Funky Fingers Aurora Borealis and Partly Cloudy

I think this post is a double "first" for our blog, the first Funky Fingers shades featured and the first about something from Five Below...which is weird, because I shop there a lot.  My partner is a gummy candy fiend and decent sized bags are 5/$5 there, so I've got a great excuse to check the polish while I'm buying him goodies.  Five Below has two exclusive polish lines, Funky Fingers and Fresh Paint.  Funky Fingers is made by the same company that makes Color Club, and Fresh Paint *might* be too...though I'm not sure.  A lot of their polish is 3/$5 and they sometimes have drugstore brands like Nicole by OPI, Wet n Wild, Sally Hansen, and L'Oreal.  They're known for randomly getting discontinued lines and shades and I love rummaging through their polish bins on treasure hunts.  I've found some really good stuff.  Anyway...a couple of weeks ago Makeupalley user yellowbird219 asked if anyone had seen swatches of the new Funky Fingers Solar collection.  I hadn't even seen them yet, so I dashed into Five Below the next time I was out running errands and picked up two of them.  The Solar collection is $3 each, not 3/$5...yet.  There are four shades, but I passed on the yellow/orange and pink.  My favorite thing about these is the easy summer nail art I realized I could do with them.

Aurora Borealis is a very bright fuchsia cream that darkens and reddens in direct sunlight.

indoors, through UV-resistant glass

Indoors it's one of those that's impossible to photograph accurately, but this is close.  It's kinda like a more opaque, somewhat pinker Sinful Colors Dream On.  The formula's really good, almost a one-coater and very smooth.  I used two coats to make sure it was opaque in bright sunlight.  Outside it turned a deep, yet bright, rosy pink.

outdoors in full sun

This is the kind of pink I like...the kind that's almost purple.  Now for the really awesome part...  When I first wore Partly Cloudy last week, I had to run errands and I put on sunscreen spray.  (I'm pale so I play it safe.)  I wondered what it might do to a solar polish.  I was blown away by the result and I knew I had to play around with it.  For Aurora Borealis I did large spots on just an accent nail.

outdoors in full sun w sunscreen splatter

I can't get over how this looks.  It's so easy too!  All I do is spray high SPF (I used 50), water-resistant sunscreen spray (mine is Wegmans generic brand) into the air and wave my hand through the mist.  The pressure put on the sprayer changes the size of the droplets.  More pressure makes a finer mist.

Partly Cloudy is a bright aqua cream that turns to a smokey slate blue in direct sunlight.

indoors, through UV-resistant glass

These two shades are amusingly contrary.  The no-sun colors are exactly the kind of colors that blow you away in sunlight, but they 'settle down' outside.  Unfortunately, while Partly Cloudy is waaay more reactive to sun than Aurora Borealis, its formula isn't anywhere as nice.  It's streaky, troublesome, and doesn't self-level.  I had to use three coats of it (and sandwich with top coat between each new coat of color) and then double up on top coat at the end to smooth it out the best I could.  The trouble doesn't end there.  These solar shades are both picky about top coats.  I used Out The Door when I wore it on my errands and while my phone exaggerates the color change, it was pretty drastic.  When I redid it (using NYC Grand Central Station as a top coat) to take 'real' photos, something was off.  It was changing, but not as much.  I blamed the overcast sky at first.

w NYC GCS - index and middle fully exposed, ring and pinkie shaded - full sun

...and then I thought about it and decided to redo it this week with Out The Door on most nails and Grand Central Station on just one.  It makes a noticeable difference!

NYC GCS as top coat on ring, OTD on others - full sun

It's even more obvious in person, because the ideal angle for photos isn't the ideal angle for sun exposure and the change starts to fade very quickly.  I gave it the sunscreen spots treatment again too, because this didn't have enough oomph.  I got the oomph back on the second try.

outdoors in full sun w sunscreen splatter

Ooooomph.  I love these sunspots so damn much!  Have a second look....

outdoors in full sun w sunscreen splatter

This would be so cool to do before going to the beach, a cookout, or some other summery outdoor thing.  They're surprisingly durable too.  I wore my first sunscreen-spotted mani for several hours and washed my hands, even deliberately trying to rub the spots off, but the effect lasted.  It's a little bumpy in person if you look reeeeally close at it, but indoors no one would suspect it to freckle in the summer sun.  I assume it probably fades after several hours because that's how sunscreen is, but I was still seeing a change over four hours later.  I gave it a really rough rubbing on my shirt only a few minutes after spraying and it still barely budged.

outdoors in full sun w sunscreen splatter - rubbed...doesn't come off!

It dulled the background and smeared some of the spots, but it's still all speckled...and trust me, I rubbed the hell out of it!  I played around with other ways of applying the sunscreen, like dabbing it on with my fingertips and it still worked.  You could even do tape art, stencils, etc.  I might have to play around with this idea again before the summer's over.  Maybe for the fair next week...

Bottom line: Like mood polish, it's a fun novelty to watch your polish change colors outside.  The change doesn't happen if the light's coming through UV-resistant glass, which is used in most cars and many homes, so you really do need to be outside to see it happen.  Aurora Borealis has a great formula, but Partly Cloudy is harder to deal with.  I'd recommend both though, since the color change of Partly Cloudy is much stronger.  It makes up for the hassle of applying it.

So far, so good for the 'every day this week' goal... I might just make it!  I have some very belated Spring shades to show you tomorrow.  See you then!