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| 1 coat Lynnderella in Mercurial over 1 coat OPI in My Pointe Exactly over 1 coat Lynnderella in Mercurial over 2 coats RGB in Haze |
Sorry for the absence recently. I'll just preface this by saying I wasn't very happy with this polish experiment. I like it, but it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, you know? So it ended up kind of depressing me. Really, what was going on is that my best friend just moved out to California. I'm so proud of and excited for her (also, a bit jealous), but I've been in a bit of a sulky stage of grieving (so dramatic!), so I just left this mani on for a long time and I would get bummed whenever I looked at it. Worn May 22 - June 5, 2012.
I guess I should let you in on a little secret: I think layering glitters is kind of stressful! I have all of my unpacked polishes swatched on nail sticks, and I try to figure out what I like best, but in the end I'm too lazy to start over once I get started, so if it sucks, it sucks. I usually take my inspiration from the creative genius of other bloggers.
This post has lots of pictures and is long and a bit scattered!
I had envisioned this layering combination as kind of a mix of hard and soft, gloomy and ethereal, and the result wasn't quite up to my imagination. My camera did not correctly pick up the overall base color once the glitter was layered over it. It was slightly more purple, kind of like a more grey Sephora by OPI in Metro Chic (one of my favorite colors ever). The base color I used was RGB in Haze. Haze is from the
Pre-Fall 2009 collection, but is still available to purchase.
A brief review of RGB: I own 8 RGB polishes, and they are all very nice colors, apply well, and I like their bottles. However, I don't anticipate buying anymore from them. I bought these when I first was getting into nail polish through Michelle at
All Lacquered Up, and I bought pretty much every color that appealed to me that she swatched on her blog. I'm not at all unhappy with the RGB's I own, I just don't think the colors are unique for $16 (they were $14 when I bought them). I do wish all brands used rectangular bottles though; they are so much nicer to store.
So, Haze. My pictures match up most with
Michelle's at ALU, but I also found swatches that look more purple from
Get Nailed and
Flinty on Polish or Perish. The polish never looked like that on me, but as you can see my bottle's a couple years old and the pigment's a little separated (no problems with odd pigment streaks in application though - I did shake the bottle quite a bit before these photos). I would describe Haze as a taupe with dusty lilac undertones, but it changes in different lights - and it really looked different once I layered over it.
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| RGB in Haze (direct natural light, cloudy day) |
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| RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
I added one coat of Lynnderella in Mercurial (this bottle is from the first collection; they are now rectangular bottles). I found Mercurial to be easy to apply. Mercurial was part of the "
First Edition" collection, and as far as I know, is still available (if you are patient) through the Llarowe wishlist system. I have gotten really lucky with acquiring Lynn's polishes, so I have no tips, but I can understand the frustration.
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect artificial light, indoors) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect artificial light, indoors) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
A brief interlude of my layering project to compare Mercurial and Lovey Dovey. I can't remember which blogger described them as negatives of each other, but I agree with them. Mercurial has more silver glitter and a darker jelly base with subtle shimmer; it has more large hex glitter and some very sparse black medium hex glitter. Lovey Dovey has more purple glitter in a milkier base with more prominent shimmer; the glitter is overall smaller and medium hex glitter predominates.
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| Mercurial (l), Lovey Dovey (r) |
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| Mercurial (l), Lovey Dovey (r) |
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| Mercurial (l), Lovey Dovey (r) |
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| Mercurial (l), Lovey Dovey (r) |
Okay, after adding a layer of Mercurial, I added a coat of OPI in My Pointe Exactly, the grey jelly from the Spring 2012 Soft Shades "
NYC Ballet" collection. I really liked how this looked! Sorry my cuticles look so gross at this point, but I was doing a bit of clean up with acetone as I went along.
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| OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
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| OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
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| OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Lynnderella in Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect artificial light, indoors) |
However, I looked over at my polish racks and noticed that it looked kind of similar to Lynnderella in Gotta Love Brains/Lynnderella in Mysterious Ways, and I wanted this to be different. AKA I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I decided to add another coat of Mercurial. It still looked cool, and I got a lot of compliments on it, but it just wasn't a combo that excited me. Also, I had already added Seche Vite on top of My Pointe Exactly before I decided to add another coat of Mercurial, so it began to look a bit thick. The final result includes 2 coats of Seche Vite over the final coat of Mercurial. It wasn't completely smooth, but there was minimal bumpiness (it was not noticeable unless you felt my nails).
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect artificial light, indoors) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect natural light, cloudy day) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect artificial light, indoors) |
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| Lynnderella in Mercurial over OPI in My Pointe Exactly over Mercurial over RGB in Haze (indirect artificial light, indoors) |
I didn't get any black glitter except on my thumb nails. On my left thumb, the black glitter was kind of softened by adding My Pointe Exactly over it, which I preferred to my right thumb.
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| Left thumb |
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| Right thumb |
Another epic post! It seems I just can't help myself. Did you like this combo better than I did? Which of my layering combo's did you prefer? What's your favorite way to layer Mercurial?
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