Category Archives: Franken Polish

Franken Polish!!!

Hello! I hope you are having a lovely start to the week! 🙂

While I was ill I made five Franken Polishes!

If you haven’t come across the term “Franken Polish” before, basically it’s mixing polishes you already own to make something new and unique!

Pile of nail polish

I’m hoping it was because I was ill and full of medication, (rather than being scatterbrained and disorganized) but I didn’t actually write down which polishes I used…  But I did leave them all in a box…

I’ve mostly worked out which ones I mixed together, but the ratio of polishes, I have no idea :/ It’s a mystery!

Purple shimmer franken polish

The first one is this purple shimmery polish, this one is definitely made from a mix of Prosperity from Illamasqua, Little Misfit from Morgan Taylor and a few drops of one of the Jade Holographic polishes.

I have been asking myself one question while I have been trying these. “If I had brought this polish, would I be happy with it?”

This one is definitely a yes! Purple is one of my favorite nail polish colours ever, it’s pretty much one coat, (I did use two for this swatch) and it dries to a satin finish, and the slight holographic sparkle stops it from looking flat and dull.

I’m really happy with this one 😀

The next polish is this glittery dark blue jelly.

blue jelly glitter franken polish

After a close inspection of the bottle, this polish looks to be a combination of Blue Dahlia from Estee Lauder, Rimmel London – Finishing Touch Glitter Topcoat, Barielle Shades – Stardust, Filthy Gorgeous – Rock Chick and Maybelline Express Finish – Flash Cosmic.

This is such a pretty blue polish! It’s a shame it doesn’t apply very well… Hopefully all it needs is a drop or two of thinner. As is is right now, I have to say it’s like trying to paint my nails with lumpy jam!

The colour and glitter are really pretty but if I had brought this, I would send it back!

Next up is this dark silver/black holographic polish.

black silver holographic franken polish

The ingredients in this one was actually quite easy to work out. just two polishes in this one, Sally Hansen – Pure Midnight and Jade – Estasy.

It’s a really pretty sheer scattered holo polish (I’m really pleased with this one)

would I be happy with this if I had brought it? with out a doubt yes!

grey gold glitter franken polish

I don’t know what I was thinking when I made this grey one… I like grey polish, but I really don’t like this…

It’s made from Illamasqua – Raindrops, Bettina – Iron, Different Dimension – Light Year and Daring Digits – Batman

On their own each of these polishes are lovely, but when combined they become a thing of horror. HORROR!

Some of this polish dries the moment it’s applied to the nail, so the first coat was lovely, fast drying, really good amount of glitter. The second coat appears to re liquefy the first coat and changes the consistency to something resembling scrambled egg. Ugh!

This photo is from the second time I tried it, I left half an hour between the two coats and it was still a bit lumpy. I added two layers of Seche Vite to try and even it out lol

I hope that I never receive anything like this from a polish company.  It needs a stake through it and burying at a crossroad!

pink shimmer franken polish

Here is the last one! This pink is (as far as I can tell) a mixture of Pink Raindrops and Collide both from Illamasqua and Glass Slipper from Sally Hansen.

Pink Raindrops from Illamasqua is one of the most disappointing nail polishes I have ever brought. but I’m sure I’ll find some use for it! (even if it is just mixing it with other ones)

This is another polish that I’m not convinced about, it applies really nicely, and it’s really sparkly, but that shade of pink, it’s really not a shade that I would be drawn to. Maybe I mixed this one in the dark lol

If this was a darker or more purple toned pink it would be lovely, it’s opaque in two coats and dried quickly so yes, I would be happy with it if I had brought it!

I think next time I make some franken polishes I’m definitely going to write everything down lol! 🙂


Misty Graveyard Halloween Nail Art

Hello! 🙂

Misty Graveyard Nail Art

Today I have a Misty Halloween Graveyard to show you! Even though this took ages I am so pleased with this!

Misty Graveyard Nail Art

The Idea for this mani has been lurking around in by brain for a while, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and do it. But I suppose this is a good thing to come out of the last couple of nights of insomnia.

Misty Graveyard Nail Art

Close up I think it looks a little bit like snow!

After a bit of experimenting with polishes I ended up with just the right combination of sheerness and glitter to be able to build up the misty look on the nail without loosing to much detail.

To make my franken jelly polish I used

  • Clear nail polish
  • Illamasqua – Raindrops
  • ILNP – My Private Rainbow

In a little 5ml polish bottle I mixed a one quarter raindrops to three quarters of clear polish, then as an after thought I added three drops of my private rainbow.

Misty Graveyard Nail Art

I started out with my usual base coat and then a layer of Raindrops, when that was dry I added the first stamped gravestones on the top half of my nail, then a layer of topcoat, and a coat of the franken polish.  I had to apply the extra layers of topcoat because the franken polish mix dissolved the stamping polish.

Then the next layer of stamping slightly further down the nail, and then repeating the layers of polish.

Then the last lot of stamping I added a little black polish between the last gravestones then a final coat of topcoat.

In total this mani took nine coats of polish (not counting the stamping).  Surprisingly it didn’t feel really thick.

