Water marble

This is my first successful water marble. That is to say I’d tried it once before but didn’t follow the instructions and ended up only doing one nail (badly). So learn from my fail and follow instructions, such as those of the Queen of water marbling: Colette. I ended up with a bit of the white base coat showing through by my cuticles, but overall I was happy with it. I used Orly White Out for the base, and marbled with China Glaze For Audrey (‘Tiffany blue’) and Foie Gras, and NYX Girls Girly. Followed by a top coat of Poshe.

Outside in sunlight.

Some tips: make sure your water really is room temperature (or body temperature, which seems to work better when it’s humid). Water comes out of our tap very cold; my fail was because I used it straight from the tap. I now microwave it for around 10 seconds. I’ve heard of people from countries where the water is cloudy with sediment having more luck with filtered water. And tape the hell out of your fingers. Wrap tape right up past the second knuckle! You’ll be happy you did when it comes time to clean up, and you can always snip the tape off with nail scissors. Snipping also avoids messing up your nails by picking at the tape edges. And practice, basically. Work out what you like. Some people want a very symmetrical look, some people like a random marble effect. I’m going to try to do this at least every couple of weeks so I get better at it.

Left (dominant) hand.

Right thumb.

China Glaze Hunger Games

My order from Head2Toe Beauty arrived! I am not a Hunger Games fan and what little I know about the series come from people talking about it on Twitter. Likewise it’s only due to other polish blogs that I had any idea China Glaze had made the odd (but lucrative) decision to release a line of nail polishes inspired by what turns out to be a dystopian story about children killing each other. That slight side-eye aside, I was really taken by a few of the colours. Whatever the inspiration, these polishes are stunning. In light of my lack of fandom interest, I’m only going to talk about the polishes in this (longer than usual) post including my final manicure and swatches.

The shades I had to have were Riveting, Stone Cold, Agro, Foie Gras and Dress Me Up. I’ve swatched them below, and then decided on a mani of the matte Stone Cold with shiny Riveting tips (inspired by the goth feel of Wednesday night’s Almighty Johnsons episode). Quite a few people have commented that Foie Gras and Dress Me Up don’t really fit with the rest of the shades in the Hunger Games collection. They are softer, more elegant cremes as opposed to the other striking shimmers and glitters. But because I was just buying based on whether I liked the colours or not, I’m happy with them.

Click all to enlarge.

(All are two coats over a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty. No top coat. In order of little finger to thumb.)

Dress Me Up: a dusty, slightly dirty pink creme. Puce’s prettier cousin. The formula was quite runny and the first coat goes on streaky (as is common with cremes) but the second evens it out. Self-levels well. I find China Glaze brushes easy to work with, but I did have to trim an extra long bristle. True to bottle colour.

Foie Gras: a rich, dark, dusty purpled-brown creme. Formula also runny but is glassy smooth in two coats. Dries a bit darker than it initially goes on the nail and shows in the bottle. Initially I thought it looked a bit like OPI Over The Taupe, but looking at my swatches it’s a shade or two darker and more purpled. Could be quite similar to You Don’t Know Jacques?

Stone Cold: I love this dark asphalt grey-black matte filled with silver micro glitter (and not just because of the name). It’s a Stone Cold Stunner. Yeah I went there. It looks lit from within while still having a really industrial feel. The formula is a bit difficult to apply — it dries very quickly and you have to work fast to avoid clumping. If careful, is a one coater. Lovely satin-feel finish, not chalky. My husband wants me to do his nails in this colour. (I’m a little sad about my broken-to-the-smile-line nub, incidentally.) Glossy top coat makes the glitter really pop.

Agro: an olive-green shimmer. Beautiful formula application and almost a one coater. Herbaceous green with a bit of an edge and a lot of depth. Slightly foil-like, lovely on.

Riveting: my favourite from the collection when I was looking online, and my favourite on the nail. A striking fiery orange jelly base filled with gold shimmer. Definitely a lit-from-within shade. Deeply saturated glowing embers. I love this. Further, it was a dream to apply. Only good things to say about this polish.

And finally, my finished mani. Sally Hansen Double Duty for my base coat, 1-2 coats of Stone Cold (I wasn’t quick enough on some nails to avoid streaks),  2 coats Riveting on the tips (the first applied with tape, the second free-handed), Poshe top coat on the tips (which doesn’t give me a headache like Seche Vite, yay!).

Overall the application on these was so, so much better than other (older) China Glaze polishes I own. Have they improved their polish formulas?