Flurry

So I gotta know, has anyone made any good resolutions? We're thisclose to the new year and I'm looking forward to a great year ahead! I think my first resolution is to uphold my resolutions. That's a start right? Another resolution I have is to just be happy and remember to take delight in the small things. I think that's important for everyone!

Well today's polish is positively wintery. So hunker down, grab some cocoa, wrap yourself in a blanket, and let's get started! I started this polish off with 3/4 of a mini bottle's worth of TKB Glamour Base. Next, I added one small scoop of TKB True Blue powder pigment. This pigment is a bright bordering neon medium blue w/ a low sheen. Then, I added 3 medium scoops of Glitter Unique's White Opal Mix which is a mix of multi size semi-translucent white squares and hexes mixed with small, pastel, multi colored, semi translucent squares and hexes. It's gorgeous, seriously. Finallly, I added 2 small scoops of .004 shifting rainbow hex, again from Glitter Unique. The shifting rainbow is a reference to the fact that it is iridescent. I called this one Flurry and I'm sure you know why!

Swatches, albeit terrible swatches, show 3 coats plus top coat (but you can still see a bit of VNL). Glitter required minimal placement and it wasn't annoyingly bumpy without topcoat. I love how the small shifting rainbow hexes almost act like glistening snow!

Well, that's all for today my friends. Again, I am sorry for the photos, I am a little bit embarrassed. They don't show up on my computer that way so frankly, I'm baffled. Just a FYI, I will be taking the rest of the week off to recharge my franken batteries and start mixing some new beauties. I will be back before you know it with more franken awesomeness. But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* TKB Luster Base and True Blue Pigment: TKB Trading

* White Opal Glitter Mix and Shifting Rainbow Hex: Glitter Unique

Blizzard

Hello my loves! Are you all recovered from your holiday comas? You're back just in time for New Years! Tidbit of knowledge on me, my boyfriend is a military brat and though he is hispanic, he spent a large chunk of his adolescence in Germany where his dad was stationed. He graduated from high school there and is now here in Florida with me. Well, he would always fly home for the holiday and would stay until a few days after New Year's. His parents are now stationed here stateside and do you know what that means? We get to spend our very FIRST New Year's Eve together... four and a half years later! Not going to lie, I am really stinkin excited :)

 So now that you know a little about me, how about finding out more about today's franken? I started out with about 3/4 of a mini bottle's worth of TKB Glamour base. Because I am a doofus, I'm not exactly sure how much I used, but I used a bit of TKB Magic Diamond Colorant (this is a bright silver metallic and HIGHLY sparkly liquid polish colorant). Finally, I added one small scoop each of Glitter Unique's .008 black holo and silver holo hexes.  Also, apparently I forgot to take a photo of the ingredients, I apologize!

Yeesh, the quality of this photo is terrible. I'm sorry :(

 It looks like a dirty disco ball and I think that's awesome! It's so sparkly and seems like it might be perfect for a New Year's Mani! I love how all the little particles (not JUST the holo glitter) catch the light and sparkle. I love me some sparkly things that's for sure. You know, it kind of reminds me of Alchemy Lacquers Snowberry, but I like the Alchemy version way better. Formula needed 3 thick coats for opacity but that was also due to me thinning my Magic Diamond colorant a bit too much. Swatches also show top coat but it wasn't terribly gritty or anything like that.

 Well that's all for today, have a great weekend and see you back next time for more great franken adventures! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

 xo

 Today's Supplies Are From:
* Glamour Base and Magic Diamond Colorant: TKB Trading 
* .008 Black Holo and Silver Holo Hex: Glitter Unique

Ugly Sweater Party

Merry Christmas my friends! Hopefully you are able to spend time with family or loved ones :) I know I always enjoyed spending time with my family more than anything else. Food, of course, came in a VERY close second :)

 So I will keep today's post short and sweet so you can get back to your festivities! I decided to branch out a bit from my comfort zone after YouMix Glitters had a MAJOR sale before going on hiatus for 3 months. This was the perfect time to put my money where my mouth is and try some bar glitter. It was on sale so it wasn't as painful to purchase even though I hate it. This polish is the brainchild of some of these glitters! I started with 3/4 of a mini bottle's worth of TKB Glamour Base. Next, I added one small scoop of .008 gold holo hex from Glitter Unique. I then finished it up with one small scoop of .008 green holo hex from YouMix, and two medium sized scoops of YouMix Crimson Red Micro Bars. 

It's a nail sweater! My fingers are very warm right now.

