Loose Powder

Early in September I was heading to DragonCon, a yearly science fiction convention held in Atlanta, and I wanted to do a fun look for the weekend. I came across Asami’s Space Nails tutorial and I had to try it out!

The looks requires three or four different polish colors and a textured paper towel to sponge on some of the design. I didn’t have the exact polishes that Asami used, so I picked ones I had that were closest.

From my stash, I found China Glaze’s Techno (large holo glitter), Pitch-Black Glimmer from Nicoole by OPI (black with silver glitter), What’s Your Name by Sinful Colors (black with purple/blue micro glitter), and Sally Hansen HD polish in DVD.

Next, I followed Asami’s video tutorial:

The results are pretty great! I love the bits of glitter that catch the light and the subtle clouds of blue.

There are parts I’m not completely happy with, of course, but overall this was fun and easy to apply. It didn’t take much longer than a regular manicure to apply since the layers were thin and dried quickly.

Can’t wait to apply this design again!

Slate blue polish is amazingly difficult to find. Thankfully, Sally Hansen has one for an affordable price: Gray By Gray.

This polish had the same separation/mixing problem that I had with Fairy Teal, but thankfully it didn’t have the staining problem. I was able to get bottle color in two coats and just some edge wear after five days.

The Konad design is BundleMonster plate B21 with e.l.f. polish in black.

Here are some bonus Konad looks I did for friends:

The first is from Konad plate m24. Jessie had already painted her nails that hot pink and applied a clear top coat. Bardi Party wanted the fish bones from BundleMonster plate bm04 on her middle fingers only. They were applied on a clean nail with a top coat over it after stamping.

While searching for a slate blue, I came across Sally Hansen‘s Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal. This polish is a lovely teal cream and I just had to try it!

Love. This. Color. Applied two coats for bottle color and it dried pretty quickly.

Unfortunately… these polishes don’t have the metal ball bearings inside to help mix the polish, and boy could this use it. All three colors I bought (Fairy Teal, Gray by Gray, and Plum’s the Word) had a bit of separating and it was a pain to get them mixed back together without the balls.

Another huge negative of this particular color is that it stains like crazy. Even using Zoya’s Remove+ polish remover, taking this polish off left stains on my nails and on my fingers. It was a mess! That fact alone will probably have me thinking twice before I apply it again; very disappointing.

After four days with no noticeable chipping (just some edge wear), I decided I wanted to keep the polish on, but kick it up a bit with a top coat. I went to Sinful Colors‘ Nail Junkie.

I think Nail Junkie adds a fun bit of aqua & holo sparkle and was able to extend this manicure another three days with little effort.