A girl and her love of nail polish

Posts tagged ‘Mattese Elite’

30 Day Challenge Day 22 – Song: U2 Silver And Gold Gradient

U2 is my favorite band, so there was little doubt as to whose repertoire I would look to for Day 22 of the 30 Day challenge, where the manicures are supposed to be inspired by a song. The problem was finding a U2 song that inspired something I could actually pull off with my limited nail art skills.

So that brings us to “Silver and Gold,” a song from U2’s Rattle and Hum album. This is a very literal interpretation of the title, obviously not representative of the dark themes of the song, which deal with Apartheid in South Africa and the power of money and wealth. Not sure how I would have put all of that onto my nails.

U2 Silver and Gold Glitter Gradient nail art

I found a video tutorial online for a silver and gold glitter gradient and used that as the basis for this manicure.

I started with one coat of Seche Natural nail treatment just to have a hint of something on my nails. Then I used two coats of Orly Rage, a rose gold metallic, to paint rough french tips on my nails. Then I dabbed A-England Merlin (dense silver glitter) along the line where the tips met my nail to start the gradient. Next I added Sally Hansen Ice Queen, silver and blue glitter in a clear base, to continue the gradient. I tried to avoid the blue glitter, just dabbing on the silver.

U2 Silver and Gold Glitter Gradient nail art

After that I switched to gold, starting with Petites Color Fever 24K Gold (gold and orange microglitter), then added some Mattese Elite Je Taime (medium gold glitter). This one was my untried, for the 30 Days of Untrieds challenge I’m doing simultaneously. I finished with one coat of Jordana Lilac Hearts (fine glitter with purple hearts in a clear base), just making sure to avoid picking up any of the heart glitter. One coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat to seal it.

U2 Silver and Gold Glitter Gradient nail art

Basically it’s just a lot of layering until I was happy with it. Pretty easy, even for someone with my skill level. Hope you like it, and hope Bono isn’t too offended that I didn’t try to represent the meaning of the song. 🙂

30-Day Challenge, 30 Days of Untrieds

Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month.
I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:



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30-Day Challenge, NOTD

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Rainbow Honey Mare Of The Moon

It’s not lost on me that this is my 13th post, as this was one unlucky manicure.

It features Rainbow Honey’s Mare Of The Moon, which is a beautiful purplish-blue color shifter that has shimmer plus silver crescent moon glitter. I have been lusting after a blue polish with moon glitter ever since I first saw Windestine’s Spica featured on a blog two months ago (it’s on my lemmings list).

So when I saw Mare Of The Moon, part of Rainbow Honey’s Equestria collection, I had to have it. Let me just say off the top that I love the color of this polish. It really is a beauty. And despite what’s to follow, I really enjoyed wearing this polish. Can’t take my eyes off of it.

Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon

But here’s where we get into the “unlucky” part of this manicure. I had a terrible time with the application. Part of my problem was definitely that this was a mini (7ml) bottle, and I found the short brush challenging to work with and the large top a bit awkward to hold. With my painting hand being so close to my “being painted” hand, it was difficult for me to maneuver the brush the way I wanted, and to see what was going on. Maybe this is just the danger of the mini bottle. I admit, I haven’t purchased that many. Will definitely pause next time I’m tempted to buy one. That said, I applied undies on this which was also a mini bottle, and I didn’t have nearly the trouble applying that one. More on the undies later.

Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon

The rest of my application problems I think had to do with the polish itself. It can be quite thin and watery, almost like water color if you don’t load the brush enough. I didn’t mind that as much as I did the drying time. It seemed to dry very quickly; before I had even finished painting a nail, that nail had already begun to set. Plus it has what I would call just shy of a matte finish. That was a disaster given that I had to fish out and try to place the moon glitter, which for me was the main attraction of this polish.

Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon

As I’d try to move the glitter or even transfer it from the brush to my nail, i was disrupting the parts of the polish that had already begun setting. It made for a very uneven, bumpy and frankly not very attractive end result, though adding topcoat helped smooth things out.

Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon

The final nail in the coffin here is that I cannot find my cleanup brush, which I desperately needed on this one. I did what I could with an orange stick dipped in acetone.

Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon

natural light

For undies I used one coat of Mattese Elite’s Up My Platinum, available from Ricky’s NYC. I probably didn’t need it, but I didn’t want to risk it. Up My Platinum is a frosty silver that went on pretty smoothly. Formula was quite nice. Here it is on its own with a top coat.

Matesse Elite Up My Platinum

I followed that with two coats of Mare Of The Moon and a coat of Poshe.

I will definitely try this one out again when I have all my ducks in a row and am feeling at the top of my game. Now that I’m more familiar with the formula, I think I could do a better job of wrangling it.

Rainbow Honey Mare of the Moon with Matesse Elite Up My Platinum

Mare of the Moon is available from RainbowHoney.com. Currently the minis are in stock but the full size is not. Rainbow Honey’s polishes are 3-free, as are Mattese Elite’s.

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Indies

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