#manicure #extremityfetish
I've been so overworked that I'm only now getting around to posting my manicure five days after doing it! Here, Atomica from Mooncat with an accent nail of Dappled Willow by Cracked, and my very first attempt at using a nail art brush. Stripe, check. Keeping it simple.

#manicure #extremityfetish I love a good flakie topper. Sugar and Spice over Midnight Drive both Mooncat. 😃

#manicure #extremityfetish Aaaah. That's so much better. *phew* Vintage Lampshade by Cracked. Still super green, but way less precious. And it looks like three or four different shades depending on the light! I do love a shifty polish.

#manicure #extremityfetish So this was an interesting experience. I thought it would be fun to do a St Patrick's Day mani. I like green, I have dotting tools I wanted to play with, and 'tis the season. So I came up with a plan, picked polishes I like (Plankton is the shimmer, Beowulf is the creme...

#manicure #extremityfetish In honour of this week's blood moon, it felt appropriate to use Mooncat's Blood Moon polish (ring finger, burgundy). From there I decided to build a dark-coloured linear holographic skittle, so: Cruel Mirage (pinky, black), Monster Under Your Head (middle, green)...

#manicure #extremityfetish It's back to green this week! Couldn't stay away for too long. Here, Dolla Dolla Bill Y'all from Cracked Polish on four fingers (apparently the same green as a US bill?)...

#manicure #extremityfetish I'm apparently on a thermal streak. This week, embracing the purple! I love how rich and vampy it is in the cold phase. The mauve when warm verges on too pink for me, but the purple shimmer brings it back.

#manicure #extremityfetish Behold, my very first magnetic. Magnetics are polishes with a magnetic pigment that pulls away from the base pigment and gathers in a given shape or style depending on what kind of magnet you hold near the nail while the polish dries.

#manicure #extremityfetish This week I wanted to build a skittle around a new polish from Cracked that's named after a Leonard Cohen lyric I love, That's How the Light Gets In (it's the black with purple and aqua flakes and glitter on my ring finger). ...

#manicure #extremityfetish Most polish is pretty much eternal, as in, you can revive it with thinner even if it's all dried up. But thermals eventually stop doing the colour-change thing, even if they still function as a one-colour polish.

#manicure #extremityfetish
This week I wanted something lighter, and I'd been looking forward to trying out this concept: a cool-toned skittle with contrasting coppery-orange shimmer. I already had two polishes with the right look (thumb: Ex-Spearmint by Cracked; pinky: After the Rain by Mooncat).

#manicure #extremityfetish The longer I do this, the more I understand that indie polish brands are all basically playing with the same ingredients. They do different things with them, and quality of formula certainly varies, but some of the same features pop up across different makers' creations.

#manicure #extremityfetish (because small joys are keeping me steady right now). This week I went for a neutral metallics skittle. Thumb to pinky: Gleam Supreme (Sally Hansen), Pearl Clutcher (Mooncat), Gilty Party (Sally Hansen), Outlaw Country and Firewall (both Mooncat). I'm enjoying the vibe!

#manicure #extremityfetish I've been leaning hard into green lately and wanted something different this week. So I revisited an old fave, a grey jelly polish with rainbow flakies called Zzzzap! from a fabulous now-defunct Toronto indie brand, Canvas (RIP!).

#manicure #extremityfetish It's all about the greens these days! This week, Serpents of Eden on three nails and My Cabbages! as a glitter-flake accent on two. So glowy. Both Mooncat.

#manicure #extremityfetish This week I did a single-polish manicure because with a thermal flakie you're sorta getting a four-in-one look! This one's called Spirit Water, by Mooncat, and it's got an aqua-to-grey shift plus aqua-green iridescent flakies. Kinda hitting all my favourite notes!

#manicure #extremityfetish I was in a green mood (I mean I'm always in a green mood) and I wanted to try something new and vaguely seasonal. So I went for an emerald green creme (Beowulf) with a coat of a sheer sparkly spring green as a topper (Antivenom, both by Mooncat).

#manicure #extremityfetish Black (Emo for Life) and pearly white (Pearl Clutcher), both by Mooncat, plus a single teensy little rhinestone. I almost never do stick-on stuff, and for this one I kinda wish I'd had a pearl, but I think it turned out cute anyway!

#manicure #extremityfetish This week I was in a minty mood, so I did an ombré with two green cremes (Thyme After Thyme and Touch Grass by Holo Taco) using peelable latex skin protector and a sponge. Then I peeled off the excess and added a sparkly silver topper (Hall of Mirrors by Mooncat).

#manicure #extremityfetish I always try to do a one-polish manicure when I'm traveling. For this little jaunt to Montreal, I went with Hell Is Other People (Mooncat), which I did not pick because it matches the purple walls in Lasalle metro station, but I sure did photograph it there when I noticed!

#manicure #extremityfetish This week, I branched out. Instead of a Mooncat polish, I chose one from Holo Taco, another indie brand. They make lovely stuff, but most of it is just doing one thing at a time, whereas Mooncat almost always has more going on in a given formula.

#manicure #extremityfetish I didn't know, when I chose a thermal polish for this week (Twilight Sonata by Mooncat), that I'd have such a convenient opportunity to show off its warm/cold colour-changing properties. 😑 Anyway, here it is: deep royal blue when cold, purple when warm, & a fun transition.

#manicure #extremityfetish I seem to have developed a fondness for black polishes filled with colourful flakes. This one's an older Mooncat called Forbidden Cove. I've had it for a couple years but just rediscovered it in my collection. Bit of a sleeper hit!

#manicure #extremityfetish I rarely do nail art in the sense of tiny fussy detail work, but it's spooky season and I decided to have a little fun. 🧛‍♂️💀🎃🦇👻 But only on my left hand, I don't have the fine motor skills to draw things on my right one 😂

#manicure #extremityfetish This week I gave my nails the "big chop" and decided to try Requiem for a Swan (Mooncat), a black jelly polish with translucent flakies that look grey-silver depending how the light hits. It's giving granite countertop. I'm into it! A subtle nod to spooky season.

#manicure #extremityfetish I went all out this week with autumn vibes & a new-to-me technique! This one's a skittle with 5 creme polishes, all Mooncat. Thumb to pinky: Emo for Life (black), From the Ashes (burgundy), Poison Ivy (dark teal), Beowulf (forest green) & Queen of Chaos (eggplant purple).

#manicure #extremityfetish I did a one-polish job this week: Velociraptor by Mooncat. It's an older formula that goes on thin and I don't love how the tips show through, but the teal has a juicy translucent finish that reads as candy-like to me, and I love a matte finish on glitter flakies!

#manicure #extremityfetish Inspired by one of my favourite houseplants, I went for a "lazy gradient" on this one, basically two polishes blended by brushing them in opposite directions on the nail instead of by using a sponge. Sealed with a Hiss (mauve) and Spawn of Medusa (green), both Mooncat.

#manicure #extremityfetish This week I did a little fun combo: Queen of Chaos (dark purple creme) on four fingers plus Moonfairy (sheer lilac with iridescent flakies) as a topper, Moonfairy alone as an accent nail, and a matte topcoat on everything. All by Mooncat.

#manicure #extremityfetish Apparently I'm still in the general "pale blue and sparkly" mood, so here's this week's iteration: Cyborg Tears (chrome) on three fingers, Star Destroyer (glitter) on two. Both by Mooncat.