Hello and welcome! My mani started with only one goal: use my first thermal polish. So, the look this week is deceptively simple.

This all started a few days ago when my mom called to share her love for her new polish. I had bought her 1850 Artisan Polish – Once Upon a Dream while I was at The Indie Shop in Anaheim, and finally was able to see and give it to her last weekend. And her excitement inspired me to use mine, which is basically the blue version of hers. The next step was just finding a good design that would show off the polish’s thermal properties. And everything I have (stamping plates, vinyls, etc) would cover up the polish more than I wanted. So, I stuck with another half moon design. But this time, I’m following the lead of @coffeeandnailpolish

What I Used

• Base Coat: Glisten & Glow – Base Coat
• 1st Color: 1850 Artisan Polish- A Dream is a Wish
• 2nd Color: Necessary Evil – Greenwell
• Top Coat: Glisten & Glow – Top Coat
• Bundle Monster Poli-Peel cuticle protector
• Twinkled T half circle vinyls

I started with base coat, and then three coats of the blue. I’m glad I was warm while applying this because I was able to see any bald spots better with the light blue color activated. (I’m showing my mom’s pink swatch, so you can get a better idea of the color change)

Three coats of the thermal blue (in it’s luke warm state)

My mom’s pink thermal polish

Next, I went through my polishes trying to decide what to pair with this blue. Which made me remember that I had more thermals. And I decided that this should be an all thermal design.

So I applied liquid latex around the bottom half of my nails. And then tried my best to evenly place the half circle vinyls so that it looked like a very prominent half moon. My only problem was that the green took a few costs to get fully opaque. And if you’ve even used vinyls, you know they need to be lifted before the polish dries. So I had some very thick coats of green when I lifted the vinyls. And that made it take a while to dry.

The liquid latex and vinyls applied

After taking off the vinyls the green was just a little thick

I applied two coats of my brand new bottle of top coat (to even out the thick green section). And boy did it feel good. There’s nothing better than using a new bottle of polish. Anyways, this was another quick and easy manicure. But the thermal adds a fun complexity to it. Both colors get darker in the cold and lighter with warmth, so they really go well together. Sorry I couldn’t get any good photos of the color shift, but apparently the temperature in my house is very steady.

Final look – left hand (in the polish’s warm state)

Final look – right hand (in the polish’s warm state)

Have a great week! Hopefully the weather is just fun enough for me to see a change in this polish.

Update:

For the most part, nothing major happened to this manicure throughout the week.  I only started picking at them on Tuesday.  And I was able to control myself enough to keep it just to the corner of my pointer finger.  Probably the surprising thing to me was that the color changing, thermal properties kept working throughout the week.  For some reason I thought that it would stop working after being on my nails for a while.  But, it kept on shifting.  It was most noticeable when I’d go from the scorching heat outside into my a/c filled car, or when I’d walk in to our freezing cold meeting rooms at work.

You can see the color changing a bit

Some wear at the tips