Dr. Pepper

We all have our vices (nail polish anyone?) and one of mine definitely has to be soda. It's already getting pretty warm here in Florida with our highs getting up almost to the 90's. What better way to combat the heat than with an ice cold glass of I dunno, Dr. Pepper? Oh, and air conditioning too, definitely air conditioning. 

Dr. Pepper started off with a base of TKB Luster. Then, it was followed by one small scoop of TKB Red Sparks followed by, one small scoop of Blackstar Red pigment from Coastal Scents, and one medium scoop of Coastal Scents Bordeaux Glitter (a darker, almost wine red fine glitter/shimmer)

Swatches show two thick coats plus one coat of fast dry top coat. I really liked the way that all the ingredients came together in this polish to make inn cohesive color. Is it spring appropriate? Meh. Is it super hanging on the edge of your seat exciting? Not so much. However, I love the color and sometimes you need just a little bit of simplicity. The polish was a little patchy on the first coat, but went on smoothly

Well, that's all for today my friends. See you back next time for more franken awesomeness! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* Luster Base and Red Sparks: TKB Trading

* Blackstar Red and Bordeaux Glitter: Coastal Scents

Desert Night

Hello my dears and hopefully you have had a wonderful start to your week! It has been a little hectic in the Femme household as we were getting ready for an upcoming trip to Denver, Colorado to go meet some friends. As I type to you now I am flying somewhere over  the US. Now, I would be lying to you if I said I loved flying because I absolutely positively do NOT. So let me tell you, I am not having fun right now.  But there is nothing like a little blogging to take your mind off the unimportant things…. like plummeting to your death :)

Anywho, today I have a  double multi chrome franken that I had high hopes for. Did it deliver? I dunno, let's check it out!

I started this polish of as usual, with TKB Luster Base. I followed it up with 6 drops of thinned out black nail polish colorant. I then added multiple drops ( I MAY have lost count) of Spectrflair4u's blue/red chromaflair in base. Finally, I added 2 small scoops of Misfits on 8th red/blue/purple multi chrome glitter.

 Pullin the old switcharoo

The multi chrome glitter is in there, did ya catch it??

This polish is super shifty but overall I'm a little disappointed. I was really hoping to have a shifting base with obvious shifting multichrome glitter suspended in it but I wasn't quite able to achieve that. It definitely wasn't the glitter's fault, that stuff is glorious! Maybe being less heavy handed with the chromaflair pigment? Hey, at least the formula was easy. I was able to get it opaque in two coats and swatches show the polish with an extra coat of fast dry top coat. 

Well, that's all for today my loves. I am prescheduling some posts for the next week but I will be around for the most part to answer any comments or questions. Hope to see you around next time but until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* Luster base and black nail polish colorant: TKB Trading

* Red/blue chromaflair: Spectraflair4u

* Red/blue/purple multi chrome glitter: Misfits on 8th

Different Dimension Have a Grape Day - Franken Femme Review

* purchased by me *

Different Dimension has been around for awhile and is definitely one of the bigger name indie polishes right now. So why oh why did I wait so long to get my grubby little hands on one? I just bought my first Different Dimension recently and see this polish line becoming a huge problem for my wallet…. seriously…. and intervention may be needed…. or chaining me to a  chair, whatever. 

Today I have Have a Grape Day to show you! This polish is a purple (cold) to blue (warm) thermal change polish with added shimmer. The maker Missi did mention that the polish can be a little sheer so an extra coat may be needed. Now, my polish niche is totally jewel toned colors for the most part (you would not believe how much I often have to hold myself back from making EVERY.FRANKEN.EVER. a color on this spectrum. Self restraint people!). This polish is so undeniably "me" it hurts. But in the best way possible ;^)

No, my hands are not terrifyingly greasy. I just dipped my tips in cold and warm water

Great photo of the color, terrible photo of the shimmer. Meh.

I made this macro photo XL because, shimmah

Swatches show 3 coats plus top coat and indeed, there is still some visible nail line. However, it is more apparent with the blue than the purple. Formula was thick in an awesome way and smoothed on like lotion to a baby's bottom (that'd be smoothly for the unimaginative ones). I didn't really test dry time as I am a firm believer in the religion of fast dry top coats (hallelujah!). The thermal shift was not hard to see if your nails were past the tips of your fingers. However, those of you with nubbins may have to properly enjoy your polish when touching warm and cold objects. Either way, I love this polish and I see myself wearing this a lot. Well done Different Dimension!

Well that's all for today my loves. See you next time for another franken creation but until then, remember to keep it classy and creative and check out Different Dimension on Facebook and Etsy!

North Star

So I'm completely beating myself up because I missed the blood moon that was visible here the other night in the US. Did anyone catch it? The pictures look amaaaazing! Instead, I guess I will just have the night sky on my nails (though I know that is not NEARLY as cool!)

This polish started off with TKB Luster base followed by 4 thinned out drops of TKB Black Nail Polish colorant. Next, I added one small scoop of TKB Turquoise Tweak Reflecks, one medium scoop .004 purple hex from Glitter Unique, and finally, 2 medium scoops Glitter Unique Mini Holo Stars.

