Colour morphing frankens

An exciting post today ladies...

Today I'm showing you three new franken polishes that I made using colour shifting pigments. As you will soon see, these are just short of amazing.  Its my opinion that these are the pigments that are/were used in polishes such as Clarins 230 and the old Liquid Euphoria.  One of them is also identical to my Avon colour morphing top coat. So please ensure your tray tables are in the upright position and lets go...

First up is the green to violet blue pigment.  This shows two coats over black with photos taken in the sun.  This one starts off green.

The below shot was taken indoors and shows the polish being a very strong duochrome with blue on the sides and green in the centre.

Back in the sun at a different angle you see the green shifting to blue.

Now here is my first ever youtube video.  It's not edited so there is ambient background noise and maybe a cat meowing, but you get the idea!  But I just wanted to try show the colours changing in real life.

Next up gold to green - This one looks exactly like my Avon Colour Morphing top coat.  Exactly I tell you.  Not just distant cousins, or sisters, these two are twins! 

It starts off a bronzey gold with mossy green undertones.

Spinning on the spot it gets greener and greener (and I get dizzier and dizzier).

And finally the turquoise blue flash at the end.

Another video in attempt to display the colour changing in real time.

Finally Copper Red to green. 

Now just like Kang I say "we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling".  Cause when I'm twirling, that's when the red goes green.

Holy crapola, I can't believe it went from that red, to the below green.  This is the kind of pigment I believe is used in Clarins 230 and Liquid Euphoria Bliss.  Now I made my franken really saturated because I wanted a full nail colour, whereas those polishes have a much more subtle colour changing sparkle, but that just depends on how much powder you put in.

Another spectacular video demonstrating my outstanding videography skills.

Here are my bottles pics of each of these frankens.  All I did was add less than a quarter of a gram of pigment to a bottle of regular clear nail polish.  As you can see these end up being a milky translucent polish.  If using regular clear nail polish (and not a suspension base) then it will settle to the bottom after about 3-4 days.  However I have found that these mix up a lot easier than glitter or spectraflair and you only need to re shake the bottle for a few minutes to use it again.

Ok, so now the fun bit about how you can get your hands on some of this pigment.  I was only able to buy this stuff in fairly large quantities, so I'm on selling the stuff I don't need.


What is it?

Its chameleon colour changing pigment, used in the automotive industry for car paints as well as manufacturing of plastics etc.  The particle size is 90 microns, which is larger than spectraflair, but smaller than ultra fine .004" glitter.  Mixed in nail polish it is totally smooth, no top coat required.

Where did I get it from?

I purchased two different brands from two places.

All three colours, Gold to Green, Copper Red to Green and Violet Blue to green, are Konfusion brand.  You can buy a half ounce tub from The coating store in the US for $45. But a half ounce is a lot of pigment when you talking a few bottles of nail polish.  That’s why I’m keeping some for myself to continue frankening with, but splitting up the rest to sell to you guys. 

Before I bought the Konfusion brand pigments, I actually bought a two ounce tub of House of Kolor chameleon powder in Gold to green from an Australian seller on ebay who had bought it to paint their car, and changed their mind.  This tub retails on the House of Kolor Australian website for $755.92!! 

Is it safe to use car pigment in nail polish?

First, I’m no scientist or chemist, so I have no definitive answer to that. When handling these powders you must use gloves and a mask because it is a very fine powder that will remain suspended in the air very easily, thus can be easily inhaled if you spill it.  Here are the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for the KonFusion pigment and the House of Kolor pigment

It is not cosmetic grade for use in other makeup, however suspended in nail polish it all seems fine.   I have had mine mixed for several weeks and they are still perfect.  No cracked bottles, no explosions, no fingers or nails falling off.  All nail polish contains pigments etc, and these colour changing pigments can only be created a specific way.  Given that these types of effects have been seen in nail polishes before (eg Clarins 230, Liquid Euphoria etc) I suspect these pigments have been used in the manufacturing process before.

However, if you have any concerns, do not purchase it. And I also don't want to hear from people bitching that I am using it and selling what I wont use.

How much is it?

AUD $6.50 per 1 gram pot

AUD $2.50 postage (to anywhere in the world)

I will combine up to three pots (one of each colour) for the same postage.

What will you get if you buy some?

I purchased some digital precision jewellery scales so I can accurately measure out one gram.  The scales measure down to .01 of a gram.

I also purchased some little 3 gram cosmetic pots to put the pigment in, rather than sending it to you in zip lock bags.  While placing the pigment in ziplock bags would be easier for me to do, I find it difficult to get  pigment out of them without creating a mess.  When you open the zip, powder often puffs up into the air.  I think this creates a greater risk on inhalation as well of being wasteful.  Whereas in the pots, you can leave it to settle, then gently open the pot, easily scoop some out and then do up the pot without powder going everywhere. 

