colour combinations to work - so long as I wore it with a black dress. I know, I know. But baby steps, okay?

What's your favourite subtle diva touch that makes you feel fabulous?