China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'm back much sooner than I'd planned because I have swatches of the upcoming China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals to show you.  China Glaze sent them for review and they arrived this morning, and once the bottles had cooled down to room temperature, I got to swatching.

I used them all over a charcoal shimmer - I figured charcoal would let them show up well and show us their opacity, and I thought shimmer would work better with the almost-chrome finish of all six Crackle Glaze Metals.  I did just single nail swatches for this preliminary test drive and look at them - in addition to the fact that I was racing predicted storms for sunlight and didn't want to change lighting conditions halfway through, all six are gorgeous and I'd rather put a little more thought and effort into full manicures with them than just pairing them with charcoal.

Since I used three colors on each hand I split them up as I figured you'd want to see them, putting the true metallics (silver, gold, bronze) one one hand and the others (teal, pink, lavender) on the other so you can see how they look relative to one another.  They all have top coat, and this is in good sunlight.

First, we'll look at the true metals.  They are, from the top down, Cracked Medallion (bronze), Tarnished Gold (gold) and Platinum Pieces (silver).

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, Round I

I think you can see how well these apply, and the application was  the same for all six shades in the collection.  The consistency of the polish is like normal polish, and so it was easy to apply a thin coat.  With crackles, I pay no attention to how even or opaque the crackle is during application - when it splits up, the pieces become much more opaque and things even out.  When applied, these looked somewhat sheer, but you can see that all three broke up beautifully and are opaque enough to completely cover the charcoal base between cracks.  Here's the same picture with the polish names added - I find labels on pictures can be distracting, so I figured I'd let you get a first impression without them and tack on the labelled version for reference.

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, More Round I

As for the colors, I really like them a lot.  I've always loved metals and chromes, but the fact is, a chrome finish isn't the most forgiving.  If there's one ridge in a nail, and I have many, a chrome finish pretty much places a neon sign flashing "RIDGES" on that nail.  These have the same overall effect as regular chromes without that shortcoming, and they are really solid renditions of each color.

For Round II, also from the top down, I have Oxidized Aqua (teal), Haute Metal (pink), and Latticed Lilac (lavender).

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, Round II

Here, you can see that these three are as opaque as and broke up just as well as the first three, and the colors are stunning.  These three will require a little more thought to pair up with good bases.  Here's the labelled version of Round II.

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, More Round II

All six swatches have just the one coat of top coat, and you can see that the crackle layer isn't terribly thick, which is nice.  I'm a huge fan of this collection, and I'll be trying them out individually this week.

That's really all I have for today, Dear Reader, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Turquoise Shatter over Glam Rock

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing OPI Turquoise Shatter over Orly Glam Rock, and I really like how it turned out.  It somehow reminds me of enameled jewelry of the 1970's.

Orly Glam Rock is their gold matte polish, and I picked that one both for the color and because it only needs one coat.  I actually had to take a do-over on this manicure - the first time, I did base coat, one of Glam Rock, let it dry, then Turquoise Shatter and top coat.  Turquoise Shatter didn't break up very much that way, but I thought the colors were really good together so I redid it, using top coat over Glam Rock the second time and it turned out much better.  Have a look.

OPI Turquoise Shatter over Orly Glam Rock

It's bright and it's fun.  I like it.

That's just about all I have to tell you about this morning, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoats

Good morning, Dear Reader!

On the off chance you're not weary of crackle nail polish yet, I have two from the Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat release to show you today, Antiqued Gold and Distressed Denim.  These are the only two I have from Sally Hansen - the others seemed close enough to OPI or China Glaze ones to me.  The biggest thing the two of these have in common is a long, skinny, floppy brush that make them very difficult to apply thinly, which puts a huge damper on how much I like them.

I'll start with the one that was a letdown, Antiqued Gold.  The shade is pretty, a nice shimmery pale gold, but the polish is a little thick like the China Glaze Fault Line, the tricky purple shimmer, and the floppy brush in Antiqued Gold made it impossible for me to use the same technique to successfully apply it as I did the China Glaze.  The manicure here is Illamasqua Scarab with one thicker-than-I-wanted-it coat of Antiqued Gold, the thinnest I was able to apply, then top coat.

Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold Crackle Overcoat over Illamasqua Scarab

I like look of the polish, it's that there are so few cracks that I don't care for.  Applying it more thinly would fix that, but the long, skinny, floppy brush makes that a challenging feat.

Distressed Denim is much thinner, so I had a little more success with this one since I was able to apply a thinner coat.  It's a bright blue jelly, so I paired it with OPI Last Friday Night to let the glitter sparkle through.  It worked out well.

Sally Hansen Distressed Denim Crackle Overcoat over OPI Last Friday Night

I hadn't used Last Friday Night before, so I took a picture of it to show you before adding the crackle.  The color of it builds slowly, and on my hands I think it makes me look like I'm really, really cold.  This is three coats.

OPI Last Friday Night Nail Polish, Three Coats

That's what I know about Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoats.  Most likely, I'll return them because I really hate the brush a whole lot.  I considered decanting them into another bottle with a workable brush, which I've never done before, but partway through the process of picturing what it would take to do that I lost interest, which pretty much gave me my answer on whether that's something I want to do.
That's it for today, Dear Reader, and until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Lady Luck I Need You Now

Jamie Woon - Lady Luck

Plate: Bundle Monster BM21

Base Colour: Barry M Cyan Blue

Stamp Colour: Sally Hansen Amber Chrome

Top Coat of NYC

I'm gonna ask you all for a massive favour today...

You might have heard about the competition that Bundle Monster are running on their Facebook page. Contestants were asked to submit a photo of their nails decorated with Bundle Monster products and the 25 entrants with the most votes from the public will win a set of their new plates.

The picture above is a sneak peek of the mani I entered into the competition. I would really appreciate if you could click over to the competition here or here to take a quick look at my entry and see if you think I'm deserving of your vote. It's a really simple thumbs up system for voting.

You can vote for each entry once per day. So you can bet I'm gonna be nagging you every time I post until the competition is over haha.

Thank You :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve, Dear Reader!

I was up for a holiday manicure this morning, so I ran with it.  Actually, I tried and failed last night (there was a products-don't-like-each-other wrinkled polish incident), and the last thing I did to this mani didn't work out as planned, but now that my second attempt has gone south, I'm leaving it.  It's not too far off the mark, and I can show you where it went wrong.

I started out with two coats of China Glaze Midnight Kiss, then added a holly pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM14, painting the leaves with Green Konad Special Polish and the berries with Cool Red Konad Princess Polish.  I wanted to add one more thing, so I stamped the Christmas tree from Konad plate m12 in Konad Green, and at this point, all was well.  However, the Christmas tree didn't look too festive being green with green decorations, so I had at it with cheapo rhinestones.

That's where the problem came in - I got a bunch of little wheels of rhinestone-y things super cheap off of ebay a while back, and now I see that they're cheap because they're crap.  I used a round white rhinestone for the star on the tree, which was fine, and then I added a few little round metallic beads to the Christmas tree, and top coat made the color bleed off of them.  So it would have been just right but for my crappy tree decorations.  In the picture, there are also some droplets on a few nails - it was snowing pretty hard when I ran out to take the picture, so please just ignore them.

Christmas Eve Nails

See how the color bled right off of the red pieces on my ring nail?  That's pretty frustrating at the very end.  However, no one's going to look at my nails as close up as this picture, and from a normal close distance it's more okay.  The red pieces just look oddly blurry, so I'm going to leave it alone.

The moral of the story is don't buy cheap crappy nail decorations like I did, and if you do, don't use them as the last step of a manicure that was kind of a hassle to execute.  Words to live by.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Christmas Nails

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'll tell you what I've been up to this week.  I've been adding to that China Glaze Midnight Kiss manicure, the gold foil one, that I showed you on Sunday.  At this point, I've added so much stuff to it that I'm deeply concerned about the removal process and how much life it will suck out of me, but that's a concern for another day.

