Franken: Tatiana

Today the polish I have for you is an "accident" franken - I made it by trying to come up with another color, then failing and doing something else instead. I was trying to make a pale gold by combining a Charlotte Russe gold, Nailene white, China Glaze Golden Enchantment, and Orly Luxe, but it was turning out like a dupe of China Glaze Classic Camel, which wasn't what I wanted. So, I added a little bit of Orly Enchanted Forest (which is a dark evergreen color) and got this. I realized that the finish looked very similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H, so I put that on my thumb.

 indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight

Isn't she pretty? :) I hope you can see what I mean about Tatiana being similar to Catherine H. In fact, I named Tatiana Tatiana because of the connection. Rather than English royalty, I named my franken after Russian royalty - Tatiana was the third (I think?) daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia. Aside from color, Tatiana is also similar to Catherine H in that they're both quite opaque. I can usually get away with one coat of Catherine H, and I used two coats of Tatiana. They even both dry to a semi-matte finish, which is why I topped all of my nails with Seche Vite in the photos.

I hope your Mondays are all going well!

Catherine H + DVD

While I like Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H, I wanted to add a little more excitement to it - but without making it blingy. I decided to add Sally Hansen DVD and a coat of Essie Matte About You. Here are the results, and sorry for the notepaper background - it was that or the tablecloth at my grandma's house, and I thought paper would be a little nicer. :)

indoors, artificial light

When I put this on, I didn't like at as much as I thought I would. Looking back at the picture now, though, I really like the combination. I'll be curious to see what else I can do with layering the HD polishes I have - while I love them, I don't think I've worn them much over other polishes. I don't really have much else to say...until next time!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H

I won Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H in a GildedNails some time back, and got finally got it in the mail day before yesterday. I wore it yesterday and today, and though it got beaten up pretty well by all the cleaning I've been doing, I do love it. It glided onto my nails with very little effort, and barely needed two coats. A bottle shot is on the left, and I definitely encourage you to click and enlarge it, though my pictures don't show all the different colors of shimmer in this polish nearly as well as they should. However, I think I managed to capture the general idea. :)

indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

I'm pretty impressed with this polish. Though it's not as shiny as I might have liked, even with top coat, it held up remarkably well throughout the hours of heavy-duty cleaning I've done today and yesterday. Even on my right hand (my dominant hand), I have only four tiny chips and some tipwear. In fact, I'm kind of surprised I didn't break a nail - but glad! My nails are nubbins as it is. As you can see, the cleaning also took a toll on my cuticles and fingers...sorry about that. 

I'm going to be away for the rest of this afternoon, tomorrow, and Sunday, so I think I'm going to wear some leopard print Nail Fraud I won in a giveaway. I hope it lasts through the weekend, but if not, I'm taking my emergency mani kit with me! I'll be taking my computer as well, so you can look for a post tomorrow or Sunday, though probably not both days. Have a great weekend!