Girly Bits Customs and Coming Attractions

On Friday in my textured polishes post to wrap up the week, I shared a Girly Bits polish from the collection that just opened for pre-order. Today I have another two colors from that collection, but first, I want to share the two custom mixes I did during the polish making workshop, Party at Pam's and Unexpected Brown.



Party at Pam's is my glitterbomb. Near as I can recall and piece together from my photos, I put these glitters in it: purple 1mm, light purple hex .375mm, purple holo .375 and .2mm, teal holo .375mm, lime holo .8 and .2mm, silver less than .1mm. As for the proportions, I wanted the purple to dominate, so I used more of those glitters. The lime was my accent color, so I used the least of that.



Party at Pam's has a clear base and I meant it to be a layering polish, but I did swatch it on its own just to see what that would look like. This is three coats of Party at Pam's on its own, with no topcoat so i could see how bumpy it would be (answer: somewhat). The accent nail is Party at Pam's in a jelly sandwich with L'Oreal Berry Nice (two thick coats of the L'Oreal, one of Party, one more of the L'Oreal). I loved how it looked in the sandwich, I must say.



Here's how Party at Pam's looks over L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented (accent nail) and Sinful Colors Mesmerize (with topcoat this time).



Same combination outside in the sun:



And outside in the shade:



I also tried Party at Pam's over green; here it is on top of China Glaze Def Defying (accent nail) and Nuance Prickly Pear, again with topcoat, again in the shade:



Overall, I'm pretty happy with Party at Pam's but I think I may have overdone it with the eensy weensy silver holo glitter, as in some lighting conditions, all that silver distracts from the colored glitter.

Whereas Party at Pam's is pretty close to what I imagined beforehand that I'd want to make if I had access to a fully stocked polish making studio, my second creation was inspired by things I saw that day, namely a packet of pretty bronze glitter on the table and the other ladies working with colored bases. I'd gone multi-colored with my first creation, so I wanted to keep this one more monochromatic—yet it still ended up having a touch of purple in it, because I do love my purple. Here's Unexpected Brown, so named because brown was not at all what I thought I'd end up making before our workshop started.



To the original bronze .625mm glitter that caught my eye, I added .1mm glitter in dark brown and gold, .2mm in gold, 1.5mm in brown, .375mm in maroon, and some violet shimmer pigment. I also tinted the base with green and red (to make brown) and black (to darken the brown). This wheel shows the progression from left to right as I started with a very light tinted base and went darker, then tweaked to go less red and more brown. Last tip on the right was a test to see if I could build this to opaque in reasonable number of coats.



Here's Unexpected Brown at three coats plus topcoat; it's definitely jelly-esque as the glitter does show nicely, but it's also opaque enough that I consider three coats full coverage.



In low light (and sunlight, though I didn't get any decent photos of that), Unexpected Brown gets a sort of polka dot look to it, as the larger dark glitters pop from the lighter base color.



As I was swatching, Unexpected Brown was reminding me of some other polish but I couldn't think of which one exactly; finally I decided it was Oopsie Daisies Ganache (scroll down in that post); it's the same brown jelly base with brown glitter idea, though Ganache has a different glitter mix and no violet pigment.

Unexpected Brown is sheer enough that it can be layered, too; I tried it over Revlon Top Speed Seduction (left unlayered on my accent nail). The darker glitters blend into the base color, leaving the lighter glitters and the purple pigment to take center stage.



Enough about me and my creations, let's look at some polishes created by someone who really knows what she's doing. First up is Girly Bits The Power of Love, from the 80s Girl Bands collection that opened for preorder at noon today. (Since the first song that pops in my head when I hear "The Power of Love" and 80s is Huey Lewis and the News, who were not girls, I had to read the lyrics quoted on the website to figure out this is referencing Jennifer Rush.) This was one of the many bottles I bought after the workshop. It's a warm lilac with shimmer, holo shimmer, and small and large teal and silver holo glitter.



I used three coats of The Power of Love plus topcoat for my swatch.





In the sun, the shimmer and holo really shine:



Finally today I have another 80s Girl Bands color, Supersonic, which Pam kindly gave me for review as a gift of my choice with purchase. This is a neon yellow green jelly with gold and blue shimmer and blue flecks. I chose this one because I'd picked it up and put it down multiple times while deciding what to buy; it's so bright and I don't have anything like it, yet I wondered how much I'd wear it since neon green is not a staple in my wardrobe.



If you want just a very bright look, you can wear Supersonic on its own at three coats; there might be a little visible nail line but the color is so eye catching I don't think anyone will notice. If you want a crazy eye popping bright look, layer two coats over white, as I did on my accent nail.





Supersonic shimmering in the sunshine:



All 10 colors in the 80s Girl Band collection are available for pre-order now on the Girly Bits website for $10 a bottle (I think the regular price will be $11.50 after the pre-order ends on June 6th, but I could be wrong about that). Looking at that page, I see a couple more I wish I'd brought home with me, so you may see those swatched here later this summer if I succumb to temptation as I so often do.