Today, I'll just show you the layers.  As a reminder, here's the base I started with, Midnight Kiss, in natural light.

China Glaze Midnight Kiss Nail Polish, Two Coats

That was Sunday.  On Tuesday morning, I decided to add some China Glaze Party Hearty to it.  I did three coats of Party Hearty to get the coverage I wanted, then I added (and here's where the big trouble starts) three coats of top coat to smooth it out.  So as of yesterday, the official coat count is 1 base + 2 base color + 1 top + 3 Party Hearty + 3 top coat = 10 coats of nail polish I have to remove without just snapping a nail off in my aggressive pursuit to get rid of glitter.  But it looked cool.  This is under artificial light.

China Glaze Party Hearty over Midnight Kiss = One Metric Boatload of Nail Polish

I've stated the down side of removal, but there's also an up side to seventy zillion layers of nail polish.  I spent a few hours yesterday tearing tape off of one of those big rolls with the tape cutter on it, hanging things on walls.  A few times, I really dug into a thumb nail with that tape cutter, but this industrial strength manicure didn't get scratched.  I also knocked my nails right into things a few times where I was certain I had to have broken one, but they were fine, only one big chip in the polish.

This morning I was going to do a fresh manicure to protect the exposed nail from that big chip, but the prospect of getting rid of glitter prompted me to add even more to this manicure in order to put that off for a little longer.  I decided it could use some silver, so I added two coats of CND Silver Sparkling Effect, which barely showed up.  I gave up on the CND and added one coat of OPI Disco Ball Glitter, which gave enough silver to make me happy, then two coats of top coat to smooth it out.  The CND shows up much more in this macro picture than in person.

More Coats of Nail Polish Than Is Reasonable

So now I have festive holiday nails, but I've also raised the official coat count to a staggering 15, quite likely a personal record, which affords my nails a protective barrier that may well deflect bullets.

I'll let you know how it goes when I change this one, supposing I'm able to talk about it right away.  Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!  

China Glaze Midnight Kiss

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I've been neglecting my nails horribly lately, so I haven't had any pictures to show you until today, when I finally changed my beat up manicure.  I decided to try out China Glaze Midnight Kiss, the gold from their Holiday 2010 collection.

Midnight Kiss is a gold foil that was well pigmented, applied easily, and was good in two coats.  I think it makes my nails look like those 70's metallic ball Christmas ornaments - the ones that shattered into a zillion shards of glass if you looked at them funny, probably not safe by today's standards.  They were pretty though, and so's this polish.

China Glaze Midnight Kiss Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's just about all I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Dior Timeless Gold

Good evening, Dear Reader!

I've been neglecting you again this week, I'm sorry.  It's not just you that I've been neglecting, it's my nails too.  I've been working on a project that's tough on a manicure, so I haven't changed polish this week, which means I didn't have any pictures to show you.  Today, however, when faced with a scraggly, chippy, five day old manicure, I finally changed it.

I used Dior Timeless Gold, one of Dior's Holiday 2010 polishes.  It's a light gold, very pretty, and it was perfect in two coats.  I'm really happy that I decided to spring for this one.

Dior Timeless Gold Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's the update for now, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Nfu Oh 569 & CND Gold Sparkle

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Yesterday I did a manicure I really liked, so I thought I'd show it to you.  I wanted to use a CND Effects polish since I haven't used those much, and decided to go with Gold Sparkle.  I really like the Sparkle Effects a lot.  Having chosen that, I needed to pick a base color, and I went with Nfu Oh 569 (the one like NARS Zulu).  I used two coats of 569 and one of Gold Sparkle.

Nfu Oh 569, Two Coats, with One Coat CND Gold Sparkle

It's a little on the Christmassy side for October, but I like it just the same.

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

OPI Burlesque: The Shimmers

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have swatches of the remaining six colors from OPI Burlesque.  After swatching all of these, I think this is the collection from OPI that I've liked the most in quite a while - I really like these a lot.  They're pretty much what I expect from OPI with respect to application and dry time, but the colors are exceptional.

