Ancient Glamour Mani

One of my earliest serious career ambitions (after I finished the phase where I was going to be a policewoman/ballerina by day and Wonder Woman by night) was to be an archeologist. In particular, I have always been fascinated by ancient Egypt. I periodically go on an archeological documentary spree, which has been made infinitely easier since Netflix has quite a few that can be watched online. This mani was inspired by my most recent spree.

I started with a base of China Glaze Sexy in the City, a bright teal shimmer that tends more toward blue than green. This is a very vibrant color on it's own, and it reminds me of a greener version of Frostbite, one of my favorite China Glaze colors. The formula was unremarkable. I had no application problems, and it was opaque in two coats. You might want three to realize it's full color potential. The only downside to this polish was that is stained my nails something awful!  Be sure to wear a base coat to keep your nails from becoming a splotchy blue horror show.

Over Sexy in the City, I added a coat of China Glaze Cracked Medallion, which is a light bronze with metallic shimmer. I was expecting it to be very thick based on my experience with the other CG crackles, but in fact, it was pretty thin. I actually had to work pretty hard to get it on as thick as I wanted. Since I decided to apply it horizontally, instead of cuticle-to-tip, this was a little challenging. In the end it didn't really matter since part of the point of crackles is being a little random and messy.

As I'd hoped, this combination put me in mind of the colors and textures of tomb paintings and inlaid jewelry. So, I'll leave you with a related reading recommendation. His Majesty Queen Hatshepsut by Dorothy Carter is a fictionalized account of the life of Hatshepsut, possibly Egypt's only female pharaoh,* written for a young adult audience. It was one of my favorite books when I first read it in the fifth grade, and I enjoyed it very much when I read it again as an adult. It's quite historically accurate, and Hatshepsut is a very interesting historical figure.

*There were a number of other women who ruled Egypt as regents or queens, but Hatshepsut is the only one who is known for sure to have claimed the status of Pharaoh and taken on all of the titles and traditions that went with it.

Turquoise Stone Mani

This manicure is based on one done by Michelle of All Lacquered Up. You can see her original version here. I love turquoise, both the stone and the color, so since I'm also into crackles, this was right up my alley. Michelle used Models Own Moody Grey, which she described as "a green-based, wet cement type grey creme." I decided to go for a browner tone, and ended up with Sally Hansen  Xtreme Wear Grey Area. This polish is a muddy, dark taupe. It went on smoothly and was very easy to control. The brush isn't very flexible, but the polish flowed easily enough that it wasn't really a problem. Alone, the color of Grey Area was a good balance of warm brown tones and cool greys.

On top of Grey Area, I added a layer of China Glaze Crushed Candy. I tried to use the same technique that Michelle describes in her post: I applied Crushed Candy in short strokes from the edge toward the middle working in a circle around my nail. Crushed Candy didn't dry quite as quickly as CG Fault Line; in that respect it was more similar to Broken Hearted and Cracked Concrete. I still needed to work quickly, and it was gooey enough that it was inclined to lay down in a thick coat.

The cracks are a little thicker than the veins in turquoise, but it's still a pretty nice approximation. It was harder to apply the polish consistently on my left hand (I'm left handed), so the cracks are more random and thinner. I think this looks even more like turquoise.

Once Crushed Candy was added, Grey Area looked a lot warmer. I really like the idea of using crackles to mimic textures and patterns from nature. For example, I'm thinking of putting a green crackle over another green to make leaves (I'm still thinking about how to create the pattern). Anybody have any other ideas?

Nail Night Mani - Awesome 80's

As I've mentioned before, my nail polish obsession started with the periodic Nail Night get-togethers held by a friend. Several ladies (and a couple of colorful gentlemen who do their toes only) get together to share nail polish and friendship. Two of these ladies have extensive nail polish collections and knowledge, and introduced me to nail stamping and nail blogs. In order to make it easier for them (and increasingly, me) to narrow down what to bring to nail night, it's been decided that we'll start having themes each time we get together. The first theme, given what a big trend it is right now, was crackle.

I'm still working my way through trying all of my crackles (I'm intentionally spacing them out a bit so I don't get tired of the look) and trying different ways of applying them. This time, used China Glaze Broken Hearted, which is a bright pink, creamy textured crackle. Like all the colored China Glaze Crackle Glazes, it's thick and dries quickly, but it wasn't really hard to apply. I decided to apply it horizontally, but just to slap it on a little differently on each nail. I took pictures of both hands, so you can see all the different results I got. My favorites are the nails where I applied short strokes from the edge to the middle of the nail from both directions. You can see this best on the ring finger of my left hand in the picture below.

The base color on this is Ruby Kisses Green Tomatoes, which I borrowed from on of my Nail Night companions. In the bottle, it looked like a very bright shimmery green. However, it was not very thickly pigmented, so even after three coats, it still looked much more yellow than green on the nail. It also made for very thick edges for some reason. You can even see in the pictures how a few of my nails have these jagged ridges around the edge, and I couldn't seem to get rid of them. So, I couldn't say I'm a fan of this polish.

First Silver Shatter Mani

I've been excited about this polish for a while. It's the new OPI Silver Shatter from their Pirates of the Caribbean collection. This polish and Mermaids Tears were the two I've had my eye on, and I surprised myself by wanting to try Mermaids Tears first once I had them in hand. Once I'd tried that, this had to be next. Since finding out about it, I thought it was a little odd that OPI decided to release Silver Shatter with a collection full of pale, muted polished. I've always thought it would look better with a darker color that would give it more contrast, so I went with that look for my first try.

I started with a base of Revlon Plum Night. This polish looked like a creme in the bottle, but in fact it's a dark jelly. It's a thickly pigmented dark purple with a brown tinge. Once it's on, it looks almost black. It was thick and opaque in two coats, but I had to use a light touch and be careful not to drag thin spots in the polish with the brush on the second coat. Silver Shatter is thinner than the other crackle polishes I've used, which made it easier get a thin, consistent coat. I actually don't think that is a good thing, as I feel like thicker, more random coats make for more interesting crackle patterns. I'd also read that Silver Shatter changed its color depending on the base coat, and I think that's why it looks almost gunmetal over Plum Night. I want to try it again over something a little lighter and compare the colors.

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.

Fault Line Manicure

Today's nasty weather has thwarted by attempts to get one really good picture in sunlight of my China Glaze Fault Line manicure. So, I'll have to give you several to get the overall effect. I've been waiting for this polish for a while, and I'm not disappointed.

First  picture in natural light. Overcast, grey, drizzly natural light. I used a base coat of Revlon Top Speed Lily. I've been picking these up because they seem to work well for Konading, but it was a little harder to work with as a base polish. It's very thick, but you definitely still need two thick coats or three thin ones to get it good and opaque. I didn't worry about that much for this though, and I really like the color. Once the base color was thoroughly dry, I added a medium thickness of China Glaze Fault Line. It was also a little hard to work as it started drying instantly, still on the brush, which made it hard to get a consistent coat. However, I love the final product.

This picture was taken indoors under incandescent light, and shows the color of Fault Line most accurately.












This one was taken indoors with flash, to show that Fault Line is actually a shimmer not a creme, which is part of what drew me to it.












So what do y'all think? Is anyone else totally loving crackles at the moment? I'm totally psyched about the upcoming OPI silver shatter.