Showing posts with label crackle. Show all posts

Fragrance Direct Friday (on Saturday)

 Hi guys, welcome to the weekend!  I don't know about you, but I am seriously looking forward to Doctor Who tonight!  I'm gutted that I haven't had time to do any DW nails yet, but I may do some tonight when it's finished anyway : )   Before that though, I have this weeks installment of Fragrance Direct Friday.  I'm sad to announce that next weekend will be the last one of these features for a little while, but don't worry, I will be doing a new, as yet un-named feature, with lots of bargain's from elsewhere around the web, in it's place.



Today I have 2 gorgeous Sally Hansen's to show you.  This one is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Brisk Blue.  This is a gorgeous medium blue cream, that covers very well in 2 coats.  I think 1 coat would actually be enough, if you can apply it very carefully.  I didn't though, so I did 2 coats here with 1 coat of SV : )  I bought this for £1.49 here.
I decided to take these pictures in direct light instead of using my lightbox like I normally do.  It is great, but I find that the shine is lost when I take my pictures in there which really annoys me.  I may stick with this arrangement, but I'd love to know what you guys prefer.
I haven't gotten around to trying to stamp with this yet, but I think it will be good.  I will be sitting down at some point to test a load of polishes for stamping anyway, so I'll try it out then.  Naturally, I will be doing a post with the results for you guys too.  Anyway, I like this polish, and don't really have anything like this shade in my stash, so this was a welcome addition.
The second polish I have to show you is from the Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat range - this is Fractured Foil.  I got this for 99p here.  I know that a lot of people despise crackle polishes, but I'm not one of them.  I don't love them but I don't hate them either.  I know there are some people out there who love crackle though, so this is for you guys.
I've had this sitting in my untrieds for quite a while now, as I swatched it on a falsie when I first got it, and it looked kinda meh, so I left it unloved for a while.  I layered 1 coat over Brisk Blue here, and waited for the crackle effect to finish.  It still looked a little meh, but once I added a topcoat it really came to life.  I ended up applying another layer once that was dry, as it seemed to eat the topcoat a little, but 2 was enough, and it was really shiny and sparkly again.
 I like this combo a lot.  With the silver and blue combo and the cracks it reminds me of a frozen lake.  Pretty appropriate since it's almost Christmas December. 
Anyway, that's it from me today, I will be back tomorrow with something for you.  Not sure what exactly yet, but I'll have something.  In the meantime, have a look at what the other British Nail Bloggers have been up to this week.

pekal

31DC13 Day 8: Metallic Nails

I'm continuing the challenge and it's day eight and time for some metallic nails. I had this really simple idea of the nails in my head and so I just went with that. Sometimes the simplest ideas can turn out really great! Here's what I came up with:

I started with two coats of Zoya Wednesday, then for the metallic part I painted the tips with free hand using Tiia Vanhatapio/Seppälä nail polish called Fool's Gold and finally I did a stripe of OPI Silver Shatter to each nail. So the basic idea is pretty much the same that I have already used ones with these nails, this time I did it just with other colors. I haven't used any crackle polishes for long time, and I don't particularly enjoy using them over whole nail, but I do like the look you can get adding just a bit of that crackle to the mix.

You also probably noticed already that I have shortened my nails quite a bit. They had gotten quite long again and I had those kinds of things to do where you can't really have too long nails, so I chopped of quite a bit. My nails do grow quite fast, so I think they're gonna be longer in no time. But it's always fun to have them shorter for a while, though I prefer my own nails a tad longer than this.

I have used OPI Silver Shatte before, but this was the first time I tried out Zoya Wednesday and Tiia Vanhatapio/Seppälä Fool's Gold. I really loved Wednesday, the color is gorgeous and the formula was really great! I think there's still room for this one in my stash though I do have quite a few of colors like this already... but I just can't help myself! However, Fool's Gold didn't really do it for me, it was quite sheer, so I had to paint those tips twice to get at least some coverage and then it became quite a thick coat of polish. I think I'll have to find some better gold one and get rid of this...

Misa BACKbone
Zoya Wednesday 2 coats
Tiia Vanhatapio/Seppälä 2 coats (tips)
OPI Silver Shatter
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri


I had really simple mani two years ago for this challenge too as I only wore a single polish:
You can check out the full post of my mani with a-england Merlin here. 
 

pekal

My Favourite Manicures of 2012

So yesterday I posted a list of my favourite polishes of 2012 and today it's time for my top ten of manicures this year. Again, these are in no particular order and I added the links to the original posts, if you want to take a closer look.











White and Blue Drag Marble to cheer the Finnish ice hockey team at world championships.








I know that there's nothing special with this last mani, it's just plain polish. But I wanted to add Oui to some list as I only got to wore it this year, but I came out 2011, so I didn't want to put it on the polish list. So I tought it deserved a place here, as it is really awesome polish!


So that was my top ten manicures of 2012. Which one was your favourite?

pekal

Turquoise Gemstone Nails

Hello again! I know, I know, I'm posting this a bit later than usual; it's been a busy day. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that my nails are the same length they started the day and my basement is much cleaner. :)


nails nailart nail art mani manicure Spellbound Turquoise Gemstones gems Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold Crackle nailpolish polish inspired plastic wrap cling sponging

Today's post was inspired by turquoise gemstones and uses a method I've never tried before.


nails nailart nail art mani manicure Spellbound Turquoise Gemstones gems Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold Crackle nailpolish polish inspired plastic wrap cling sponging

When I saw plastic wrap sponging mentioned on a blog I thought the outcome was pretty but it didn't intrigue me too terribly much. For those who haven't heard of this method, you take a piece of plastic wrap and crinkle it to create a pattern. After that simply dip a bit of the crinkled plastic wrap into some nail polish and dab it onto your nails like using a sponge. You can dab first onto a piece of paper to make sure you like the pattern created. I thought it was a very innovative use for plastic wrap but wasn't really interested in trying this method. However, when I caught a glimpse of a nail design on Pinterest using this method I knew it was something I had to try.


nails nailart nail art mani manicure Spellbound Turquoise Gemstones gems Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold Crackle nailpolish polish inspired plastic wrap cling sponging

For those of you who know your gemstones you'll notice the big mistake with my turquoise. I started with a two coat base of Wet n Wild's I Need a Refresh-Mint. I thought this made a great gemstone base, and I like to think I was right.


nails nailart nail art mani manicure Spellbound Turquoise Gemstones gems Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold Crackle nailpolish polish inspired plastic wrap cling sponging

However, the problem came about when I decided to use Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold for the gemstone's veining. Antiqued Gold is one of Sally Hansen's crackle top coats and is a (slightly less bright) match to the gold veining found in a lot of turquoise gems. I thought using a crackle would help add to the pattern using plastic wrap creates. It was perfect ... except that in small amounts Antiqued Gold isn't gold; it's SILVER! So, while the outcome was still very pretty, it wasn't exactly what I had in mind from the start.

Still, I got to try something new and that's always great fun!!

pekal

Concrete Life Preserver

Welcome to another post. *bows deeply* I'm feeling really silly today so forgive me for the craziness. It might have something to do with having over 50 posts now!! Can I applaud myself without looking like a dork?


China Glaze Cracked Concrete Life Preserver

Today, I bring you two polishes from my most recent Sally Beauty order. You gals know me; I can't resist a sale and Sally was certainly having a sale. Plus, I added a coupon onto their sale price and got an amazing deal. I ordered four polishes but one was out of stock. So, I got three new polishes for $10!!! That's including shipping. Without the shipping they added up to only $8.49.


China Glaze Cracked Concrete Life Preserver


The first polish is China Glaze, Life Preserver. I'm not sure why some colors just don't take pictures well, but Life Preserver is one of them. It pictures with a very, very red tint. In person this is a slightly muddy burnt orange with maybe a hint of coral. It's definitely not the bright oranges you see everywhere for this season. China Glaze calls this color a highly pigmented poppy creme.