Misty Graveyard Nail Art

I really like this technique, and I’m definitely going to be trying this again, even if it does take absolutely ages 😀


Thoroughly Unfestive Tropical Fish Manicure!

Hello! 🙂

Today I have some thoroughly unfestive tropical fish nail art to share with you 🙂

tropical fish leadlight nail art

Tropical Fish

I recently replanted my fish tank with loads of plants! It looks really nice now and my fish look really happy (well as happy as fish can look)!

For this I started with a couple of coats of Lumin-iceant from Color Club, I really like this polish, it’s a blue toned silver foil polish and it’s opaque in one coat.

tropical fish leadlight nail art

MM21 and MM09

I used two stamping plates from Messy Mansion, MM21 for the scales and MM09 for the fish, along with konad special polish in black.

For the leadlighting chose to use some tinted polishes that I mixed myself, you can find the post about them Here. I used my dark blue, purple and red ones.

tropical fish leadlight nail art

Tropical Fish Leadlight Nail Art

Here’s a bonus (rather rubbish) photo of my fish tank.

fish tank

Fish Tank!

In a couple of months when the plants have grown in a bit I think it’s going to look lovely!


Leadlight Nails!

Hello! 🙂

Today I have my first attempt at the leadlight technique to show you!

Leadlight Nail art

First attempt at leadlight technique

I started out by making my own Leadlight polishes! I brought a set of 24 mini (5ml) topcoats from Ebay, I had a few umm “issues” with the seller so it took almost a month for me to get them after ordering… Gah!

When they eventually got to me, I mixed a few drops of different coloured polish into each little bottle. I think I need to add a bit more colour to them as I found they are too sheer at the moment. Oh and I really have to invest in some mixing balls, so much shaking to get them mixed it felt like my hand might drop off :/

My Leadlight polishes

Starting from the top, the colours I have mixed so far are, magenta, pink, light blue, yellow, red, dark blue, green, black, dark purple and lavender.

Pink blue and purple lead light nails

pink blue and purple

I used Ivory skull from Sally Hansen as the base colour, then used Konad SP Black for the stamping. The plate I used was one of my new Born Pretty plates, it’s plate QA88 and you can find it right here

After the stamping polish dried I added a coat of Seche Vite, and started colouring in my nails I used the red, dark purple and dark blue polishes… I have to say the leadlight technique is a bit like paint by numbers nail art lol

When it was dry I added some Glitter top coat from Rimmel over the purple, then another thick coat of Seche Vite.

leadlight nails

leadlight nails

Even though my little polishes need a bit more work, I think for a first attempt this didn’t turn out too bad! 🙂


31dc2014 – Inspired By a Pattern

Hey everyone! 🙂

Today I have two very different attempts at the inspired by a pattern prompt!

Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to photograph my blue gingham nails  as soon as I had finished them so they all chipped and looking scruffy, so sorry about that!

Blue gingham Nails

For these nails I started out with a base of white on white from china glaze, for the gingham pattern I used a thin brush and my blue franken polish creation, you can find another post about it right here.

The black polish is Emotions from O.P.I It’s one of the Liquid sand range.

After I had finished the blue pattern I realized that I absolutely hated it! It looks like those dreadful plastic tablecloths! Ugh!

 

Purple stripe nails

Purple stripe nails

These where inspired by the pattern of my fluffy slipper socks lol!

I used two polishes for this, Poke from Illamasqua and Inkwell from Sinful Colors. I Have to say I’m much happier with this than the tablecloth nails! 🙂

I started off with a coat of Poke, then when the first coat was dry I added alternating stripes of poke and inkwell, while the polish was still wet i used a pin to break up the edges of the stripes to give it a slightly fluffy look.

It was so easy! I added a coat of Seche Vite and it was all done! 🙂

Purple and black stripes

nails inspired by stripy slipper socks lol


Blue Jelly Sandwich! Using My First Franken Polish!

I made my first franken polish! 😀

I had a clear mini polish ( I think it was a top coat) from a cheap glitter set I picked up, and I knew that I was never going to use it so instead of leaving at the back of a draw, forgotten and covered in dust I decided to mix it with some other polishes to make something I would (hopefully) like and use!

Blue Jelly Sandwich

Blue Jelly Sandwich

I emptied the mini clear polish into a larger nail polish bottle then I added around eight drops of Propaganda from Illamasqua, I really love the dark blue colour of Propaganda, it’s so intensely pigmented that eight drops was enough for the blue colour.

I wanted my blue jelly to have a bit of shimmer so I mixed in some Mikado from Astor, this is a teal/green duo-chrome (ish) colour. I have swatched this polish once and it’s not as nice on as it looks in the bottle, so i’m glad that I got to use it for something. I must have added around twenty drops of it before I was happy with it.

Then I added four/five drops of Strap On Your Moon Boots from China Glaze, as you can’t go wrong with a bit of holo sparkle!

My First Franken Polish

My First Franken Polish

For the stamp I used Ivory Skull from Sally Hansen and Moyou Suki collection plate 02 I used three coats of my franken jelly polish with a stamp between each layer!

I’m rubbish at naming things so… What do you think I should I call my new polish?


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