Chain Link Mani

For some reason it's taken me forever to find the right use for the chain design from Bundle Monster plate BM12. It's been one of my favorites since I got the plates, so I don't know why I haven't gotten around to it before.

For the main base color, I used China Glaze Stone Cold from the Hunger Games collection, which is matte on it's own. I stamped the chains with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep. For my accent nail, I used a background of China Glaze Icicle and stamped it with KleanColor Black. I put a coat of Essie Matte About You on everything (including Stone Cold, to make sure the chains were matte too).

I really LOVE the way this looks! Sadly, it wasn't very durable. As you can see in the picture, just showering the morning after doing my nails was enough to give me some tip wear. By the end of day two, Stone Cold was coming off in big chips. I don't have many matte polishes, so I'm wondering - are they usually this fragile?

Wet N Wild Diamond in the Rough

Today, I just have a quick, basic mani to show you.

Meet Wet N Wild Diamond in the Rough. These indoor pictures, don't quite do it justice; it is SUPER sparkly in person. It's very pretty, especially for the economy price tag.

Labradorite Manicure

I haven't seen very many reviews of the main polish in today's mani. I did see a few pictures of it way back around August, but I hadn't seen it anywhere in my town until very recently, when it showed up all of a sudden at Kroger.

This is Maybelline Express Finish Cool Couture, which is a medium grey creme polish with turquoise shimmer. The shimmer is very fine and a little shy in indoor light. So, inside it tends to blend into the grey and give the whole nail a slate blue color, which is pretty on it's own. However, in bright or natural light, the shimmer shows up. Then, this polish reminds me of the stone labradorite, as you can see in this picture. For my accent nail, I added one coat of an unnamed BonBons turquoise bar glitter. The color matches the shimmer in Cool Couture perfectly.

The formula on Cool Couture was a little tricky. It was a little thick and very patchy on the first coat. After the second coat, it evened out pretty well, but I still had a few bare patches here and there. With careful application, you can make it work in two medium coats; it just requires a little extra attention.

Finally, here's a bottle picture. The shimmer is a little more pronounced here than on the nail, but it gives you a good idea of the color. On the whole, I really like this polish. It's an unusual combination of colors, which I think is great for winter.

OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous!

First, some news. My recent unannounced hiatus was due to my being too overwhelmed with two (or three, depending on how you count) jobs. I've now quit one of them, which should mean I have more time to get back to doing my nails and blogging about it. Yay!

I was short on time and energy when I did my nails this time, so I just did a quick polish change and applied OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous!,which is a great polish with one of those awkward OPI names.

This polish falls somewhere between a foil and a glitter. Like a foil, the finish has a smooth, metallic shine; however, like a micro glitter, you can still see individual particles. The base color is grey and and it has both darker gunmetal particles and lighter silver ones. In certain lights, there are very, very fine pink and blue sparkles in there as well, but they don't show up most of the time. Compared to this year's crop of gunmetals, this has smaller particles and none of the hints of gold or other warm colors.

This polish flowed well onto the nail and was easily to control. It took three coats to eliminate all bare patches, but they were very thin coats. Dry time when finished with a coat of Out the Door was average.

Halloween Mani II

Today's mani is the second of (probably) three Halloween manis for this year. I guess great minds think a like because last night, I saw that Sarah Louise of Spellbinding Nails did a black widow mani as well. I really love her sparkly webs! Now onto my take.

For the base, I used OPI Skull and Glossbones. The name is intended to be pirate-y, but it works for Halloween too! This is a light grey creme with just a hint of brown. It applied easily, and was neither too thick nor too thin. I used three thin coats to get rid of all patchiness, but I think you could use two thicker ones and be just fine.

For the stamping, I used KleanColor Black and Bundle Monster plate BM13 for the stamping, and I finished up with red rhinestones. In real life, I am NOT a fan of spiders, or indeed any bugs, but I'm not going to let that stop me from taking the opportunity for some cool, Halloween themed nail art!

Let It Rain Manicure

One of the amazing women I'm lucky enough to know got some good news last week. This manicure is a frivolous tribute, but she was in my head and heart when I did it.The colors I chose remind me of the sky during summer rainstorms.

The main color in this manicure, everywhere except my ring finger, is Zoya Dove. The formula on this polish was pretty good. It looked thin and streaky on the first coat, but became opaque and leveled itself on the second. It's thick enough to stay where it's put and dried pretty quickly. Dove is a light grey with with a slightly blueish tint. Despite the slight bit of blue, it's neutral enough to be very versatile.

My only complaint with this polish was the brush. It's very narrow and not all that flexible. This makes it hard to pick up the right amount of polish to get even coverage; it's either too much or too little. I ended up with pretty significant bubbling on my thumb, which I attribute to having to make about a billion strokes to cover my thumb nails.

For my accent nails, I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Gray by Gray. This is a great polish; it went on smoothly and perfectly in two coats. The SH Complete Salon Manicure polishes have a big, thick brush, which I like. It might be problematic for small nails, but it's perfect for me. Despite it's name, Gray by Gray is definitely more of a slate blue. I finished my accent nails with a raindrop shaped jewel. Here's another picture that shows the raindrop right-side-up.

Darkseid Manicure

My spouse, a DC comics fanatic, recently acquired a long sought after Darkseid action figure. This happened to coincide with my acquisition of several China Glaze Crackle polishes. He noticed a similarity between the finish produced by those polishes and Darkseid's craggy skin, and he's been campaigning for a Darkseid themed manicure.

Being a comic's fan myself, I've looked around and found several superhero themed manicures on the interwebs. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman seem to be the most frequent characters to get nail representation. However, I feel pretty safe in saying that this is the first Darkseid themed mani out there.

For the base color, I used China Glaze Frostbite, which I absolutely loved. It is an electric blue shimmer that was BRIGHT, shiny, and opaque in two thin coats. I wish I'd taken a picture of it before I added the crackle, but I'm sure it will make another appearance. Next, I added a silver streak on one side of each nail with a Kiss striping polish to give it a glint of metal. Finally, I added a layer of China Glaze Cracked Concrete on top of both. I found Cracked Concrete a little easier to work with than CG Fault Line as it didn't seem to dry quite as quickly and went on a little thinner. I applied the crackle horizontally across my nail, rather than from base to tip. This was surprisingly tricky and very messy. I like the result, so the extra clean up time was worth it. It's a little hard to see the silver in that first picture, so here's an extreme close up where it shows.

I'll close with a picture of the mani with it's inspiration.

Darkseid does NOT approve.