Chanel - Graphite

Here's one you've seen a million times, and here's a million more photos of it, too.

Basecoat:  Fiberglass Network (1 coat)

Color:  Chanel Graphite (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (1 coat)

Like Peridot, Graphite damn near applied itself.  Cleanup was minimal and easy, went exactly where I wanted it to go.

In the bottle it looks a little like another silver metallic, but it's not, at all.  There's a lot of dark gray/black mixed in, and some gold.  I swear there is some duochrome in here, too, because at certain angles I catch a lot of green tones and at others it's straight silver.

OPI - Mad as a Hatter

I've had Mad as a Hatter since it came out, but I never wore it until now.
I have a new backdrop in my lightbox. I'm thinking it doesn't work and I need to find another one.
Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Essie Loophole (2 coats)
Color: OPI Mad as a Hatter (4 coats)
Topcoat: OPI Top Coat (1 coat)
Topcoat: Seche Vite (1 coat)

I forgot about the regular topcoat trick to keep SV from shrinking until after I'd already slapped a coat of Seche on my pinky finger. So, I have a good bit of shrink on that nail but only the glitter - Loophole stayed just fine.

I wanted really opaque coverage so I went to four coats of MaaH. Application was just what you would think for this much glitter - hard to control, cleanup sucked.

Really, really pretty though :)

Zoya - Trixie and Halloween decals

Quick and dirty with some Halloween nail art decals. I probably would have gone with black and orange as my base colors if the Rangers weren't playing the San Francisco Giants in the World Series - any other team and I would have done black and orange.
Trixie is a silver foil. It's my go-to metallic silver - I never have the application problems with Trixie that I usually do with Zoyas.

Basecoat: Gelous (1 coat)
Color: Zoya Trixie (3 coats)
Halloween nail decals from Sally
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Even though I didn't use the Zoya topcoat I didn't have any bubbling or shrink. I may try David with other Zoyas to see if it works OK - I already know Seche is a disaster with Zoya.

Application was a little bit of a pain - cleanup is pretty difficult for most foils and this was no different. Still, though, for this kind of payoff it's worth it.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Color Club - Magic Attraction

Here's one that has been in my stash for a while - Color Club Magic Attraction. I can't remember when I picked it up but it's one of the oldest Color Clubs I own - I've never seen Color Club for sale anywhere until I found online e-tailers. Since then I've seen it at one nail supply store, but that's it.

Magic Attraction is a holographic glitter. It's not a holo in the same way that China Glaze DV8 and OPI DS Glamour are - it's just got a ton of holo glitter in it, but it doesn't sparkle in any kind of pattern. It looks very "meh" inside under indirect light. Here it is next to a window on a mostly cloudy day.
See? Meh. Since I am working at home today I went outside to take a picture of this. It figures that it's been cloudless and sunny all week, but as soon as I go outside to take pictures, it's mostly cloudy today. Here it is in as much sun as I could find today.
Sparkly, but not spectacular, right? When I looked at the photos of this mani and got to this one I giggled like a little girl. This is inside under halogen light:
If I've done this right, you should be able to click on this one to embiggen it. Look at that sparkle and color! If the sun comes out for real today I'll go outside and take another photo. I'm going out to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington tonight so I'll at least take a photo with my phone and post it to Twitter, then move it here later (probably tomorrow). The breakdown:
Basecoat: CND Stickey (1 coat)
Color: Essie Loophole (1 coat, just to hide any bare spots)
Color: Color Club Magic Attraction (3 coats)
Topcoat: Seche Vite (2 THICK coats!)

Let's talk about application here. Magic Attraction is very pretty but it was a PAIN to apply! It's packed with glitter in a clear base, but even with as much glitter as there is, I still had some bare spots after two coats. I had to glop on the third coat in some places to get even coverage. Clean-up was a pain, too. You can forget the acetone/brush trick with this one - just be careful in application. And, the finish was super-bumpy - one coat of Seche wasn't enough and I had to do two to get it smooth. I don't have any tip pulling right now, but I will be extremely surprised if I don't have any later. I'm OK with that though, because I usually file my nails on Fridays, so it won't be that obvious. I'm kind of dreading removal, but I'm not - because I know I'm probably going to pick it off, like I usually do. I really wish I could stop doing this. It can't be good for my nails long-term.

Have a great weekend, everyone - I'm going to try to fit in a comparison of Color Club Warhol and China Glaze Pool Party before my regular mani.