Franken: Cambodia

After reviewing some ELF polishes, I decided that one of them, Fair Pink, HAD to go. If you saw the review, you understand. So, I decided to toss some pigment into the bottle. I used TKB Tangerine Pop! and Coastal Scents Yellow Oxide.

Results? My latest franken, Cambodia:

Lovely color! That is two coats, in the picture. So, it is much more opaque. I really love this color!!!
to see where I came up with this color name click here

NOTD and FOTD: Tuesday March 17 2009 ST. PATRICK's DAY!

Are you ready for a St. Patrick's Day FOTD and NOTD????

Eye products

Dab on a very thin layer of the ELF cream shadow on to lids (I did the chartreuse in the inner 1/2, bronze outer 1/2). Using Coastal Scents 78-pc-palette, select the green labeled "1" and apply that to whole lid. Next, take bronzy color labeled "2" and apply to outer corner and a little ways into the crease. That pale champagne-y color "3" is for highlight. Apply to brow bone. Next, I applied the brown to the outer 1/2 of lower lash line and the green to the inner 3/4. Green liner to waterline, I used NYC waterproof in Teal. So, not quite green, but best I got. Curl your lashes and apply mascara of choice. Since these were more earthy colors, I used CG Lash Blast in Black/brown. A little more natural color. Oh, I also applied some black shadow "4" to my brows after grooming to color them in some. I don't do that everyday, but I had the CS palette out, so I thought, why not.

Voila:



Some face and lip products:

That whitish lipstick is actually a primer.
I used the Avon Blush in Earthen Rose for contour.


Now for the nails! Take the following ingredients:

And MIX!
3/4 SH Emerald City 1/4 SH Gunmetal. Add 3 drops each of a white and a black creme (I used Rimmel Nail Tip Whitener and Maybelline Onyx Rush). Next, I added a bit of NYX Crystal Glitter and NYX Pink Pearl. Add just a little NP remover to thin it out if necessary.

Now, that's what I did. You probably don't want to. Because if you're smarter than me, you'll realize that a glitter in an opaque polish will look dumb. It looks fairly reptilian. Hmm. That's what I'll call this. "Reptilian." Cool.

With Flash

W/o flashHoly crap! Look at all the green! Anyway, it was fun. :-)

NOTD: Monday March 09 2009

So, I have a lot of drug store polishes. It's basically all I own, but I love looking at swatches from the many polish blogs (see links to the blogs I follow on the left). Once in a while I see a color that I MUST HAVE. Until I graduate and have more money, I'm not going to be able to buy all the polishes I want. So, I'll try to dupe it. I'm not that good at it. Anyway, one such color that I fell in love with at first sight was Dirty Sexy Money from Misa's Living On The Fast Lane collection. Here's a swatch from one of my favorite polish bloggers: ScrangieIsn't her manicure PERFECT? The color is wonderful. It's a delightful dusty teal color. Plus, I loved the show! It's so deliciously ridiculous.

Anyway, I tried to dupe it using the colors below:
These are the same colors I used to make Xanadu, my gray color

My color ended up being too light. Grr, it looked the right color in the mixing dish, then I put it on my nails and it was clearly obvious how light it was... Then I went outside! Oh well. It's a fun color. I am going to try again later, but I'll keep this on for now. Oh, btw, this is two thick coats without a topcoat. And I haven't cleaned it yet.

Note: although my dupe is too light, it isn't as light as it is in the photos. All of them make it look quite a bit whiter than it is.

We're calling this color: Parisian

Outside--Sunlight

Inside--Fluorescent

NOTD: Thursday March 05 2009

I only had one vote (Tiffasaurus failed me) so now, my nails are green! I'm really liking the color! I wanted something different than what I had on hand, so I frankened!

These are the colors I used:

Recipe: 20 drops of Maybelline Go Go Green (a chartreuse with shimmer), 10 drops of Sally Hansen Emerald City (a darker green with shimmer, not quite forest green), and 10 drops of Pure Ice Jaguar (a champagne gold with a hint of fine glitter).

Mix 'em all together and the result was Harlequin:




I love picking out new names :-)

This color is what Maybelline Go Go Green wishes it was! I mean, compared with the outside of the bottle, it looks like GGG should be this shade, but compare these swatches (one coat each). GGG is a lot more YELLOW than Harlequin. It's hard to tell with one coat, but here are the pictures.


Also, here is the little mixing thing that I use. I don't have very many empty bottles so, I use this and only make enough for one mani.

