I’ve Been Framed! (31DC2015)

So it would seem that despite my deeply held personal objections to what I call “holiday creep” (ahem, every craft store ever that seems to feel it’s fine to put out their Christmas merchandise in September) I’m engaging in precisely that with these very Halloweeny, orange and black holo nails. But the orange part of the equation is not exactly my doing – I’m just following orders, specifically those of day two’s theme of orange in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.

To that end, the orange polish I chose for these simple, framed nails is KB Shimmer’s Rust No One, a favourite coral-to-pumpkin-leaning holographic that flashes a gorgeous shimmery fuchsia. I had initially thought a polka dot or ticking stripe design would fit the bill, but Rust No One is beautiful enough on its own that I barely needed to add any embellishments, save a strong, black holo frame to contain all that rainbow-speckled goodness. I really like this manicure – it looks quite sleek and grown up, as opposed to my usual “Are those donkeys on your nails?” approach to nail art. Something a little bit different from my usual, which is precisely the point in following along with this challenge!

Knitwit

I’m participating in a nail art challenge over on Instagram (@sandra_fingercandy, if you’d like to come by; it’s mainly the nail art you see here, just with fewer meandering, prose-y bits, and more cats) and the first week’s challenge theme is a pattern, sub-theme coral. I have this corally-pink holographic polish I’m not 100 percent sold on, Glam Polish’s New Girl in Town, which I thought would be perfect for this manicure, as I always overcompensate when I’m not totally fond of a polish by using it so often, I eventually just cave and fall in love. And so here I paired a base of New Girl in Town with some simple little free-handed hash marks in a co-ordinating orange holo, KB Shimmer’s Rust No One, for a monochromatic, but still sparkly, knit-type look. Super easy and very pretty – see, coming around on that polish already. 🙂

Rust Never Sleeps

Here’s a beautiful holographic polish from KB Shimmer, the outstandingly gorgeous and chameleon-like Rust No One, that arrived in a recent order of post-Christmas nail mail. This is one of those polishes that on first, out-of-the-box glance, I did not like. It looked not one bit like its picture on the KB Shimmer website, and I worried about the utility of a rusty orange polish beyond the already-so-over Fall and Halloween seasons.

But as is often the case, I was wrong (and not afraid to admit it)! Because on the nail, Rust No One is an unexpectedly beautiful and complex holo that can look like four unique polishes at once depending on the quality of the light and the angle of your hand. “Great, so four different ways for your fingernails to look rusty?” you may be thinking to yourself. Not at all, as my initial assessment of Rust No One’s colour was just plain wrong. This polish actually has a beautiful, very pronounced flash of fuchsia shimmer that you can see running right up through the middle of the bottle (that effect is also sometimes referred to as a flame or a flare) that can make Rust No One swing the colour gamut from pinky-coral to pumpkin orange and back again. And as always – a fact I sometimes forget because KB Shimmer is just so consistently on-the-mark – application was a breeze in two even coats and it wore beautifully. Finally, what of the holo effect? Spectacular. Rust No One is absolutely one of those polishes you’ll find yourself gawking at open-mouthed as you bust out your very best spirit fingers whilst leaping in and out of three different light sources. As you do. Just fantastic stuff – a big, big recommendation for this unique beauty.

KB Shimmer’s polishes, glittery, creme and holo alike, are available at Harlow & Co. for international customers and through KB’s own site for American customers.