Look Up, Look Way Up

I missed last night’s Perseid meteor shower, thanks to the cloud cover that moved in right at peak viewing time, and on account of the fact that I went to bed at 9:00, because I’m an old and I need my rest. No excuse, I know, but cut a lady some slack – yesterday came with its own peculiar set of stressors, and sometimes the only way to deal with a day like that is to just close your eyes and hope tomorrow is better. So apologies, Perseid – I’m sure your big show was just lovely.

So in lieu of watching an actual cosmic event, I thought I’d paint my nails with a bit of stardust, or more specifically, Lac Attack’s glow-in-the-dark APWBD (Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, or Professor Dumbledore for short.) APWBD, which is stuffed with all manner of holographic half moons, squares and bars, leans towards the green on account of its glow-in-the-dark pigment, and so I paired it with Mentality Nail Polish’s Shindig, a green-adjacent turquoise from their fantastic line of jellychrome polishes. There’s a nice little hit of pink shimmer running throughout Shindig as well, which plays off nicely against the purple holo glitter. Not quite Perseids-level impressive, but pretty nonetheless!

Aquamarine

Here’s another pick from Mentality Nail Polish’s fabulous line of jellychrome polishes, opalescent beauty Shindig. In certain lights this polish can look a lot like its sister, Gala, both being of the watery-hued variety shot through with tons of gorgeous pink shimmer. But on closer inspection, Shindig is actually quite green; a true aquamarine to Gala’s Bachelor Button blue. To-may-toe, To-mah-toe (is anyone else out there watching The Last Man on Earth? Carol is like some evil dark mischief fairy, right?) they’re both fabulous.

Although it must be said that this line of polishes is really outstanding. In a product landscape littered with the same old, same old (the nail polish world is quite bandwagonesque) Mentality is not only putting out a product that’s unique and complex (these polishes are classified as matte duochrome jellies stuffed with glass shard shimmer) but also beautifully executed – these jellychromes apply like a dream in two easy coats and wear surprisingly well for a matte polish meant to be worn sans topcoat (of course, you also have the option of adding a topcoat – shiny or matte – to protect your mani and draw out all that beautiful opalescent shimmer.)

These jellychromes are available through Mentality Nail Polish, although I’ve always snagged mine from Harlow & Co., which – knock on wood – has yet to do wrong by me in any way. Nothing but good things to say about them, the least of which is that they carry Mentality’s gorgeous products in the first place!

Sugar Skulls

Iridescent, glittery sweet sugar skulls for week three’s theme of skulls in February’s N.A.I.L. Challenge. Two more of Mentality’s gorgeous jellychromes, turquoise Shindig and hot pink Hoopla, act as the perfect background polishes, their colour-shifting glass shimmer adding beautiful shading and depth to my first-time ever sugar skull mani.