First-Ever Franken...Ouch!

Last night, I ran out of topcoat. Naturally, I knew this was going to happen for quite some time, and I had decided that I'd clean the empty bottle and use it to make a franken. Because I didn't want to waste my one precious empty bottle, I mixed a bunch of different frankens on a sheet of thick sketch paper. After deliberating over them all, I decided that a mix of (roughly--my measurements were far from exact) 2 parts Nina Ultra Pro Punki Pink, 4 parts Love My Nails Hot Tamale, and 1 part (probably more like 1/2 part; I barely used any) Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed was my favorite. So after the bottle was clean, I mixed it up and put it on my nails, and here it is, three coats with topcoat:

indoors, artificial light

outside, no sunlight because it's rainy

the bottles (the weird stuff on my franken bottle is glue from the label)

This is sort of a tangerine orange with a nice gold shimmer. Both pics are fairly accurate, though the indoor one shows the gold shimmer the best. The shimmer, though not overly obvious, is really nice and comes from Hot Tamale. I decided to name this color Ouch, because my mom's reaction to Nina Ultra Pro Punki Pink, which I used, was, "It hurts my eyes." As for the finish, I wasn't sure if it would be slightly matte because of Punki Pink's neon-ness--it appears, however, that the amount of Punki Pink was not enough to make it even slightly matte.

All in all, I'm quite fond of the color, even though it means quite a bit less Hot Tamale in my future. I think it looks surprisingly good on my skin tone, compared to some oranges that make me look overly yellow or pink. And, funnily enough, I had better application with Ouch than with any of its constituent parts. I guess the whole is more than its separate parts?

Also, there are some great giveaways going on right now in the nail polish world. Nails Etc. is having a giveaway of nine different polishes and a Boots 17 Travel Makeup Kit, and Painted Lady Fingers is giving away 12 Diamond Cosmetics polishes, along with a treatment! Good luck to all who enter!