So you will get one gram of your choice of pigment powder in a nice little cosmetic pot. Here is a picture of some I have packaged up already.

How many bottles of polish will one gram make?

Of course this depends on the size of your bottles and how saturated you want the pigment.  Do you want to make it a one coater or just a light flash of colour changing sparkle?  I made the above bottles up, which are 13.5ml, using less than a quarter of a gram.  I think mine are very saturated, but make your own mind up looking at the pictures.

How do you make a Franken polish with this?

If you just want a simple layering top coat, all you have to do is mix it with a clear polish.  Start with a little bit, then shake, and swatch it onto a black or dark base.  Keep adding pigment until you get the desired opacity.  Using a clear polish will mean it will settle after a few days.  If you use a very sheer French colour or other sheer shimmer polish as the base, it will generally hold the pigment in suspension. 

Of course you can add this pigment to other coloured polishes to franken up some awesome dupes of polishes such as:

• Clarins 230 – A sheer maroon purple base with copper red to green pigment.
• Liquid Euphoria Bliss – A sheer purpley/maroon base with copper red to green pigment. Check out a swatch here.
• Liquid Euphoria Dreamy – A sheer greenish jelly with gold to green pigment. Check out a swatch here.
• Liquid Euphoria Euphoric -  A sheer purple jelly base with Violet blue to green pigment. Check out a swatch here.

(Note: these are only my guesses at colour combinations and pigments – I don’t own any of those polishes and have based my ideas off pictures.  Please don’t take my word for it.  But I’m certainly going to start with these colour combos to try to dupe these elusive polishes and make easy to follow recipes.)

How to purchase?

I can only accept PayPal.

Send me an email to morenailpolish@iinet.net.au and tell me what colour/s you want.

I will then confirm that I have enough stock for your requested colour/s and send you all the details of how to pay in an email back to you.

Because of the outrageous PayPal fees, I will be asking you to send your PayPal payment as a "Personal" amount of "Payment owed", rather than sending money as "Purchase of goods". I will also ask people, where possible, to please use funds from a bank account or PayPal credit, rather than using their credit card.  I still get charged fees for all international transactions but doing the above two things helps to lower the percentage they take.

How much profit am I making?

After taking all costs into account (specifically PayPal fees) I’m making about a buck fifty for each lot, which I think is reasonable for the hours (upon hours) of time and effort involved in packaging and posting.

Why not sell through ebay?

It costs too much! I just want to share the awesomeness of these powders so others can have some fun like me.  If I were to sell through ebay I would have to pay insertion fees, final value fees and full commercial PayPal fees, plus spend more of my time to make eBay listings.

However if that is what people want (so they can receive PayPal buyer protection) I am happy to do it. But the eBay price will be AUD$8.00 per gram.  I will create individual custom listings for people who want this.  I'll then email you the ebay item listing.

I just want to do this as cheaply as possible for everyone, so you can experience this fun with nail polish.

What if it doesn’t arrive?

I will take photos of every order I send off to prove I have done it.  If the item is lost in the post (and I addressed the envelope correctly) I can’t take responsibility for that. Sorry.  If this is a concern for you, I’m happy to do registered post, although that costs $13.20 which you will have to pay.  If my photo shows I sent it to the wrong address, I will resend.

I'm happy for you to ask any questions in the comments, or if you would rather send them by email you can to morenailpolish@iinet.net.au.

WOW, so there you have it.  I'm exhausted.

Need a one coat black?

I'm sure you would agree that a good opaque black polish is an absolute must in everyone's collection. I think it's pretty well known for ladies that have access to Wet N Wild nail polish, that their Shine Black Creme is a great one coater for when you layering polish.  For those of us without access to Wet N Wild, we need to make do with whatever brand we can find. 

I was starting to get a bit jack of my staple black polish when I was doing my Ozotic multichrome swatches.  I was using Ulta3 Black Satin, but to get it opaque you have to use two coats.  So what do you do in this situation, you franken it!

I had already purchased a Mica sampler pack from TKB Trading. So I had a baggy of black oxide pigment.  This stuff is great because it is so pigmented.  I added probably about a teaspoon of mica to my bottle of Ulta3 Black Satin, a couple of ballz and shook the bejesus out of it.

Here is a swatch of one coat each of the original Black Satin and my frankened version.  Can you tell which is which? Tee hee.

So now I have a perfect black one coater.  

The other thing I love about this is that it doesn't stain.  I was talking to my mum about this and she was using Ulta3 Midnight as a dark base, but found that it was an absolute beeotch in the staining department.  Even just trying to do clean up she had what looked like blue ink everywhere.  Mum, I think I might just franken you up a bottle too. :)

How cool ?!

