Holo Stamping with franken: Boom Boom Ba

It's about time I showed another of my Spectraflair frankens, isn't it? This one, I've named Boom Boom Ba, and it's made from one bottle of Essence Break Through with a tiny amount of Spectraflair and some clear polish to thin the base. It has a fairly subtle holo effect, but it's just enough to add some life and dimension. My bottle of Break Through is one of the old ones, but according to the Essence website, it should still be available in their newer Colour & Go line.

full sun

Here it is in full sun. This is two coats Boom Boom Ba, stamped using Color Club Revvvolution and Cheeky Jumbo plate D. My bottle of Revvvolution is not as holo as I'd like it to be, but I'm not sure I'd call it a dud bottle, as it's still very nice. Hopefully you can see the effect here in the stamping. This is the most true-to-color photo of the bunch, as the others pull too blue.

full spectrum lamp

 Here it is under my full spectrum lamp. As you can see, the holo effect is slightly less, but still visible, especially in the bottle. Again, this is bluer than the polish is in real life.

shade

This is full shade, and the holo effect is completely dampened, but it's clearly not a plain cream polish. It has depth, but no rainbows.
Here's the song inspiration behind my franken name, complete with a video from the TV show (Dead Like Me) where I first heard and enjoyed the song:

Great song, great show.

franken: Swallow

lightbox

I made this last summer, and finally got around to wearing it last week. This is 2 coats. I made it by mixing ½ Claire's Poison Apple and ½ Love & Beauty Sunlit Waves. It ended up a nice dark, dusty denim blue with some awesome red-gold sparkle. It's a little darker than I intended, but I like it anyway.
And the namesake song:

Vault 106: franken Fishin' in the Dark

full sun

I made this franken last year, using ½ Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune + ½ Rimmel Black Satin. This is 2 coats. So awesome! As you may recall, Teal of Fortune is one of many polishes that were nearly identical two summers ago: Zoya Charla, Orly Halley's Comet, OPI Catch Me In Your Net, etc.

lightbox

The glass fleck shows up better in the lightbox, and I matte-ified the middle finger here with Essie Matte About You. You can also see that the black doesn't completely overwhelm the base - it's a really dark navy blue.
And one of my all-time favorite songs:

Vault 106: franken Hello, I Love You

full sun

Last summer, I ordered SpectraFlair from a certain eBay seller, and I've never looked back. This stuff is SO FREAKIN' AWESOME! For this one, I added 2 tiny scoops of SpectraFlair to Essence Ready For Action. I bought a half-dozen or so Essence Colour & Go polishes just for this purpose, and most of them worked perfectly! It did fade the red a tiny bit (it's a silvery-gray pigment), so I added a few drops of LA Colors Transformer (deep, vampy red) to bring it back to a true cherry red. You'll see the others I made as I wear them, just need more sun to fully appreciate all that delicious holo.

full sun

I couldn't resist stamping this with lips, cuz I'm seriously in love. ♥ I used the black holo franken I made with Essence Fabuless and BM02.
The namesake song:

Updated: Franken Contest Entry: Kashmir

Update: I didn't win, but that's okay - I loved the frankens that did, and they are totally deserving! Thanks to everyone who voted for Kashmir! I truly appreciate that, and it makes me happy that you like it. ☺ Link to winners' announcement: More Nail Polish I recently entered a frankenpolish contest over on More Nail Polish, and just wanted to let you know. Feel free to vote for my entry if you're so inclined. May I present Kashmir: Not to be biased, but I really like it - the color came out perfectly, and the shimmer is gorgeous! This was two coats, though one would have been enough, if the mini brush in my franken bottle would have cooperated. My recipe is listed in the contest entry, but if you have any questions, let me know. Here's the song I named it for: This video is nine minutes long, so don't feel obliged to watch/listen to the whole thing - I didn't! But you get the idea. Epic! So, why are you still reading? Go, vote! ☺

Franken: Blue Orchid

My first franken post! For those who don't know, a frankenpolish is a unique, homemade polish, made in one of three ways:

1. Mixing two or more polishes together.
2. Mixing (powdered) pigment or eyeshadow into a polish base.
3. Any combination or variation of 1 and 2 above.

I've made a handful so far, and it's a lot of fun! The only restriction is needing empty bottles sometimes. And, since no polish shall remain nameless, I have taken to naming my frankens for music! Usually song titles, but sometimes just music-related. So, when I post about them, I'm going to include a link to the relevant song.
First, swatches:

Blue Orchid. 2 coats, no topcoat. Foily/metallic periwinkle. It came out more foily and blue than I expected. I might franken my franken, with a touch more purple, now that's there's a bit more room in the bottle. (Why, yes, I do have perfectionist tendencies - how could you tell? )

Here it is with topcoat. It looks a bit bubbly, because my original topcoat didn't play nice. It was opaque at one coat, so I put topcoat on, but it bubbled! Hence, the second coat with a different topcoat. Ugh. I hate more layers than I really need!
On a side note, if I (a rank amateur) can make a polish that's opaque in one coat, why can't the 'pros' get it right, consistently? I'm just sayin'... 

I started with a nearly full bottle of Essie Ballet Slippers, which I stocked up on when Ulta had them on clearance for 99¢.  As for measuring the pigments, well, I didn't. I just started throwing them in (via a paper funnel) until I was happy with the color. It's mostly Lilac mica, though, with just a touch of Blueberry Pop (a bit too much, since it came out more blue than I intended). Add BBs, shake and you're done.
Whoever suggested that tip about using a sheer (but still slightly pigmented) polish instead of clear for pigment frankens, thank you! It worked like a charm, and doesn't appear to settle out - I made this several weeks ago and didn't even need to shake it again when applying!
Here's that song I promised:

This time the franken came first - after watching this video, I thought the name fit!