Color Club: Explosion (+Julep: Piper Revisited)

OMG You guys.... *falls over* This mani really just frustrated me from the start. I took it off shortly after taking these pictures. I ordered Explosion back in October with the intention of wearing it for pre-Halloween, but that just never happened. I can't remember why. The color is this really cool metallic bright orange...



The formula... is a bit tricky. Like how my ring finger totally doesn't match the rest? Explosion really needs thicker coats for decent opacity. Which is tricky to do with crackles. They dry so fast! Cool color, though...



That was only the tip of the frustration iceberg. I was scrolling down my collection page trying to come up with a base. I really had no idea what to pair Explosion with and didn't want to use black. That seemed too obvious. Then I came across Piper. Go on, check out that hot mess. I can wait.

.......................

Bad, right? Sheer anyway. Redemption time! Or so I thought. I started off with two coats of Icy Princess to ensure opacity...



Much better, eh? At least there's no VNL. But what's up with my ring and pinkie fingers? I'll tell you what's up. *sigh* I knew Piper took forever to dry (metallic my ass) so I made sure to use my quick dry drops and waited three hours before going to bed. Everything seemed in order. Until I woke up. Smudges and hair marks galore. That picture is after a layer of topcoat and another of Piper. This one is my un-touched up right hand:



This polish is taunting me... I want to love it, I really do, but it's not letting me. I'm in the process of trying to give Pool Party a second chance and so far... I'm just not in a mood for it, I guess. Also... should have used white instead of white-silver... You'll see, I'm sure I'll post it tomorrow. I've also been hanging onto the pictures of my second glow vs base color experiment. Probably post those up soon. Hope everyone's having a great weekend! (^_^)"/"