Tuesday, September 20, 2011

How to make your own franken polish!

So you've decided that it's time to make your own polish? Not satisfied with what's on the market and want to take matters into your own hands? Can't afford the latest hot color but know you've got the goods to make it yourself? Here are some tips on how you can do so!

Supplies You'll Need


Empty bottles! -

These can be made by dumping out old, yucky polishes and cleaning them out. You never want to just throw out nail polish. It's better to dump it into an old can or a paper plate and let it dry before throwing it out. Once the bottle is mostly empty, poor some pure acetone into the bottle and shake it up, rinse and repeat until the bottle is clean! Poor out old acetone on paper to let it evaporate, do not pour in your sink! Or you can buy empty bottles online at beauty supply sites, Ebay, and some brick and mortar beauty supplies carry empty bottles as well. I really like small franken bottles so that I don't have to use as much polish.

Ballz!-

For good frankens you need good balls. Stainless steel ball bearings can be purchased from Ebay, or even from your local bike supply shop. I've used 3/16 " ball bearings quite effectively.
Do not buy zinc plated BB's! These will corrode and ruin your franken! You can also harvest balls from your old polishes! Either when you're dumping out old yucky polishes onto a paper plate you can fish them out, or by using a strong magnet, pull them up along the side and then out of the bottle. Wash with acetone.

Glitter!-

The frankeners best friend and worst enemy! Glitter spices up frankens and personalizes your favorite colors. However because nail polish is such a chemical-y substance, glitter can melt, bleed, or otherwise perish and ruin your polishes. So what to look for in a glitter? Usually the more metallic glitters are less likely to melt, whereas most iridescent or flakie glitters (like mylar) melt. A lot of frankeners have had success with polyester glitter. Hobby Lobby sells a glitter called "Polyflake" glitter, and this hasn't melted on me yet, but every glitter is different. Other popular glitters with frankeners are the Martha Stewart glitters. They don't melt, but some of the more pigmented ones do bleed.
It's always a good idea to test your glitter before frankening with it. You can do this by mixing a little clear polish into a bottle cap or other container and then adding some glitter, cover it and let it sit for a few days to see if it holds up in the polish.
I find that it's safer to use polishes that already have glitter in them, art striper polishes, and things like that so that you know the glitter won't melt when you add it to your franken.

Pigments! -

If you want to add some spice to an existing polish without using glitter, another option is adding a pigment to your polish. This could be a mashed up eyeshadow, mineral powder, a mica, many sites sell loose powder pigments for creating your own cosmetics. If you decide to create your own pigment by using an eyeshadow, just make sure you smoosh it into really fine pieces so that you don't have chunks in your polish. And remember to use a suspension base!

Suspension base -

Now, if you do decide to brave making a franken with loose dry glitter, it is wise to use a suspension base. Basically, glitter is heavier than regular polish, so it sinks. To make it stay suspended, you can add your loose glitter to a polish that already has glitter (a popular franken base is Confetti Tiara), or to buy a clear base made specifically thicker for holding glitter or pigments (as sold by TKB Trading).

Favorite suspension polishes:
Wet n Wild Kaleidoscope
Wet n Wild Hallucination
Confetti Tiara
Kleancolor chunky glitters

Funnel-

Now, nail polishes have that teeny tiny little opening in the top, how do you get all your raw ingredients inside? A funnel! This is mainly necessary with dry ingredients. When adding polishes to eachother, a funnel isn't necessary because the viscosity of the polish causes it to come out slowly and usually flow right into your other bottle.
But with dry ingredients, you definitely want something to funnel with. I am cheap. I make my own funnel by taking a strip of paper, curling it into a cone, taping it, and cutting a little bitty hole in the bottom. If you're less c heap, you can buy an itty bitty funnel.

Okay! So now we've got all of our supplies. If you can't think of what you want to franken, or with what recipe, take a few bottle caps and mix drops of colors until you get something that you like. A painters palette is also good for this if you want to try multiple combinations.

To franken from scratch:
Start with your empty bottle. Pour your colors into it little by little until you get a shade that you like. Using a color wheel (google color wheel) is really helpful if you're trying to mix different colors. If you want to add glitter, use your funnel and add a little bit at a time. Make sure you give your funnel a little tap because funnels are easily clogged. After your glitter, add your balls (teehee). Two is usually good. Give your polish a good shake.
If your franken is too opaque or thick, add some clear nail polish. Wet and Wild clear is a frankener favorite. If it's too thin, and won't suspend your glitter and it keeps sinking to the bottom, add some suspension base! So now you have your brand new franken! Make sure it's not filled too full because there are tales of frankens spontaneously breaking from being too full.

