Fakes That Took an Unexpected Turn

There was never any doubt I'd wear fake nails for the start of my trip to Indie Expo Canada ... all those opportunities to break a nail when packing, loading suitcases into the car, wrangling them onto and off of parking lot shuttle buses, grabbing them from the luggage carousel, etc., etc. Thus a few days before I flew out, I put on a set of Kiss Salon Color nails in an iridescent grey that I could find no shade name for on the box but which based on some Googling, I believe may be called Eclipse.



The medium length was necessary as my natural nails have grown out nicely during the summer as usual (much as I try to protect them from the dry air and harsh weather in the winter, I continually fall short, which leads to short nails). The curve at the sides left something to be desired compared to how I shaped my natural nails but I don't think it was noticeable to anyone but me (well, and now, all of you, since I've pointed it out and posted a closeup).





The above pics are in the artificial light in my dining room the night I applied them. The next morning I got the following couple shots in natural light to show the different faces of the iridescent finish (like the ones the night before, they also show the tenacious end of a splinter I wasn't able to dig out of my palm):





That iridescent coating didn't live up to the "stays perfect for entire wear" line on the box—or maybe they just didn't anticipate how long I'd wear them—because by day five, a lot of it had worn off, revealing the plain grey underneath. (My index looks less worn below because I popped off and lost that one and had to replace it a few days in. Usually I notice when they come off and just reattach but in the whirl of getting ready for my trip that didn't happen.)



To distract from the wear, I added accent nails with a glitter topper I found just across the border into Canada when I was driving to Toronto to IEC from Detroit (I flew in there because it was cheaper and made logistics easier at the end of my trip). Quo by Orly What's the Big Teal has turqoise glitter in a clear base, both small hexes and larger triangles. I actually did this in my car, completely stopped for a construction delay on the 401 somewhere in the wilds of Ontario. I was so happy to find such an interesting glitter at a drugstore; I hope to play with it more soon.



My intention was to take off the fakes and do a regular manicure for IEC, but when I swatched the polishes I intended to use over the fakes, they looked good enough I decided to just go with it. Yes, I did have to get the glitter off the accent nails I'd done, but that proved to be not too difficult, especially since I wasn't worried about ruining the finish. I ended up using three polishes for my IEC look; top to bottom, RK by Kiss Holographic Fairy Wing, Fairy Wing topped with Morgan Taylor Bedazzle Me, Fair Maiden Violet Eyes topped with Bedazzle Me, and Violet Eyes alone.







I know, going to an indie polish event, I probably should have worn more indies, but I hadn't brought very many with me (what with wanting to save weight on the way there to have more allowance to bring new bottles back) and the holo and the glitter I'd bought on my drive just went so well with the Fair Maiden (an IEC purchase from a previous year) I had to use them. The holo in particular delighted me ... only $3.99 at a wig store and has rainbows just as flame-y as much more expensive ones in my collection.



On my way out of IEC on the Sunday, loaded down with shopping bags, I popped a nail off somewhere between getting on the elevator from the event space and getting into my rental car. Excellent timing. I couldn't find it (not that I looked very hard), so right there in the car, I just put on another iridescent one from the box I'd been carrying with me all weekend. It coordinated pretty well considering I hadn't planned to do this.





I wore these one more day after IEC, at which point, I needed to get them off so I could swatch a few of the polishes that came back with me from the event.



It's a long holiday weekend, and I have family visiting for the big festival that closes out the summer season here (dubbed "Mountain Drunk Fest" by a friend of ours ... I'm glad we're walking distance from the fun), but once that wraps, I hope to get through my IEC pics and what swatches I've done so far and do a post (or two?) on that next week.

IEC Haul

As promised, today I've got the goodies I got at Indie Expo Canada. I am traveling with my lightbox (that's not strange at all, right?), so was able to take proper bottle shots of everything eventually, but first here's a quickie pic of all the VIP goodies on my hotel bed just after I'd unwrapped and sorted everything out. Polish, of course, but also a stamping plate, nail decals, emery board, soap, eyeshadow, a bath cupcake, and skin/hair serum. Well worth the price of the ticket, for sure.



I couldn't wait until after I set up the lightbox to try some of the bath products I got from SoGa, so they didn't get the glamour shot treatment. These bath snowballs looked so pretty; it was hard to pick just a few. I got Northern Lights, Cucumber Melon, and Lemongrass & Sage.



I used Northern Lights first and almost hated to toss it in the bathwater and see those gorgeous colors fizz away. I'm glad I did though, as it smelled great, sort of fruity and floral and woodsy at the same time, not overpowering but strong enough to linger on my skin for a while after I dried off.



I shared my creations from the pre-con polish making workshop in my other IEC post, but here they are again just for the sake of completeness. I love that Pam had special IEC labels for the fronts of our bottles and also made custom name stickers for the bottoms once we'd decided what to call them. Mine are Lost in the Forest, Flair Purple, and Bonus Flakes.