The verdict? I.... don't hate it. I still called it Ugly Sweater Party because that's totally what the texture reminds me of but the bars are not big enough for me to completely disregard it. While it does still kinda look like hair, it's not bad at all! Swatches show two coats plus top coat. Surprisingly enough, all the glitters spread easily and evenly on the nail without having to do any dabbling. It does dry textured. Well that's all for today. Enjoy to rest of the day and I will see you back next time for more franken adventures! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

 xo

 Today's Supplies Are From:
* Luster Base: TKB Trading 
* .008 Green Holo Hexes and Crimson Red Micro Bars: YouMix Glitters (please note that the shop is on hiatus for about 3 mos. But, their FB page will keep you updated!)
* .008 Gold Holo Hex: Glitter Unique

Sparkling Plum

Well here we are at another wonderful Monday! Difference is, I get to sleep in for this one! Hopefully everyone has gotten their Christmas shopping done. I'd hate to see the stores right about now * shudder * Anyone have any good gifts they are asking for this year (or got already if you celebrate Hannukah or another holiday)? Everyone still enjoying their snow? Despite the marked lack of snow, seeing as that I am in Florida, I have enjoyed using my fireplace over the past week. If there is one thing that really makes me feel cozy and in the holiday spirit, it's a warm toasty fire. Well, between that and my obsession with S'mores, it's KIND OF a match made in heaven.

 But I digress, hopefully you are ready for todays gorgeous new polish! I was super excited because recently, I noticed that Glitter Unique's website had a category for effects flakes. These are small micro flakes in a bunch of different colors. Being the flake lovin lady that I am, I ordered a couple colors and today, I have sparkling taupe to show you. So I started this polish, of course, with 3/4 of a mini bottle's worth of TKB Luster Base. I then added 5 drops of (a thinned out) Gloss Black Nail Polish Colorant also from TKB. Next, I added one medium scoop of Glitter Unique Sparkling Taupe Micro Flakes. Finally, I added one small scoop each of Glitter Unique's .004 Purple Hex and Garnet Hex. I was planning on a shimmering blackened taupe base with a smattering of purple based glitter. Nope, none of that.

Ohhhhh this swatch! I can't even...

I definitely did get a blackened jelly base, but one that was overwhelmingly purple. The taupe flakes were there, but served to provide more dimension and glow to the polish. All while still having a hazy darkness to it due to the black jelly base. Yup, this was nothing like I had intended, it was BETTER. I.AM.IN.LOVE. Not just a "hey this polish is pretty" kind of love, but a "top 10 of all time kind of love"; and for a gal who's made hmm, I dunno, over a hundred polishes in her lifetime, that's a pretty big claim for me. It's just so... vampy and twinkly! Weird combination, I know. Swatches show three coats and one coat of HK Girl Top Coat. Due to the glitter, the polish was a little bumpy when dried. However, it was completely smooth after one coat of top coat. Formula was easy to manage and glitter spread evenly due to it's small size. 

 Well that's all for today my dears! Hopefully you enjoyed this polish as much as I did! See you next time for a Christmas themed polish (had to do one!). But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative! 

XO

 Today's Supplies Are From: 

* Luster base and gloss black polish colorant: TKB Trading 

* Taupe Micro Flakes, Purple Hex Glitter, and Garnet Hex Glitter: Glitter Unique

YouPolish When He Makes Me Laugh- A Review

* Purchased with my own money *

Another week ended. Hopefully it was relatively painless for everyone! I know I am especially looking forward to my week off! Does anyone else have any special plans? Any special Christmastime traditions? Something like maybe… Christmas Jammies (seriously watch the video, it is stinkin' adorable). I'm always intrigued to see how other like to celebrate the holiday so let me know!

Now, for today's polish I'm going to show you When He Makes Me Laugh from YouPolish. I randomly saw a swatch of this on Facebook and as soon as I saw that it had Mickey (or Minnie) Mouse heads, I jumped on that polish like a kid jumping on their Christmas presents. While YouPolish does have a few polishes with Mouse heads, I chose When He Makes Me Laugh. This polish is a clear glitter topper with matte black Mouse heads as well as white and baby pink dots , varying sizes of matte  hex glitter, and teeeeeeeny squares. It's so girly and I love it!

Swatches show one coat over my Orchid holo franken and one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry topcoat. Formula was thick, almost gel like, which made it perfect to suspend the glitters. However, it was easily spread on the nail. There were no sinking glitters and even the mouse heads were relatively easy to get out of the bottle with minimal fishing. The glitter did require a bit of placing on the nail but it was nothing outrageous or difficult. I did notice that while the majority of the mouse glitters sat fine on the nail, there were a couple with some small areas that sat up a little higher. This was nothing another coat of topcoat couldn't fix. Overall, I LOVED this polish. The glitter was dense without being over the top or clouding my base color. Brilliant!

