Polished for Days Cloudburst

Just a single polish today: Polished for Days Cloudburst, which is a turquoise to purple shifting shimmer. I almost didn't post these pictures as I wasn't careful enough with application and some of my brushstrokes are wiggly, but the polish has such a nice glow to it that I decided to showcase my imperfection. This swatch is two coats plus clear topcoat, which I thought might bring out the shimmer more.

 

The shift to purple was really clear when I tilted my hand:

 

In the bottle, I could see some gold shift, too, but I did not manage to get an extreme angle enough to see that on my nails.

 

So pretty.

 

Even though I know a polish that's opaque in two coats is most likely not great for layering, I went ahead and tried it anyway. I left Cloudburst on my index finger and took it off the rest to lay down three creme bases: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Cerulean (sky blue), SinfulColors Show and Teal (dark blue with a touch of green), and Funky Fingers Dark Knight (black).

 

I then topped the cremes with one coat of Cloudburst. The differences were slight. The darker the base, the more teal-leaning the turquoise face was. It is good to know I can save my precious indie by using one coat over the sky blue and have the same look as if I'd done two coats of Cloudburst alone.

 

 

I really need to keep swatching my stash as it does a good job of reminding me that I have so many pretty polishes already. No buy isn't possible for me I don't think, but low buy might be.

For the Love of Polish Aurora Borealis Box

Today I finally have individual swatches of the three polishes I used to create my Northern Lights Nails look to kick off 2021: Tonic Euphorealis, Pahlish Solar Wind, and Polished for Days Polar Lights.

 

I started with Polished for Days Polar Lights. It's got a blue-leaning purple base with shifting flakes in turquoise, pink, and blue along with some silvery holo flakes.

 

I did three coats of Polar Lights for my swatch. Two might have been fine, but I got distracted by the pretty. I added clear topcoat for more depth even though the polish was self-leveled nicely.

 

 

 

Tonic Euphorealis is a warm purple with green to blue shifting shimmer.

 

I did three coats plus topcoat for this swatch as well, and again, two and no topcoat would probably have been just fine.

 

 

 

Here's the embarrassing part: I forgot Euphorealis is a thermal. Since it's winter, my hands weren't warm enough to make it change, so there was no visual indication of its thermal-ness, and the label doesn't say anything about it, so I went about my merry way without capturing the warm state at all. Between the time I did my swatching and the time I sat down to write this post, my nails have taken a beating from the winter weather, so instead of re-swatching, I slapped Euphorealis on a nail wheel to see the shift. Its warm state is a very pale lilac.

 

Pahlish Solar Wind is a dusty green-leaning blue shimmer with plenty of flakes to add even more visual interest: green shifty flake and holo flakes and microflakies.

 

Two coats of Solar Wind was plenty for full opacity, so I stopped there with this one. I did go ahead and add topcoat just because; it was smooth enough on its own.

 

 

 

Here's Solar Wind in direct light, showing off its holo:

 

Being me, I had to play around with layering, even though none of these are technically layering polishes. Why let that little detail stop me? First up I have one coat of Tonic Euphorealis over Pahlish Solar Wind. Euphorealis mostly covers up the flakes in Solar Wind, though one or two of the bigger ones do peek through at some angles. The dusty base of the Pahlish cools down the purple of of the Tonic, makes it softer.

 

 

I tried Euphorealis as a base under Polished for Days Polar Lights, leaving the Tonic on its own on my index finger for comparison's sake (should have done this with the above layering combination, but too late now). The warm purple of the Tonic used as a base does make the Polished for Days warmer, too, though the difference is subtle.

 

Then I was curious how much the base color could change the look of Polar Lights so I did Skittles with China Glaze Plur-ple (medium warm-leaning purple), Sally Hansen Insta Dri Purple Heart (deep blue violet), SinfulColors Roar (medium blue), and SinfulColors On the Prowl (teal), then topped those with one coat of Polar Lights plus clear topcoat. And yes, I'm calling this experiment a success, as the base colors definitely have an effect, pulling Polar Lights more to purple or blue or navy. Purple Heart on my middle finger changes it the least, which makes sense as it's the closest to the color of the base of Polar Lights.

 

 

I'm very glad I bought this box back in November. I'll have to remember the Tonic come summer and hope the thermal won't be dead by then (I don't think it will be but when you see this next Nail Wheel Wedenesday you'll understand my concern).

Northern Lights Nails

I hadn't planned to take last week off from nail blogging, but that's how it worked out. There was definitely a vacation vibe on my ski mountain, with plenty of folks from other areas visiting here (maybe not the safest choice in a pandemic, but at least I'm able to avoid them for the most part). For my first post of the new year, I'm starting as I hope to go on, with a look that was fun to do and let me exercise my creative side. The November 2020 For the Love of Polish box was inspired by the Aurora Borealis. The three polishes in the set: Tonic Euphorealis, Pahlish Solar Wind, and Polished for Days Polar Lights.

