China Glaze Fortune Teller

I really want China Glaze Black Magic. I mean, really. A lot. Of course, it's not for sale anywhere so I went looking for alternatives. Good alternatives. China Glaze has its own in Fortune Teller. Black jelly base, small orange glitter. Black Magic's glitter is actually even smaller, but I'll take what I can get. Which wasn't Fortune Teller either because that one is an exclusive as well and I couldn't find it for sale. I've seen other versions but none of them really captured my attention the way these two did. Especially when you add a matte top coat. Le gasp! It was love. It looks like a banked fire just waiting to be brought back to life. I love love love.

I also love ebay. Say what you will about people charging exorbitant prices but if some fool (read: me) is willing to pay well then it's worth the sale. It was bound to happen that someone would list one of them and sure enough Fortune Teller showed up. Now, if you've seen this on my list you'll know there may be an issue with it.


The listing said brand new so of course I figured everything was present. When I got it, I found it was missing the label. Now...okay, maybe that's not such a big deal but it IS A BIG DEAL. That's damaged to me. It's bragging rights, okay?! I have something in a China Glaze bottle that someone told me is Fortune Teller. Granted I could have something in a China Glaze bottle that's labeled Fortune Teller and still not know the difference. It may be nitpicky of me, but I make no excuses for it. That's me.

Anyhow.

one very messy coat

two coats

I was sort of rushing through it because The Walking Dead premiere was coming on. :) Two coats are more than sufficient with this. I did add three to the thumb and don't really see a difference, so I stayed at two. I love that so much. I would have its babies. Then I busted out my Essie Matte About You and worked magic.

Two coats. Though only one is needed, I missed some spots so I went back in. I said I was trying to hurry. I can't tell you how much that captivates me. All through the show I kept admiring it. Now here's where it got interesting in a way that is much more fun to talk about than it turned out visually. Because I love how it looks with the shine, too. So I thought, well why can't I have both?

That's just two pieces of tape per finger to form a (mostly) right angle. Then the same pieces flipped to get the opposite corner.

Checkerboard! If you zoom in you can see it more clearly. You can also see where the clear coat is pulling up at the edges. So I went in with a fine brush and lol mostly smeared my nice clean edges.

Still looks pretty neat if you ask me. Which you did since you're reading this. The only real problem is it's VERY subtle. You can't tell there's anything but black polish with some orange sparkle on it til my finger is practically up your nose.

My first indirect sun shot!

See what I mean? You can barely tell. I know it's there and I guess that's mostly what matters but it's also sort of like the label missing on the bottle. If people can't see it, what's the point? ;)

A few tips if you try this yourself. I used Scotch Gift Wrap tape because it doesn't stick to anything really well. It's cheap for that reason. I also tried doing the shine finish first and the matte with the tape instead of vice versa. The problem with that was that you have to tape over the first part of the nail you did to get the second part and the tape kept ripping up the matte. And parts of the polish underneath. I think it's because I wasn't waiting for the matte to dry all the way (I said I had a show coming on!) and it would have worked out slightly better if I had. I wouldn't have had those top coat edges that needed fixed, thus smearing the nice clean lines. Also, the overall finished polish is slightly rough to the touch because of it, which wouldn't have happened if the matte were the last one applied. Future reference!

I like it. It was a fun idea to try and I enjoy sitting around with my fingers up in my face to see it. Because it confuses people, so they ask what I'm doing. Then I get to say hey check out my polish!

 Jess


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