Koi Fish.

I almost named this post "Jelly Fish" for no other reason than it made me giggle. After my fail of a seahorse, I still wanted to try making an image go across all my nails. Other than a little mess up on the middle finger (it's a bit twisted) I really like it! I painted my nails white (when my bottles of white get low I pour them all into one bottle, so this is a mixture of Sally Hansen "White On", Wet n Wild "French White Creme" and Milani "White On The Spot") I then stamped with Cosmetic Arts "TGIF" using Messy Mansion plate MM29. I colored in the Koi using OPI "Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?" making sure to leave uncolored white patches. Then I filled in the water with a frankened blue jelly I made. I love this so much more than my seahorse from the other day!

And here is the Koi fish for comparison in-case you're not sure what a real one looks like.

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Franken Polish

A Franken Polish, like Frankenstein's Monster, is a polish made up from other polishes. A drop of this and a drop of that to make a whole new creation. I have just started making up my own starting with a hideous topcoat that has been sitting around in my stash for years. It became thick and yellow and I was NEVER gonna use it. I probably should have thrown it away, but now I'm glad I didn't. A couple drops of thinner, some color from other polishes, and a pinch of glitter and I have my first Franken.

Here I really wanted a St. Patrick's polish, a nice Emerald or Kelly green with gold hex glitter floating in it like gold coins. While I'm proud of it it does have a major issue that I still need to research. The glitter falls to the bottom fast and needs to be shaken constantly to get it on the brush. I've heard that to add glitter to polish you need a suspension liquid to add to the polish so the glitter stays spread out, but I don't have any and don't know what could work in its place. Here is a close up of the jelly like green.

And of course I can't stop at one Franken Polish!

Now, how exactly do we make a Franken? Find out more after the jump!

My First Franken

Guess who just took her first steps into the world of Frankening! I'm gonna make a Lexicon post on Frankens later but I'm just so excited I had to share this first. Basically I took a clear polish and added drops of other polishes to make a new color. I'm still learning how to make the colors opaque, but I'm excited about these first few bottles I made. Both the yellow and coral have a hint of shimmer to them but it's not coming through in the pictures well.

So much fun! I'm off to buy some more clear polish. And maybe some empty bottles...

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Jelly Sandwich

For quite a while I was stumped by the term "jelly" and "jelly sandwich". I kept getting it confused with Gel nail polishes and tips. The main trait of a jelly is it is very translucent with a weak or watery color. To make it opaque would take a crazy amount of coats if you could get it opaque at all. I used to hate the few jelly bottles I had thinking they were lame polishes and the color too weak to do anything with. I've since apologized to them :) Now that I'm using them correctly I think of the colors and squishy (no idea why) or like Jolly Ranchers or some other hard candy.

The most popular use of jelly polishes are layering them with other polishes, usually glitter. Layering them is what is known as a jelly sandwich. This gives depth and dimension to a manicure. Check out a few samples after the jump.