China Glaze Cracked Concrete Life Preserver


Next up is China Glaze, Cracked Concrete, from their Crackle Glaze line. I bought these two colors especially for this reason after finding this post from My Latest Obsession. There was just something about these two polishes together that called to me.


China Glaze Cracked Concrete Life Preserver


Her polish seems to have cracked a bit better than mine. I found the China Glaze brush unwieldy for applying crackle polish. I had to double dip for every nail but my pinky ... triple for the thumb. I'm not saying it didn't turn out looking gorgeous because it did! I'm just saying the application was much harder than it could have been with a slightly different brush.


China Glaze Cracked Concrete Life Preserver


Besides, I paid $1.99 for Cracked Concrete. For that price, I'm really not going to complain!

pekal

Cracked Neon

Hello all you lovely followers! I hope everyone is doing okay. I was going to have this posted sooner but I got horribly sick this weekend. I'm happy to say that I'm feeling much better now though.


Today's post is a very simple mani, but one that I think is so perfect for summer.




Summer is the perfect time to catch the eyes of those around you, and what better way than with such of burst of color?




The thing to remember with neon polish is that you get the most color when it is layered over white. That's why, for this mani, I used two coats of white polish under two coats of neon before adding one coat of white crackle. This makes the neon color really pop.


Polish Used

  • Borghese - Brilliante
  • LA Color - White
  • Funky Fingers - Kingston
  • Funky Fingers - White Scales
  • Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri

pekal

A new color combination for me

Lately I've been very fond of orange polishes and few days ago I wanted to wear some orange again. Then I thought I should combine it with some blue polish, as a little surprise for my boyfriend as I know he really enjoyes this color combination. And then I thought that silver would go really well with these colors, so that's how this manicure was born. Hope you all like it!

So for this one I first used two coats of China Glaze Papaya Punch, then added a coat of Wild and Crazy Shocking Pink and topped that of with some Seche Vite and waited it to dry. Then I painted the blue tips with free hand using Color Club Cold Metal. And after that was a bit dry, I added a stripe of OPI Silver Shatter and then of course added another coat of Seche Vite.

pekal

China Glaze Crackled Concrete

Remember, if you want Manhattan 610K to visit you, take a look at this post.
Also, remember to enter my giveaway, here.

I have another China Glaze crackle for oy today. Hope you all aren't already fed up with these crackles...




So this one is called Crackled Concrete and I used it over OPI Kinky in Helsinki (ring finger) and China Glaze Platinum Silver (other fingers). I was also playing a bit with the applying directions to get different kind of look. This was, again, really nice crackle polish, it applied well and I had no difficulties. I think I need to try some other color combinations with this too, there are so many that I think would look good..

pekal

China Glaze Fault Line

My China Glaze crackles are finally here! I know you've all seen these everywhere, but still I'm going to play with these a bit too.. Here's the first one that I ordered:


It's probably no surprise that I chose to wear the purple crackle first.. So this is called Fault Line and it's the only one of these China Glaze crackles that has shimmer in it. Base color is Misa Genie in This Bottle and I have also one coat of top coat over the mani. I'm still a bit hesitant with this crackle look but at the same time I think it's a fun way to spice up your mani. And of course as this is a purple crackle, this is probably my favourite one.


Here's a pic with no top coat:

pekal

IsaDora Masterpiece Pink & China Glaze Below Deck

I'm still waiting for my China Glaze crackles to arrive, so in the meantime I had to have some crackle fun with IsaDora.


So this is Masterpiece Pink over China Glaze Below Deck. I'm not still sure if I love this crackle look or not, but still I had to order some of those China Glaze crackles. Oh well.. It's sure gives a quick change to your manicure if you want to and is really easy 'nail art'..

pekal

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