My own corner of the web where I can show off the things I do with my nails.

Friday, August 26, 2011

My First Franken

Last night I was perusing my usual nail blogs and came across Cristina's franken of Deborah Lippman's Candy Shop. Her franken was pretty, and I've been looking at other swatches of the trio of glitters that come in the Get This Party Started pack. However, I cannot justify the cost of the trio, $42!!!! WTF? Who can afford those prices? Deborah Lippmann has some seriously beautiful glitters and polishes but I have one and cannot see myself buying another on my budget.

So what's a girl to do? Make her own, of course! Here's what I used:






Wet 'n' Wild: Dreamy Poppy, a medium pink cream
Milani: Gems, a known dupe of Happy Birthday minus some of the tinier square glitter DL has (and honestly in swatches I can't tell the difference)
OPI: Alpine Snow

And here's my technique:
I added a few drops of pink to the bottle of Gems and shook. I thought I was satisfied and was almost content to let it be. However, after wearing it for 10 hours I decided the base wasn't milky enough so two drops of white were added and voila! my franken was complete!

Here it is! I used a base of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, two coats of my franken followed by two coats of Seche Vite to cover the texture of the glitter. I love how the glitter seems to float in the pink. 

 
 

I also made the black from this collection, I'll properly swatch it at a laer date. Here's what I used for that though:
And finally, for fun, a quick picture of my skittle mani from swatching. My thumb has just Gems over it, pointer is Silver Lining, middle is my pink franken, ring is my accent nail from my last mani, and pinky is the black version.


I'm thinking of calling this Dulceria. So, what do you think of my first franken? Have you ever made a franken before?

REMOVAL EDIT: Well, it's glitter. It's a pain. I used the foil method and still ended up with glitter everywhere. I would not recommend removing this by swiping with remover and a cotton pad over and over. You will lose your mind trying to get it all off. I ended up scraping some of it off with my fingernail. Not sure if the prettiness is worth the PITA-ness. Wait, I'm sure, it is.

Loves!

1 comment: