Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I decided to try Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven when I ordered another Lippmann, and it got here in record time so I thought I'd give you a peek.  I looked at some pictures to decide on it, and it looked sheer-ish white with light colored moderately sized glitter.

I was surprised at how sheer Stairway to Heaven looked in the bottle and I simply don't have the patience for a million coats of color these days, so after applying base coat I applied one thin coat of Misa Heaven White.  I picked Heaven White not for the handy name tie-in but because it's not as stark a white as my other layering standby, FingerPaints Papier Mache.  On the very first nail, I was glad I'd put something under Stairway because I found it to be both sheer and incredibly thick, so thick that it was kind of hard to get it on the brush well.  In getting it on my nails, it was so thick that I had to got over some spots to flatten out the little square glitter bits I'll show you in a minute - the base was letting them stay standing on end.  I missed a spot in the flattening process of the first coat on one nail, and it's still lumpy after it dried (but it's on my right hand and not in the picture).  I did a total of two coats of Stairway to Heaven and  finished it off with Addicted to Speed, and the polish on my nails is pretty thick, so more coats of Stairway wouldn't have worked well for me.  I let it dry and went in the sun for some pictures, so here's Stairway to Heaven.

Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven Nail Polish, Two Coats over White

Here's a look at the glitter, which looks like itty bitty squares of colored transparent plastic.

Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven Nail Polish's Glitter

I liked it more when I started writing this than I do now because I've snagged a piece of wayward glitter on the edge of a nail about seventeen billion times so far.  I did wrap my tips with top coat, but extra clear wasn't an option when the polish was so thick to start with (I understand that's to suspend glitter, but there are limits to what's useful and I could always mix it before applying it if glitter settled...).  This isn't something I'd wear on its own, and it seems like a Springtime glitter to me.  I also have to point out the lack of gold - not many songs have specific color references, but what what do we know from the very first line of Stairway to Heaven?  There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold.  I would have put some gold in, because looking at this polish, this lady is sure all that glitters is pastel.

That's Lippmann Stairway to Heaven - not a huge failure, not a huge hit, but kind of a disappointment for me.  That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Edited to add a little note on removal: What a nightmare!  Imagine the worst Nfu Oh flaky removal you've ever had and square it.



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Half-Moon Nudey

This is another look from New York Fashion Week, this time from the Odilon show. 

The design comes from Minx Nails who, in case you don't know, make a special kind of nail sticker that really bonds to your nail and is normally applied by professionals. However, lots of the designs are easy enough to recreate at home with polish and nail art brushes. 

You may have seen Beyonce, Rihanna and other stars sporting the famous Minx chrome manicures. Hopefully, one day, the powers that be will create a polish that gives you the same effect as the amazing chrome Minxes.

I couldn't find this design on Minx's website but you can click here to see the models sporting the look.

I used Collection 2000 White as a base and Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude for the half moons which I applied using a small nail art brush.

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Sally Hansen Salon Effects Cut It Out

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I applied a set of Sally Hansen Salon Effects today, using Cut It Out, the black and white floral pattern.  Real life is overloaded busy these days, so as the week wears on, I get more and more tired and do dumb things, and this application was riddled with dumb mistakes.  For a reference point, my first try using them was with Laced Up, and they came out close to perfect.  Today, I was able to let go of the hope of perfection very early in in the process.

I've had the gold glitter nail polish strips on as a pedi since I made the first Salon Effecst Strips post, so ten days of wear.  For a few days, one of them has shown a crack when waterlogged, but once it's dry the crack doesn't show.  I was waiting for it to chip and finally decided if it hadn't by now, it wasn't going to and I removed it.  The nice thing about the glitter strips is that they're smooth on the surface, not gravelly like glitter polish, and they removed as easily as the Laced Up strips did.

To start the application, I laid out all the strips from one of the two packets in the box and picked out the five for a manicure.  My hope was to get a full mani and full pedi out of one packet after some of the Laced Up comment indicated that it was indeed possible on longer nails.  When sizing them on my nails, it was clear that the length from the cuticle to the tip of my nails, down the center, was longer than one-half of one strip, so using only the five for a full mani wasn't an option for me.  I trust that it's entirely possible for those who suggested it, so I'll have to give it another shot the next time I have a bad break.  I applied a coat of nail strengthener to give the strips something to stick to, which may well be where my difficulties started.

Here's where the really dumb mistakes came in... I kept placing them really off center or too far from the cuticle so they looked grown out, and my left hand has only one nail without some sort of fix, my index finger.  After the first error I removed the strip for a do-over, but it soon became clear that I'd run out of strips long before I had a finished mani if I kept doing that, so I started just fixing them and moving along.  At the end I sealed them with top cat.  I'll show you the picture first do you can look for the repairs while I tell you about them.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in Cut It Out

The first two went unrepaired - my thumb strip is too far from my cuticle and the index has a wrinkle near the tip, but neither is visible enough to risk messing them up doing anything further to them.  My middle nail was the one that showed me this wasn't going to be easy, and not because of the product.  I laid a strip down maybe halfway up my nail, not even in the general neighborhood of my cuticle, and it's the one where I did a do-over.  After the new coat of strengthener dried, I used the closest sized strip to the one I wrecked, which was a little big, and laid it down a few millimeters down the finger from my cuticle, but the overlap was only on the side on the left and along the left side of that nail since I laid it down completely off center again.  At this point I was out of strips that would fit, so I used the little orange stick from the package to fix it.  With the pointy end I made a dotted line between the excess and what was on my nail, and with the flat edge I scraped off the excess, and what remains along the edge there will come off in the shower in a bit.  It's not perfect, but that worked quite well.  My ring finger was another centering issue, so I cut off a rounded edge from the extra length of the strip used on that nail to fill in the side on the left in the picture.  The pattern has a break in it at the overlap, but it's hard to see.  My pinky, I laid it down way too far up the nail again, so didn't press the strip down but gently lifted it back up.  Some of the strip stayed stuck on, so I smoothed that onto the nail, then turned the same strip around to use the other cuticle-shaped edge and just put it over the other, and it worked fine.

For the second hand, I was even more tired but also annoyed with myself so I wasn't thinking, and those look fine.  One right-hand nail has a double layer resulting from falling short of the cuticle, but that was the only problem.  Overthinking when I'm way too tired generally results in mistakes, and that's what happened here.  I'm sure you get too tired to function well too, which is why I wanted to show you how nicely the strips took to tidying up errors.

I'd gone back and forth on doing the pedi through this, and finally guilted myself into doing it when I considered that the opened leftover strips would dry out and be useless, so if I ever wanted a Cut It Out pedi, I'd better get on with it.  However, all that remained after my arduously complicated mani application were the two gargantuan strips and one super-skinny strip, and when I assessed that they'd be enough to cover all ten remaining nails only if I successfully cut out and applied a lot of little pieces, I threw in the towel and threw out the last three strips.  A honest consideration of the outcome of it, in light of today's application skills, made it seem like I just skipped the steps where I cut out and fail at applying the pieces of strips and went directly to throwing them out.

That's my long story of applying the Cut It Out strips.  It was a hassle, but looking at the outcome I'm very happy, and I cringe at the thought of what a Konad attempt would have resulted in today!  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!




All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Givenchy Vernis Miroir Multiple 771

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have a little something different to show you today, and interesting glitter top coat.  It is, as you might have guessed from the title, Givenchy Miroir Multiple Nail Lacquer and Top Coat 771.  It's an older one that's a clear base, but not perfectly clear, the slightly yellowish kind, with lots of really bright, very fine holographic glitter.

I tested it on a nail with the last manicure still on, and the glitter reflects really bright red, green, all the rainbow colors, so I was trying to decide what to put it over for today.  Black and navy blue seemed obvious enough to take the wind out of the Givenchy's sails, I considered a bright red and concluded that I too often use that as the backdrop for glitter top coats, then finally settled on white.  Since the Givenchy does have a tint to it (I doubt it's really tinted that way, some polish bases are not completely clear), I picked the whitest white I have, which is Orly White Out.  Every time I use White Out, there are a ton of comments asking if I mean the typing correction fluid, so I'll be really clear on this one.  White Out is an Orly white creme nail polish, Wite Out is a brand of liquid paper. They're two different things and it's the nail polish on my nails.