Rising Star is a kind of brassy gold with a sparkly finish.  I used two coats.

OPI Rising Star Nail Polish, Two Coats

Take the Stage is a slightly burnt orange with the same finish.  I needed three coats of this one.

OPI Take the Stage Nail Polish, Three Coats

The Show Must Go On is an orangey red with a slight duochrome effect.  I used three coats.

OPI The Show Must Go On Nail Polish, Three Coats

Ali's Big Break is an amazing red jelly with the same sparkly bits as the others.  It's like Maraschino cherry juice with sparkle.  This is three coats.

OPI Ali's Big Break Nail Polish, Three Coats

Tease-y Does It is a plum brown shimmer, and I needed three coats.  

OPI Tease-y Does It Nail Polish, Three Coats

Let Me Entertain You is a fantastic fuchsia with the same finish as the others, also a three coater.

OPI Let Me Entertain You Nail Polish, Three Coats

My favorites from this half of OPI Burlesque are Ali's Big Break and Let Me Entertain You.  I'm wearing Let Me Entertain You, and I absolutely love it.  OPI really made me happy with this collection.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

More Limited Edition Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicures

Good morning, Dear Reader!

There was good sun yesterday, so today I have more swatches of the new limited edition Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure nail polishes, another three.

Before getting to today's, I ought to mention that taking off Problem Child was a huge hassle.  Those little flaky bits were seriously stuck on there - I'd rather remove Starry, Starry Flight twice than remove Problem Child once.

On to new pictures... Golden Ticket is a gold glitter that I thought wouldn't be opaque, but three coats later it was.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Golden Ticket Nail Polish, Three Coats

Feeling Saucy is a fuchsia shimmer that was good in two coats.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Feeling Saucy Nail Polish, Two Coats

Fedora is a really nice brownish beige with a gold shimmer, also a two-coater.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fedora Nail Polish, Two Coats

You can see the variety in this collection, and that there are quite a few really strong colors.  I hope to one day get past the names.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

OPI Glitzerland

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today's Nails of the Day is OPI Glitzerland from the Swiss Collection.  Glitzerland, like most of the OPI Swiss I've used, required three coats to be totally opaque.  However, the dry time on this one was quicker than average, so a third coat wasn't a big deal.

I like the color - it's a sort of washed out metallic gold.  It's not the most flattering color I've ever worn for my skin tone, but I like it just the same.

OPI Glitzerland Nail Polish, Three Coats

I also had some news on the nail art plate front.  I'd mentioned not too long ago that I was asked to design a plate, and there's now a project blog for the collection of plates created by Nail Artists United.  It's a handy way for you to see what's going on with the project, and also to give feedback regarding what you'd like to see.  It was just started this weekend so there's not a lot there, but take a look.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Chanel Gold Lame & RBL Locavore

Good morning, Dear Reader!

After a week of wearing holos, Paradoxal just wasn't doing it for me and I changed it yesterday morning.  I tried out Chanel Gold Lame, which is a two coat light gold shimmer.  It didn't seem blingtastic enough, so I added two coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore to it, and then I was happy.  Here it is a day later.

Chanel Gold Lame Nail Polish and RBL Locavore, Two Coats Each

It took three coats of top coat to make it smooth, but it was worth it.

That's what I have for you this morning, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Nubar Venetian Glass Collection

Good morning, Dear Reader!

The manicure I had planned for today was thwarted yesterday when samples of Nubar's Venetian Glass Collection for Fall 2010 came from the manufacturer yesterday.  I wanted to swatch them right away despite the fact that I didn't have enough natural light for pictures, so I used artificial light.

The collection is eight colors, all opaque glass flecked polishes, with five kind of leaves-changing-color shades and three that are just really cool.  I was excited about opaque glass flecked polished, since most glass flecked are pretty sheer on me.  I did two coats for all, I think one or two might have been better with a third.

Oro is a yellow gold, with an almost foily finish.

