Models Own - Aqua Violet

Oakey doakey everyone.  There are lots of gorgeous swatches of the Models Own Beetlejuice collection popping up on blogs at the moment, but unlike all those very organised ladies who swatched the entire collection for a post, your going to have to make do with one polish at a time from me.

But, I have done lots of comparison pictures to try and make up for it, and really there are just far too many photos to do more than one polish at a time.

First up, Aqua Violet which, together with the rest of this collection, takes the prize for the dullest names in the history of dull and boring names. 

Here is Aqua Violet on it's own, three coats. Very pretty aqua to violet duo-chrome shift.

Now some comparisons.  Firstly against Ozotic 505, which also shifts from aqua to purple.  From left to right:

• Index - one coat Aqua Violet over black
• Middle - one coat Ozotic 505 over black
• Ring - three coats Aqua Violet (no black base)
• Pinky - three coats Ozotic 505 (no black base)

At some angles Ozotic 505 on it's own looks similar to Aqua Violet, but in reality, Ozotic 505 is so sheer it's not really worth comparing.  Over black, the purple shift in Ozotic 505 is much stronger than Aqua Violet.

My second comparison is against two of the Custom Polishes I made with TKB Pigments (Luna Blue Moondust and Cherika Moon Star Bites)

• Index - one coat Aqua Violet over black
• Middle - one coat Luna Blue over black
• Ring - three coats Aqua Violet (no black base)
• Pinky - two coats Cherika Moon over black.

Both the custom polishes with TKB pigments were a really close colour match, although the larger glass fleck particles in Cherika Moon give it a totally different appearance.

The Luna Blue moondust was a the closest match to Aqua Violet, but it was actually much more sparkly in the sun.  I think I actually prefer the Luna Blue moondust polish over the Models Own polish.

Pimped up frankens

I have a couple more frankens for you today.  These are two that I made up about a year ago, but I rarely wore because they were settled at the bottom of the bottle and I couldn't be stuffed shaking them like crazy to fix them up.  

But now that I got some suspension base, I poured off the clear that was settled at the top and replaced it with some suspension base.  Whoo Hoo, they look super awesome in the bottle now.

This first polish is made with TKB Copper reflecks, 1/4 a bottle of black and the remainder suspension base.

I ended up being a rich and sparkly chocolatey brown.

The TKB Reflecks are very fine but have a glass fleck appearance.

This next polish is a bit of a mash together of a few things, and because I did it a year ago I don't actually remember what went into it.  I know there is lots of green glitter, a little gold glitter and some silver holo glitter.  I originally put some green pigment in too, because the clear polish that I poured off was very green.

Because I poured out the green base, I added some new green tint, which was Ferric Ferrocyanide and Yellow 10 tint, plus filling the bottle with suspension base.

I originally called this polish "lights on the tree" because the holo sparkles looks like Christmas lights on the bright green tree.

Just in case you hadn't checked, TKB is now shipping suspension bases internationally!!  I think the price that they are shipping it for is really quite good.  I was expecting it to be a lot more expensive than that.  

Here are the basic prices for 480ml of suspension, which includes shipping:

• Canada: $39 =  $1.22 / 15ml bottle or 40 cents / 5ml bottle.
• Rest of the world: $69 (but they say ONLY IF your country allows the import of nail polish?!?! they say they will have a list of countries soon) = $2.15 / 15ml bottle or 72 cents / 5ml bottle.

Sure it's not cheap, but at least it is available.  They are also selling in other various sizes so you can mix bases and tints.  It's been a real long time waiting girls (nearly a year) but now almost everyone can get some base.

Custom Polishes - TKB gold pigments

More frankens (or more accurately 'Custom polishes') for you today.  Sorry if your a bit sick of them, but I just can't stop myself making them.

These three polishes are again made using TKB pigments.  I purchased these pigments to use as eye shadows, because they are all shades of gold and brown, which I wear all the time.  Naturally, I had to mix some into a mini bottle of polish too.  Now my eyes and my tips match!

This one is Verdigris Gold.  It's murky and mysterious and is a green gold.

In this sun angle shot, you can see flecks of green and orange.  It's a very rich and interesting pigment.  It mixed in perfectly and was totally smooth to apply.

This one almost looks the same colour, but it is slightly different.  This is Antique Gold.

Lastly is Chamoisee.  This was actually free.  It was an off spec Antique Silver which TKB were giving away as free samples!  You can't get any better than free.

These really are the simplest polishes to make if you ever wanted to try making your own but were unsure where to start.  You literately just add about half a teaspoon of powder into clear polish (or suspension base if you can get your hands on it) and your done.

I'm pretty sure no one else but me will know that my eyeshadow and nails match :)

Custom polishes - Moondust TKB pigments Part 2

Here is the second installment of the TKB Moondust pigments.  Only two today, but they are both very pretty.  Both these polishes are two coats over black.  My polishes are very pigmented, made with 8 scoops of moondust in each bottle.  If I made these again, I would only use 5 scoops.

Lavender Luz shifts from blue to purple to orange, or so they tell me on the TKB site.  I don't think I captured the orange, but the blue to purple shift is nice and strong.

Luna Blue shifts from cyan to blue to red.  Again, it's that last colour shift on acute angles that I didn't get with the camera.

I ordered Models Own Beetlejuice on the day it was released, so I can't wait to compare those polishes with these frankens (when they eventually arrive from the other side of the world).  You can get a sample of all these five pigments for just $12, which is enough for about 8 polishes of each colour!

Custom polishes - Moondust TKB pigments Part 1

Remember when I made the glass fleck topcoats from the TKB Star Bites collection?  There was Miranda Star, Shanika Sun, Cherika Star.  Well here are three frankens made with the sister pigments, Moondust, also available from TKB Trading.  

These are a much finer powder than the Star Bites, and they all still have a beautiful and strong colour shift.  All these swatches were two coats over a black base.  I accidentally made my polishes a bit too concentrated, I should have only added about five straw scoops in my mini bottle, not eight!

First up is Aisha Gold.  Layered over black this feels a little similar to Peripera Metallic Green, and even a bit Chanel Peridot-ish.  It even has the same blue colour shift.

Super sparkly in the sun, with a strong gold green base.

Here is the blue green shift.

Next is Crescent Crimson.  The TKB Trading website says this one shifts from red to orange to yellow.  I don't really see the red, much more pink, but it does shift to orange and yellow.  Very pretty.

The last one for today is Indu Rose. This shifts from indigo to purple to red.  Totally gorgeous.

You likely? Yes?

Two more to show you tomorrow.