Recent NOTDs: Grey and More Grey Plus Glitter

I've had more time in recent weeks to change my polish during the week, which means the nails of the day photos are really piling up on my hard drive. I've got two more looks today, both with a grey plus glitter theme.

My first grey NOTD had accents of blue, green, and white glitter.



This look started with a base of Duri Rejuvacote followed by Butter London Nail Foundation. Three coats of Contrary Polish Be Merry, which I recently picked up from a blog sale, went on next. It's a grey jelly with green, pinkish red, and silver holo microglitter.



My accent nails got Nicole by OPI Seriously Citrus added to them. This is a glitter topper inspired by Sprite from the NOPI Coke collection. It's a mix of sizes of white, blue, and various green glitters in a clear base.



Diamond Dry topcoat finished off the look. I got a tiny bit of tip shrinkage on some nails; I guess maybe DD didn't entirely agree with the Contrary. Despite that, I was happy with this mani.





My second grey look started with the same Rejuvacote/Nail Foundation base, which I then followed with two coats (maybe could have done one) of Hot Ticket Don't Metal in my Business, a charcoal grey shimmer. Then all nails got one coat of Essence Nail Art Twins in Julia before the Diamond Dry topcoat went on. Then, I did that thing where you think a mani is dry so you start using your hands normally again, only to find it wasn't quite dry so you manage to wrinkle the layers by brushing your hand against something. I decided the glitter would provide sufficient distraction from the wrinkles and let them be.



The star of this look is Julia, which has the intensely colorful silver holo glitter in squares and hexes in a clear base. I bought this bottle from a blog sale even though I already had one I'd swapped to get years ago; it's just so pretty.









Counting these two manis, I've done three with Butter London Nail Foundation that all chipped within a couple days, which is way earlier than I generally get chips when I use Instant Artificials for my base over treatment. Since this happened with three different brands of polish and all other elements were ones I know work for me, I think I need to conclude that Nail Foundation and my body chemistry don't get along. I can still use it for swatching, though that seems like quite an uneconomical use of such an expensive product. Ah well, if I doesn't work for me, it doesn't work.

Contrary Polish Fall 2012 Limited Edition Duo

I swatched the inaugural collection from Contrary Polish a couple months back; today I have the two limited edition colors she put out for Fall 2012, Hayride and Bonfire.



Hayride is a light warm brown with copper, gold, and brown microglitter/shimmer. I used three coats plus topcoat for these swatches. I could have probably stopped at two coats of color but wanted more sparklies on my nails.







Hayride has a nice glow in low light, too:



Bonfire is an orange-leaning red with microglitter/shimmer in brown and red (or maybe it's orange or possibly pink or possibly some mix—I thought I saw all those shades at one point). Like Hayride, I used three coats plus topcoat but could have done two coats.







Also like Hayride, Bonfire glows in lower light:



These two were sold out at Llarowe last I looked, but according to the Contrary Polish blog, it seems that a restock could happen later this fall, and mini bottles of these were on the list of ones available direct from the blog as of the last update there.

Contrary Polish

Sometimes I look at my swatching queue and get overwhelmed—who thought it was a good idea to buy all that stuff? Oh wait, that was me. The feeling always passes, but sometimes not fast enough to coincide with an open time slot for swatching. The solution? Skittles. That's what I did recently with some polishes from an indie brand that specializes in shimmers, Contrary Polish. The woman behind these polishes, Carrie, is an online friend of mine, and when she said she was ready to sell her frankens, I looked at the photos and said "here's some money". Then, because I am easily distracted, the polishes sat had to sit patiently waiting for weeks before I got around to trying them. I shouldn't have put it off; these are pretty! Obviously I'm not the only one who thinks so, as it was recently announced Llarowe's Facebook page that Contrary Polish will be sold in that shop, home to so many special lacquers.

Left to right below: Purple Smoke, Gilded Oak, Firebrand, Bright Night.



Purple Smoke is a cool grey with blue and violet shimmer.



Gilded Oak is a warm brown with gold and purple shimmer. I can see this on my nails as a full mani when fall weather hits.



Firebrand is a berry red with red and fuchsia shimmer.



Bright Night is a blue with bright blue and royal blue shimmer.



At this point in my swatching session, I felt more calm about my backlog and decided to try the other two polishes in the set of six on their own. Creeping Moss is a greenish brown with pinky purple and golden copper shimmer.





Inky Fingers is a deep blue violet with green and blue shimmer.







All of these swatches are two coats, no topcoat. I was somewhat surprised that I could stop at two coats, as the first one looked very jelly-esque on most of these. That makes we wonder about layering something in between the coats. I wish there were a think tank which would give me a grant to explore the various options in nail polish layering combinations, as my day job really cuts into the time I have to spend on such important endeavors.