NOTD: 80's/Early 90's Crackle

This isn't exactly my most original manicure ever, but I have been dieing to try it since I saw Scrangie do it on her blog. The accent nail however was my idea. Originally I was just going to do it plain, but realized that the black crackle would tie it together more and really go well with it. I chose that color combo because I wanted to do something showing the neon aspect of that era, but as I hate/don't own neon polish I chose something that captures the electric feel. And the polish IS from a neon collection, so it's close enough for me!

Here is what I used:

Accent nail - Color Club Ultra Violet (luminous purple with a bright blue flash) + OPI Black Shatter.

All other nails - Essie French Affair + China Glaze Crushed Candy + China Glaze Cracked Concrete.

I just have to say I love this manicure! Retro is awesome!!

NOTD: Nails Like An Egyptian~

I started out on this one just with Essie Shift Power and Hard Candy Frenzy topped with Nubar 2010 on the accent nails. I think if Shift Power was brighter it would have worked a lot better like that, but I thought it needed a little something to even out the focus a bit so I added China Glaze Crushed Candy on top of the nails with Shift Power.

Unlike my last effort to spice up a my nails a bit with a crackle this one turned out much prettier than I was expecting. I think it kind of looks a bit ancient Egyptian. Not so much the accent nails but it still works alright with it. Maybe the accent nails can represent the Nile or something like that.

I don't know what happened with the crackle on the pinky, maybe I just didn't do it all the way to the tip, or it shrunk more on that nail.

Nail Haul!

I got a few other nail polishes recently, of varying degrees of awsomeness.

First up are the 2 polishes I got from Forever 21. They are Aqua and Grey respectively. Aqua is the one I really wanted, and I probably should have just gotten that one as after looking at a beauty shop in the mall I found OPI Ski Teal We Drop from the Switzerland collection that I have on my want list. But I was on a bit of a budget at the time, and didn't want to spend $9 after I spent $6 on these too...boo. ANYWAY, I hear these aren't the greatest but I've only tried them on the nail wheel so far and can't make any real opinions about it. Aqua looks quite cute and squishy however Grey is a bit boring, which is why I am regretting it...it's a different color to have but if I want a gray polish I'd rather use something duochrome like $OPI Mash Up. Maybe I can use this to layer under a crackle though... it was only $2.50 though so no harm done really, other than having to wait a while to get Ski Teal We Drop.

Now on to my more anticipated polishes, that I'd ordered and weren't impulse buys like the F21 ones... first up is OPI DS Sapphire. A really pale bluish nearly silver holo that is quite strong indeed...it took a lot of willpower to not use it right away, but when I got it I still had my Milani holos on and wanted to do something other than a holo. Not a whole lot to say about this one, other than how lovely it is. I am addicted to holos! Some day I'd like to have all the OPI DS polishes, as well as China Glaze's OMG series and of course Gosh Holographic.

You can see how pretty and linear the rainbow is here, sorry it's a smidge blurry.

Last but not least, I got a couple of China Glaze's Crackle Glaze series in Cracked Concrete and Crushed Candy. As everybody has said already, Crushed Candy looks exactly like ChG For Tiffany which is awesome as I love that color, and I was aching for a pastel crackle since although I love OPI Black Shatter black is really rather bold for me usually. Same reason I got Cracked Concrete since it's a pretty light color. I may get some more colors in this series eventually, but these were my favorite and I am very pleased with them. I really hope even more colors come out in crackles, it's just such a simple way of spicing up a creme or an aging/messed up manicure.

As always with crackles make extra sure to give plenty of time for your base color to dry, even with Seche Vite. I made the mistake of doing it a bit too quickly before with my army manicure and the results weren't so hot. They weren't TERRIBLE but I was not pleased with it. Also as usual these crackles dry matte, in the picture below I have Seche Vite on top.

Here they are layered over a dark blue Maybelline shimmer. It's a little crummy because I did it quickly since I was anxious to see it...but you get the idea.

Army Nails? (Essie Sew Psyched + ChG Cracked Concrete)

Here is my NOTD, and it really is the "TD" part...as in I am only going to keep it on today because I went to the trouble of doing it, but I am not going to "suffer" through it longer than that. I'm redoing it tonight.

I was itching to try Essie Sew Psyched, but I just can't leave well enough alone with cremes so I decided to try for an army/camo kind of look to spice it up a little bit with some China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Cracked Concrete...which fell flat. The gray is just too light to really be noticed unless light is shining right on it and to make matters worse I did one hand completely at a time (usually I go paint all 10 fingers at a time) and then did all my fingers at once with the crackle.

The problem of course is that one hand was MUCH more dry than the other, that hand crackled perfectly but the less dry (it had Seche Vite on it so it was still somewhat dry) hand was just all funky...it crackled more chunky and thick(?) so it just didn't look right. Being as much of a spaz about that kind of thing as I am I just can't leave it with one weird hand, it'll just drive me crazy. I am trying not to pay too much attention to it, but overall I just have to redo my nails tonight.

The good news though is that I LOVE both polishes on their own and they both applied wonderfully and with minimal cleanup but they were my mistakes.

What do you think?:

Of course, this is the hand that came out correctly.

OPI PotC Stranger Tides Collection

OPI is releasing a collection of nail polishes for the new Pirates of The Caribbean movie coming out in May, and while I am not so excited about the movie I am VERY excited about the nail polish collection!

At first I thought I'd like Mermaid Tears (sea-foam green), Sparrow Me The Drama (darkish bright pink) and Planks a Lot (purple) most but then I saw some swatches (@ The Beauty Bite) and realized they were a bit too bright for me but Steady as She Rose (light pink) is a really pretty pastel and Skull & Glossbones (A really light khaki) is also a nice light color that I don't have in my collection yet. I am still on the fence about Stranger Tides (kind of a mossy/murky green) because I have Essie Sew Psyched which is kind of an army/khaki green. I am just not sure how similar the two are, although Stranger Tides seems a bit greener/brighter from what I can tell.

(Top: Skull & Glossbones, Steady as She Rose, Planks a Lot.

Bottom: Sparrow Me The Drama, Stranger Tides, Mermaid Tears)

Of course my most anticipated one is the Silver Shatter, I already love Black Shatter as an easy way to spice up a manicure but a metallic is even better! To be honest I don't usually like dark nail colors, so once Silver Shatter comes out I'll probably use it even more (although probably before that I'll have the China Glaze crackles, so we'll see).

The wonderful thing about Silver Shatter is that silver goes with pretty much anything, so I think when it's released I'll have to get 2 bottles, I foresee myself using it a lot.

I also heard that OPI is going to release a White Shatter at some point, and if it's pretty opaque I might pick it up. I am just so obsessed with crackles right now, just because I don't usually have the time or patience to make pretty designs and I haven't picked up a Konad set yet (hopefully I will soon though) so when all you have to do is paint the crackle on as normal and voila you have an interesting design I am totally sold.

OPI Black Shatter + CG For Audrey

I am nearing the end of this manicure, even though it's only been a few days. I am just so flaky, I want to do another color almost immediately after doing my nails xD;;;

ANYWAY, I didn't have time last night (even with glorious Seche Vite) to completely redo my nails so I decided to just put some Black Shatter on top to spice it up until tonight when I will hopefully have time to do them.

The look turned out pretty cool, IMO. I might do it again at some point earlier on when I am not itching to change my nails so I can have it on longer.

Don't mind my hideous cuticles (and the polish peeling around them...)...some day I'll get around to fixing them.