Thursday, September 29, 2011

Name this Franken!

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. The semester has now fully kicked in, which means I am quite busy. After school lets out, I go home and pretty much immediately leave to work out for a couple of hours (I do Zumba). After two hours of bouncing around like a maniac, I delve into homework and there isn't time for much else. Ugh.

Anyway, this weekend is (mercifully) fast approaching. I am determined to get back into the swing of things and start up on my frankening again. I've got a few ideas that I've been sitting on due to lack of time.

Now, back on topic. I was fooling around with a couple of glitters, and I made a franken that I love, but am not sure what to call it.


Red and copper glitter in a tinted red base. It was inspired by the galaxy's favorite krogan, Urdnot Wrex:


This guy is as old as most trees out there and has the hilarious quotes to prove it. He's a bit of a softie, but in a tough way. If you want a pat on the back, he's there to give it... but he'll also make sure to shatter your shoulder blade just for giggles. He loves to show his appreciation towards you by way of death threats. Such a romantic.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to call this polish. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Flesh and Steel

What happens when you become half-organic, half-cyborg? Just ask super-charming turian Saren.



O__O isn't that enough to make you lose sleep? Yikes. And I do mean he's a total charmer. I mean, just look at how he sweeps our wonderful heroine Commander Shepard off her feet:





Ah, yes, chivalry is still very much alive in the 22nd century. And, look at those muscles!

Saren is the main foe in Mass Effect part one. He was brainwashed by the Reapers and is now fighting to start the galactic apocalypse. You are assigned the task to chase him around the galaxy to keep him from bringing about the galactic extinction. Fun!

Anyway, Saren is fitted with "upgrades" by none other than the Reapers, so he's got the bionic arm as well as some other tech that gives him an eerie blue glow. He boasts about his "flesh and steel. The strength of both, and the weaknesses of neither."

I wanted to make a polish that would kind of blend these two together. The metallic look that all turians have, plus the imbalance and weird glow from his cybernetics. I meshed it into this:



Saren the frankenpolish. This is three coats on its own. It's really sparkly when worn. I can't keep my eyes off of my fingers whenever I wear it. I made the blue glitter finer than the silver so it kind of "glows" like his unnerving stare.

By the way...Saren, how did you like the fist to the face? You totally deserved it.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Spice on the Spring Wind

Solipsism. When a memory feels as real as life. It's as valid as life.

"Laser dot trembles on the target's skull. One finger twitch, he dies. Then, the smell of spice on the spring wind. Sunset eyes defiant in the scope. The laser dances away."


Sunset Eyes. I wore it for the first time today. Who knew that one day I'd be making a polish inspired by my videogame alien lover's dead wife? Hmm, not I. Not I.


A short funny story before I show my NOTD. My brother knows all about my polish addiction and involves himself in my frankens. Today, he saw me doing my nails. This was our conversation:

Him: What color are you doing now?
Me: Black.
Him: Just black? None of your fancy custom colors? (frankens)
Me: Yeah, I'm just doing one coat of this underneath first.
Him: Which color are you using?
Me: This one. *shows him bottle of Sunset Eyes*
Him: What's it called? Hand it to me. I'll come up with a name for you.

He looked a little disappointed when I told him it already had a name. But he approved of the name Sunset Eyes, so that's good.

NOTD. Please excuse my lack of cleanup, as my kitten stole my cleanup brush.


Different angle to show the color shift of the hexagon glitter:



Now...Thane, look at that face you're making and tell me you weren't being intentionally creepy when you said the following:


"Thinking about a moment brings back the smell of cut grass, the warmth of another's hand on yours, the taste of another's tongue in your mouth. Wouldn't you rather lose yourself in such a memory than spend the night alone, staring at walls of metal and plastic?"


"...TMI."

...yeah. You're still cool though. Now please tell me where you got your jacket. I really want one. Hell, I'd take your entire wardrobe. Yeah, that's better.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Savoring the Last Shot



Now that's a sexy hunk of man. If you like chafing. And anaphylactic shock. And possibly some sharp teeth and talons in...unfortunate areas.

I never imagined that I would refer to Garrus Vakarian as "adorable," but leave it to BioWare to make this guy trip over his own tongue in the most hilarious ways. He's all rough and...pointy, but there is something about this hopeless turian that makes me want to hug him (shut up, Kelly. I saw him first.)

When hitting on him (yes, you really can hit on him), he's so surprised and caught off guard that he busts out some of the best lines I've ever heard. They truly had me grasping my stomach in pain because I was laughing so hard.


"You know me. I always like to savor the last shot before popping the heat sink."


"................................"


"...wait. That metaphor just went somewhere horrible."


