Fruity Franken Mani: Still Going Strong

I made this polish awhile back when I saw a Brazilian polish that is very similar on a blog. I had no access to buying it and DIYed it. I added more little glitters than the original but this was the general idea. I used copper and mint green hexes and kelly green mini glitters. It kinda looks like the Essence Fruity color Kiwi a Day (without the big glitters). Super spring-y!

Close up

I wish I remembered the brand and color of the inspiration polish! This is still going strong, though, after 3 days. I am about to go play putt-putt golf with the husband and it ends up that this is a super cute putt-putt mani :) It is also a BEAUTIFUL day out! I am very happy.

Glitter Franken Time: Sorta This, Sorta That!

So I have a friend who doesn't understand frankening, which I am trying to understand...but I get the whole "it's messy" thing, I really do. Because my hands have just now (3 hours after this experiment) free of glitter and clear polish residue. BUT you like frankening right?!

Anyhow, this friend liked the Pentimento swatches from Lynn's new collection. It is basically The Glittering Crowd (or the fruitcake one) with lots of white. I decided to do a hybrid version of the two. Notice I did not say the full name of the creator...I am not concerned with hits on the blog! Don't need the dramas.

Supplies: YouMix glitters, TKB glitters. You will need YouMix's Death By Glitter (its like a glitter factory exploded; there are some white and black in it) and a good variety of white glitters, such as micro glitter, small and large hexes, bar glitters, and square glitter. I also added some more black bars. I like black bars. 

The end result did not have as much white micro...well, not as much white period. I plan on making my friend one with much more white. What I would do is start with a mix of white glitter and then add the colored glitter.

It is a bit clumpy. I thinned it but I think it needs some work.

My right hand!! Sorry for the poor cleanup, I wanted to catch the sunlight.

Again, it is just a random glitter recipe. Add glitter until you get it to where you want it to be. If you need to use measurements, do it! I fill the bottle 3/4 full then add the glitter little bits at a time. As with anything, it just needs finagling to get it right.

Frankening NerdLacquers

I bought one NerdLacquer back in January. I have since sold it on a blogsale. I did not like the formula (gloopy) and the color was way darker/greener than it was in the photos. I never got one returned email, so I never bought from them again.

I did learn that this indie seller went out of business (putting it nicely) and that there are still people who want the polish. I decided to use my mixing skills to eyeball franken mixtures for you all. Yep, eyeball. From all my store-bought glitter mixing, here are some recipes!

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This is off the top of my head. You will want to play with the fractions in your mini or full size bottle. Use this as a starting point and work with it to get it to what you want it to be. As long as you like it, right?

All of Time and Space:
Chunky silver hex glitter. Milani, Jordana, LA Colors, just about every brand has one. They are a medium hex sometimes with smaller glitter.
Get a polish with small silver glitter only.
Get a polish with dense shimmer. Wet N Wild Break the Ice or Kleancolor Metallic White could work.
For the huge silver hexes: get Kleancolor Chunky Silver.
Get a Fuchsia glitter. Milani, Jordana have these, so does NYX Girls, etc.
Get a pale minty shimmery mica, either an eyeshadow or a mica sample. This will be the color of the polish base. The NL has a shimmery colored base and this give you the same thing.

1/4 Fuchsia glitter
1/8 chunky silver
1/8 small silver glitter
1/4 kleancolor chunky silver
1/4 dense white shimmer polish (you may need less of this, more small silver glitter; look at swatches)
add minty mica/pigment to color (use VERY LITTLE at a time. VERY little.)

If you just play around, you can make a polish you love without going insane or spending a lot of $$. Kleancolors are 1-3$ each, LA Colors are $1-2, Milani are more expensive and Jordanas are $3. LA Girl has glitter, too. You need the Kleancolor Chunky Silver, definitely, because it is one of the few polishes with huge hex glitters.

Exterminate:
going to need some medium-small blue and gold hex glitter (Girly Bits is now selling some)
Start with Kleancolor Tiara Gold (1/4-1/2)
Add LA Girls Uninhibited (1/8-1/4)
A little bit of LA Girl Aqueous
A bit of a metallic bronze (maybe Sh Brone Ablaze) one drop at a time. Should be rather sheer.
Add some shimmery white/clear polish or whit shimmer mica drop by drop
Add loose glitter mentioned above (I have these colors of glitter sitting in my helmer from Girly Bits)

Nebula:
Start with a glitter polish that has tiny holo glitters in it. I think even WnW has one for 99 cents.
Red glitter like LA Girl Animate
Medium pink glitter like WnW Sparked
A pure burgundy/vampy red creme; add one drop at a time to get a jelly. I recommend Revlon Vixen
There are different formulations of this so if you want other stuff in it, toss it in. I have seen one with silver holo hexes; Jordana makes a polish like this or you can use ChG Techno

Cold and Calculating:
Start with KC Chunky Silver, 1/6 or more.
Generic silver hex glitter polish, medium sized, 1/6
Smaller silver hex glitter, like in the AoTaS recipe 1/6
Purple hex glitter, LA girl Eutopia?, 1/8-1/6
Shimmer: maybe Sh Diamonds 1/6
I would use a mix of WnW Buffy the Violet Slayer and Essie Sexy Divide (the latter to warm it up a little). Really, you just need a dark purple. Add a few drops at a time.

