Bee Polished: flocking

In the Navy...

OK So I know that flocking is sort of a last season trend BUT I found this Ciate kit on clearance at a local beauty supply store and I fell in love with the deep blue color. Of course I couldn't NOT try it with the accompanying flocking powder and last season or no...I'm in love. The color is deep so from afar it really doesn't look fuzzy so much as just sort of soft. I didn't find the Ciate "crushed velvet" powder any different from any other nail grade flocking powder but I do like that I didn't have to play the "do I have a matching base color" game! It stayed on really well too. No chips for about five days which is practically a miracle given the way I use my hands at work! At any rate, I hope you enjoyed these decidedly NON summer nails!! :)

9:33 AM
5 Comments

You can't have it both ways...

caviar

...or can you? So it's no secret that the hot new trend in the polish world is texture. With flocked, sandy, caviar and leather effect nails popping up everywhere, it's difficult not to notice. While I love trends like crackle and spotted and now texture, I also hate that they're just that; trends. We all end up buying tons and tons of these and let's face it: those 15 bottles of crackle polish you bought last year are just sitting in a drawer now getting zero use. Who wants last years trend on this years nails? I've tried to find new and exciting ways to use these effects polishes but this go round I thought it might be more prudent to find ways to get in on the trend without shelling out a lot of cash. So here's a little experiment I did for you. :) Above you see a combination of both Models Own Coral Reef and Zoya Godiva. I chose Godiva for this experiment because she is a neutral color and therefore seemed the least likely to interfere with the color of the Coral Reef. On the index, middle, and pinky finger I used two coats of the Coral Reef followed by one coat of Godiva on all nails but the middle, and two coats of Godiva on the middle finger. As you can see, there is no texture. On top of a flat polish Godiva simply looks like a gold glitter. A pretty one, but a flat one. So then I decided to turn the tables. On my ring finger we have two coats of Godiva (allowed to fully dry) and then a single coat of Coral Reef. Bingo. Now we have a flat color with a textured look. This is similar to the look of the Milani's, Barry M's, and Nails Inc textures which have no glitter, but rather, a flat tone effect. Here's a close-up comparison:

Again on the left here we have two coats of Coral Reef topped with two coats of Godiva. I'm guessing this is why they tell you not to use a base coat because it just looks like glitter on my polish. It was not raised in any way. On the right we have two coats of Godiva followed by one coat of Coral Reef. See how it's textured but the color is there? Now you can turn any polish into a textured polish without ruining your bottle by mixing it or shelling out for a million different colors of polish! Magic! If any of you try this with different colors, I'd love to see the results!!

7:00 AM
13 Comments

That Warm, Fuzzy Feeling...

Barry M

For today's Love and Heartbreak mani I decided to go a little outside my box!! I got a canister of flocking powder from a wonderful friend in the UK and I literally couldn't wait to try it out! I've used flocking powder before from the craft store but I had heard that nail flocking is finer. I can say with a fair amount of confidence that this is the truth. The nail flocking made a much softer finish on my nail and it seemed to last longer. It was just a happy coincidence (or the result of having over a thousand polishes!) that I had a polish color which very nearly exactly matched the powder she sent me! I polished on two coats on all nails and then dipped my accent in the powder and pressed it around. This lasted on my nail for about three days before I took it off to try something new. One warning: if you have pets, this nail will be FULL of pet fur!! My kitty left so much fuzz on my fuzzy nail when I petted her! Anyway I jazzed up my other nails with a simple patchwork stamp. I tried t make it kind of random but it didn't really turn out. Oh well. You can't win them all!!