Well that's all for today dear friends. Don't forget to check out YouPolish on Facebook, at their shop, and on Twitter. But until we meet again, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Hazardous Material

Hello hello and happy Wednesday! Hope everyone is geared up and ready for the holidays. I know I, for one, will be enjoying a whole week off from work over the holiday week. Is it bad that I am more excited about that than anything else? If there is anything I miss from being in school, it would definitely be the 2-3 week Winter Break. Those of you still in school, ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN. The real world is not nearly as cool as you're led to believe :)

 Well, now that I've gotten THAT uplifting message out, let's check out today's polish! I honestly have no earthly idea what inspiration I had for this polish. I think it was more of a, " hey, that could look cool together kind of thing." They can't all be strokes of brilliance can they? Anywho, I started with 3/4 of a mini bottle's worth of TKB Luster Base. I followed it up by adding 2 small scoops of Misfits on 8th neon yellow pigment, one medium scoop of Misfits on 8th Black Matte dots, one medium scoop of Misfits on 8th White dots, and finally, I finished it off with one scoop each of TKB .025" black and white squares. Say hello to this awesome neon squishy bad boy!

 Swatches show three thick coats and there is still a tad of VNL. Maybe I will layer it over a white base next time (maybe not, I value my retinas athankyouverymuch)? Keep in mind that due to the neon-ness of this polish, my camera tripped out and again was all, "NOPE." The actual color of the poish is very similar to the color of the yellow pigment in the ingredients photo. I love that it's not your typical neon, and it's most deifintely not your typical black and white glitter. Formula was pretty problem free but the dots did require just a little bit of placement. As it is a neon, if you want a glassy finish, top coat is a must!

 Well that's all for today's brand new creation! See you around next time for an awesome review of a polish that may or may not have something to do with a character that rhymes with picky house ;) But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

 xo

 Today's Supplies Are From:
* Luster Base and .025 square glitter: TKB Trading 
* Neon yellow pigment and black/white dots: Misfits on 8th

Orchid

Hello my dear readers! Is everyone ready and energized for this Monday morning?!? Good… me either. But hopefully, a new franken will make your Monday just a little more enjoyable! This one will be quick as I made this franken super quickly to be undies for a YouPolish I will be showing you later in the week. It's pretty simple. Combine about 3/4 if a mini bottle's worth of TKB Glamour base with one medium sized scoop and one small scoop of holo powder (I used holo powder from a group buy from China but you can find yours from Wonder Beauty Products among other sites), and finally two small scoops of TKB Purple Sparks! (larger particle shimmer). My final product was a linear silver polish with purple flash. I named this beauty Orchid!

So much linear goodness! Auuugh, must… keep… from… swooning. Too late. I got swoon all over the place :^/

Here is a great shot of the purple flash

Swatches show two thick coats plus one coat of HK Girl Fast Dry top Coat. Now, these photos were taken with both my DSLR in my light box and my iPhone on top of my laptop, hence, some of the color differences. I just wanted to be sure that I was able to show you both the linear and the purple nature of this girl. Formula was pretty easy but I did have to be careful to wait a minute or so in between coats as there was some minor dragging. So there you have it, an easy franken that is gorgeous to boot!

Well that's all for now my dears! See you next time for some more one of a kind creations! Word to the wise, grab your sunglasses for this next one ;) But until then have a great day, and remember to always keep it classy and creative!

Today's Supplies Are From: 

* Glamour Base and Purple Sparks!: TKB Trading

* Holo Powder: group buy

Wet Cement

Not to be one that complains, but I am sitting in bed with my space heater on all bundled up and I am STILL freezing. I know by no stretch of the imagination is the temperature here as cold as I think it is (for the record, I'm almost positive that it's about the same temperature as whatever the temperature was in the Ice Age). But, then I kind of laugh at myself because the high here was about 62 and that's not cold at all. The thought of some of the temperatures that you guys might be living in in your respective places of residence is enough to make my little Florida girl heart stop.

Now I would like to tell you that today's polish kind of reminds me of fresh fallen snow but I can't do that… because I've never seen snow. So I think the title is pretty self explanatory. This polish starts out with 3/4 of a mini bottles worth of TKB Glamour Base. I then followed it up with about 3 drops of TKB Gloss White Colorant, 1 small scoop of TKB Noble Sparks! (which are a larger particle silver shimmer), and finally two medium scoops of Wonder Beauty Products Prismatic Platinum Illusion powder (fine holo powder similar to Spectraflair).

The holo is in there, I SWEAR!