No, Garrus, that metaphor just went somewhere awesome.


Popping the Heat Sink the frankenpolish. Red, gold, and copper hexagon glitter in a clear base. This is one coat over WnW Black. I sincerely apologize for the lint in the picture. I didn't spot it when I took the photo. Also, this was swatched MONTHS ago, before I had any hope of owning a camera. I neglected to refresh the top coat.

This is one of my favorite frankenpolishes. The dirty metaphor name makes it all that much better. Now, can this wait for a bit? Those calibrations won't calibrate themselves, after all.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

This One Made Another Polish


What is THAT? Tongue with legs? Something you would find in your nether regions? No, this is a hanar. They are an aquatic species that speak using bioluminescence. They're quite calm and really polite, but I can't not giggle whenever I encounter these in Mass Effect.

I honestly wonder how BioWare came up with this design. I giggle and cringe whenever I see these. Especially when that videogame salesman on the Citadel asks if you've seen hanar tentacle porn. Yikes.

Aaaanyway, before this gets to be even more disturbing...you can be mean and call one of these guys a "big stupid jellyfish." Inspiration strikes.



Big Stupid Jellyfish the polish. Multiple sized fuchsia hexes, multiple sized medium pink hexes, fuchsia squares, and pink square glitters in a clear base. The swatch is one coat over Wet n' Wild Black Creme.

I don't dislike the hanar, but I do admit that they skeeve me out a bit. It's not their fault they look like giant tongues on squishy pink stilts. I like how polite they are, and their bioluminescense is pretty cool to watch. Not to mention they trained none other than Thane Krios, drell assassin extraordinaire. That in itself buys them some cool points. Just keep those tentacles to yourself, please.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

We Will Darken the Sky...

Ok, so in the ME series, there is a big bad race of sentient machines out to destroy all galactic civilization. They come around every fifty thousand years or so and destroy all sentient life and enslave whatever they don't kill. Then they disappear and repeat the cycle. Such a lovely tale, no?

These things are called Reapers, and they pretty much hate you. And me. And your puppies and kittens. We are insignificant, a "mistake" or blah blah blah... lol. It's been a while since I heard that self-important speech, so my memory's a little fuzzy.

I do remember one of them (his name was Sovereign) saying that "our numbers will darken the sky" when they finally invade. How comforting.


These are Reapers. A lot of them. Oh, and yes, I am aware that they look like giant robot head lice. But they are huge and very deadly so I find them awesome despite the fact that they do look like bugs.

I decided that if these big bad machines were a polish, it would have to be one badass polish.



Three different kinds of silver glitter (teensy squares, irregular glass-flecks, and mini hex), gunmetal, and black glitter in a charcoal tinted base.

Maybe I'll go stomp on a few ant piles to make myself feel like a big huge badass. (I won't lol).

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Fierce in Wrath

So today is Tuesday...except it didn't feel like a Tuesday due to the Labor Day holiday yesterday. I admit, I found myself walking towards my Monday class at school today. Luckily, I realized (and corrected) my mistake before I embarrassed myself.

Anyway, as I sat down at my desk today, one of my hilarious classmates whispers to me: "...aaand who were we hired to assassinate today?" It took almost everything I had to keep a straight face.

To clarify, my wardrobe is akin to that of a Hollywood assassin. I always dress in tight dark clothing and finish the look off with some high heel boots. I've become somewhat famous in my little circle of friends as "the one who dresses like she was hired to kill everyone in this room."

I had a point for saying this. Let me remember what it was... oh, right.

I present to you, the sexiest alien man-lizard dude ever:


Thane Krios, drell assassin from the ME game series. He dresses in tight black leather (A+), has the deepest voice I've ever heard (A++), and pops his collar if you leave him standing there for long enough (A+++). Not to mention he is THE DEADLIEST SON OF A BITCH IN SPACE. Well, apart from Commander Shepard, I suppose.

If you play as a female, you are able to...uh, develop a relationship with Thane. It's a sweet relationship, although there is a giant black cloud in the room. I won't get into what it is, less I rip my hair out. I quite like my hair, thank you very much.

Thane gives you a cute pet name if you are with him: Siha. According to him, Siha is "One of the warrior angels of the goddess Arashu. Fierce in wrath. A tenacious protector." You are gorgeous even though you blow up everything you set foot on. Ok, he didn't say that, but that's how I interpret it.

Anyway, I got to thinking. Mysterious. Sexy. Dangerous. Gorgeous.



Meet Siha, the frankenpolish. I told you I had a point.

Monday, September 5, 2011

NOTD

Nothing special, just your good ol' NOTD. Orly Rock Solid.


