I think once you get going on a swatch-a-thon, it's not so bad. I have painted and removed polish from my nails at least 50 times in the last week. Anytime I removed polish and washed my hands I applied a moisturizer around my cuticles and under my nails with a small angled brush before I started painting =and i have no frazzle. I also made sure I applied moisturizer around my nails and let it sink in before I began to take off my polish.
That is my normal routine..... a few extra steps but sooooooo worth it. If you decide to not apply moisturizer around your cuticles before painting - to help with an easy clean-up - at least apply moisturizer around your cuticles ( and let it sink in ) before you begin to remove your polish. This has made a monumental difference in the dryness that sometimes occurs to my cuticles.
anyhoo - onto some fun photos.
Billie Blue; I have made some beautiful, beautiful frankens with this jelly-ish bright primary blue. Although it took 4 coats to get to this opacity, there is still some areas that are a little sparse. This dried to a matte finish and I had to use 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat to get it to shine..... 2 coats! most of the polish's I wear I only use 1 coat of TC - and this just sucked it all up - weird.
With gradient, This had a few bare spots even after 4 coats
Billie Blue Skies, thankfully gets totally opaque in 3 coats, two thick ones would do but there is some brush strokes visible so I try to do 3 thin, even coats. It has a lovely finish to it.... not sure what its called but without TC it has a nice almost satin sheen ( ? ) It has a touch of frosty-ness but I dont mind frosty finish's in this color family.
Billie Blue Skes - 3 coats below - no TC
With TC
Blue Skies gradient
Electric Blue is another sheer but lovely blue shade from this brand. It has a subtle pinkish flash, and has been great for layering. I wish it was a tad more opaque. This dried fast so I can't complain.
Electric Blue; 4 coats below - No TC
With TC
Electric Blue Gradient - needs 4 to 5 coats to opacity - this is very nice layered over many different polish's
and finally a quickie skittles. The first two polish's are older Billie Polish I found during my
epic Ontario Canada polish haul. I have made 2 pretty frankens with these. The first on I called Paradox, I just added black and it turned out lovely.
Franken Paradox made with Billie Hyacinth
Although they are very nice shades, I cannot stand polish that are frosty looking and definitely cannot stand frosty polish's that are white-ish, or taupe-ish... so I will likely never wear these as a full mani.
Blueberry is a scented polish, it smells really good. Whenever I wear scented polish, or read about it I always wonder why they don't make ALL nail polish scented.
Hot to Trot (lol) is very sheer, but is a neat finish and shade.
L - R, Ice 3 coats, Hyacinth 3 coats, Blueberry 2 coats and Hot to Trot 3 coats all with TC
here is Billie Hot to Trot ( lol) layered over NYC skin tight denim, and alone
Below is line up off all the
BLUE Billie Polish's I have, and have swatched here. I am hoping to work through my entire collection, as I have an obscene amount of polish's I haven't even cracked open yet
♥