Rhapysody Breaking Out

Today I have a new stamped mani to show you.

As base color I used The Polish Well Breaking Out, a deep blue polish with multicolored flakie shimmer. The pictures show three thin coats.

Then I added a chain-like pattern using Essie Blue Rhapsody, a light blue metallic, that looks almost silver over the deep blue of Breaking Out, and Bundle Monster plate BM-207. As always, I added one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

At the moment, apparently there's no shop where The Polish Well polishes are available. If you follow The Polish Well Blog, Mich, the creator, announced pre-sales of her polishes, that's how I got mine. 

Pahlish January Duo

 

Today's mani shows the Pahlish January Duo, dedicated to Doctor Who (to be precise: to the regneration from Doctor number eleven to twelve).

The base color is called Eleven's Hour Is Now Over and is a very dark, almost black grey creme with multicolored flakie shimmer. I used two coats for opacity.

The glitter topper's name is The Clock Is Striking Twelve's. It has a generous amount of various glitters in different shades of grey (I'm sure there are may less than 50) and silver holographic. 

I dabbed one coat of The Clock Is Striking Twelve's on my ring finger and thumb. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top finished this mani.

 Pahlish polishes are available on Bigcartel, at Overall Beauty and at Llarowe. I bought mine at the Bigcartel shop. The monthly duos are limited edition, so this one is no longer available.

Golden Oldie Thursday - Yellow

This week's Golden Oldie Thursday theme is yellow.

As base color I used Catrice Vanilla Love (shown here), a pastel vanilla colored polish with a subtle shimmer. Since I had some issues with it the last time I used it (still patchy after four coats), I layered it over Essie Blanc (two coats of the Essie, one coat Vanilla Love). To complete this "vanilla ice cream look", I added one coat of Nubar Black Polka Dots, a clear polish with tiny and medium black hexes. One coat of KBSHimmer Clearly On Top finished this mani.

More yellow manis below

An InLinkz Link-up

Comparison Post: Mint Me Up - Two Fingered Salute

Yesterday I showed you Catrice Mint me Up. When this polish came out, a lot of peaople called it a dupe to Butter London's Two Fingered Salute. Since I own both, of course I had to compare them.

Both polishes have a mint colored creme base, Butter London's base is just a little more muted than the Catrice one. The Catrice has less of the copper glitters, but they added a golden shimmer.

 

Catrice, 3 coats

Butter London, 3 coats

As you can see, the two polishes are shomewhat similar, but not at all the same. No dupe-alarm here.

Mint Hopper

For today's mani I took a look back to my previous manis and got inspired by this one.

As base color I used Catrice Mint me Up, a mint (duh) colored creme with golden flakie shimmer. I used three thin coats.

Then I used some striping tape and added one coat Catrice Sand Hopper (Luxury Lacquers Collection) on my tips, a textured polish in almost the same shade of mint green as Mint Me Up.

Moonshine Vampire

Today I have a new skittlette mani to show you.

My thumb, index and pinkie finger show three coats of Colors By Llarowe Moonshine, a deep plum colored jelly with lots of tiny silver glitters. On my middle and ring finger I used three coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff (Euro Centrale Collection), a cream colored creme polish, and stamped some flowers/stars/whatever with Moonshine and MoYou London Fairytale Collection plate 05. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top finished this mani.

Colors By Llarowe are available at Llarowe and at Harlow & Co.

Comparison Post: Tempest - Every Month Is Octoberfest

While applying Mentality Tempest (shown on tuesday), it reminded me somewhat of OPI Every Month Is Octoberfest, so I decided to compare these two.





I used Every Mont Is Octoberfest on my pinkie and middle finger, Tempest on my ring and index finger, two coats each. Since the OPI is shiny and the Mentality matte, I added H&M Matte topcoat on my pinkie and KBShimmer Clearly On Top on my index to be able to compare the two polishes both in a matte and a shiny version.

left: OPI      right: Mentality

left: OPI          right: Mentality

As you can see, the OPI is a little darker than the Mentality, plus it has a purple base, whereas the base of Tempest is blackended/dark grey, so the OPI looks more blue/purple toned than the Mentality. The shimmer particles of Tempest are bigger, so this polish reflects the light better than the OPI.

Conclusion: these two polishes are similar, but not quite the same, so no dupes. Do you need both? Not really, you can substitute the other with a matte/shiny topcoat. Is it justifiable to want/have both? Absolutely, they're still different enough :-)

Mentality polishes are available at Big Cartel and at Harlow&Co., where I bought mine.