Beach Blanket

Over the span of about eight overnight hours, my city went from cool, sweetly-scented springtime glory to dank, humid cesspool.  Summer arrived in a big, bad way this morning, and it’s already disgusting.  And because I live in a condo managed by a bunch of old ladies who never got over the high school urge to mean girl one another, thus leading to many poor fiduciary decisions, such as whatever snit fit led to our heaters – freaking uncontrollable from within our units, by the way – continuing to be cranked to 11 at the end of May, we are sitting in +30 degree weather WITH THE HEATERS ON.  So now we have both our air conditioner AND our heat PUMPIN’.  Carbon footprint?  Pfft.  Besides, this is just making up for the snit fit last year that led to the entire building’s heat not being turned on until mid-December.  I’m Pauly Shore’s burrito in Encino Man – hot on the outside, icy cold in the middle (“What’s a Pauly Shore?” said so many people.)

Back to the nails?  Yes, let’s.  This is Contrary Polish’s Beach Blanket, a fitting name for such a muggy day.  I’ve had this polish for a while, but I don’t believe I’ve ever given it the swatching treatment before, shame on me.

Beach Blanket is a jelly-type polish, and so it’s quite sheer – this one will require at least four coats if you’re twitchy about visible nail lines.  Dusted with fine purple shimmer, Beach Blanket takes on a cool speckled look in the shade – combined with its lush red hue, the overall effect is very juicy strawberry.  Lovely.

I Defy You, Winter!

This is about the time every year when I start to feel a bit pooched with the whole winter thing, a feat in itself this year given that winter didn’t even really begin in earnest until the first week of January.  Everything’s just so ugly and grey and tired.  Winter kinda sucks.

But you know what doesn’t suck?  This manicure!  Which is obviously a neon confetti-sprinkled reaction to all the cold, grumpy and overcast, and a welcome nail art distraction from all of the above.  Here I used another Candy Lacquer glitter polish, Beach Blanket, over Bonita’s Splendid Love, a pale, pink-tinged lilac.

Candy (Lacquer) Shop

Despite embarking on a real tear of original nail art designs over the past month, my best-liked manicures, both by you, my friends, and indeed everyone who saw them, were the four swatches I did of my recently acquired Candy Lacquer glitter polishes. I understand why everyone loves these polishes – they’re super cheery, always contain an absolutely bonkers mix of every-shape-under-the-sun glitter and come in a gorgeous assortment of vibrant, unusual colour combinations. I feel quite strongly about these polishes, and so I hold them no ill will for coming in and throwing distracting fairy dust all over my hard work. 😉 Going clockwise from the upper left we have Butterfly Candy, Ring Pops, Melting Popsicles and Beach Blanket. So much fun!

Butterfly Candy

Ring Pops

Melting Popsicles

Beach Blanket

As always, if you dig Candy Lacquer’s sweet pretties – and based on the response to the manis I do using their polishes, I think you do! – you can find their polishes here. They just released some fun, Halloween-themed glitters for a more bootiful you. 🙂

Melting Popsicles

Saving the best for last, this gorgeous, super cheery polish, Candy Lacquer’s Melting Popsicles, is the final polish from this summer’s small haul that saw me add all four picks to my “best of” list. I already adored Candy Lacquer’s mega glitter bombs, and the four I picked up this summer, Ring Pops, Butterfly Candy, Beach Blanket and this lovely, Melting Popsicles, just confirmed what I already knew – Candy Lacquer’s products are outstandingly creative, beautifully made and always make your nails look like they survived an explosion at the candy, sprinkle and confetti factory. Don’t know about you, but that’s good in my books. 😉

Beach Blanket Beauty

Here’s another super colourful and unique pick from Candy Lacquer, purveyor of fine, glittery nailstuffs, and my favourite maker of indie nail polish. This is Beach Blanket, and it is a perfect example of what Candy Lacquer does so very well – vibrant colour combinations and an awesome, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to glitter mix; basically, more is more is more, and that’s a beauty sentiment I can totally get behind! Beach Blanket is an especially fun polish, a predominantly lime-hued, mega-super-multi glitter studded with a neon rainbow’s worth of hearts, stars, hexes, circles, flowers, bars and probably a bunch of other shapes I’m missing on a first pass.

You’d think a polish as busy as this one, both in terms of aesthetics and actual glitter volume, wouldn’t be much in terms of formulation – some types of glitter seemingly “eat” the base they’re suspended in, making for a dry, lumpy mess. Beach Blanket – indeed, all Candy Lacquer polishes I’ve purchased over the past two years, which would be (oh, my) about 15 – does not suffer from that problem, applying smoothly, with no weird bald spots and a nice mix of glitter with each and every brushstroke. All the same, I always top my mega glitter bomb polishes with a nice, thick coat of Seche Vite to smooth out any rough edges. Here I’ve shown Beach Blanket over three coats of Essie’s Chillato, a nearly-neon, pistachio green creme, for a fun, vibrant look that’s actually more spring than the summer this Beach Blanket contemplates. Still, who’s splitting hairs when the final result is this cute?

If you dig Candy Lacquer’s polishes as much as I do, you can check out their superb wares here.

Abstract (Nail) Art

I have NO idea what’s going on here! Is that an animal print? Or maybe amoebas? Or the pattern on a tufted ottoman I saw last week? More importantly, do I care? Not really, actually, because I think I’m sort of in love, even if I don’t quite know what I’m in love with. Allover patterns are a favourite, and it’s refreshing to see the crisp colour combination of red, white and blue in a non-patriotic application. Plus I got to use a polish that I really did purchase accidentally (I thought I had clicked on its page neighbour) and now love unconditionally, Contrary Polish’s shimmery red jelly, Beach Blanket. Out in the sun it does the typical juicy, squishy jelly thing, but in lower lighting its purple shimmer adds a gorgeous, but subtle, hit of spotted visual interest that elevates Beach Blanket from an unfortunate mis-click to an absolute must-have.

Chicken Marsala!

Week one’s challenge prompt in the Nail Art Ideas Linkup was marsala, Pantone’s recently-anointed colour of the year (that would be an earthy, brownish-red to all you philistines.) Being one to never let a horrible groaner of a pun go un-punned, I decided to combine the colour and the concept, adding some holographic chicken drumsticks to Contrary Polish’s “Okay, so it’s not quite marsala, but I swore off brick red makeup back in 1993, so close enough” Beach Blanket. Not quite genuine chicken marsala either (hey look, it’s perfectly good chicken and pasta you destroyed with cheap wine!) but yummy-looking all the same given that it’s nail polish. 😉