Nubar Oro Nail Polish, Two Coats

Caramello is a browner golden shade, also almost a foil.

Nubar Caramello Nail Polish, Two Coats

Bronzo is a coppery bronze.

Nubar Bronzo Nail Polish, Two Coats

Arencia is a Fall orange.

Nubar Arencia Nail Polish, Two Coats

Rosso is a pink red, and sorry about the sloppy swatch on this one.  I wear out doing eight!

Nubar Rosso Nail Polish, Two Coats

Those were the five I think of as fall leafy colors.  The other three are my favorites, I think.

Vino is a great burgundy.

Nubar Vino Nail Polish, Two Coats

Vaso is a great light purple glass fleck.

Nubar Vaso Nail Polish, Two Coats

This last one is a complete manicure with top coat.  Verde is a deep green with visible green, blue, and gold flecks.

Nubar Verde Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's Nubar's Venetian Glass Collection for Fall 2010, available June 30.

I should have more swatches for you this week, too - notice for another mystery package was left when no one was around to sign for it.

That's the scoop for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Toga Toga

I think this would be such a great manicure for a toga party.

Plate: BM11
Base Colour: Collection 2000 - 82 Toffee Gold
Stamp Colour: W7 - Black
Top Coat of NYC

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Yesterday was a perfect day to go for a drive, and so I did.  I went to a gargantuan Dollar Tree in a nearby town as my destination, just to see if they had anything to see in the way of $1 nail polish.  As luck would have it, the place was a gold mine for the older good stuff - Sally Hansen glitters and Hard as Nails, Maybelline mattes, aluminums, waters, and Khaki Fringe.  There was also a ton of L.A. Colors nail polish, but I was too busy pillaging all the old stuff to be bothered with that so much.  Once I got home, I decided to swatch the Hard as Nails I bought.

My first nail polish was a Sally Hansen, probably a Hard as Nails (the same as the older bottles, anyhow), a frosty 1978 pink.  I remember going to do my nails when I was 10 and shaking a Sally Hansen too aggressively, only to have the mixing balls come flying out of the bottom of the bottle, leaving nail polish everywhere.  Oops!  Swatching these brought back memories because of the smell - they're old, chemically Sally Hansens, and the smell is distinctive.

The pictures aren't the best with respect to composition - they're at a weird angle because I was racing the sun, so please forgive that.  It wasn't until I was selecting pictures that I saw the weird angles, and by then, the sun was below the forest to the West, so I couldn't take more pictures.  They do show the colors well, so I kept them.

Most of these were thin with age and required three coats, only two were two-coaters.  They applied reasonably well, and I'd forgotten how fast they dried.  They're all kind of weird colors, but to me, weird in a good way.  Three of the eight have the newer bottle shape, the other five are the older ones.

Tough Frost is the one I'm wearing, which is a greenish brown with red and green shimmer in a newer bottle.  None of these with "Frost" in the names are really frosts, more like shimmers.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Tough Frost Nail Polish, Three Coats

Racy Creme is a weird dark muddy grey creme.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Racy Creme Nail Polish, Three Coats

Lucky Creme is a reddish brown creme.  This was one of the two-coaters.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Lucky Creme Nail Polish, Two Coats

Edgy Creme is a washed out army green creme, the other two coater.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Edgy Creme Nail Polish, Two Coats

Trendy Creme is also a washed out Olive, more yellow than Edgy Creme, and in the newer bottle.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Trendy Creme Nail Polish, Three Coats

Rich Frost is a weird grey shimmer which could have used a fourth coat.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Rich Frost Nail Polish, Three Coats

Risky Frost is also a strange one, and also could have used another coat.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Risky Frost Nail Polish, Three Coats

Stylish Frost, the last one, is a mustard-y yellow with gold shimmer in a newer bottle.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Stylish Frost Nail Polish, Three Coats

Those are my Sally Hansen Hard as Nails finds, and the lesson for the day is that the next time it's a good day for a drive, find a further-away Dollar Tree to be your destination.  You might strike gold, too.

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!