Friday 7 December 2012

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Why, hello! Welcome to my blog :-)

WARNING: seriously picture-heavy post (but it IS fantasy fire...)

Today I have a polish for you that truly needs no introduction (although I'm a tad verbose, so there'll be one anyway). The reason for my choice: a friend of mine at my local Clinique counter spotted it in my basket whilst I was in Boots the other day and told me I HAD to wear it next time I go in store so she can see what it's like on the nail. Her face when she saw the bottle was FULL Gollum! I wish I could have got a photo to put on this post, but I'm sure she'd have killed me for that ;-)

A crude artist's impression of my friend's face - with surprisingly little artistic licence!
(with thanks to Google and www.prettypurplepolish.com for the best bottle shot I could find)

I wanted to show my friend the polish in its best light, and spent a lot of time googling different undies to figure out which would be best, but in the end, I decided to take some inspiration from Liesl Gutierrez on the PAA FB group and swatched it alone in all it's glory. As we all know by now, this is a very sheer polish, and so I eventually decided to experiment with how many layers it would take to get full opacity. The magic number? Six (in most lights). A lot of people will be absolutely aghast that I 'wasted' that much of this tiny bottle of polish, but I can replace it any time because I honestly have it coming out of my ears here; clearly there aren't any polishaholics in my area!

This polish has so many different sides to it that I took about FIFTY (50) pictures of my nails before eventually narrowing them down to the following (so please don't be offended that there are six)! All of the swatches below were photographed WITHOUT a top coat - this polish is unbelievably glossy!

Enjoy :-)

Ooooo
Ahhh
(Slightly blurred) close up!
Multichrome goodness: enlarge to see the green!

The full spectrum under fluorescent lighting (sorry
for the quality - had to be quick whilst the Dr was gone)!
This is what six layers of FF looks like in natural light - BLUE!

I've had this polish in my collection for some months now (used once before), and if I'm honest, I don't love it as much as I'd like to - it's just not the same on the nail as it is in the bottle. That said, I'm happy to keep experimenting with different undies until I find the perfect combo.

What's your fav undie for this polish? Let me know in the comments!


[EDIT: Bonus nail art!] 

I wasn't going to show you this, or even do this(!) but I sat down last night to remove the mani and started playing around with my new Models Own nail art pens. I originally planned to try drawing a snowflake because I am just dying with jealousy with all these beautiful winter manis out there right now, but I ended up getting side-tracked and this is what I came up with:

Close-up: I did art!
Matte and multichrome!

I'm so pleased with how this came out. I was originally just going to draw the bow outline, but it actually looks better filled in and the silver had to be layered up a lot to get to that opacity. Also, isn't the matte Fantasy Fire pretty :D It truly lost nothing of the multichrome and I think I may actually prefer it matte! Finally: this mani was about a week old (WITHOUT a top coat!) - and check out the tip wear! In fact, I made the tip wear worse because I tend to chip off the polish on my tips if any flakes off, and I chipped off  LOTS. I'm pretty sure that this mani would have been indestructible with a top coat!

I realise that this post is both LONG and FULL of pics, but I hope you enjoyed it and will stick around to see what I come up with next :) Needless to say, my posts aren't normally this long!

Thanks for stopping by and 'til next time!

- Skye x

20 comments:

  1. I usually wear this over OPI roadhouse blues, a navy creme but am definitely going for matte next time....gorgeous!

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    1. Also.... LOVE the Gollum pic!

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    2. Thanks for the tip Kathryn! I don't have any deep blue cremes, but I do have a deep blue shimmer from Collection 2000 which I'd like to try out some time :)

      I'm really pleased I tried the matte look - I accidentally smudged my right thumb on application and it looked pretty rad so I thought I'd better give it a go when I took my polish off. I had no idea it'd look so cool though!

      Oh - and THANKS!!! I really do think that the polish brings out the Gollum in us all ;)

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  2. Woah, I've never seen FF as a matte finish and I really like it! I'm so jealous that you own this AND have it coming out of your ears :-D

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    1. I'm glad you like it! The matte effect does look pretty cool - and I don't think I've ever seen anyone swatch it like that before :) I really do have a ton of the stuff available haha - but KBShimmers are so faaaaaar away :( Where are you based? :)

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    2. I am in Oregon. How about you?

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    3. I'm based in Portsmouth, England - it's right on the south coast :)

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    4. I just looked up some pictures and it looks gorgeous there!!

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    5. Ahaha the camera can do wonderful things when used properly ;) It's not bad here - lots of history :) Oregon looks MUCH nicer. I've never been there :)

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    6. I've never been anywhere. Lol. Well, I have been to Mexico, but a lot of Americans go there, it's like a go to vacation spot. Do you guys have any places like that? Oregon is GORGEOUS. I never want to leave the Central Oregon area. We get to experience all four seasons and are surrounded by beautiful mountains.

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    7. For Southerners I think France is the vacation spot lol. Cornwall is nice but it's hard to get to. I LOVE mountains. I spent some time living abroad in Austria and if I could go back and stay there forever I would.

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  3. Try it over dark colours, my favourites are navy, black, dark purple or forest green. You only need one coat and it's amazing. I did a post recently wearing it if you want to see pictures.

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    1. Ooooh over a green? That sounds awesome! I will definitely try that out and I'll definitely check out your blog too :) Thanks for stopping by!

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    2. BTW - I just LOVE your profile pic!

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  4. It totally looks awesome mattified. And I LOVE the green shift! And that fifth/ full spectrum shot...holy SMOKES, lady! I've only worn it alone and over Revlon Royal, both of which look really cool, but I think it would be really interesting over a Kelly green or a gold. Awesome post and awesome photos, Skye :) :)

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    1. Hey! I'm really glad you liked your post! :D I do definitely love it matte. The fifth shot was a sneaky shot I got in the hospital; I was at an appt with my podiatrist and as he left the room I glanced down at my hands and saw AMAZINGNESS and so I had to whip out my phone and get a pic (or several)! I felt like a ninja :D And I've never seen it over gold - you should *definitely* try it so we can all see! :)

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  5. Loving that you tried it on it's own, I will have to try it matte too as it looks incredible :D I too have plenty in the shops here not many polishaholics either, lovely post :D

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    1. Aww thanks Joannne :) I'm glad you liked it! I have to give credit for trying it on it's own to Liesl (above), but it certainly was pretty like that! I've tried it on purple before and that really brings out the red, but I liked it better this way. Matte is *definitely* the way to go for this polish! I can't believe no one has tried it before! :)

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  6. Awesome pictures of Fantasy Fire! I love it on its own and need to try that next:) I put it over a blue and it looked really cool too! Great post. Love the first picture - LOL.

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    1. Thanks :) It was Liesl's idea, I just experimented with the number of layers ^^ And I'm glad you like the first pic! I was mega proud of my awesome MS Paint skillzzzz ;)

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