Canadian Ice: A vibrant blue with micro-flakies custom polish!

Today I've got a different kind of post for ya, a nail polish collaboration with Beyond the Nail! A couple months they contacted me to design a custom polish along with a nail vinyl. I had always thought a zipper vinyl was something that was missing from the vinyl world, and now we have one!

My initial vision for the polish was a vibrant cobalt blue jelly like Cirque's Midsummer Night, but with instead of pink shimmers, I envisioned loads of iridescent baby blue shimmer flecks, like the shimmer in Ozotic's 903. The end result colour is pretty close to what I was picturing, but the composition turned out more of a tiny micro-flakie rather than iridescent shimmer that would catch your eye. Maybe it's the jelly consistency muting the little flecks, I don't know, I'm no nail polish mixer I just put it on mah nailz.

I named it 'Canadian Ice' cause I saw it and said "hey it looks like ice chips, eh?" to myself and in saying that I realized I'm such a Canadian saying eh all the time. So being really creative and all I went with Canadian Ice.

Glam Polish 'Fatal Attraction' trio from Hypnotic Polish

Back to shorter nails for this post (no, I did not cut/break them again, I just did these in mid-January and haven't had a chance to edit them until now - so sue me). The 'Fatal Attraction' trio consists of three polishes by Glam Polish that are exclusive to the Hypnotic Polish shop. What an interesting colour combo! I was immediately drawn to the two darker ones as their finishes are a bit more complex in terms of varying micro-glitters. Sparklies!!! Unfortunately this doesn't really translate on the nail, so the epic appearance of the polish in the bottle is kind of deceiving :\

Christmas throwback: Candy cane nails

So I'm on vacation right now in Florida and yes I'll be slacking on my posts cause the sun here is this magical thing I rarely get to see living in Canada. I also broke my middle nail a few weeks ago so I've had to slow down my reserve stash posts in order to catch up to myself once I can resume doing nail arts and swatches. Expect shorter nails when that happen though! In honor of this, here's a throwback to last year around this time when I had shorter nails (but also just less taken-care-of nails, worse photography, clean-up, etc.)! For what I've done in the past year to bring my nails to their usual better condition you're used to seeing on my blog, check out my Nail Care page.

Holo Christmas Jellies from Beyond the Nail

It's holo jelly time - Christmas style - with Beyond the Nail! You may recall I swatched their summer galaxy collection a couple months back. The two polishes I have to show off today are the same in formula - a linear holo jelly that go on sheer and can be built up to full opacity in 2-3 coats! Below are 2 of the 10 polishes in Beyond the Nail's Christmas collection. On my accent nail I've re-created a cross-hatch plus gradient look I did a while back - it uses the 'lead-lighting' technique by layering colourful holo jelly polishes over a pattern of white and black I made with striping tape.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon holo jelly gradient over black and white crosshatch

Oops I did it again... couldn't help myself cause black and white is just so not colourful. Over my classic black and white crosshatch mani I filled in some of the white lines with black and then dabbed on a gradient consisting of pink, purple and blue neon holo jelly polishes from Beyond the Nail. I've reviewed and swatched them on their own and over black here.

Sorry guys, no video because this mani was the product of expermenting and not having a clue what would turn out. Kind of challenging to film and edit a video in which you keep changing your mind. If there's enough love for this design I could recreate it though!

Neon holo jelly skittle over black to white gradient

A couple weeks ago I swatched and reviewed six new neon jelly holo polishes from Beyond the Nail's summer galaxy collection. Here I have five of the six used in a multi-coloured skittle over a black to white base gradient. I got this idea when I tried their pink holo jelly over a clear to black gradient. Unfortunately this jelly over a white-to-black-gradient didn't turn out as I thought it might in my head. Looking back I should have used two coats of the jellies (I used only one) because it looks a little streaky over the white ends of the nail. I opted for just one coat because I find doing two or more coats over the black dilutes that dark contrast I wanted to preserve. And these jellies are so perfect over black, amirite?!

There is no video tutorial for this one because I was in my fast-paced experimentation zone. It's essentially the same as the clear to black gradient video tutorial, except just do a white to black base gradient. There's a pic of this step below.

Leadlighting with neon holo jellies

Last week I reviewed six awesome new neon holo jelly polishes by Beyond the Nail. Today I've got some nail art using a technique that is completely new to me, but I got to use all six polishes from the BTN collection - score! 'Leadlighting' is a relatively new nail art technique first popularized by Messy Mansion where you dab sheer jelly polishes over a white space with a stamped black pattern to fill in the pattern. Karen of @sharingvu on Instagram began using jelly polishes to fill in spaces she freehanded with Chinese calligraphy brushes (also known as 'sumi' brushes) and white/black acrylic paint over a black/white base. I was directly inspired by Karen's take on the leadlighting technique but put my own spin on it by painting a swirly and dotted pattern I have done elsewhere, and evidently, I'm not using just any sheer jelly polishes, I'm using NEON HOLO JELLIES!

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon holo jelly wavy skittle

Neon holo jelly time with Beyond the Nail's new summer galaxy collection! You can see drool-worthy swatches of these six beauties here. Today I have for you my first nail art look using these versatile polishes. By versatile I mean that that they are indeed neon and holo, and because they are jelly in consistency, you can build them up on their own, use them over a similarily coloured creme base polish, as a holo topper over a dark polish, or to make jelly glitter sandwiches...! Is there a nail polish type out there that can do more than that?! Nope, don't think so.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!

Neon. Holo. Jellies. Heaven on Earth by Beyond the Nail

Enough said right there. As I've said before, I don't always swatch polish, but when I do, it's cause it's f&#%ing awesome. This is Beyond the Nail's summer galaxy collection, which includes six neon holo jelly polishes. You just died. Please know that I will not be held liable for the circumstances that led to your death.

I have a full review* of these polishes with macro pics after the jump - but tiny hint - I LOVE THEM.