China Glaze Smoke and Ashes + Finger Paints Flecked

Hay y'all! Today I have a break in our regularly scheduled programming this week of all On Safari all the time to show you a swatch of a combo I wore this weekend that I LOVED. Don't worry, I'll be back to nail arting tomorrow - I got home late from work last night with a terrible headache and didn't really feel up to nail painting :( It also didn't help that I really liked the design I did yesterday and was sad to take it off already haha.

Anyway, on to today's nails!

The base color for this is China Glaze Smoke and Ashes from the Hunger Games collection. It's a black polish filled with tiny glitter, mostly in the cool color family from what I can tell. I used 2 coats for perfect opacity, I almost could've gotten away with one but had some patchy spots. The formula is pretty good, a little thick but nothing unmanageable.

I actually had some trouble applying/cleaning up this polish but I don't think it was entirely the fault of the polish... it was thick, but I had also just chopped all my nails down and for some reason when my nails are newly shortened it's like I've never painted nails before. I got polish allll over the sides and tops of my fingers, especially on my right hand, and because of the tiny glitter and the fact that the polish is BLACK I had to spend a lot of time cleaning up. It was super cool.

On top I layered one coat of Finger Paints Flecked, a green flakie that shifts to blue and a hint of purple. I love it SO MUCH. Application was the same as all the FP flakies... easy peasy. I really love the depth that the tiny glitters in Smoke and Ashes add to this combo. It almost looks the same as it would layered over a black creme but when the tiny glitter catches the light it just looks so much more intricate.

I also managed to get a good picture of the color shift!

Okay, that's all for today! I have a few more ideas for things I want to do with my beloved On Safari colors so I will be back tomorrow to hang out with you guys!