Batcave is a charcoal base with small silvery glitter and big blue holo hexes. I would skip the holo and go for
KC Blue Eyed Girl 1/4 with
ChG Techno or the Jordana silver holo polish 1/4
then add 1/4 small silver or holo silver glitter and the rest charcoal-metallic polish.

Warrior Ethos
1/6 KC Red Hot
2/6 LA Girl Uninhibited
2/6 LA Girl Animate
Add a few drops of a pure red creme until it is a bright blood red.
If you can find some loose red, small glitter, add that in. Otherwise, try to find a polish with fine red glitter like Sephora's Hello Kitty Red Sparkle and add less than 1/6 to the mix (HK Red sparkle is VERY dense so do little bits at a time).

Do you have any others? Some of these are just like other polishes (Cold and Calculating is like Shiny but Shiny has an ice blue base and just silver glitter).

Dupe'd: RBL Aqua Lily and Halcyon

Pain in the butt or labor of love? Not sure. I just wanted to see if I could franken dupe these two polishes, limited editions and all. No, you will never franken something with the same formula, the exact same pigment or shimmer. But if you are hankering for the colors, YOU CAN ALWAYS FRANKEN!! Always.

One of my friends sent her RBL polishes to my house so I made frankens based on these.

Materials: Suspension base, LA Colors Atomic, China Glaze Aquadelic, purple shimmer pigment, pinky shimmer pigment

For Aqua Lily (this one is pretty tough compared to Halcyon):

You need to get some eyeshadow or mica that is very fine, just shimmery. No big particles of shimmer (such as in Pure Ice Busted! which I will talk about later). I used L'oreal On The Loose loose pigment in Mystified and a purple MAC pigment to get the shimmer here. 

NOTE: these are not pure shimmer, they have pigment. To make a really good franken, I suggest using shimmer micas from TKB or another mica supplier. I just haven't gotten around to buying any yet.

I started with the shimmer and a teeny bit of glamour base to keep it suspended. Then I added in LA Colors Atomic (there are some in Dollar Tree stores that are DULL, you want to find the BRIGHT one) and China Glaze Aquadelic. There is *way* more Atomic to Aquadelic; I would say 7 parts Atomic to one part Aquadelic. Shake. It should be a noticeable but still kinda secret shimmer. IN THE BOTTLE, RBL Aqua Lily has a lot of shimmer. This is not so true on the nail.

testing as I go

bottle

See how subtle it is? It is pretty ridiculous, haha

Exhausting, yes. It was hard to get enough shimmer pigment without discoloring the polish. Maybe you can get some from TBK or another mica supplier?

For Halcyon:

This is a shimmer bomb. Get either Pure Ice Busted or Sally Hansen Aisle Be There (they are dupes of each other shimmer-wise). You are going to be using most of the bottle. That is how much shimmer is in this polish. For the sage green part...well, really, it is more of a paler army green. It has a lot of yellow in it.

SO...You need to have some fun mixing. I used LA Colors white, WnW Black Creme, Sinful Colors Envy (for the green; it is a dupe of OPI Jade is the New Black), and NYC Lexington Yellow. Use polish with more pigment if you care to; the original polish is kinda thin regardless. Aqua Lily is more opaque hence my choice in using eyeshadow/pigment vs. store-bought polish.

What happened to all my photos of this one?!?!? :(

Anyhow, first you want to mix the black white and green and get the right shade. Then add yellow to effect. I know, these are vague directions. However, you need about 3 parts white, 3 parts green, 1 part black. I also added a little Kleancolor Dark Brown to get it earthier. The yellow, I would say as much yellow as there is black, maybe a little less.

If you have a yellow-tinged army green, use it if you like. But note that if it has microshimmer, that is NOT what Halcyon has! It has big shimmers. See how you can see the particles in that photo? Big.

I would say...fill a 15mL bottle 3/4 full with the shimmer. Then add in the sage-army green a little at a time. You may need even more shimmer than that. There is a lot. It is also a sheer polish and needs built up to about 3 coats on the nail. 

Hope you enjoyed this, I really need to find more Halcyon photos! I can't believe I don't have them!