Dipped in Glitter

I'm obsessed with this teal from Color Club! I thought about leaving it plain but after watching Mizzchievious's latest nail art tutorial I decided to dip my tips in some glitter and take this look up a notch! :)

Color Club NOTD

Loving this dusty purple from Color Club's Back to Boho collection! How awesome is it that you can get whole Color Club collections at Ross for only $8?

Playing with Color Club Neon Stripers = Awesome Rainbow Crackle Manicure

WARNING PIC HEAVY POST!
Happy Tuesday, lovelies!  Today I have a really fun manicure for you.  On a recent trip to Ross I found a set of Color Club Neon Stripers.  They must be an old set because the ones listed on the website don't match my set.  So, I decided to play with the stripers by using each of the colors to draw diagonal lines. 

Nail blogger tip:  If a nail gets smeared, cover it with your thumb :P

My middle nail got smeared because I applied my clear coat before letting a touchup dry enough.  OOPS!

My thumb was my favorite nail.  The stripes came out perfect.  These colors worked well and were pretty opaque, but I did start with a white base nail before striping. 

After working so hard on my striped masterpiece of a manicure I didn't want to remove it right away to do another manicure, but I was ready for a change, so out came my black mesh crackle from china glaze!

How wicked is that?  I love the rainbow peaking out from the crackle.  Are you wondering if I was able to do the gorgeous lines on my right hand?  Well, shocker:  I didn't!  LOL!  I used my right hand with a white base to try out other looks using my nail stripers. 

And as you can see those styles were kind of all over the place!  But that's okay because crackle makes everything look cool!

So, that is my tip for the day for all you beginners out there who what to try stuff out:  GO TO TOWN!!!!  If worse comes to worse, throw some crackle over your messed up design and it will look SO COOL!!!! 

Hope you enjoyed my adventures with the Color Club nail stripers!  I must say my crackle polishes have really made for some really cool manicures in the past:  Here it is over some glitter, here it is saving a hideous peach color, here is is on a pink Wednesday, and here it is in a heart shape.  I think it's time to invest in some other crackle polishes beside black and gray.  Any recommendations for me?

Quick NOTD

Had to wear a very boring nude color to a business meeting last week.  I used my perfect nude Color Club's Nature's Way, which usually I love, but this time I started with a white as the base to save me some coats, but the white made my perfect nude super peachy, and peach is just not one of my favorite colors.  It was so ugly, I didn't even take a picture.  As soon as I got home from the meeting, I wanted to change that color as soon as possible, so I threw on my favorite crackle: China Glaze Cracked Concrete, and it turned my boring peach nails into a really cute manicure!  I think peach and gray are a super trendy combo.

What do you guys think?  While I was in the city for my meeting, I found this HUGE beauty store, and I just had to stop!  Turns out it was more a store for African American hair, but there was still a few nail displays to check out.

Here's what I came home with:

A Nail Repair kit, just in case of any breakies, some Acetone since it was a good price and I go through it so quick over here, some polish thinner because I didn't have any, OPI Stranger Tides (a huge lemming of mine ever since this collection came out), L.A. Colors Treasure Island, NYX Dreamy Glitter, and some loose glitter (I see this all the time in Robin Moses tutorials, and I can't wait to try it for myself)

So, that's a little adventure I went on this week.  I need a bumper sticker that says "Will Brake for Nail Polish" :D

It's a Pink Sparkle Crackle Wednesday! :)

I'm continuing to work my way through the stunning Color Club Starry Temptress collection today!  When I first saw Space Case and Ultra Astral together, I knew they would make a fantastic Pink Wednesday manicure!  Here's my starting line up for today's mani:

Left to Right: Color Club Starry Temptress Topcoat, China Glaze Black Mesh, Color Club Ultra Astral, Color Club Space Case.  Here is a swatch of Ultra Astral and Space Case:

These are such cute pinks!  I think they look really cute together.  And they were the perfect base for my CG Black Mesh Crackle.

This is my first time using black crackle, but I think I did pretty good.  I love the pink nail the best.  It looks like a stick finger shape on there!  The key to lots of crackle is definitely a super thin coat.  The picture above is with no top coat, so it is a bit matte, but once I added the Starry Temptress Topcoat and a coat of SV, this mani just shined!

Pretty cute, huh?  Hope you are having a fantastic pink Wednesday, lovelies!

Wink Wink Twinkle

Guess what I found at Ross this week?

Hello Beautiful! I have been wanting the Color Club Starry Temptress collection ever since it was announced.  It just screamed perfect summer color to me!  I snatched up the last pack from Ross on Tuesday for only $8!!  I definitely think all my summer pedicures will be from this collection.  Who doesn't love sparkly neon toes?  But this collection isn't just great for the toesies, I am not afraid of a little neon on my nails!  So, my first manicure with the Starry Temptress collection is using the purple in the middle.  I *think* it is called Wink Wink Twinkle, but Color Club doesn't label their bottles, so this is just going off the back of the bottle.

Here is a swatch of Wink Wink Twinkle with the Sparkle top coat and Seche Vite on top.

I stamped a design from BM206 using Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and added a rhinestone in the center.  I really love the final outcome of this.  This collection was totally worth all the swooning and hunting down!

A couple of tips with this collection that I've found:

• These are neons, so they dry matte, and you'll want a top coat to make it shine
• If you plan on stamping, do so BEFORE adding the sparkle top coat.  I did not do this, and I think my designs came out a little messy because they didn't go down on a smooth base. 

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!  Here in the states we have a holiday on Monday, so I'm REALLY looking forward to the three day weekend.

My almost perfect nude!

You guys, I think I found my perfect nude! As you know, I recently tried out Zoya Amanda as a contender for my favorite nude polish, but she just didn't match my skin tone as well as I wanted, so today I tried a new nude.  The color is Color Club Nature's Way. What do you think? Pretty good match, no?

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I gave my new favorite nude a black tip and some flower stamps.

I kind of wish I would've left it alone because the nude was so pretty, but I was worried I'd be bored with it by the next day.  My only complaint about this polish was how sheer it was.  It took 4-5 coats to get this coverage!  If you franken polish, can you give me some tips for making this more opaque?  Or maybe I need a different base coat for sheer polishes?  Any recommendations for that?  Sound off in the comments, lovelies!  I love learning new things!

Oh! And don't forget to enter my giveaway!