SWATCH - 'Clever Girl' from Femme Fatale (Thermal)

Today I'm sharing some shots of 'Clever Girl' from Femme Fatale's 'Welcome to Mars' collection. Femme Fatale is one of my favourite indie nail brands and I own some amazing thermals from them. Clever Girl is shifts from a bright candy red when cold to a clear jelly base when warm, leaving full view of the multitude of golden glitter on display.

I believe the red jelly base leans pink, but the gold glitters in the mix can make it look orange-leaning. It's one of those little details that elevates a good polish into a complex beauty. It is indeed the transitioning state of 'Clever Girl' that really caught my eye - it becomes this lovely sheer pink-red gradient polish with that gold glitter peeking through. It makes me think of a juicy ripe peach, for whatever reason. Do you see that, or is it just me? I've saved my final image for last so do endeavour to make it to the end of the post!

Here I have applied 3 thin coats with a Seche Vite top coat. 

Full mani in cold state (red)

Full mani in transitioning state (cold to warm)

NAIL ART - Fantasy Forest Collaboration / Ladies of Color Group

I've been feeling quite fatigued this last couple of weeks so I haven't done much in way of photos or posting, but here's some nail art I did a while back for the Ladies of Color group on instagram organised by Diana of @nailcraftaddict.

Here is the group's mani collage below. You can see the close up of each 'square' here and find all the manis and their owners at #locfantasyforestcollab on instagram. The manis are inspersed with great inspiration images and I really enjoyed seeing so many creative offshoots of the same theme. 

NAIL ART / REVIEW - Sinful Colors Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon the #fluidnailart on Instagram and found myself mesmerised by the hypnotising patterns created seemingly by magic. I believe they were mostly created by utilising silicon spray with nail polish - I am unsure of the exact logistics but were so stunning! I couldn't see myself adding to the nail polish fumes so I filed the idea away in the 'live vicariously' brain folder...

Then this range of polishes came out. The Sinful Colors Punk Yourself collection is a mix of 5 'regular' shades and 5 shades of transforming top coats. The following description is from the SC site:

Get Punked Up! A unique, edgy & liquefied look in a single brush stroke! Punk style is all about celebrating self-expression with a customized, one-of-a-kind look. Applied over wet polish, Hypnotic Transforming Top Coat instantly creates a melted, dissolved or dyed effect. The results are totally unique with each use! 

I bought the entire transforming range. The colours are (below image, clockwise from top left): Redrum (bright primary red), Punk the Town (fuschia-leaning purple), Rebel Rebel (navy / tardis blue), Purpunk (dusty pastel violet), and Concrete Jungle (slate grey).

Image taken under indirect sunlight

I could only find these polishes internationally on eBay from ebay seller 'onelasttouch'. You can view the listing here. I paid a total of $31.04 AUD for 6 polishes (I bought a double up of Purpunk) and $20.30 AUD for postage. The seller messaged me after to let me know she kindly covered postal insurance for me out of her own pocket so the shipping cost might be different. It worked out to an average of ~$8.60 AUD each, which is fairly reasonable for the number of polishes and the HTF factor. For the record, Sinful Colors polishes stocked in store here for between $4.95 - $6.95 AUD depending on the line. I highly doubt the line is going to make it over here from the US as it is only being sold in Walgreens there, but if is I will definitely be purchasing back ups!

Image taken under indirect sunlight

The transforming top coats had a formula similar to regular cremes. They are recommended for use 'over wet polish'. I decided to use a variety of techniques I had seen done from Kyong (@kyong.lee.92), Eugenia (@laqvid) and Linda (@_nail_ninja) and layered some regular polishes with 1-2 shades of the transforming top coat on my silicone mat. These ones were done mostly by swirling the polish with squishy rubber stamp, but I did fold the mat on some designs to spread them out. The decals were a lot thinner than most I usually make, and I found this helped it to adhere to the nail much better.

After I carefully peeled the decals off and cut them up, I stuck them to my nail with my Emily de Molly's basecoat. It becomes tacky approximately 20-30 seconds after applying, which is the perfect time to apply the decal. I then sealed the edges with acetone and topped it with Seche Vite. 

Right (non-swatching) hand, hence the nub

Left (normal swatching) hand

The full left hand with thumb

I love the mix of colours. To me it looks like a cool tie-dye. In future I will definitely try to stick to one colour palette when selecting decal portions so they look less random. You can see in my left hand that I tried to pack all the cool parts in, but then I realised how it looked a bit disjointed and my right hand matched a lot better. I am also going to try to stick to 3-4 colours per fluid nail design. I just get so dang excited I tend to try to include ALL OF THE COLOURS (ditto watermarble) but.I think the effect is most striking when not having to compete with the colour distraction.

Close up of left pointer finger

Close up of left thumb

Close up of right middle and ring finger

You can use the #sinfulcolorspunkyourself, #scpunk, #hypnotictransformingtopcoat, to have a look at how other people have used them. I will be playing with these more (I already have since taking these photos). Let me know if you try them!