Blurple.

Continuing with the effort to have my Stash completely full, two more old Catrice polishes. Today I've got '120 Plum Play With Me' & '260 Blue's Brother'. I got these in a time where my collection was still starting to develop, so they're pretty much my kind of 'basic'.

120 Plum Play With Me

These older Catrices have a much stronger chemical smell about them than they do nowadays. Let's cherish what we have now.
I used two coats, which, as you can see, didn't cover all that evenly. I don't intend to wear these colours for long, so I let it be.

Artificial light, flash.

260 Blue's Brother

This picture sadly didn't turn out too hot, but by the time I noticed, it was too late and I had altered the polish already.
Unlike the purple, this sparkly blue covered fine in two coats, which is a plus.

Flash, artificial light.

I.. wish I had more to say about them, but it's pretty straightforward. I guess my final thoughts are that they are decent for what they are, but I'm grateful for the changes Catrice has made over time (brush size, chemical smell etc.)

To give some semblance of unity when wearing two different colours (on top of which one being sparkly and one opaque) I threw a matte top coat over them (NYC - 274 Matte Me Crazy).

We've got fun 'n games.

One of my goals is to have every polish on my Stash page linked. Which means I'll have to use them all.

Filling out all the Catrice polishes then seems like an attainable sub-goal, because I've got most of those up already!

Here 'C02 Welcome to the Jungle', from the Papagena LE in 2011. I've worn it, just not posted about it.

I should hope the post title reference is an obvious one.

I think that bottle cap has been strangely sticky and crackly since I got it. What's up with that?
Anyway.
Aside from whatever mysterious affliction the bottle has, I have basically no complaints about this polish. The colour is an interesting one. Sort of like an aged gold, if you see what I mean? It went on just fine in two coats and held up for a few days before any damage started to appear.
Whilst most shades can greatly vary depending on the lighting, this one seems to be continuously cut from  the same cloth.

Artificial light, flash.

Essence Gel Nails.

One of my friends owns all the necessities to do gel nails the Essence way, and let me borrow all of it to give it a shot. I'd never tried anything of the sort so it was fun to give a go.

The colour I used with the process is this gray/lilac from Essence's Crystalliced LE. It's '01 It's a Snow-Woman's World', and I haven't used it since 2012. Sorry, Snow-Woman's World.

One of the details I really love about it (which is a pain to get to show up on photographs, unfortunately) is the little detailing of snowflakes around the brush handle.

I think it went decently for a first try, but I have many of the same hang-ups with this technique as I do with water marbling. Those mainly being that it requires a lot of products (four separate bottles of stuff, and a lamp!) and the time it took (in this case) is disproportionate to the quality of the mani (though I imagine with a little more experience that'd be a lower ratio). During the drying process the mani also creeps away from the cuticle a bit further than I'd like.

 

I had a nice time playing around with an unfamiliar process but I don't think I'm likely to try it again very soon.

The peel-off base is both a blessing and a curse. I really loved being able to remove it so quickly and easily without the use of any additional products and messiness, but on the other hand it leaves your nails reasonably damaged. That alone makes the gel nails not something I'd recommend doing too often.

Radioactive.

It's been a long time since I've posted a Polish of the Past! April last year since the last one.

This nail art, though not particularly original or spectacular, did really pop visually. It's been the most popular thing on my nail art deviantART account for as long as the account has been running.

I think the yellow was a Stargazer polish I owned at the time, and the symbols were done in acrylic paints.

Enjoy this blast from the past!

Berry Potter & Plumbledore.

Like I mentioned in the post before this one, one of my most recent acquisitions Catrice's '46 Berry Potter & Plumbledore'. Because I can't resist a pun, much less a Potter-pun. Previously I used it as part of a nail art, but of course I wanted to wear it on its own too. I've also shortened my nails a little since.
Application was slightly iffy because the brush seems to have a bit of a manufacturing error but nothing too catastrophic. I went for three coats for satisfactory opaqueness.

I think it's a great colour and I really love the heavy turquoise shimmer.

Artificial light - flash.