Saturday, July 21, 2012

NOTD: Summer Fun with FLOAM!

After trying my hardest to purchase a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam, I finally went on e*Bay to bid on one. I wound up being the highest bidder on two LOL. But I am SO GLAD to have a backup, after trying out a fun summery manicure!

FLOAM. IS. AWESOMESAUCE.



Floam is what's known as a "matte glitter" (I know, oxymoron). It has tiny blue, green and yellow matte particles in a clear base that resemble the children's art material of the same name. Application is easy peasy, and using the foil method for removal is best. It dries matte. The texture is really cool, not quite like sand but very unique. They don't feel flat, but rather tiny balls of color. It IS a one of a kind polish in my collection!

You know me, my favorite type of mani is skittles and I got to play with a bunch of new polishes.





Thumb to pinky, both hands:
Pure Ice Heartbreaker
Elixir Lacquers Buzzworthy
Cult Nails Bad DN (Deviant Nature)
Elixir Lacquers Sunset Strip
Cult Nails Deal with It (from the new Coco Untamed collection)


Bad DN, Get Over It
Dark Pink Cream, Bright Lime Green with gold shimmer


Sunset Strip, Buzzworthy (Limited Edition)
Bright tangerine with shimmer, Bright Yellow with shimmer



Heartbreaker
Sheer Blue/teal with irridescent flash of green



As a base, I used Butter London's new Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat. A light nude tint, think of it as primer for your nails! It dries a satin/matte and actually looks pretty cool on it's own. This is a new fave!

With the exception of the Pure Ice Heartbreaker, each color only needed 2 coats. Heartbreaker needed 3 or 4--it is very sheer but gorgeous, an irridescent teal blue. Both Elixir Laquers were perfect and lovely. Cult Nails is exceptional polish as always.


I used one coat of Floam starting about halfway up the nail. I wanted it thicker at the tip, so applied a 2nd coat further down, and I think a 3rd on the tip. I went a bit overboard, as my nails had a definite "hump" on the tip. Live and learn!
I decided to first use a clear topcoat (followed by a quick dry). That smoothed out the Floam nicely, although I tend to rush my manis (and it's hella humid in FL) so some of my nails rippled a bit. I smooshed them out smooth, then added more quick dry.

Before the photo shoot I decided to be daring and try mattifying it--one of my weaknesses in doing manicures is experimenting with layers and such. This is something I hope to improve on in my 2nd year (Blogiversary on Tuesday!!). I get caught up in trying to make something look the way I want it and I'm afraid to goof. I keep up my mantra "It's just nail polish. You can have a do-over."


I absolutely LOVED this matted!! Heartbreaker seemed to glow, and the shimmery polishes had some depth to them. I would up wearing it this way for the rest of the week. I used Deborah Lippmann's Flat Top to mattify the nails. It did a great job. I only had a bit of tip wear, and was ready to move on with a new mani before anything chipped!


I think that Heartbreaker and Bad DN were my favorite colors with the Floam, although all of them looked great. Floam gave them a gradient look and it was totally perfect for a summer manicure!

Have you tried Floam yet? How do you decide how to experiment with layers/matte/etc?

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