Friday Franken - Bronze Medal

Yeah I know its not Friday.  I wore this Friday and took the photos Saturday night but I got distracted and forgot to post it.  Has anyone seen Up?  "My master made me this collar so that I could SQUIRREL!"  Well that is me lately.

So the Olympics got me in the mood for some metallics so I am declaring this week metal week, well I might save a couple days for Alice in Wonderland themed polish since the movie is out Friday.  I realized after watching the USA take the bronze medal in woman's bobsled that I don't own a bronze polish.  So I set out to make one that matched the bronze medal from this years games.

 

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Bronze Medal

Materials:

• Wet n Wild Shine Clear
• Sinful Colors Mercury Rising
• NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Loose Eyeshadow (Oro or Mink, the label is missing)
• Ballz

1. Mix 1/2 a bottle of WnW clear with 1/2 tsp of NYX eyehadow and 3 ballz, mix well.
2. Add 20 drops Mercury Rising (this just adds some depth and makes it less gold)
3. This only makes about 2/3 of an ounce.

This was by far the easiest Franken I have done, the NYX dissolved instantly.  I will definitely be buying more of it in different colors for future mad scientist, frankening pursuits.  Anyone have a favorite NYX color?

 

Bronze Medal

 

Bronze Medal (3 coats) and top with flash , excuse the tip wear I wore this for over 24 hours before I remembered to charge the camera batter.

Bronze Medal in sort of sunlight, minimal tip wear after almost 36 hours, pretty amazing actually.

Since the actual medal is a combination of  brushed and shiny bronze I decided on day 3 to Konad using CG Matte Magic. This was utter fail as the Matte Magic kept drying before I could get it stamped and then I ended up with white film hanging off my nails.

Eureka! I Have Found it - OPI Merry Mignight

Ok so some of you know that I have been traipsing all over the city looking for Merry Midnight from the 2009 OPI Holiday Wishes Collection with zero luck.  I checked nail mecca.....nada, Trade secret...zip, Pennys and Ulta also came up big zeros.  I even tried stopping by some of the local salons and just asking, "Hey do you have a bottle I can buy, I don't even care if its new."  One lady told me to check Sally's.  SALLY'S!  Seriously?!  I had to tell the nice lady that Sally's doesn't carry OPI.

I was sad.  I made the decision to order it online and was really surprised to discover that I could only find a couple bottles on Ebay and 2 random online vendors that listed it.  I wasn't familiar with either vendor so I was dragging my feet hoping it would magically appear and had basically given up on it.  Luckily a fellow nail polish crack head reminded me that Victoria Nail Supply might have it....DUH.  So we set up an order of things we didn't need and prepared to send it in.  That afternoon we happened to be stopping by a store new to me that carries Zoya (I posted about that earlier this week) and the gods of nailpolish must have smiled down on me because there it was in all its purple, foil, glittery glory....Merry Midnight.

 

OPI Merry Midnight (3 coats) and top

The formula on this was perfect, even I was able to apply nice thin coats.  I had full coverage in 2 coats but the color was more pink than the bottle so I added a third.  Let me just say this...I love foils, they go on so nice and thin, and smooth, and holy nail polish batman...they dry in no time flat.  The glitter in this is really small also so there isn't any of the lumpiness of a normal glitter.

Can anyone recommend any other foils? I just picked up Orly Glam Rock and Iron Butterfly and I have Finger paints Icy Iris and Easel Come, Easel Go but I want to try some in other colors.

Zoya Ciara

The Zoya sale last week prompted me to go track down a bottle of Zoya so I could try it out before deciding if I wanted to order or not.  I stopped by Blooming Beauty, which carries the full range of Zoya and a ton of OPI and Nubar (though no Prisms yet darn it!).  I walked in expecting to buy a bottle of Gwin but decided that it was too bright and that I should really try a creme first rather than a duochrome or frost.  I tend to have better luck with creme application and there is usually fewer brush marks and  drag issues so to be fair I picked up Ciara.  This is not a typical color for me, it is a lot brighter than it looks in this photo. Well in daylight it is, in dim light it looks almost like a red plum. 

 

Zoya Ciara (2 coats) with top.  The ridge line on my ring finger is from poor application of Seche, I was in a rush to get my dog to his best friend's birthday party.....yes birthday party for a dog.

Let me preface this by saying that I like thick polishes, it lets me be lazy and do 2 coats. Besides I fail at applying thin coats so thick polishes make me feel like I am doing something right as there isn't any streakiness. This polish applied like cement, or white out...remember painting your nails with white out in middle school?  Anyway it was REALLY viscous and didn't flow off the brush at all and was very slow to dry.   Next time I use this I am definitely going to add thinner.  On the positive side the color was very vibrant and it really didn't smell as much strongly as many other polishes.  I mean it smelled still, just not as much.  

I really like the idea of investing in some less stinky polishes, I feel like I am gassing my poor husband and friends regularly.  Does anyone know if all the Zoya's are thick or did I just get a partially dried out bottle?

And just so you believe me....

 

My puppy Indy...yes we named the dog Indiana