The missing sorbets ...made metal!

Picture heavy and nerdy post ahead!

I was a bit puzzled the other evening. A while ago, I found that weird Rock Coat from Dior in store, and tried it quickly on one of my nails. I was anything but impressed. But still puzzled. Do people actually buy this? And at that price? Hmm. It's basically a really sheer charcoal black polish. Why spend big bucks on something one could easily make at home? Said and done. I sat down and frankened one. I had a bunch of bottles of the badly formulated Diamont, that was just sitting in my drawer since I found them useless. But perfect to franken a jellyish topcoat, I thought.

And before I knew, I had frankened an entire little collection of sheer jellies. I lalalove jellies. I had the ones from OPI, those they so inventively refer to as Sorbets, in mind, and although jelly polishes are far from new, I reckoned I should just franken those wicked shades that were entirely missing in the OPI collection. Mine ended up like you would expect sloppy done frankens to, rather unconsistent in pigmentation. But I don't care. I swatched them in three coats each. Not for the visible nail line fearing people.

Here they are. Names will follow, but let's just say I couldn't come up with any really smart ones, so I named them in a hurry while editing the photos below. The third from left is an old frankened jelly, about two years old, that I felt fitted in here, so I decided to reswatch it as well.



Elixir. This is the one that wouldn't stick to the lens because it's really bright, so it has been slightly color corrected in the cyan channel. It's derived mostly from Depend 249, which is a bit like China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, but deeper and a tad more green, but just as bright and impossible to get right on camera. There's also a few drops of yellow, and just a couple black. Oh, and why Elixir? I had this constant image of the green goo from the cult movie Re-Animator, but since this isn't the same color, I just named it something slightly reminiscent.



Noblesse. Has one of the easiest recipes in this bunch, as its only component beside Diamont is Pure Ice French Kiss. Blue is a color that still makes me think of royalty and upper class in general, so the French word for the noble got to name it.

And here is the old teal green jelly franken, reswatched:



Spruce. I originally named it Shady Spruce, but I felt like renaming it today, and since I pretty much always do as I wish, that's what I did. This one is a little more opaque than the others, mainly because it has about 1/3 clear only. The other thirds are 1/3 BB Couture Poison Ivy, and 1/3 Misa On the Edge.



Trauma. How to name this one was way more obvious. It's the kind of color so often referred to as a bruise, but since so many polishes have gotten this name throughout the years, I just went for the cause instead. Also, this baby has one of those super easy recipes, since it's made from one single color - this time OPI Siberian Nights.

However, you can tell it would benefit from a fourth coat, so I did what many often cherish jellies like these for: a sandwich. With glitter, of course.




Here, one coat of the mixed color glitter Sassy Sparkle from LA Colors has been overcoated by another coat of Trauma. You can see how the effect varies depending on how thick a jelly coat you do - the middle has the thickest coat, and the ring has the most thin one. By now this manicure was overall really thick as well, mostly because it hadn't yet set when I took out the camera, but also because the LA Colors glitter was in a rather thick base. I'll forgive it though, since it has iridescent glitter thrown in. [heart]

Now the one that started all this madness: my own Rock Coat. Of course I renamed it accordingly, mine's called Metal Coat.


First, to give you an idea of how sheer it is, I swatched it in one, two, three and four coats:

Streaky and not very pretty on its own, it's not really meant for single use - if you're dying to make your own black jelly, just use a lot less clear. Mine's probably even sheerer than the original, so adding more black could be the way to go here.

But this is how it's supposed to be used:

Here in a generous coating over Spruce, on index and pinky. How metal is that? Just imagine the Dio trademark evil eye pose. \m/ Extra point for Dior - Dio pun. [giggle] I used a Diamont bottle which was about 3/4 full, and added circa 15 drops of our darling Wet n Wild black creme.

The jelly proportions of the others are basically 2/3 Diamont, filled almost up with the added colors.

I'm still not sure if this Rock Coat was really a very good idea coming from the Dior people, but if it's going to be done in any way, just franken your own. The cheaper, the better.

Swedish word of the day:
gelé -noun jelly, gel
Pronounce it with a blowing sound in the beginning!