I did a base coat, three of White Out to make it non-streaky, then two of the Givenchy, which did add a bit of  a cast to the white, making it more of a pale ivory.  That's fine with me since it diminished the starkness of the white.  I left several minutes between each coat since I'd planned to layer, and I found that the Givenchy dried to a really exceptional high shine, far more so than most top coats.  Still, that's a heck of a lot of layers of polish, so I topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward.  Fast Forward was just right - the fact that it's not terribly shiny wasn't an issue since it went over something very shiny, and it did a really nice job of drying all those layers.  I accidentally tested it a few times, with the first being fifteen minutes after applying Fast Forward. I knocked a nail into the side of my wire-framed glasses, which is noramlly a sure fire way to make a tear in the surface and take the polish all the way off, but it didn't even dent, which was really impressive.  About an hour after that, I used a nail as a tool for something and got a deep dent, which I figured I had coming, but it popped back out while I slept and I woke up with smooth shiny nails.  Here's the manicure in sunlight - the focus isn't the best ever, but that's intentional to show the glitter a bit.  All of it sparkles like the few pieces that show.

Givenchy Miroir Multiple Nail Lacquer and Top Coat 771

It would definitely be more vibrant over a dark color, but I was up for some variety.  Know what's really funny about that packaging here?  The stem on the Givenchy bottle  is super long, and the round bottle part is as tall as the Orly White Out 0.60 oz bottle, but the Givenchy holds only  0.27 oz.  I'd previously thought the 0.30 oz Estee Lauder bottle, that giant block of glass that would make an effective paperweight in a wind tunnel, was the most masterful job of deceptive packaging, but Givenchy topped them with this one.

That's Givenchy Miroir Multiple 771 and jst about all I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Meet EOTD and NOTD. They're twins!

I've been trying to create a video tutorial for a Smokey Eye look all week after someone requested it on Facebook but it seems like the world is against me on this one.

The first time I tried, I just didn't get good enough footage because I'm still a rookie. On my second attempt, I got the footage but it refuses to play on my computer. It just crashes any software that I try to open it with, including the editing program! Très frustrating! 

So anyway, here are my takes on the ever classic smokey eye and it's companion, the smokey nail!

I used:

E.L.F. Eyelid Primer

Bourjois Eyeshadow - Blanc

17 Solo Eyeshadow - Thunderbolt

MUA Eyeshadow - Shade 20

E.L.F. Cream Eyeliner - Black

Jerome Alexander Mascara

I think I'll try one more time to make a tutorial for this look but if the universe can find yet another way to tell me that it's just not meant to be, I'll have to concede!

I created a (sort of) gradient using one sponge and three colours. I utilised a combination of dabbing and dragging the sponge

Collection 2000 - White

La Femme - Grey Cream

Rimmel - Black Satin

Top coat of NYC

I'm going camping this week so I won't be blogging. I have one holiday inspired nail art post scheduled for Wednesday and I should be back to blogging by the weekend.

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OPI Simply Smash-ing & White Shatter

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'm up bright and early so I can run off to a horrifying appointment with the dentist in just a bit.  In light of that start to the day, continuing with the sparkly shatter manicures seemed in order to counter it.

For today's mani, I figured I'd just look at stuff that's come out in the last few months and go with whatever refreshed my memory with an inspiration first.  That ended up being my first thought while wading through my disdain at Black Shatter over Simply Smash-ing, the first OPI Serena set, which I recall specifically noting upon my first proof read that my review contained the phrase "it's hideous" three times, so I spent a long time rewriting that one.  That thought was that Simply Smash-ing was like a sparkly tennis ball green, a favorite color with a favorite finish, and that with white shatter it might look cool.  I put that on the back burner until White Shatter was released, and lo and behold, that's my manicure for today.

I needed three coats of Simply Smash-ing, which would have been negotiable as a base color were it not for my one clear fake tip, then did a top coat to dry it, White Shatter, and more top coat to seal it.  This is how Simply Smash-ing with White Shatter looks.

OPI Simply Smash-ing with OPI White Shatter

You can get the whole tennis ball theme from that, right?  I don't think that one's too far a stretch.  Whether it's that or I've just warmed up to crackle polishes so much since the first time I used Black Shatter, I really love this one.

I'm having a blast with crackles lately - they're such an easy way to make a cool mani an over-the-top one.  That's what I know for now, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby & Konad H4

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have a manicure with SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby (dun, dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun...) and the tip pattern from nail art stamping plate H4, which I bought from Chez Delaney but have seen elsewhere since.  Aside from having a name that makes me think silly thoughts, Ice Ice Baby is an opaque shimmery white which required three coats, and I did the stamping in rainbow colors (or a selection of five of them) using various Konad Special and Princess polishes.

SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby Nail Polish and Nail Art Stamping Plate H4

I'm extra happy with how this one turned out, and were it not for the fact that my pinky's fake tip is looking worse for the wear, I think this manicure would go on my list of absolute all-time favorites.  The tip has actually held up quite well this week with daily polish changes including an OPI Burlesque glitter, but I noticed an edge of it lifting, and before I even had time to register a conscious thought about that, I pulled the lifted part off and made a big ledge in it.  That was really the result of being tired - I'd gotten all adjusted to sleeping really well, then in the last week something that's no big deal keeps waking me up super early, which is also why I'm posting this hour.  At 3:30 a.m., there's amazingly little to do - I'm not particularly interested in any Ronco products, and anyone I'd call at this hour would likely either be really drunk or really PO'd at being awakened to shoot the breeze, and I don't feel like talking to either.  Proof reading this paragraph, I'm simultaneously impressed and horrified that I wandered from an analysis of a fake tip to Ronco in so few sentences, so I think I'll leave it that way.

Lest I ramble on about every tired thought that drifts between my ears, I'll just wrap it up here.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Serena Glam Slam France

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I swatched the two new OPI Serena Glam Slam Duos coming out for the French Open for you, so that's what's on tap today.  I only tried out the Shatters over the color each was packaged with, which really aren't what I'd put them with on my own, so there will be more to come with those.

Spark de Triomphe is tons of glitter, sort of white gold overall with specks of black, in a clear base.  The glitter is very dense but still pretty smooth, and this one is good in two coats.  It looks a little bit like I got some poppy seeds on my nails, but I really like Spark de Triomphe just the same.

OPI Spark de Triomphe Nail Polish, Two Coats

Spark de Triomphe is packaged with White Shatter, which is as thick as and about the same to apply as Black Shatter.  It's opaque white when dry.  Since I know some prefer no top coat over Shatters, I took pictures without it as well as with top coat.  I think it has a definite sidewalk chalk look to it without.

OPI White Shatter over Spark de Triomphe, No Top Coat

OPI White Shatter over Spark de Triomphe with Top Coat

That's it for the white one.  Red Shatter came with Rally Pretty Pink, which is indeed rally pretty.  It's that pigment from last year again, and it was difficult to get a good picture of it in artificial light.  Depending on the angle, the color shifts around a good bit, and my camera kept picking up more purple than really shows, but this gives you an idea of it.  It's not so much the pinky-pink I've seen in some promo pictures.  It could have used at least a third coat - this is two.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink Nail Polish, Two Coats

I added Red Shatter, which is more of a jelly than a creme.  It's also much thinner than White Shatter and easier to apply.

OPI Red Shatter over Rally Pretty Pink, No Top Coat

OPI Red Shatter over Rally Pretty Pink with Top Coat

On the package for the pink and red set, I noticed something I see as good - Serena's sporting some serious nails.



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

Anna Sui Nail Color 001

Good morning, Dear Reader!

To start off a new work week, I changed my polish to one that's far less attention-grabbing than a neon yellow.  I looked through some untried colors and found Anna Sui 001, which is a kind of sheer off-white base loaded up with lots of fine flaky glitter, and of course, being made by Anna Sui, is lightly rose scented.  Since I wanted the manicure to be opaque, I used a base shade that was close to the Anna Sui in an opaque cream, American Apparel Cotton.  Cotton took two coats and was a still bit blotchy after the second, but I figured the Anna Sui would even that out, and it did when I added two coats of it.  Finishing with one coat of top coat smoothed everything out nicely.  Here it is in the best sunlight I saw yesterday.

Anna Sui Nail Color 001 over American Apparel Cotton, Two Coats Each

This turned out much better than I'd expected at the start.  Since I used a white background for the picture, the color looks distinctly off-white, but without real white nearby for comparison, the polish gives the impression of being white without being stark.  I think the addition of the glittery Anna Sui makes it far more interesting and appealing to me than American Apparel Cotton would be on its own.  I'm quite pleased with the result, and I hope it holds up for a few days do I can add Konad  to it, as I'd hoped to but didn't get around to adding to the last few.

I found a few good things in that little box of untrieds I stumbled upon, so I set aside a few of them to show you soon.  I also found some odd items, such as a refill bottle of Seche Clear base coat, which I don't currently use and don't recall ever using regularly.  All I remember about the stuff is that my nails stained easily when I used it, so I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with a big refill bottle of it.  I wish I'd tape a note explaining why I've chosen to own something before placing it in a box!