Hey there, 

How are you doing ? Just a quick post to let you know that we are trilled to be featured on American Apparel Website. Well actually only C. is doing the nail art here, so all the credits go to my lovely sis. Congrats sweety ! 

If you wanna check her mani using one of AA neon polish go to the American Apparel website.

Nail post tomorrow ! And don't forget to enter our giveaway ! 

Have a nice evening,

xxx

a england - Lady of the Lake

I love the colour purple and I love prismatic nail polishes, so how could I not love this beauty? Another stunner from the brand a england! This is Lady of the Lake, a dark purple polish with a scattered prismatic effect. The purple version of the beautiful Tristam. I'm head over heels with these prismatic polishes from a england. I really hope Adina will create a dark green version for us!

The formula of Lady of the Lake was excellent, it's pigmented and dries fast. I applied two smooth coats, no top coat. The wear is great too, after three days no tip wear, no chips, yay! I think this polish is definitely worth the money (£9,00 a bottle).

Thanks for watching!

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Ozotic 617

Ahhh, the tranquility. Mr Three and Miss Six months are both currently haivng a middle of the day sleep. So a perfect time for a real quick blog post.

The pretty on my nails right now is Ozotic 617.  A rich aqua marine blue with large holographic particles.

No base, three coats, no top coat.  It really only needs two coats, but I felt better with three cause I didn't have a base on, and it dries so fast that three coats isn't an isue.

Another very sparkly one, especially in the sun, but OK indoors too.  Another 8/10 on my holo-a-meter for this.

I'm going to enjoy a quiet day today, as I'm still recovering from working in the yard moving very large piles of mulch (and we have more to do on the weekend). We had a mobile mulcher guy come and mulch up a whole stack of tree prunings as well as two massive pine trees, one of which fell down across our driveway a few weeks back in strong wind storms.  How'd ya like this big tree in your driveway when you got home?  Luckily our driveway has two entrances.

Gotta love those SES guys who came and chopped it out of the way for us.  You guys ROCK!

Ozotic 619

Howdy doodie everyone.  Hope your having a good day. 

Here is Ozotic 619 which is a darkish coral pink.  It almost looks brownish in some lighting too. It's really cool. Three coats, no base or top coat.  I rate it 8/10 on my holo-a-meter.

I actually came upon this colour rather by accident.  I did an online purchase of some Ozotics from LeBeauty.

I ordered the following Ozotic's from them: 509, 515, 516, 518 and 522, so all 500 series, which as we know are linear holos.  What actually arrived was 600, 601, 609, 617 and 619 all 600 series, which are large particle holos.  The main problem was that they didn't contact me to tell me they were shipping something different, but instead just sent them with a note saying:

509 is now 609

515 is now 617

516 is now 601

518 is now 600

522 is now 619

As you can imagine, I wrote a rather strong email back saying that they shouldn't have changed my order without at least an email, and all but one of the polishes they sent me I already owned.  They explained that they always swap the polishes, because most people choose a polish based on colour, not its number.  Well I guess us weirdo nail bloggers just aren't like most people. I specifically wanted those numbers!  

Anyway, long story short, they did the right thing by me.  I got to keep one polish to cover the postage of the other ones back to them.  They have now updated their website to accurately list the colours they have in stock, although I still disagree with which polishes they say replaced the others!  

So this is the polish I kept.  As it turns out I haven't seen 619 on any other website for sale yet. So Aussie gals, you can get it from Le Beauty for $13.50.  International ladies, sorry, you just get to look at the pretty picture because they don't ship internationally :(

This polish actually matched the top I was wearing, totally unintentionally. I must have just been in the right kind of mood for this colour.

Japanese polish looks

In my last blog entry I mentioned that I went to Japan a few weeks ago to visit Renee. And of course brought back a slew of nail polishes with me. A few were birthday gifts from Renee, and some were "oh my lanta.. I need these in my life!"

From Renee! Nice smooth application and dries in about five minutes.

No, I don't have a monster sized hand, the bottles are tiny!

 A nail polish that Renee bought me, is a creamy gorgeous Tiffany blue. This is a great replica of China Glaze "For Tiffany". I can not remember the name though! But I will find the box it came in and report back!

On top, I added pa Pink Crackle, I have to say this crackle you need to be swifty with it, because it dries fast and putting on two coats makes it gross looking.  

I bet you are wondering what pa stands for, and to tell you.. I have no idea. Sorry!

 

I did manage to find this blogger who says there is a store in Chinatown in NYC that sells Pa, I may have to check it out! 

http://www.christinaofchinatown.com/shopping/nail-polish-selection-in-ec/

 As you can see, the Japanese love everything tiny,lol. From their clothes to red bulls! Tinnnny!
 Almost all of the nail polishes that I encountered were in small bottles. But the prices were good, so I didn't care. The Pa polish was about 2$ and the colors are amazing! I have a few more that I want to blog about, and Renee and Julie do too:) But for now, back to work!

