Absinthe Fever

If I was able to wear only ONE nail polish for the rest of my life what would it be?  A thermal! It’s almost like cheating cuz it’s multiple colors in one. Today’s indie nail polish is no exception!  I’m wearing Absinthe Fever that I picked up from my fellow blogger’s shop: Polish Alcoholic. Shown here is one basecoat, three coats of Absinthe Fever, and one coat of seche topcoat.

Absinthe Fever is dark green when cold, and light green when warm.  Even though it transforms between two different colors (like most thermals), I swear- there’s 4 colors in there!!  Sometimes the dark green looks like a bright forest green and other times it looks like a deep dusty teal like in my collage pic.  And when it’s warm it turns an electric spring green, but sometimes it looks more muted like a chartreuse.  I can’t tell if it just seems that way due to different lighting conditions, or if it really turns 4 colors.  I dunno, but me likey!

As you can see, I’ve got VNL after three coats… I know some people don’t like visible nail line.  But VNL has always been fine with me, especially with a jelly finish like this one.  Absinthe Fever is so freakin cool!  I also made sure to wear my Christian LaCroix Absynthe perfume yesterday and today so I’m all matchy-matchy.  I’m purely intoxicating, everyone!

Polish Alcoholic sells a bunch of other fun specialty polishes too like Mermaid of Log Ness (thermal) and Gold Digger (gold leaf topper).  Or check them all out here at her etsy shop: Polish Alcoholic

Thermal Polish from Brijits Digits Boutique

Today I’m showing you another cool indie polish from Brijits Digits Boutique.  This one’s a thermal color-changing polish called Orchis des Marais.  It’s a special polish with a fancy french name, ooh la la!  I hafta say, this is the most fun that I’ve had with a polish in a really long time!  Take a look at it and you’ll see what I mean…

Shown here is one basecoat of Sally Hansen Maximum Growth, two coats of Orchis des Marais and one coat of Seche Vite.  If you apply thin coats then you may want three coats of the thermal, but two did the trick for me.  It appeared violet when I first applied it but shortly after it started turning pink.  On the right-hand side of my photo collage you can see all the blue shimmer in there too- just gorgeous!  Orchis des Marais dries quickly and has a nice finish.  Thermals have a tendency to be matte and dull so I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Here’s a pic of Orchis des Marais when I first woke up in the morning and my hands were cold as ice.  We haven’t turned the heat on yet this season.  Brrrrr!  ↓

And here’s a shot of my nails after a nice hot shower.  They’re bubblegum pink now and the tips are quickly starting to cool off as you can see.  ↓

Throughout most of the day my nails were a pretty gradient that started out pink and got more purple towards the tips.  They did change very easily too.  If you hold a cold drink you’ll see them shift right away.  Or if you get a droplet of water on your nail you’ll see a perfect little purple circle appear!  So much fun!  All day long I kept looking down- ooh I’m cold, oooh now I’m hot!  Also, I noticed that my right-hand middle finger was strangely cold and purple most of the time.  The weird thing is, that nail breaks all the time too.  It’s my one problem nail.  Maybe my chi doesn’t flow well in that finger?  LOL  You can see in the top left photo of my collage that it’s more purple than the rest!  What’s up with that?

Overall, I’m thrilled with this polish.  I need more.  In every color.

If you’re looking for a heat-activated polish you can find Orchis des Marais on Etsy at Brijits Digits Boutique.

What do you think of color-changing polishes like this one?

My new indie – Witching Hour

I’ve come to the realization that I haven’t tried enough indie polishes.  It’s like a whole other world that I need to explore more.  Nail polish created by extreme nail polish enthusiasts?  YES, please!  So I recently ordered some indies from Brijits Digits Boutique.  She doesn’t franken a lot of over-the-top glitterbombs like a lot of other indie makers.  Of course she has some lovely glitters, but right now Brijit’s Digits offers a lot of hand-blended cremes, shimmers, holographics and even thermals.  I bought this thermal polish from her shop too and I can’t wait to try it!  I’ve also been using her affordable cuticle oil for a few months now and I just love the scent and it’s little roller-ball applicator!

One of the polishes I ordered is a nice deep dark shade that’s perfect for autumn.  It’s called Witching Hour and it’s an eggplant aubergine color with a touch of scattered holo added in.  Witching Hour is so seductive!  To bring out it’s sex appeal I had the bright idea of adding some painted studs.  I transformed some gold studs from Claire’s Boutique by painting them with a couple coats of Witching Hour and then I left them to dry.  I shoulda done a better job at this, because I see some of the gold poking through on the corners of the studs- oopsy!  It still looks hot though!  🙂

Shown here is two coats of Witching Hour.  I applied the painted studs on top while my second coat was still tacky.  Then I slathered on some seche vite topcoat to smooth down the studs.  I did the best I could with my seche topcoat- I am down to the very bottom of my bottle!   How scary!  My amazon order better come soon- I ordered the big mamma jamma 4 oz salon-sized bottle of seche.  Once it comes in the mail I won’t be running out of seche for a long time!  It will be good times.  Here’s another shot of my monochromatic witchy mani…

I like how the studs look from this side view.  I’m really looking forward to wearing this mani out in the real world tomorrow.  Today it’s a lazy rainy sunday and I will NOT be leaving the house.  Yes, I have hermit tendencies, and i like it. 

I love Witching Hour.  It only needed two coats and it dries fast.  It’s a dark vampy shade but it actually looks good on me.  Even though I love dark shades, I feel like they oftentimes make me look pale and pasty.  Not this one though.  It’s very flattering.  It also kinda reminds me of all those holographic A Englands that I’ve been dreaming of for a while now.  And even though it shipped all the way from La France… it got here real quick!  Plus, now I secretly feel fancy since I’m wearing french nail polish.  lol

Hopefully soon I can swatch my thermal from Brijit’s Digits.  It’s getting colder here in NY and I expect some serious thermal activity since my nail bed will be much warmer than my chilly nail tips!  Oh I love thermal!

‘Til next time 🙂