Swatches show three coats plus fast dry top coat. As for the formula, this one did require a little more….. finesse? The mini holo stars are lovely and I hoped they would be easier to get out of a polish bottle given the smaller size. The good news? They are a little easier. The bad news? They are still kind of a pain in the butt and require a little work to get them out of the bottle and place them on the nail. Given that I make all my frankens in mini bottles, it would likely be easier to get stars like these out of full sized bottles. Not only that, but the stars are heavier and do tend to migrate south. This is easily fixed by a quick roll of the polish bottle in your hand but I know a good bit of you would not think this was worth the trouble. 

Overall, this is the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star personified. However, if  were to use it again, I would probably just do one or two quick coats over black. I dig it, I just think it can be tweaked a bit.

Well that's all for today my loves. I will be announcing the Stump the Femme winners on Friday so stay tuned! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* Luster Base, Black Nail Polish colorant, Turquoise Tweak Reflecks: TKB Trading

* .004 Purple Hex and Mini Holo Stars: Glitter Unique

Hidden Treasure

Hello loves! Monday already? Where does the time go? We spent our weekend in Orlando visiting friends, so it's always hard to return from the land of the magical Mouse (hint, his name may or may not rhyme with Nikki!). It was nice to get out of town for a bit and just enjoy the nice mind clearing effect that has. Staying in a hotel shaped like a castle didn't hurt either…. :)

So while it was pretty difficult to come back from a great weekend, at least I have an awesome pretty to help shoulder some of the burden!

Lapis Lazuli

Hello my friends! Hopefully you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was great for the most part but due to a change in my medications, I've been having an increase in migraine headaches. I had one today so I am going to keep this post short and sweet (like me! heh)

I call this bad boy lapis lazuli, mostly because it was the closest thing I could think of for how it looks; and honestly, it kind of doesn't even look like that. Hel-lo lack of creativity!

This polish started with TKB Glamour base. Next I followed it up with one small scoop each of TKB Her Majesty and Turquoise Tweak Reflecks. Next, I added on medium scoop of Glitter Unique Black Opal Mix with all it's black and iridescent goodness. Next, I added one small scoop of Glitter Unique .004 Periwinkle hexes. Finally, I finished it off with 6 drops of Spectraflair4u's size 14 holo for some awesome linear dimension!

Rest easy friend, you do NOT need glasses, it's just a terrible photo. But, it shows the holo!

I know it's hard to tell, but this polish is VERY linear and it throws some serious rainbows. Swatches show three coats plus fast dry top coat. Despite the glitter, the polish spread like a boss and was smoother than I thought it would be. I love how it is so easy to see both the glitter and the holo making it a double whammy of sorts!

Well that's all for today my friends, see you back next time with more franken awesomeness and (hopefully) less migraine pain in the butt-ness! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* TKB Base and Reflecks: TKB Trading

* Black Opal Mix and Periwinkle Hexes: Glitter Unique

* Spectraflair: Spectraflair4u

Duping the OPI Sheer Tints - Drugstore Digits (ish) Style

Haven't you heard? That the bird is the word? And by bird I definitely mean the OPI Sheer Tints. They are so hot right now.

Courtesy of the Polish Aholic

I've been on the fence about these because to me, they just kinda seemed like glorified jellies. That can't be too hard to recreate right?  Right?! Well, my response to that is, eh. Check out what I did!

Here we have two coats of my sheer tint dupes over another 2 coats of an off white cream and one coat of fast dry topcoat to seal it in (I dinged a couple nails, oops). Are they exactly the same? Pssssssh, nope. But they are close enough to satisfy me without having to buy the real thing. The best news? Nearly all of the ingredients came from drugstore polish, WOOT! I will have the recipes listed here by number:

1. Pink Sheer Tint- TKB Glamour Base (clear polish will work!),  one drop Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Sonic Bloom, one drop OPI Don't Burst My Bubble

2. Purple Sheer Tint- TKB Glamour Base, 6 drops L'oreal Berry Nice (I know I know, this was already a jelly so I kinda cheated), and 2 drops Essie DJ Play That Song

3. Teal Sheer Tint (and by far the biggest pain in my rear end)- TKB Glamour Base, 4 drops L'oreal Miss Pixie, one drop Essie Naughty Nautical, one drop Milani Fresh Teal, and one drop Fringer Paints Tough Art to Follow

4. Amber Sheer Tint- TKB Glamour Base, one drop TKB Basic Yellow Jellie (this was thinned and surprisingly, pretty much the only yellow I have),  and 4 drops LA Colors unnamed orange from a Ross set

So there you have it, your very own sheer tints! While I love you, I will not be linking the resources where I purchased these ingredients partially because I don't entirely remember, and partially because there are 182453201945 ingredients. 

Here is a full swatch mani along with an accent nail in which I simply just swiped each different color randomly on the nail (over the same off white base color).

Because of it being a jelly, the formula was super easy and like buttah! Despite those swatch photos, my white was a bit shimmery and it is showing through the color. With the exception of the amber, my orange also had shimmer so you may be able to see that a bit in swatch photos. So good news, they are relatively close, the bad news, they look to be sheerer than the sheer tints. But whatevs, I still like the overall look of the mani (bubbles and all).  By the way, I was trying to test out my speed mani skills last night and ended up with so many bubbles, I looked like I was scuba diving. Anywho, I think frankening like this has a lot of potential. Can you imagine neon sheer tints for summer?? OOOOOOh!!

Well that's all for today my friends. See you back next time for more franken awesomeness! But until then, I leave you with an additional photo and a reminder to always keep it classy and creative!

xo