 

I used all three polishes sponged over a black base to make a night sky mani that maybe looks a little like the Northern Lights (which I've never seen in person but hope to someday). I did add clear topcoat to level the layers and add shine.

 

 

 

I will have swatches of the individual polishes at some point (I hope next week) but didn't want to wait to share this look. Happy 2021 to all of you reading this!

Polished for Days Birch and Woodnote

Today I've got two flakies from Polished for Days that feel perfect for autumn (which we are currently having where I live maybe half the time, with the other days being winter, complete with snow): Birch and Woodnote.

 

Birch has a grey base that's been filled up with orange/green shifty flakes and tiny sparkling holo flakes.

 

Birch can absolutely be worn on its own, but you know me ... if I can layer, I'm gonna layer. So I did three coats of Birch on my index finger and on the other digits did one coat of Birch over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Green, a deep slightly greyed teal creme. The layered nails also got topcoat, though it didn't make a huge difference as Birch is fairly shiny and well behaved.

 

 

 

It was dark out when I swatched Birch, so I don't know how it looks in the sun. I do know it looks fabulous in a different way under the warm direct light of my desk lamp. The larger shifty flakes yield center stage to the tiny holo ones but don't disappear entirely, still hanging around to add interest.

 

 

Woodnote has a reddish violet base seasoned heavily with gold/orange/green shifty flakes plus a dash of silvery holo flakes added as well. This is less densely packed than Birch, but no less pretty.

 

I took the same approach with Woodnote as I did with Birch: my index finger is three coats of Woodnote alone and the other fingers are one coat of Woodnote over Essie Mrs. Always-Right, a browned rose creme.

 

 

 

The shift in this is quite noticeable even in indirect light; it goes from gold/orange to almost completely green with just a slight change in angle.

 

Under the desk lamp, Woodnote went golden.

 

Both of these beauties were still available on the Polished for Days site last I checked a couple days ago. Birch is from last year's Woodland Holiday collection, while Woodnote is from the more recent Enchanted Woods collection.

Selections from Polished for Days Imagination Collection

Today I have two lovelies from Polished for Days, both from the Imagination collection, both that have been waiting a long time to get their moment on the blog. (I previously shared the other two I bought from this collection: A Dream is a Wish back in May and Frozen Heart last month.) Yesterday Tomorrow and Fantasy is a medium purple microflakie shimmer which is also full of larger purple flakes (that have a subtle pink shift) and silver flakes (that have a subtle holo flash).

 

At three coats, Yesterday Tomorrow and Fantasy is pretty much opaque. At certain angles in certain lighting conditions, I felt like I could see a hint of nail line. I really had to look for it, though, and what with all the sparkling and shifting the flakies were doing, it was easy to get distracted and not notice any nail line.

 

 

 

Direct light brings out even more beauty:

 

Of course I had to try layering Yesterday Tomorrow and Fantasy. I left three coats of it by itself on my index finger then did various creme bases on the other digits: LA Colors Color Craze Gel Jazzy (light orchid), Sally Hansen Insta Dri Vivid Violet (purple), and Color Club Take It All Off (warm brown).

 

I topped the cremes with one coat of Yesterday Tomorrow and Fantasy then added clear topcoat to all my nails for shine and depth. The light orchid base changed the look the least, just slightly warming it up. Over the darker purple, the silver flakes popped more. My favorite was the warm brown base, which deepened the overall appearance but still let all the flaky elements show their stuff; it especially seemed to bring out the pink shift in the purple flakies.

 

 

Wish Upon a Star has blue/purple and purple/green shifting flakies in a black base, and I could just look at the bottle for hours on end.

 

For my swatch, I did two thicker coats on some nails and three thinner on others and can't tell the difference. I did add clear topcoat to all to let the flakes really shine.

 

 

 

I might have to resurrect the idea of a top 20 list for this blog just so I can put Wish Upon a Star on it. I mean, look at it:

 

I did not let the fact that Wish Upon a Star has a black base keep me from trying it as a layering polish. For my base colors, I chose Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Cherry Cherry Bang Bang (magenta), Sally Hansen Insta Dri Vivid Violet (purple), Sally Hansen Insta Dri Purple Heart (blue violet), and black (I didn't note which one, probably either Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine or Funky Fingers).

 

Adding a single coat of Wish Upon a Star to those Skittles and slicking on a clear topcoat yielded four pretty nearly identical nails. Did the blue tones of the flakes show up more on the blue violet base? Maybe, but if so, the difference is slight. The good news is using Wish Upon a Star on a creme base looks just as good as two/three coats of it alone, so I can enjoy it for more manicures if I layer it.

 

The Imagination collection is still available on the Polished for Days website. When I went to see, I tried to not look at the polishes I didn't get because my willpower is weak lately when it comes to buying polish. I have three orders on their way to me and one in the shopping cart stage. I figure I'm saving so much money not traveling and not eating out and not driving to see friends in the city that I can indulge more than usual. But there is a limit. Somewhere. I'll keep an eye out.