And then the fun part, coming up with a name! After you've named your franken, adding a personalized label adds a special touch. Try adding a sticker or ribbon to dress up your new polish. Have fun on your new franken adventures, and good luck, it's addicting!
Here's some pics of my favorite personal frankens:
This one is Untitled, please post  your ideas for names :)
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This is Rainbow Massacre.
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Rainbow Massacre ended up BEING massacred because some of the holo glitter I used from ebay bled and now the base is like, poop brown. Always test your glitter!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Layering combos that I love...

OPI Parlez-vous OPI? with CND Copper Shimmer on top. This layering was born when I really wanted to dupe Estee Lauder's Surreal Violet.


Here's American Apparel Hassid with two glitter polishes layered on top. The orange is the scented Orange Fizz Revlon. Then I put the LA Colors mini in a teal shimmer on top. It reminds me of stained glass :).
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This is just the Revlon over black by itself.


Here's China Glaze Crushed Candy over a dark Color Club brown, then with Wet n Wild Prancer on top.

Friday, September 16, 2011

first time using Konad in a year..

Here is Orly Emberstone w/ Wet n Wild black creme and white creme stamped on top. The butterflies got added because I messed up the black pattern in so many places. So if there seem to be a lot of butterflies, that's why. I don't even LIKE butterflies. But I like the vibe of this mani, it's starting to get me in the Halloween spirit (not that I'm ever NOT in a Halloween spirit).
None of these are awesomely taken pictures, but I wanted to share them anyway.




Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Under construction.

Please pardon the mess while I mess with some settings :)

Connect the Dots! Another Lynnderella

This is Lynderella Connect the Dots over two coats of Sinful Colors Beverly Hills. I LOVE the lavender shade of BH, but it bubbled like crazy! It was a thick mess. Definitely needed some thinner. And Connect the Dots is way more lovely than I had anticipated. I love the little sparkles that are thrown in with the glitter. The arrangement of the glitter remind me of Donald Duck in Math-magic Land. Anybody remember that old cartoon? It always made my head hurt.


And a shot with me trying to get a good angle of the tattoo on my ankle (was showing off on the new nail polish forum.)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Mmmm... holos.

Here are a few of my favorite holos. I don't know why I love holographic nail polish so much... I think it comes from my love for unicorns and all things shiny and colorful and ridiculous. My mom asked me about why I loved holos, and I shouted, "DO YOU SEE THE FREAKIN' RAINBOWS??? DO YOU??" She did, and now she understands :)

China Glaze FYI. Long discontinued, but still on Ebay and at some dusties.



OPI Coral Reef. I found this at a local beauty supply recently. Loved it so much I went and bought a backup. Not the MOST holo nail polish in the world, but it has a lovely pinky-orangeness that I just love.


China Glaze Let's Do It in 3D. Lemmed this forever! Finally got it through a swap and I don't think it looks that awesome on my skintone.


OPI Paris Couture for Sure. I don't wear this one nearly enough!


Nic's Sticks Rainbow's End. Gorgeous holo, very neutral. Nice office appropriate holo.


OPI DS Design. Another neutral, gorgeous holo.


Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Golden Tourmaline. Gorgeous pink/red with a gold flash holographic polish.



Now that pretty much covers the holos I have stored on my photobucket account, but I have tons more I'll be posting soon!

Lynnderella polishes have arrived!

Here are some of my recent Lynnderella NOTD's. Her polishes are gorgeous, if somewhat expensive. The Halloween theme is what really sucked me in. Tara and Halloween go hand in hand together. So the ones I picked up are:
Very Pretty Vampire
Bride of Franken
Love Potion no 99
Bibbity Boppity Boo Blue
Connect the Dots

Some of the combinations I've done:
Lynnderella Love Potion no 99 over Orly Lunar Eclipse over Maybelline Charming Cobalt

This second one I did my first color correcting on, I hope it came out okay.


And here's Very Pretty Vampire over OPI Royal Rajah Ruby




Bippity Boppity Boo Blue over Maybelline Charming Cobalt
 + Bride of Franken





Okay... one year later... a bunch of frankens.

I'm still into beauty and makeup and nails, and now I'm at a fancy new counter! I am now the counter manager for Lancome at our Macy's, so I've been pretty busy. But my current obsession is still painting mah nails and frankening. So here's a post with some of the custom nail polishes I've created in the last year, and then my newer posts will be more NOTD's.

Here's my attempt at a dupe for OPI DS Exclusive. I used China Glaze Phat Santa and OPI DS Original. I like it!
Bottle shot:

Swatch:





So, I hated OPI DS Illuminate, it looked like poo on my hands, so I added a little WnW Nocturnal and got this, still needs a name:



And Clifford the Big Red Holo is China Glaze Phat Santa plus small size Spectraflair powder:
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WnW black + clear + Spectraflair:


Clutch Your Pearls = WnW white creme + tons of clear + Spectraflair + Confetti Tiara:


Glittery franken topcoat called Rainbow Massacre:




Here's my version of China Glaze Spellbound, which I will call Franken the 13th, because I've been watching too many Friday the 13th marathons.

Bottle pic:
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And swatch: