Slow Invasion

Tree months and one day until the return of Doctor Who! To shorten the waiting time a little, I've got a Doctor Who polish to show you today: Nail Pattern Boldness Slow Invasion.





"Slow Invasion is a deep teal jelly with many different sizes and colors of square glitter. It is part of the Time Traveler collection and is inspired by the invasion of the same name."
(Source: Nail Pattern Boldness)

My camera shows the jelly base a little too blue, IRL it's a little greener. Application of slow invation was easy, no issues to report. The jelly base is pretty sheer, I used three coats for this mani and it wasn't completely opaque. I like this squishy look, but if you prefer full opacity, I'd recommend using a matching base color. 

Direct sunlight

For a glassy smooth finish I used one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer.


Nail Pattern Boldness polishes are available on Etsy and at Llarowe.

The Tin Man On The Blue Highway

Today I have a blue and silver mani to show you.





As base color I used Catrice Blue Highway (Hip Trip Limited Edition), a navy blue polish with a subtle cobalt shimmer. Formula was good, I used two medium coats for opacity.





On top of Blue Highway I added one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness The Tin Man, a clear base with bits of crumpled silver foil. It's like the silver brother of OPI's The Man With The Golden Gun and other gold leaf topcoats. I dabbed the polish on the nail to get the foil pieces to spread a little better.

For a smooth finish, I added one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. Please excuse the massive bubbling, my bottle of Glitter Food is almost empty and tends to get pretty thick and stringy towards the end, I forgot to add some polish thinner before this mani...

Nail Pattern Boldness polishes are available on Etsy and at Llarowe.

Hello, Sweetie!

A Doctor Who polish today: Nail Pattern Boldness Hello Sweetie! It's purple, it's Doctor Who, I simply had to get it :-)










 "Hello, Sweetie is a purple jelly with a mix of copper, black and red metallic glitters. It is part of the Time Traveler collection and is inspired by River Song."
(Source: Nail Pattern Boldness)

To be honest, after endless years of Emergency Room, I still think of Elizabeth Corday when I see Alex Kingston, but I do like River Song. ;-)
"Hello Sweetie" is how she greats the Doctor

My pictures show four coats of Hello Sweetie, topped with one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast. The purple jelly base is a little more red tones IRL, my purple-hating camera refused to capture the color correctly.


Nail Pattern Boldness polishes are available on Etsy and at Llarowe.

Oodiful

Today I have another Doctor Who polish to show you: Nail Pattern Boldness Oodiful.

Oodiful is part of the Time Traveler Collection and is named after the alien race Ood (if you don’t know the Ood and are interested, you can find out more about them here), whom the Doctor and his companion Rose meet first in the two part episode  The Impossible Planet /
The Satan Pit.

„Oodiful is a grey jelly with pink and white matte glitters.“

(Source: Nail Pattern Boldness)

The white hexes come in two sizes. There are also two sizes of pink glitters, but these are squares. The smaller ones are a little darker than the bigger ones. The jelly base was less sheer than expected. I normally use four coats of jelly based glitter polishes, but with Oodiful I was happy with the opacity after three. I didn’t fish for the glitters or dab them on, drying time was very good. I finished with one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

 

Nail Pattern Boldness polishes are available on Etsy and at Llarowe.

I Believe I Can Fly

Today I have another gorgeous Nail Pattern Boldness polish for you: I Believe I Can Fly.

I Believe I Can Fly is described as „a deep blue jelly with two sizes of square silver glitter plus red microglitter“.

(Source: Nail Pattern Boldness)

There’s not only red, but also purple microglitter in it. And I wouldn’t call the color of the jelly base blue, but deep teal. The square glitters look aqua blue to me, but as there’s always a layer of jelly base over them, I just have to believe Allison (the creator of Nail Pattern Boldness) when she says that they’re silver ;-)

 

The formula was great. I used four coats, but most people would have stopped after three (most of the time I use one coat more than others). Drying time was very good, and the glitters spread easily. I added one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer.


Nail Pattern Boldness polishes are available on Etsy and at Llarowe.

Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food

Today's post is a little different: I don't have a new mani to show you, but a fantastic little helper for glitter addicts like me: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food (Fix A Flat).

If you've read my previous posts, you probably noticed me mentioning Glitter Food a couple of times in addition to Essie Good to Go or Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer. As you probably assumed, Glitter Food is a topcoat. It's not a quick drying topcoat like Essie Good to Go, but a thick one to smoothen the surface of glitter polishes (probably like Gelous, but I've never tried this one). By reading "thick topcoat" you may think of Essie Good to Go or Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer after a couple of weeks: these topcoats tend to turn very thick and goopy after a while. But Glitter Food is different: while it's very thick to smoothen the glitter surface, it's not goopy at all. If you wipe it on it produces a very smooth finish, no visible brush strokes whatsoever.





