Water Spotted Comparison 2

This is the take 2 of my experiment with different products to achieve the water spotted look.
You can see my previous comparison here, and find some links to tutorials, too, if you're new to this technique.

I used the two winners of my previous comparison - a haispray and a perfume - plus a few new challengers :) Another hairspray, rubbing alcohol and a mix of gel hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol. The black polish I used was, again, Borghese Notte Black.

Perfume

The perfume performed well, like the last time. The spots were even in size, and clearly defined - although they look small in the pic. Me like!

Nelly hairspray

Nelly hairspray created larger spots, which do not resemble the original black spotted effect, but which I like nevertheless. A win!

Giorgi hairspray

This hairspray really made a difference with the polish in my cup. I liked the even structure of the pattern, and tried to spray it from further away, but still got more of a web than spots. A fail.

Rubbing alcohol

With rubbing alcohol I got a bubbly surface and too small holes. There were some areas, however, that would have been ok to dip. Still fail-ish.

Mix 

 My mix contains about 1/3 of CVS greenish hand sanitizer gel, and the rest is just rubbing alcohol. The result was very different from the pure rubbing alcohol, although I tried to spray from the same distance and with the same force. But the spots were much better defined and evenly distributed with this one. I could almost have dipped two nails in there. A win!

And then some colour.

 Of course I had to try these water spotted options on polish. My base polish here - for the maximum contrast - is Color Club Psychedelic scene.

Here are the different spotted styles on my nails:

thumb: prefume
pointer: sanitizer mix
middle: alcohol
ring: Giorgi hairspray
pinky: Nelly hairspray

In my books the winner is the mix of gel hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol. Colette also found out a similar mix did it for her - so I'm in a good company :) I will continue using the Nelly hairspray, too, for the larger spots look (and because it's a lousy hairspray, LOL).

I hope this was useful to some of you. And please share your experiments and experiences!

January Empties

My project no buy continues...
Last month I emptied five products. Well, it's something! (Do you ever think in memes?)

These products were: 

• Aloe Shop Night Cream "Crema de Noche Recuperadora de Aloe Vera", which felt oddly slippery on my skin - maybe just because of the aloe vera..

• Arnaud Perle & Caviar Eye contour elixir "Perle & Caviar", which I loved - maybe mostly because of the packaging type. It's a roll-on, and the cool metal ball feels ultimately good on any puffiness under my eyes.

• Propoline anti-aging and energizing shampoo with citrus & honey, which didn't work for me at all.

• A demo size of Mario Badescu Honey Moisturizer, which was waay too greasy.

• I also finished one tube of my Lumene Natural Code Eye Makeup remover, but that does not really count, because I've got more in store and I'm not trying to finish these off anyway.

Here's a sneak peek of my mani I did around Valentines Day, dedicated to all of you who just want nails and not this stupid rant about shampoos and whatnot.

 I'm afraid my February empties list will be a lot shorter. There are not many products even near the finish line, and on the top of it I've been away for a while and not here working hard to use up my stash. But we'll see...

K - Khaki Perry

I did have some difficulties in finding a polish starting with K in my stash. But finally I came across Khaki Perry by Catrice. It's a beautiful and quite unique polish, but unfortunately sheer.

Here I used it over two coats of OPI Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow. HT...AT was one of my oldest untired polishes, bought from a sale in a Boston nail salon in November 2011 (oops.. that's a long time ago...). I bought a great big load of OPI polishes there, and this was the last one left untied. Phew!

This one was an odd polish. It looked like a regular creme, but on the nail it was more like forest green particles in a clear base. The pic above is one coat. Maybe it was because of the age of the polish? I believe it's from the 2009 Spain collection.

 One coat of Catrice Khaki Perry was sufficient over this underwear. The polish was still a bit brushstroke-y, but I thought more coats would not change it.

I left the pointer without Khaki Perry, and coated HT..AT with a coat of Wild&Mild Gold Shower instead. I really loved this effect! The green and iridescent glitters in the Gold Shower really stood out over the dark green base. Note to self: use more glitters on dark base colours!

For the other nails I added some fenix themed stamping with Barry M gold foil and BM 314.

I was on the fence with this mani. I think I've had enough of all the murky, dark, wintery colours. Springtime and brights it is to cheer me up!!!

J - Jingle Jangle

My J-manicure of the ABC Challenge is just a simple glitter skittle with all Color Club polishes.

 I used Color Club Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe and Gift of Sparkle

These are all such pretty polishes!! Sadly the two first are soooo sheer, they needed four to five generous coats. I should have layered them, but when I noticed it, it was already too late.

I'm a little short of time right now, so ta-ta - until next time!

Just a blurry pic to show you the sparkle.

I - It's a trap-eze

My I -polish is the China Glaze It's a trap-eze!

 The polish was OK to apply, much better than the other glitters in this collection. And it wasn't a huge pain to remove either. But still I'm not completely sure about this... I think still I prefer to make my own glitter sanwiches.

Just the polish today, that's all - and a brief post.

I have surprised myself by really working hard this week. Yay!! As a reward I'm going for a two day trip to Barcelona, and the Cosmobelleza beauty trade fair. Double yay!!

Let's see, if I come back with some new polishes to show you...