Two Girls, One Imitation on a Starry Starry Night

I got my franken polish supplies on Friday.

A curious kitty wants to know if it's a present for him!

I couldn't wait and ripped right into them. My goal? A common one, for a lot of us polish fanatics who showed up a little late to the game...to create my own version of Essie Starry Starry Night. I pulled up a few swatch pictures on my tablet, propped it up next to me for inspiration and jumped right in.

I didn't really know where to start. I've never made my own nail polish before, never so much as combining two commercial bottles to make my own color. So I just grabbed a few things--blue, red, silver glitter, polish base--and started in. A squeeze of this, a little of that, maybe a few drops of this other...shake, shake, shake...paint one, two, nails on the nail wheel. Whoops, forgot the glitter! Add that in, shake till the cows come home...paint three nails on the nail wheel. Add a second coat to two of them, a third to one, let it dry, compare to the images on the tablet. Toss in another drop of this, a bit of that other...shake shake shake. Lather, rinse, repeat, y'all.

Imagine my surprise when after the initial mix and two adjustments, I had it.

I didn't know that, though. I texted Jess and said, "I need a second opinion before I go any further." And I knew she hadn't been at work for that long and I'd have to wait at least seven more hours to get an opinion. It was like EVERYONE I know who would have cared enough to give an opinion was at work, out of town, or just generally unavailable. I put it to the side and mixed up a few other things just for fun. A sparkly pink jelly with pink glitter for my friend Julie. A blue jelly packed with red glitter, an homage to Fantasy Fire, for Kim. Maybe a dark purple with holographic silver glitter, Sara will like that one. Finally the chemicals started to get to me, so I packed up my supplies and took my headache to bed for a nap.

I woke up and while I was waiting for the Chinese delivery guy, I decided to try again. I ended up with two matching bottles of polish which looks just like Starry Starry Night except for one thing: it's purple, not blue. So I pushed my two bottles of Purple Purple Night off to the side, ate some of my sweet and sour chicken, and sat back to watch TV until Jess got home. By which I mean I sat here with AIM open on my laptop, waiting for her to get home so I could get my second opinion. I was so scared of messing up, and I didn't know which direction to go next. So I sent my swatch pictures through AIM. Jess took a couple of minutes and then replied with this:

(Jess tells me the small inset picture is from here. Permission to use the photo is pending (hopefully she'll say yes, anyway). And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.)

YOU GUYS, I TOTALLY HAD IT!! I am so excited, I can barely sit here.

So I went and built another bottle to send off to my partner in nail polish obsession with my newly discovered (and documented, for once) recipe. Came out just like the first bottle. I've named my dupe Two Girls, One Imitation in honor of the blog here.

Of course I couldn't wait to do my nails! Mani of the week, a day early. I started with a base coat of Orly Bonder and topped it with my usual Sally Hansen Hard To Get white. Bring on the color!

First coat. Yes, I'm messy.

Secont coat. Still messy, but it cleans up.

Cloudy day

The sun TRIED to come out, but not very well.

Top coated with Seche Vite. You guys, these pictures do NO justice to this color. The sun won't cooperate and give me a good bright beam to catch the sparkle, so I'm giving up for now. Just know that I am SO happy with the outcome of my first Franken, I'm beside myself. 

You want your own Starry Starry Night dupe? I'm willing to sell my version, Two Girls, One Imitation. Visit DLC Polish's Store Page for more info!