Some quick pics of a manicure I did last week! This is Illamasqua Whack, a red-toned orange creme with a really nice formula. It’s almost a one-coater; I ended up doing two coats here. I dabbed on Nubar Orange Glitter at the tips and then a layer of Fingerpaints Twisted over everything!
Lemon Sour is another polish from Finger Paints’ spring collection, Gumdrops and Lollipops. It’s a pretty pastel yellow creme.
Shown here are three coats in full sunlight. Most pastel yellows are quite streaky; this one is better than average on that front. I would have been happy with it at two coats for everyday wear, but since I was photographing it I added the third just to make sure there were no thin spots showing through. The polish was well-pigmented like Finger Paints cremes tend to be, and it also felt a little bit too thick – I think it will benefit from some polish thinner next time I use it.
I’ve accumulated a little collection of very similar pastels yellow shades in the search for the ones with the best formulas; I’ll have to do a pastel yellow comparison post soon!
I recently got four polishes from the FingerPaints spring 2012 collection, Gumdrops and Lollipops, and today I have Circus Peanuts to show you. I love the colour; it’s a pinky, pastel coral peach creme shade. The formula isn’t the greatest but not the worst either. It’s quite thick and very pigmented like most FingerPaints cremes are, but it’s also a little streaky like a lot of pastels are. I ended up using three coats to even out a few slightly patchy spots I could still see after two coats. I’m thinking that adding some thinner to this polish will help with the application.
When this first came out I wondered how it compared to China Glaze Peachy Keen. Turns out they’re in the same colour family but not really all that close.
Circus Peanuts is a bit lighter and definitely pinker; Peachy Keen is more of an orangey peach. This photo shows three coats of each.
FingerPaints Circus Peanuts (index and ring) and China Glaze Peachy Keen (middle and pinky)
The formula on Peachy Keen is streaky and significantly more difficult than Circus Peanuts’ in my opinion. While I used three coats for each, the third was definitely necessary on Peachy Keen whereas I felt that I could have gotten away with two for Circus Peanuts if I had been a bit more careful. Shown below is the result after three streaky coats (with top coat but after about a day and a half of wear). This polish, while not quite as thick as Circus Peanuts, definitely could benefit from a good dose of thinner just to attempt to make it less streaky. I really love the colour though, so I think it’s worth the hassle of its application!
Back in January Sally Beauty Supply released an awesome collection of flakie polishes under their FingerPaints brand called Special Effects. These have been reviewed tons of times online already and are probably sold out by now at most Sally stores, so I just wanted to share a few layering combos I did with some of these polishes over the last few weeks. Unfortunately there wasn’t any sun for any of these pictures though.
Two coats of Motley, the green-blue-violet flakie, over three coats of Sally Girl Peabody in very overcast natural light:
Two coats of Asylum, the red-yellow and blue-violet flakie, over two coats of Nubar Pink Flame, again not very good lighting; this is artificial light:
Two coats of Twisted, the most colourful of these flakies (it’s pretty much like all the others in the collection mixed together), over two coats of OPI Russian Navy Suede, overcast light:
I definitely like the last combo best – I’ve determined that I really prefer flakies over dark colours where they stand out clearly, rather than over pale colours.
Vegan Claws 
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