Prezzies for Tiffasaurus

One of the prezzies I made for Tiffasaurus was a franken. I used a small bottle that had some Hot Topic topcoat that I got with a HT Fauxnad set. I used some clear topcoat, Grapetini by Icing, Pearl by Elf, and Wild Orchid by WNW (not pictured). I used about 1/4 clear topcoat, 15 drops of Grapetini, 10 drops of WO, and topped it off with the Pearl. But, remember, the bottle I used is really tiny. Grapetini w/o flash:

The result: Heliotrope!

I did my best to make these photos true to life colors. I added a bit of red to the photo. It's pretty close, now.
Here are the blush and shadows that I made for Tiffy. (Wisteria not pictured.) This is the only picture you get of them, because she needs some surprise. :-) I used micas and the matte base from TKB Trading. I used oxides and shimmer from Coastal Scents.

Frankens and Watermarking

So, first things first. I'm going to start watermarking my photos. The water marks in these are all different sizes because I was playing with them in the photos, trying to decide if I want something a little more discreet or not. Anyway, I think I like them bigger than it is in these first couple photos. Harder to steal, hehe. Now, onto the fun!

I've been having a lot of fun playing with colors lately. I recently saw Never Too Much Glitter's franken of Rescue Beauty Lounge's Concrete Jungle. I loved it! I've never worn a gray polish, so I decided to make my own. Now, RBLs Concrete Jungle is a bluer gray, but I didn't have any blues that weren't glittery or shimmery, so I used Icing's Marine Blue, which is far more green to me. I mixed about 20 drops of the Rimmel White, 2 drops of Icing Marine Blue and 5 drops of Maybelline Onyx Rush. The result: Xanadu! I love coming up with names for colors. I use wikipedia and go to the page for that color and find the one that looks the most like what I've got. True Xanadu would be darker, but wiki was sadly lacking in gray shades. Plus, the name rocks!!! Also, I've never had such a color on my nails before and I LURVE it!


Also, you can see my new awesome hobo gloves. That's what I call fingerless gloves, because they make me feel like a hobo.

Second franken: I mixed a pearly white and a black creme. Actually, I didn't use the ELF, but I used it for the photo so you would know what kind of white I used. I actually used Love My Nails Platinum, but I poured the black into that bottle, so I don't have the original LMN color. I used about 2/3 white and 1/3 black I believe. I didn't record it at the time.

The result: Arsenic!

Last franken for this post. Actually, the first franken I ever tried! For this I mixed Pure Ice Jaguar, Wet'nWild Wild Orchid, and again the same black and white cremes as used in Xanadu. Again, I don't remember how much of each I used. I know I only used about one or two drops of the black because it was looking a little two pale for me. Urrrg. Oh well. I am going to remember from now on. :-)
The result: Thistle! A Lavender-y color with a bit of a holo shimmer, but there isn't that much of the glitter so, really, you can only tell when it's in the bottle. God, how I want a holo. The funny thing is that neither the PIJaguar or the WNW Wild Orchid is a holo.


I had fun with this! So, on that note, sorry I haven't been posting much. I haven't been doing my makeup that much. :-( It's a busy time. I like nail polish because I can put it on one day and wear it for several days in a row. Nothing like eyeshadow, hehe. Oh well.

First Frankens!

So, I won't be updating here as much. I'm sorry! It's back to school and I've got a busy semester. But I did some very exciting stuff today! I made my first two franken polishes! The first one is a dark silver color. Not quite gunmetal, but not silver either. It is around the color of normal metals that you see in every day life, quarters, pipes, etc. It was made using Love My Nails Platinum and Maybelline Express Finish Onyx Rush. The LMN Platinum was over 3/4 empty and I have another color that is similiar, so I decided to experiment. I put in a little of the Maybelline Onyx Rush and looked at the color (the LMN already had some ball bearings in it). And then I put in a little more and tried it out. And I gradually upped the Onyx Rush until it was a great dark grey/silver. I'll have photos at some point. The second was made in an Avon Top Coat bottle was mostly empty. I added in Pure Ice Jaguar, Wet'n'Wild Wild Shine Wild Orchid, Rimmel "Nail Tip Whitener," and finally, three drops of the Maybelline Pure Onyx, because it was a little to light. It's a beautiful dusty dark lavender with some shimmer. I will have to take picture. It turned out so well.

Anyway, if you want to keep up with other goings on in my life. I will probably be writing in Mary Commentary more often. :-)