Rock Solid is a silver/gunmetal glass-fleck polish with small holographic glitters scattered throughout. It's a very unique polish, and a must-have in my opinion.

I thought Rock Solid would be sheer, so I put on a coat of Wet n' Wild Black Creme underneath. I was wrong. Rock Solid, if you're careful enough, can be a gorgeous one-coater! Color me impressed.

I forget how well Orly wears on me. I'm on day two with no chips! It's survived my typing perfectly. Even though...I forgot to put topcoat on it! Yes, I am an idiot.

I'm loving this Mineral FX collection from Orly. It has the same glass flecks as their Cosmic collection last summer. I bought the entire Cosmic collection back then, and I think I will be buying all of the Mineral FX too.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Dollar Store Disaster Day

This past Thursday, I got out of class early and decided to hang around campus for a bit. Then I remembered that my mom asked me to pick up a few things at the local dollar store next time I went. I thought 'I have some free time, why not go now?'

As I was leaving school, I noticed that my truck sounded a little...strange when I turned it on. I shrugged it off, thinking it was in my imagination and drove to the store.

When I got there, I picked up the lotion that my mom wanted and inevitably migrated towards their nail polish area (they have a ton of great Klean Colors). I'm a sucker for glitter, so of course I love Klean Color. As I was perusing the colors, I spotted KC Blue-Eyed Girl.

I saw this polish on the KC website a while back. I wanted it really bad...but I didn't quite remember what it looked like. But I knew I had wanted it, so I bought it.

I walked out of the store triumphantly, then it suddenly hit me. Blue-Eyed Girl is a blue jelly LOADED with blue hexagon glitter! What did I get?


WHERE IS THE GLITTER?? All of their Blue-Eyed Girl polishes were like this :( I relented and went back to my truck to leave.

Except my truck wouldn't start. I WAS RIGHT WHEN I THOUGHT MY TRUCK SOUNDED FUNNY. This is one of the times I HATE being right.

I had to call home to get picked up, as my truck's battery was completely DEAD and not even jumper cables helped. I spent the rest of the afternoon back over there at the parking lot, temporarily changing the battery with my dad's truck's battery, thouroughly trashing my mani. Then later I had to give back the battery, so I trashed my mani some more and was left with nothing to drive. Though I will say that guys love the sight of a girl digging in the hood of their vehicle...especially when they're in heels.

Well, this Blue-Eyed Girl a gorgeous jelly anyway. It reminds me of WnW Nocturnal. But I still want the glitter polish. I'll have to wait for their next shipment. Meanwhile, I will go to that dollar store and tell the owner/manager that they got a defective batch. And maybe they'll give me the rest of their defective ones as thanks for bringing this to their attention lol. A girl can hope.

Across the...What?

I love videogames. My recent, biggest videogame obsession has been the Mass Effect series. It has the richest story, characters, etc I have ever seen in a game. I could go on for a while, but I wouldn't want to bore you. At least not in one post. I shall spread it out :)

A brilliant idea suddenly burst into my head. I decided I would franken some polishes inspired by the Mass Effect game series.

I quickly pulled out a notebook and began writing down name ideas and brainstorming color options. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote some more...before I knew it, I had brainstormed over 60 different colors! My creativity has a habit of getting away from me.

I had the plans for one polish that I would call "Embrace the Sea." It's a quote from one of your [sexy] squadmates...after he kills someone O_o

So I had this idea for the polish and that was when I saw this:



DEBORAH LIPPMANN HAD BEATEN ME TO IT! Grr! But, being the stubborn mule that I am, I went ahead and made the polish anyway. Besides, another MUAer asked me for a bottle and even sent me the glitters to make the polish.

Since DL's version is called "Across the Universe," I decided a deliberate jab was in order...




This is "Across the Sea." The base polish is Wet n' Wild Nocturnal (which I am STILL upset at WnW for discontinuing!)

Apparently Deborah Lippmann and I share a brain or something, because some of our polishes look similar...

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting :)

Let's get through the basics, shall we? I'm Airi and I love making my own frankenpolish!

I've always been a creative person. I love color, but I never really knew what to do with it. My main artistic abilities are limited to cartoon/comic art, therefore most of my artworks are done in black and white. I've always been able to mix colors and get great results, but I've never been able to make anything worthwhile from them...until frankenpolish!

I don't quite remember what got me into frankening, but I do know that I can't stop now even if I tried. What I love about nail polish is that the color is its own final product. You can make the perfect blue and not have to paint it into a deep sea or a sky. The polish is polish, and is a work of art on its own. Maybe I'm just lazy. I don't mind. I do have a problem with not finishing my artworks, so this may have been my subconscious loophole...

I will be sharing my creations with you, so I really hope you enjoy :)