Thursday, August 25, 2011

My First Franken

I've mixed colors before to get a polish a wanted, but its always been one or two drops, enough to last me through one mani. Though I've been wanting to mix a polish of my own. I had a half empty clear polish bottle and intended to just mix powder, but one thing led to another and I was mixing polishes in as well.

I went a little crazy with the adding. I started off with this pretty shimmering blue eyeshadow I've had forever but never use. The polish was too sheer, so I added some light blue polish. Not the right color. I thought adding two drops of light green might give it a nudge toward turquoise or aqua. But apparently two drops of green for the whole bottle forever made the mixture green. Things sort of spiraled down from there. I added in more blues and even some pale colors in an attempt to steer the shade closer to blue.

On top of the powder and clear polish I ended up adding in: Sally Hansen Peach, Petites White, Love My Nails Innocent Pink, Sally Hansen Creme, Pure Ice Wild Thing, Pure Ice Splash, and a dark blue that I no longer have a label for.

By the time I was done, I was very unsure about my franken. But I know better than to judge a polish by the bottle, so I waited until I painted the polish on to vote it a success or failure.

So last night, I set out to see how my polish would look on. One brushstroke in and I was in love. It was a pretty shade of green with a lovely shimmer. I wanted more than just a simple polish so I added an accent nail on each hand. However, given I'm a rightie, the work I did on my right hand with my left was bad. So I ended up repainting that nail and just going with a design on my left ring finger only.

The only thing about my franken that I'm unhappy with is the texture. It painted on smooth. But I noticed after it dried that I had little bumps. Now I'm not sure if its from the polish itself. Maybe I painted it on too thick. Or my top coat caused them. I'll have to see if the bumps appear next time I use the polish. But even with the bumps, I'm thrilled with the polish.

Artificial Light, No Flash


Artificial Light, Flash

The pictures without a flash are a better representation of the color in person. You can't really see any shimmer in the pictures of the polish on, but it is noticeable in person. Though you can see the shimmer while its in the bottle.

Artificial Light, Flash

Artificial Light, No Flash

I'm pretty happy with it. And I absolutely love the little flowers I painted for my accent nail. Though I cannot take credit for the idea. Its a design by CutePolish and the video can be found here. For my little flowers, I used Love My Nails Palest Mauve for the main flower color, No6 Party Punch for the accent flower color, and a mix of Pure Ice Wild Thing and Love My Nails Black Rage for the leaves.

I love the idea of naming one's polish creations. So I came up with a name for my polish. Vintage Dream. The green automatically makes me thing vintage, while the pretty shimmer inspired the second half.

Oh, I almost forgot... I know someone is sitting here reading this entry and wondering what in the world a franken is. Think Frankenstein. A franken is the result of frankening, which is the process of mixing different polishes, pigments, glitter, et cetera to create a unique polish or FrankenPolish.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my little franken adventure. Please comment and let me know what you think about Vintage Dream :)

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