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

The French Manicure

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Thanks for all the kind comments and the emails about the job thing - I really appreciate them.  I'll reply to all, but I thought I'd mention it explicitly since it seems a little empty the 30th time I respond with "Thanks," but it's not and the support really helps and is appreciated.

In hopeful anticipation of having job interviews this week, when I swapped out the soak off gel yesterday, I switched to a French manicure.  It sparkles, but is otherwise just a traditional French.  I haven't worn a French manicure in a while, but I recently saw a picture from a few years ago where my nails were about this length with a sparkly French and I liked how it looked.  In the days when I was an IT manager and unaware of quick dry top coat, my solution to a mid-week break or just not having a block of time available where I could change polish with it air drying between coats was to go to this super young (nineteen year old) manicurist who was exceptionally good, and I'd get a French because she was so skillful at doing them well.  She's apply the white, then go over each nail line with an acetone dipped brush to make the line perfect and very clean, and she was an absolute perfectionist.  I considered that and realized that I do like French manicures, but only with a pretty white tip with a really clean line, much cleaner than I can do freehanding with polish.  I thought I'd give it a shot with the gel and see how I did, and I'm pleased.

I read some tips before this application, as I'm finding out new things just by doing the gel.  One is that it's like polish with respect to variance in consistency - it's not IBD gel that's hard to remove, it's glitters, and cremes remove really easily.  I found a nail tech's site (that is, a site authored by a nail tech rather than one written for them)  with some tips, many of which seemed like they'd complicate the bejeebers out of it, but one I took was to disregard manufacturer claims about gel being self-leveling and to buff it before the sealer.  She also talked about some interesting techniques to manipulate the gel with partial curing, but I just bookmarked it since I'm not at that point yet.

For colors, I wanted a really white white.  I know a lot of people don't like super white tips with the objection that it looks fake, and while I completely agree that it looks fake, that doesn't change the fact that I like how it looks.  So I got a glittery IBD white called Sweet Nothings, and in looking for a pink discovered that IBD Antique Lace had the same glitter and went with it.  I applied the white first, covering the free edge to a few millimeters below the nail line, then I went back with a clean brush and scooted the edge into a straight line  working from the opposite direction, moving cuticle to free edge.  I did two coats, then filled in one of the pink, then one of clear gel, doing a quick cleanup by running the edge of a manicure stick all around each nail prior to curing each coat, and did the final three minute cure before buffing to smooth.  After buffing, I added sealer, cured again, and it's done.  Here, you can see that my lines turned out to be clean and sharp.

French Manicure with Lots of Glitter

I forgot to mention that I Photoshopped the heck out of cuticle injuries (which are looking grosser as they heal) out of consideration of your eyes.  Nothing of the nails or gel is altered, but I thought it was worth mentioning since I do such a rookie job of Photoshopping.  My middle and ring fingers were both cut at the cuticle the last time I used foil to remove soak off gel - after soaking in acetone my skin is displeased, and a scrape with a pointy edge of foil was all it took to slice it.  For the removal preceding this application, I used plastic wrap and rubber bands to hold the acetone soaked felt rather than foil and it was a thousand times easier to get on and to keep on.

So the manicure isn't perfect, but it ain't half bad for using a couple of new tricks, and without magnification it looks pretty good.  I don't really see altering this one too much other than adding a pattern to it here and there, so I likely won't have a ton of posts this week.  I just like how nice and clean a French manicure can look, and if it sparkles, I'll be content with it for a while.

That's the update on the nail front.  I have lots and lots to keep me busy this week, so I might miss posting a few days, but I'll be around.  Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!  

China Glaze White Cap

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I started a Valentines Day themed manicure today, which I was going to Konad the heck out of, but the layered base turned out so nicely that I thought I'd show you that and skip the Konad.

I wanted to use China Glaze White Cap from Anchors Away, but I knew it was sheerer than I wanted and I'd need to layer it.  The choice of polish to layer over was where I went wrong - I chose Revlon Powder Puff, the shimmer white matte one.  I needed three coats, so I waited several minutes between each, then finally added a coat of White Cap and one of top coat.  It looked great, but I'd heard of drying issues with Powder Puff (which is why I went to the trouble of drying time for each coat), and I'll be danged if they didn't get me.  I messed up one nail flossing my teeth before bed a full hour and a half after I finished applying polish.  I almost redid it this morning, but then figured it was a good illustration of the drying problems with Powder Puff.  I woke up without sheet prints on my nails, so if I'd managed to avoid the dings from the floss, I would have been good.