Tata,

Ozotic 606

Back to our scheduled programming now with more Ozotic 600 series.  

This is Ozotic 606 which is a pale lilac.  Other swatches I've seen of this make it look rather subdued and very silver looking, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I put this on to see that is was certainly lilac coloured and also very holo.

This was three coats, no base or top coat.

Where on my holo-a-meter?  I would say about an 8/10. 

Another beautiful large particle linear holo.  I know I have been calling these scattered holos, but I think that term better suits that Milani 3D holo polishes.  These have a definite rainbow over the nail, so they are linear, but the holo particle size is much larger.

I still have more of these Ozotics to show you. I've been wearing one each day.  I hope your not getting sick of seeing them yet?

Catrice - Enter The Undergrowth + Konad M66

After swatching and wearing a lot of neons last week I wanted something totally different on my nails. So I applied one of the nail polishes from the Catrice Papagena collection, a muted green creme called Enter The Undergrowth. Beautiful colour. Reminds me very much of Sew Psyched from Essie, but without the silver shimmer. I can't have enough of these dusty greens! The formula of Enter The Undergrowth was great, two coats will give you an even and opaque result. After two days (hence the tip wear) I decided to add some extra growth (lol) with the bamboo design from Konad plate m66. I used China Glaze - 2030 as the stamping polish. I can't believe I haven't used this bamboo design for so long, I love it! And I also love this subtle konadicure, what about you? :)

Thanks for watching!

Tutorial as promised;) Marbled Butterfly tip design!

Hey everyone!
Please be kind and bear with me as this is the first tutorial I have ever done! (sad, yes..)

What you need:
Black nail polish
Nail art brush (I used winning nails by worldwide #306)
white nail polish
four different nail polishes( three for butterfly body, 1 for base)
Nail polish remover

Step one: Paint a base color on your nail, it can be any color. But try not to make it too dark as you will not be able to see the butterfly body. I painted this a medium flat pink.

 

 Step two: Take a white creme nail polish and do a french nail tip. Try not to make the ends meet at the top, leave a little bit of space. This will be the area for the butterfly body.

  Step 3: Adding colors. Pick three colors that go well together, try to keep at least one a light color so you can see the marbling. Now warning, be fast! Take your skinny paint brush, dip into nail polish remover ( just enough to dampen it) and starting from the outside, drag the brush to the middle of the nail just where the butterfly body will be. Be paticient, this takes a few times to get right! I took me at least 10 times before I got the hang of it.

Step four: Add the butterfly body with black nail polish, just draw a think line for the base, dont be shy! Plump it up! and them here is the tricky part, for the antenii you have to be quick! Seriously the faster the better you will get a nice clean stroke. And to finish the design, dot some black dots on the wings.

The finished product!

 

Close up!

Glittery version:)

I know it doesnt seem simple, but really it is! It is all about how you can handle a nail art brush.  You have to teach yourself how to be quick, the quicker the better!
I hope this helped, I apologize for the blurry pics. My camera is charging so I am using my other one which is kind of funky in the macro dept. It's on its last legs, so I am not surprised.
Please let me know if you have any questions!

But tata for now!

One coater ahead !

Hello ladies,

How are you doing ? It's freezing out there you have no idea ! I'm all into dark polish these days. Seems like fall is already here. :( The good news is that I have a ONE COATER for you today ! The application was flawless.  And the color is absolutely GORGEOUS ! 

The polish I'm talking about is no other than H&M - Envy Me. Here are the pics:

Look at that amazing teal flash ! What do you think ? Pretty huh ?! Have you tried some H&M polishes ? They're really good quality polishes. Do you have a favorite one I should try ? Let me know !

Take care and have a lovely week !

xoxo

So in the name of Vanity...

I got acrylics done to my nails for my trip to Japan a few weeks ago. If you have ever been to Japan or even seen pics of the girls in Japan You know that everyone and their mother have these beautiful nails with the most insane and gorgeous designs. And well I have nubs.

NUBS!

Long nails in Japan at Renee's apt. in Osaka!

Very cute butterfly design that I will do a post about!

I have to say it did feel great having them on, knowing that I could do anything design wise. And it did feel good, but.. yes their is a but.. I couldnt do anything! Opening cans was an utter nightmare and before I knew it.. they had to go.


But before I even could grab the bottle of acetone and 1000 cotton balls, something bad happened :que dark and creepy tone: as I was going down the stairs I hit my right hand on the banister and pop! pop! pop! three nails came off. I took it as a sign and now I am the proud owner of stubs. Beautiful short stubs.

But I also wanted to say sorry for the absense of us, we are all vacationing, but now we are back in blog mode! Also the 28th is Julie's birthday, so stop by and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Tata for now!