Nail polish is the only make-up I wear so I like to experiment with different colours and textures. I have polishes in every colour of the rainbow but there are a lot of them that I rarely, if ever, use, so one of the goals on my Day Zero list is to test each of them out. My go-to shade in recent months as been Barry M's matte polish in Espresso, which is the black polish I used as a base here. I love the matte effect and it dries so quickly which is ideal for me because I usually manage to smudge my nails before they dry. The idea for this manicure was born when I opened the box of polishes under my bed and picked out one I hadn't used before, Frost from Nailed Polish by Sleek. I've never seen or heard of Sleek before but there was a bottle in the reduced to clear section of the charity shop I work at and at 49p it's not like I had much to lose if it didn't work out.
As you can see from the bottle, the polish looks like it's going to be a shiny white shade and it didn't really show up on my bare nails. but when I brushed it over the chipped remains of last week's black manicure I was surprised to see that it turned my nail purple. After applying a base coat of the black polish I started layering the Frost shade over the top until it created the ombre effect you see above. I have to admit that I did screw up a little on the index fingers and the colour you actually see is a deep purple franken-polish I made years ago by adding a little purple to one of my black polishes, but aside from that the colour you see is from layering. By the time I got to my little fingers I was using half a dozen coats so it looks really thick and took a while to dry; it's now day four and the polish has started to crack and it'll probably chip off in big chunks tomorrow.
When I was done I felt like the darker nails weren't purple enough so I added a tiny bit of glitter to the tips which was harder than expected because my purple glitter polish had dried up - that's why it's not in the photo above, I threw it out immediately, but it was one of those cheap brands you find in bargain stores so I wasn't too upset about losing it. You might be able to tell from the picture that the glitter has lost its purple colour and turned silver really quickly. If I ever choose to replace it I'll probably pick up a Barry M glitter because it's much thicker and longer-lasting and I like my glitter polish to be as over-the-top as possible.
Finally, my very favourite nail polish discovery is the fast-drying topcoat, Mavala's Mavadry. I got this as a free sample and I was immediately amazed by how well it worked. It's such a small bottle though that I'm almost running out and it's not cheap to replace, so if anyone can recommend something similar but less pricey I'm all ears. I'm so impressed by it that I'm considering just buying matte polishes from now on and painting the Mavadry over them when I want shine, since both dry so quickly and look so good.
Overall I'm happy with how this turned out although I don't think it's going to remain chip-free for much longer, but that doesn't bother me because it means time to try something new soon. I have 55 different coloured polishes to work through (54 now since I threw out the purple glitter) so watch this space!
Nail polishes used:
Barry M Matte in Espresso
Nailed Polish by Sleek in Frost
Mavala Mavadry
w7 Polish in Purple Glitter
Homemade deep purple
What I was watching while they dried: Freaks & Geeks ep 16, Smooching & Mooching
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