China Glaze White Cap Nail Polish Layered over White

See the two big dents in my index nail?  That's where the floss dug right in.  Otherwise, I love it.  I'll have to find another soft white to use as a base for White Cap because it's really gorgeous.

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

China Glaze Crackle Glaze

Hello, Dear Reader!

This morning's manicure was another fail.  Not so huge that I won't show it to you, but enough that I didn't want to look at it all day, so I figured I'd just crank out some swatches of the China Glaze Crackles I haven't shown to you already.

To recap, I already showed you Broken Hearted, the pink creme, over purple and later compared Black Mesh, the black creme, to OPI Black Shatter using China Glaze Sea Spray as the base color.  Here are the pictures of those so you can see all six Crackle Glazes in one place.  All six have base coat, base color, Poshe, crackle, Gelous, Poshe (the Gelous was what I used to smooth them out).

China Glaze Broken Hearted Crackle Glaze

China Glaze Black Mesh Crackle Glaze

Today's failure was a result of playing with Konad over a crackle.  I don't care for it.  I only stamped one nail, so we can just pretend I didn't do that.  I had base coat, two coats of Essie Lovie Dovie, and two of OPI Teenage Dream topped off with China Glaze Lightning Bolt, the white creme, which I consistently want to call White Lightning (a name synonymous with moonshine is just more amusing).  The Konad stamp which we're all ignoring is from plate m83 in Konad Cool Red.

China Glaze Lightning Bolt Crackle Glaze

I really like it except for the stamp.  To my eye, the clean lines of the Konad stamp over the rougher looking crackle is unappealing.  It looks like a mistake to me.  Lightning Bolt is very cool though.

The next one is the purple shimmer, Fault Line.  I was concerned about how this one would do because I've seen some pictures where it didn't break up too well.  I found that Fault Line was very thick, so I applied it as thinly as I could.  I used a good bit of pressure on the brush and really smeared Fault Line on more than painting it on, assuming that since it just shrinks anyhow that any irregularities in the application would disappear.  It turned out that was accurate.  This is Fault Line over Nfu Oh 63 with Aqua Base.

China Glaze Fault Line Crackle Glaze

Crushed Candy is the aqua creme that looked super green in one promo picture.  I applied this one as I did Fault Line, using Essie Dive Bar as the base color.

China Glaze Crushed Candy Crackle Glaze

The sixth and last shade is Cracked Concrete, a medium grey creme.  I like red and grey together, so I went with China Glaze Hey Sailor as the base color.  I used the same manner of application as I did with Fault Line and Crushed Candy for Cracked Concrete.

China Glaze Cracked Concrete Crackle Glaze

Those are the China Glaze Crackle Glazes.  I figured I'd show them to you over a variety of colors and finishes since each could be used with anything at all.  I'm a complete convert on the whole crackle/shatter thing having smoothed them out a bit and tried some other colors than black.  I'm fond of them now, and think it's an easy way to get a fun look.  It's certainly not practical for everyone, but there's nothing stopping me from wearing them.

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

Konad White Pearl Special Polish

Good morning, Dear Reader!

WowSoCool has some new Konad goodies in, and I have one of them to show you today: Konad White Pearl Special Polish.  I tried it out yesterday over Chanel Peche Nacree using Konad plate m9 for the pattern, and it was really nice to use.

White Pearl is quite thick, but I left it that way and found that it was just right for stamping.  It's opaque, makes very clean stamps, and was super low maintenance.  I also found in applying top coat that it doesn't smudge, much like Konad Black Pearl Special Polish.  Here's White Pearl over Peche Nacree.

Konad White Pearl Special Polish over Chanel Peche Nacree with m9

I'm always more excited about new Konad stuff than new polishes because it can be used with every polish, so it just seems like a bigger deal to me.  This one, White Pearl, I will definitely get a lot of use out of.