Allison, the creator of Nail Patter Boldness describes Glitter Food as following: "If you wear glitter polish you've probably noticed that the finish can be gritty or rough, especially with denser glitters. This works great as a topcoat to smooth things out and give you a nice glassy look."
(Source: Nail Pattern Boldness Etsy shop)

I tried to take some pictures of a glitter polish before and after adding Glitter Food to show you the surface, but I realised this isn't as easy as I thought. I hope you can still see the difference.




 The glitter polish alone has a rough surface, the individual glitters tend to stick up a little.

 


 After adding Glitter Food, it's like you sealed the glitters behind glass. Glitter Food seems milky in the bottle, but it dries absolutely clear with a satin finish. 






If you prefer a glossy finish, like I do, I'd recommend an additional glossy topcoat (I use Essie Good to Go or Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer). As I always use a quick drying topcoat on top of Glitter Food, I can't really talk about drying time. But I noticed that the quick drying topcoat doesn't dry any slower with Glitter Food beneath it, so it seems to have no influence on drying time of your mani.






Allison also mentions two more applications of Glitter Food:
"Recently I've been testing it for use as a basecoat - particularly for polishes that require a super smooth base to start with - and have been liking the results. More on this as I gather data!

Yet another use for this product is to "fix" polishes that have "gone flat." By this I mean polishes where the original base used wasn't strong enough to hold up the glitter, and it's not possible to just shake it back up to reincorporate the glitter. I've included a few before and after photos on polishes I've fixed this way so you can see what I mean. The way I've used it is to remove the top 1/4 or 1/5 of the sinky glitter bottle using an eyedropper and replace it with Glitter Food. Shake it up (really really hard the first time) or you might need to get in there with an orange stick to really pick up the glitter off the bottom of the bottle. If there's enough interest in using it this way I may offer a kit in the future that includes a dropper (though if you have a Sally's near you they sell disposable plastic ones that are great for this purpose)."
(Source: Nail Pattern Boldness Etsy shop)

I haven't used Glitter Food as a basecoat or to fix glitter polishes, so I can't tell how good this works. 


As you can see in my bottle shot, I'm already halfway through my bottle, and I already know I'm going to rebuy it once it's empty. I'm really pleased with Glitter Food and use it on all my manis that contain rough glitter polishes. 


Glitter Food is available at the Nail Pattern Boldness Etsy shop (if it's not sold out like right now) and at Llarowe .

New Years Eve Mani

It's New Years Eve today, and this is the mani I'm wearing for this occasion (and for the next couple of days. I'm spending New Years Eve in the mountains with my boyfriend and some of his friends, and I won't be back until wednesday night). I tried a glitter gradient for the first time, but as a gradient, it's a fail. Not gradient-y at all. But I still like it (and as I didn't have the time to re-do the mani, I just have to wear it like it is...)





The base color I used is Nail Pattern Boldness Bigger On The Inside.





Bigger On The Inside is part of the Time Traveller collection, and as a huge Doctor Who fan, I knew I had to get my hands on some of this polishes, as soon as I heard about this collection. And I'm really glad I did. It's bigger on the inside is what most people say when they first enter the TARDIS, the Doctor's Space/Timeship. Allison, the creator of Nail Pattern Boldness, describes Bigger On The Inside as "a bright blue jelly with silver and blue micro glitter." It's the perfect 12th-Doctor-TARDIS-blue, deep and vibrant. Without a topcoat, the surface is slightly rough, but as soon as you add topcoat, it really shines and sparkles (as you can see on the full mani pictures).


 

On top of Bigger On the Inside I sponged two coats of GlimmerbyErica Snow Day (Winter Collection) with a make-up sponge, beginning at the cuticles.





Snow Day is "a mix of silver holographic micro glitter, iridescent micro glitter, iridescent square glitter, silver hex glitter, and white hex glitter, all in a clear base. There are no colored glitters in this polish, all of the colored flashes are from the holographic and iridescent glitters reflecting in the light. It reminds me of a snowscape, with the sun glittering off of the snow and ice crystals."
(Source: GlimmerbyErica)
As I mentioned before, I failed at creating a real gradient. I clearly have to practise this.

















I had no formula issues with these two polishes. Bigger On The Inside applied nice and easy, two coats provided full opacity. I added a third for more depth. Snow Day didn't need any fishing for glitters, the clear base is packed with them. It's clearly not the fault of the polish this mani din't turn out quite as I imagined.Due to the glitter, the surface was pretty bumpy, so I finished with one coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food and one coat of Essie Good to Go.









Nail Pattern Boldness polishes are available on Etsy and at Llarowe.

GlimmerbyErica polishes can be bought on Etsy.


I wish everyone a Happy New Year! I'll be back in a couple of days.