Mani Monday

Good afternoon all!  I know the title of my post is "Mani Monday" and it is actually Wednesday but I did this manicure on Monday night and was unable to finish photographing until Tuesday and then haven't gotten a chance to finish putting this post together until today.  So I guess it's a belated mani monday :)

Polishes used L to R: Essie A Crewed Interest, China Glaze Dance Baby, Essie Lilacism, China Glaze Electric Beat, Essie Navigate Her, Mrs. P's Nail Potions Hella Holo

Today I bring you a skittle mani with a little bit of bling!  For those of you who don't know what a skittle mani is, it is simply when you paint all five of your nails differently.  They can be the same colour but different design or nail art or they can be all different colours with the same accent or they can just be completely different all together.  So long as you don't have any one nail the same as the other it is a skittle mani.

I started off with my usual China Glaze Calcium Gel Fortifier as a base coat and strengthener.  I then did two coats of each of the Essie and China Glaze polishes pictured in the photo above.

I haven't used any Essie polishes for a while as I've been concentrating on mostly indies.  But I now remember how much I love my Essie polishes.  The colours are always great and the formula is so easy to work with as well.  I will admit, it is a much thinner formula than any other polishes I've worked with but that's not a bad thing.  You definitely need a minimum of two coats with these but I normally do two coats anyway to make sure I have good coverage.  The coats of Essie smooth out nicely and my only warning I have is to not do too many brush strokes because then you get drag lines and bald spots.  The China Glaze polishes I used were a great formula as always too.  Much thicker than the Essie and I really could have gotten away with one coat of each but again I usually do two coats anyway just to make sure coverage is good and solid and even.

So there you have a skittle mani in its simplest form really.  I wanted to take it a step further and bring a little bling to it so I added a pseudo glitter gradient to each nail with a drip/drag/dry brush kind of technique using Mrs. P's Nail Potions Hella Holo.  Mrs. P's Nail Potions are my own nail polish creations which I make and hand mix from scratch.

Hella Holo is an all holo all glitter polish.  It is loaded with extra fine holo glitter and has medium silver holo hexes and silver holo bar glitters disbursed throughout.  These pictures honest don't do it justice as it just glistens and dazzles in real life.  And in direct sunlight...FORGET ABOUT IT!!! :D

The photos below I took with flash to try to show off more of the holo goodness of Hella Holo.

I still have a few bottles of Hella Holo available in my etsy shop and they go for $10.00 CAD each (holo glitters are slightly more expensive and there is an awful lot in this polish, hence the slightly higher price compared to the rest of my polishes).

You can find Essie and China Glaze at tons of different stores and salons and various online retailers.

So what do you all think?  Please feel free to comment or ask any questions :)