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

Candy Cane Nails

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I did a manicure I thought of for the request for warm weather Christmas manicures.  I looked up some images to see if that would help me pick something, and it did, but it was still strange to see.  What I found was red and white were more prevalent than anything with green, but the thing that was odd to see is that there were a heck of a lot of beach scenes, like people in red bathing suits wearing a traditional Santa hat.  Now, please don't think that as a result of seeing those pictures, I now believe the entire southern hemisphere gallivants about the beach during the holidays - I know those are as authentic as the pictures of American families laughing around a fireplace in matching holiday sweaters.  What I did get out of it is that I should go with red and white, and that using the same imagery would work as long as it wasn't specific to winter, so I chose candy canes for the theme.

From there, I considered how a fun gathering would go on Christmas with June weather.  My best holidays have always involved a bunch of family and some friends just hanging out talking for hours after the main events are over, and we'd always sit outside if weather permitted.  For that, I thought a glow in the dark polish would be good for the white, and since I really like Sephora by OPI Full Moon, that was my white.  For a fiery hot red, I chose China Glaze Red Stallion.  To decorate, I used Chez-Delaney's plate H1, which has a tip pattern that includes three diagonal lines, and I just painted and picked up the three line part of the pattern.  Since it looked like a lot of stamping, I only did one nail in the candy cane pattern, and to match the others I used Red Stallion to stamp.  The lines aren't as clean as with Konad polish and don't hold up under the close scrutiny of a giant picture, but they're just fine walking around.

Candy Cane Nails: Sephora by OPI Full Moon, China Glaze Red Stallion, Chez-Delaney H1

So that's my take on Christmas in summer, and that's just about all I have to tell you about at this hour.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

The Rainbow Leopard Mani

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Yesterday I finally wore a manicure that's been in my brain to do for a while, and it turned out pretty well. What I wanted to do was a black on white leopard print with the spots filled in with bright colors. Kind of a rainbow snow leopard... Anyhow, I hadn't tried it because I thought it would be a giant project, which it was. Here's the finished manicure.

Rainbow Leopard Manicure

I started with, as you can see, a white Sephora by OPI. Just for funsies, I decided to use Full Moon. That way, on the off chance I don't have enough going on here, it'll glow in the dark, too. After three coats of that had set, I stamped the leopard pattern in Konad Black Pearl. I used the black shimmer Konad polish because I had shimmers for the spots, and also because it's harder to smudge than regular black. Then it was time to fill in the dots with nail art pens. It was a good thing I did this while watching a movie or I might not have survived the boredom. Once the dots were filled in, a coat of top coat finished everything off, and I finally have my festive manicure.

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

Sephora by OPI Halloween 2010

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have swatches of the three new limited edition Sephora by OPI nail polishes for Halloween 2010, which are on Sephora's site.  They're varied and not all hits...

Full Moon is a really good one.  It's a white glow in the dark polish, not a totally stark white, but with a hint of ivory.  It differs from OPI Ghostess with the Mostess in that Full Moon is much more opaque and glows more.  For the OPI, I've always had to use two coats over two coats of a white creme, but Full Moon was opaque and even on its own in three coats.  My experience is that glow in the dark nail polish is pretty much the opposite of self leveling, so I just ignore that and a coat of top coat fixes it.

Sephora by OPI Full Moon Nail Polish, Three Coats

Kitty Loves Black I got because the swatch looked interesting.  Sephora describes the color as "opaque metallic black," but it's neither black nor metallic.  It's more of a dark charcoal with a bit of silver and blue shimmer, and it took three coats.  It's not bad, but nothing to write home about either.

Sephora by OPI Kitty Loves Black Nail Polish, Three Coats

If You've Got It, Haunt It was the one I was most excited about.  It's a blackish base with loads of silver and blue glitter, and it looks really cool in the bottle.  The good news is that it only took two coats, the bad news is that applying it was just like spreading out brownie batter.  The glitter is so dense that the polish is unbelievably thick.  Because there's so much glitter, it took three coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out.  About five minutes after taking the picture of If You've Got It, Flaunt It, I panicked about removal of all that fine glitter and took it off while I still could.  I don't know if I'll ever work up the nerve to try it again.

Sephora by OPI If You've Got It, Haunt It Nail Polish, Two Coats

Those are Sephora by OPI's Halloween 2010 offerings.  Knowing what I know now, I think Full Moon would be the only one I would get - it's by far the nicest GID polish I have (it doesn't look like a novelty polish in normal light), and I have an occasion to wear it later this month, so that one is a keeper.  The other two, not so much.

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