Because I'm all about the ambience, I decided to show you the siding on my house as a background!

So what haven I learned from Wet Cement? That finding a good balance in a white based holos is VERY difficult. Traditionally whites are very streaky and it generally helps to make them a bit more opaque and creamy if you will to help prevent that. However, the more opaque the polish, the less holo you will get as the holo particles are usually covered up by the polish's pigmentation. Not only that, but the more holo you add, the more grey your polish will lean. So clearly, I have not found that perfect balance but it's not a bad place to start. Swatches show three coats and one coat of topcoat. The first coat was a bit streaky but the polish evened itself out easily enough. The one thing I can honestly say is the holo was much more apparent in real life and the sparks help to add a little more sparkle. But, you're just going to have to take my word on that one.

Well that's all for today's polish my dears! Have a wonderful weekend and see you back next time for more Franken Femme action. But until then, remember to always keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* Glamour Base, Noble Sparks, and gloss white colorant: TKB Trading

* Prismatic Platinum Illusion Powder: Wonder Beauty Products 

The Grape Beyond

Hello my loves! I hope you had a wonderful weekend :) I spent almost all my weekend cleaning and actually ENJOYED it. I feel so weird saying that. Other than that, I cheered on my alma mater Florida State University and watched them win their conference championship. Now they are headed to the National Championship! Fun Franken Femme fact, I L.O.V.E. college football. Like really, almost to a sad level. But I digress, let's check out today's polish shall we?

Today's lovely lady starts of with about 3/4 of a mini bottle's worth of TKB Luster Base. I then added 14 drops of TKB Gloss Black colorant (which I thinned as this colorant comes very thick and very opaque), 2 small scoops of TKB Amethyst pigment (a blue toned purple powder pigment with light sheen), one medium scoop of Siren Red glass fleck, and one small scoop of TKB Marinda Star (glass fleck that shifts from gold to red to purple). What was created was a darkened purple glass fleck shimmer with a slight color shift. Then I called it The Grape Beyond because I am just so dang punny!

Yo girl, I heard you like glass fleck…

You can see some of the glass fleck shimmer in this shot!

Swatches show two thick coats of The Grape Beyond plus one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry top coat. Formula was thick but in a good way, spread easily, didn't drag, and didn't pool. I like that you can see the shift in then glass fleck but it's not super obvious. The sheen from the Amethyst pigment helped keep the polish a little more complex. What do you guys think?

Well that's all for today! Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Check back later for more franken awesomeness! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

All of today's supplies are from TKB Trading

Alchemy Lacquers - Winter Cherry and Flax

* Provided for Review *

Is that a collective weekend sigh I hear? I have absolutely no plans for the weekend and given the hectic awesomeness that was my Thanksgiving weekend, no plans sound AMAZING. Does anyone else have anything fun planned?

So, today I have the final two lacquers in my review of the new brand Alchemy Lacquers.

First up we have Winter Cherry which is described as a peach cream with turquoise interference that contains gold and red flecks in a yellow base. Whew! That's a mouthful! This polish description is pretty spot on but to me, the turquoise interference came across as more gold. Formula was buttery smooth and spread easily on the nail. Swatches dry down to an almost satiny smooth finish and the polish is opaque in 2 thick coats. I LOVED this polish. It is office appropriate and almost reads neutral while having that extra pop from the gold and red flecks. I took this home with me for Thanksgiving and my mother loved it so much, she swiped my bottle (who has two thumbs and has to buy more? *this guy*) Seriously though, that says a lot. My mom is a fan of what I lovingly like to call, "the granny mauves." Check it out!

Finally, we have Flax. which is a bright slightly purple toned blue shimmer which flashes pink at extreme angles. So extreme in fact, it was pretty much impossible to catch it on camera. I was able to sorta kinda get a picture of the shift in the bottle but EVERY time I tried to get a photo of the shift on the nail, my camera was all NOPE.

http://frabz.com/2n7y

Formula wise, the first coat was pretty sheer, but I had no problem building the polish up in about 3 coats. I did have a slight problem with dragging which was helped by a few drops of thinner. However, I do recommend waiting a minute or two in between coats to help avoid it. Otherwise, I had no other formula issue. I dig this shade of blue and how glowy it is. I can honestly say I don't have any color like this in my stash!

Pink flash come baaaaack! I'm trying to take a photo! 

Well that's all for the Alchemy Lacquers review. Don't forget to check them out on Facebook, Etsy, and online. I hope you have a great weekend and I will see you back next week for more brand new creations! But until then, don't forget to keep it classy and creative! 

xo

** These products were provided to me for an unbiased review. My loyalty is to my readers who deserve the utmost respect and honesty **