VIP bag polishes, part one—Girly Bits V.I.Polish, Superficially Colorful Lacquer Stealing Your Thunder, Fair Maiden Toronto Sunrise, Colors by Llarowe O Canada, Fiendish Fancies Red Herring, and Tonic Taking on Toronto:



VIP bag polishes, part two—Great Lakes Lacquer Love at Hyatt Regency, Bliss Toronto, Ever After Diamonds Are Forever, Native War Paints Sun Bathing on Lake Ontario, Alter Ego Generous Beauty, Hit the Bottle On the Loose with Chartreuse:



VIP non-polish goodies:



And now on to all the nail stuff I bought—please keep in mind I've been on a very low buy for quite a while now, so these were the first indies I'd gotten in well over a year, so I had some serious pent up demand.

Girly Bits—on top are Ultra Holochrome Powder and SFX Nail Powder in Alchemy; bottles are Brick House, Stayin' Alive, Le Freak, Refresh! Refresh! Refresh!, Sugar Beach, and Lost in the PATH.



Beyond the Nail—Holo Blue Microglitter, Fiddlesticks!, 416/905 (IEC exclusive), Tee Dot (IEC exclusive), and Space Cadet. This is a new brand for me.



Great Lakes Lacquer (also a new brand for me)—The Jewel of Ontario and Indie-cent Exposure (IEC exclusive); Native War Paints—Picnic in Trinity Bellwoods, Meet Me at Union Station, and Scaling the CN Tower, along with a mini of cuticle oil in Birthday Cake.



Alter Ego (yet another new brand for me)—Olympic Contender, B Informed, Precious Heart (IEC exclusive), Silver Cocktail, and Courtney's Frogspawn Coral (coral as in coral reef, not the color).



Fair Maiden (again, new brand for me)—Twilight, Cruel Summer, Northern Exposure (IEC exclusive), Moonstone.



Pahlish (not new to me, of course) Graffiti Alley (IEC exclusive) and Fiendish Fancies (new to me) I Want My Cake!, Lycanthrope, and I Can Feel Myself Rotting.



Moo Moo's Signatures (yep, new to me)—Cowgirl's Broken Time Machine, Yeti-Moo, The Last Ninja, and Mission Impossible in Toronto (IEC exclusive).



Ever After Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and License to Lacquer, Colors by Llarowe Can We Have Trudeau?, Hit the Bottle Midnight Pumpkin, Electric Indigo, and Peacock Shimmer. Ever After and Hit the Bottle are new brands for me.



Whew. And there were a couple brands I didn't buy from but wanted to. Next time maybe I should try the approach of studying the shopping guides ahead of time and making a list and trying to stick to that. It's not really my style but it might help with the feeling of overwhelm that set in at a certain point.

I couldn't try everthing right away, of course, but did sample a few things. I started with two of the Hit the Bottle stamping polishes, grabbing a Salon Express plate from the box of stamping supplies I brought with me from Idaho (like the lightbox, totally normal thing to take on a road trip).



I stamped over my existing mani (the layered one topped with Bonus Flakes that I shared in my IEC recap post with Hit the Bottle Peacock Shimmer and Midnight Pumpkin. Since I don't (yet) have a clear stamper, my double/shadow stamping leaves a lot to be desired as far as alignment, but it's fun. I still need to practice more. When I'm going to manage that I've no idea. Retirement is busy, y'all. Oh, and see how part of my plate up there is nice and shiny and part is cloudy from acetone? I learned from mrsrexy that a rough-ish dish towel will clean up that cloudiness. (I used yellow towel in the background; it's a sort of waffle weave, while the one mrsrexy had was terrycloth.)



When it came time to start swatching, I chose the brightest of the lot, Fair Maiden Cruel Summer (thank for the earworm, FM). It's an orange-y coral with pink shimmer.



I used three coats on my nail. The shimmer is subtle but gives depth to the color. It's so bright I thought it might dry satin like a neon, but it didn't; my swatch is without topcoat. This is a great summer color for sure.





Next I sampled Fiendish Fancies Red Herring, because I had to know if my instinct that this would look good on me that led to me swapping away the warmer toned Harlot was correct. I think it was. I did three coats of this red shimmer, though a bit more care in application (yes, I was rushing again) would probably have made it fine with two coats.





Finally, I had to swatch some Girly Bits, as without Pam there would have been no IEC. I did two coats of Lost in the PATH, then added one coat of Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! on my ring finger for a subtle accent. Lost in the PATH is a purple shimmer; Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! has blue to green shifting flakies in a transluscent base.





Lost in the PATH is just the sort of polish I associate with Girly Bits; it looks equally good in indirect light (above) as in direct light (below).



I'm happy with what I got at IEC, definitely. I didn't get every exclusive and limited edition I saw, so feel good about having some restraint. Almost all of the ones I bought were shimmers; the era of the glitter topper seems to be over for now.