Back from the dead with a belated Halloween post

Yes, it's true I've been gone for a while! In my defense... well... I guess I'd better just admit that I did a stupid and dropped my camera in the ocean while on vacation, and then procrastinated replacing it. 

But now I have a new one, so it's time to get this thing going again! 

The first thing I got to take pictures of was my Halloween costume, so let's go with that for a welcome-back-to-blogville post!

Why yes, I did decide to be a massive geek and dress up as the TARDIS for Halloween. More specifically, the TARDIS as the Paradox Machine. I definitely took a little artistic license with that idea!  I wanted a damaged look, so shredded the skirt to let red layers and red skinny jeans show through, put a flicker LED in the hat, and did some 'cracks' with cheap makeup: 

That's a dollar-store lipliner for the cracking bits, plus blue false lashes and blue eyeliner plus gold eyeshadow. I also dusted gold shimmer powder all over my skin.

And of course, it wouldn't be ME if I didn't do some fun nails to go with the costume. Keeping with the damage theme I *had* to use crackle polish... 

Pretty simple execution, two coats of Covergirl Midnight Magic topped with Sally Hansen Distressed Denim (the perfect TARDIS-blue crackle!)

Red Sky At Night

Speaking of how I still love crackles...

This was such a fun mani! I started with two coats of Wet & Wild Lavender Pearlescent (what's up with W&W and calling pinks "lavender", anyway?), added a coat of Sally Hansen Fractured Foil, then topped it off with Wet & Wild Hollywood Walk of Fame from the Fergie collection. Yes, I did have to fish-and-place the stars. Worth the trouble though, definitely! 

I had a bit of a problem with the corners of the stars sticking up off my nail, but only in a few spots and if your nails aren't as highly curved as mine you should be fine! I just added an extra layer of topcoat to keep 'em under control.

Royal Teal

I found a set of Sally Hansen crackles at TJ Maxx, four of them for $5. Holy deal, Batman! I know, crackles get so little love anymore, but personally I still think they're awesome. Hopefully I can spread a little love for what to me is a vastly underrated effect. 

Gotta admit, I love me a good teal shimmer. And I love it even more combined with gold! So, I thought, what could be better than a gold crackle with teal beneath? What indeed, if not french tips? 

The base polish is Nina Ultra Pro Unteal You, which just might be my favorite teal of all time next to possibly one duochrome I can think of. No duochrome here, just a fantastically rich and shimmery jewel-tone teal. 

I freehanded the french tips with Sally Hansen Antiqued Gold and the bottle brush. 

Anyone else out there who still loves crackles?

First Featured Polish: St. Patrick's Edition

So I've had this idea kicking around for a while, to do "featured polishes", where I take one polish and do a bunch of nail art using it and generally show off how awesome or un-awesome it is. 

Since St. Patrick's is coming right up, I had to pick a green. So today I present to you, in all its glory (for everything except.... well, you'll see) *drumroll* 

Sinful Colors San Francisco!

First up, I thought I'd show how the polish builds. It starts out pretty sheer, but two coats would be acceptable on short nails, full coverage and perfect bottle color in three:

(ready? One, two three!)

I just realized you can see some nail line on my index and middle nails in the photo still... rest assured, that wasn't visible IRL!

Note this is a stainer! I highly recommend doubling up on base coat.

Next, since it's a bit on the sheer side, I thought it might be cool to see how it layers, with one coat over white (Wet & Wild French White Creme) and black (Wet & Wild Black Creme):

Oooh lookie how pretty over black!

I tried stamping, it really is far too sheer for that... *might* show over white, but after this test I really didn't want to even bother trying.

Barely even shows stamping in a macro. Works fine with a dotting tool, however! The gold is Wet & Wild Chrome A Show At The Palladium.

Whew, that was a failure! Now let's get on to the successful nail art looks I tried! 

Ruffian style with Wet & Wild Chrome I Got A New Com-Pewter

 

Gradient over Sinful Colors Last Chance

Mattified under NOPI White Texture (how cool that the white turned green! It sure is a stainer haha!)

With Wet & Wild Coloricon Frosted Over, freehand on my index and pinky, brush over stamp on my ring finger, and layered as undies on my middle.

What a lot of fun that was! I think I'll do it again one of these days. Unless everyone hates it. Please tell me you don't hate it! I'll do requests! 

Seriously, I would love feedback. Since this is a new thing, obviously it might have kinks to smooth out. Let me know what you think?

Warm crackle accents

Remember how I mentioned that I did a warm mani for the Chalkboard Nails contest, but decided to enter the cool one? Well, here's the warm version for your viewing pleasure!

It didn't turn out nearly as well as I imagined, sadly. 

The base is Wet & Wild Fastdry 9.0.2.1. Orange, topped with Claire's pink glitter crackle for the accents and placed glitter from the chunky gold glitter in the Bonita glitter set I got at Ross.

9.0.2.1. Orange is a bit sheer, but it only took three coats to get opacity (and since I was putting glitter tips on, I probably could have gotten away with two).

Diagonal Duochromes

Taking a break from the 31 Day Challenge for Chalkboard Nails' Cool or Warm nail art contest! 

The rules are pretty simple, pick cool or warm colors and create a manicure. I picked cool, as it gave me a perfect chance to try out something I've had lurking in the back of my head for nearly a month.

I thought, how cool would a glitter crackle over a duochrome be? After testing it out I decided it wasn't quite as fabulous as I'd envisioned, though still pretty neat looking, so I used it as an accent instead of the full mani.

I started with a base of China Glaze - Unpredictable, then taped off diagonals and added China Glaze - Deviantly Daring. I painted a thinnish coat of Nicole by OPI - Amethyst Texture on my ring and thumb nails, then finished off the look by placing glitter pieces from the purple glitter in the Claire's Precious Metals set along the diagonal with a toothpick. Topcoat and done!

After finishing this, I had an idea for a warm-toned mani also using crackle accents. I might have to go ahead and do it as a bonus for all the lovely people who read my silly little blog! :)

Copper patina

Finally got around to using matte top coat. I keep staring at all the cool things other people do with it, and I've had this one for a while, but never used it. Until...

...I had this neat idea. Two coats of Finger Paints - Tiffany Imposter is the base color, which reminded me of the green oxide on old copper stuff. So to kinda keep with that theme, I used Wet & Wild Craze - Free, Free At Last (gold crackle) in a light and patchy way, then topped it off with Hard Candy - Matte-ly In Love. 

This looks so much better in person. My photography skills are... not that good, really.

I love all the punny names for matte top coats. They make me smile. :D