Black, Gold, Sparkle, and Crackle Nails

Looked through my Helmer last night for some inspiration and found this awesome group of golds and blacks and crackles, so I decided to create this unique manicure that just so happens to match my outfit today! How convenient!

Pure Ice Pink Vinyl Remix

I got so many compliments out and about today! I love how cool these new crackles are from Pure Ice!!! I can't wait to try their other colors!

This sample was sent to me for review, but the opinions ate purely my own. You can purchase Pure Ice at Walmart, Walgreens and online at http://PureIceCosmetics.com/

NOTD: Black Crackle with Gold Glitter!

Look what my bestie brought me back from London! I'm in love with this fierce crackle! Finding the perfect color for underneath was difficult but I picked China Glaze GR8

Chinese New Year Nails

Late on trends as usual around here...Thanks for sticking with me!

Here's what I wore for the Chinese New Year:

I really love this look! It is perfect for the year of the dragon. I'm so impressed with the quality of these polishes!  I can't wait to use the red crackle for a Valentine's day look!

I'm so grateful to Pure Ice for sending the Shows Stopper sample to me.  You can celebrate with Pure Ice Crackle Duo Gold & Red (ShowStopper) and ring in the Year of the Dragon in style.  Pure Ice polishes are available at Walmart and Walgreens and Online

Natural Disaster Nails

WHAT A WEEK!!!!!  In case you haven't heard, over here on the east coast, it has been one hell of a week of weather!  On Tuesday we had an earthquake, Thursday night we had a really bad thunderstorm that generated a tornado in the area, and then Saturday hurricane Irene hit!!!!!  CRAZY!!!!  I think the locusts are coming this week! :P  So, I have decided to dedicate a manicure to all this crazy weather!

If you are looking for a manicure for the different weather, here are the ideas I had:

 

For earthquakes: Crackle: DUH!

For tornadoes: how about a water marble or drag marbling to make a swirly!

For Cloudy Skies: Start with a dark color and then sponge a lighter color in cloud shapes.

For rain drops: I used a dotting tool and just put a little drag in it to create the drop.

And the last nail is just weird, and I apologize for that, it was supposed to symbolize the eye of the hurricane, but it was kind of a big fail!  OOPs!

Oh well, hope you liked these nails!  And I hope the weather where you live has been much calmer then here!

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?

Party Nails!

I am IN LOVE with this holo glitter from Claire's! When my future sister in law (Bevy) came home with it from a recent vacation, I very subtly reminded her about the importance of bringing back souvenirs for the family members who didn't get to go on vacation with you, and she promptly ran her little butt to Claire's to pick me up a bottle! LOL! Isn't she just the best? Don't worry, Bev, when I go on vacation in a few weeks, I'll be hitting up Ulta and bringing you home some goodies! :)

So here are some pics of me playing with "Glitter Top Coat" from Claire's. This really is a top coat, and I should have put on a more solid base coat, but I didn't which meant I had to do FOUR COATS to get full coverage!  OUCH!  It was a huge pain to remove, but ugh, how gorgeous is it under the crackle?

These felt like the perfect nails for a party!  On my other hand I mixed things up by just doing my tips with the crackle, which I didn't love as much.  The holo glitteriness of this polish is something I'll have to play with!  Can't wait to try it over other colors!  Crackle is Black Mesh by China Glaze, btw. 

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!

Cracked Concrete - First Crackle EVER!

So, today I have one last birthday present to share with you guys! My future sister in law Bev knows how much I love me some gray polish, so she got me my very first crackle polish for my birthday: China Glaze Cracked Concrete!

So, here's the deal. For the longest time I've kind of been anti-crackle polish. Maybe I just haven't seen enough color combinations that I've liked. Or maybe its just that crackle polishes remind me of chipped nails, which I really hate! But, my first crackle color combination has made me a believer.

Here is our starting line-up:

I used Zoya Dove as my base coat, and here is CG Cracked Concrete with it.

Here's my base coat.  Two coats of Zoya Dove.  Ok, omg, can we talk about how stunning Dove is?  I just love Zoya.  They just make the most beautiful polishes, and they always just look so good on. 

Here's Cracked Concrete over Dove.  The polish was pretty easy to work with.  In case you are a crackle n00b like me here's how it works:  you paint a single coat over your nail, and at first it looks like a regular thick layer of polish, but after a few seconds the magic happens!  You aren't limited to just using crackle over your whole nail.  I've seen people play with swirls, french tips, and even hearts!  I decided to play with it a bit and make hearts on a few nails because a lot of the manicures I've liked best with crackle polishes do hearts. 

Conclusion: I heart this crackle.  I got CG Black Crackle on its way to my house right now, and I can't wait to play more with these polishes.  I think the key to success is just pretty color combinations, and breaking out of the box and trying out different shapes and designs.

How do you feel about crackle polishes?  Any pretty color combinations I should try?  I know recently I LOVED Let Them Have Polish's blue crackle swatches, and Gotham Polish did OPI's silver shatter over Zoya Jules! 

P.S. I've been testing out taking pictures with a lamp at night.  Do you like how these turned out?  Any tips for nail pix when sunlight isn't always an option?