Manicure the Sixth

This week's manicure is super simple but results in an amazing dramatic effect. Check it out:





This is two coats of a basic white polish with one coat of La Rosa's black crackle on top and a top coat to smooth it out a bit. The effect almost looks like Dalmatian spots and I even had a few non polish savvy folks that complimented me on them who thought that each little crackle was individually painted on. So what do you all think of the black and white crackle look?

Wednesday Giveaway

Check out this great giveaway from I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous (my very on recent give away winner).

http://imfeelingnail-venturous.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-350-follower-giveaway.html

Swatch the Eleventh

Well, wasn't today an exciting day? At least it was for us East Coasters. I'm sure all those Cali folks are getting a good chuckle out of us all making a big deal out of a little ole baby earthquake. Even without the earthquake today was an exciting day. Today, the hubby and signed a contract for a new town home! This will be his second home purchase but my first so I was super gittery, excited and nervous. Of course a special occasion calls for a special polish. I went with OPI's Designer Series in Mystery. This gorgeous vampy color can be deceiving in color. Indoors it can look black or even chocolate when in reality it is a deep dark velvety purple with a gorgeous copper glass fleck. And it demanded a ton of compliments. The polish went on smooth and was opaque in two easy coats and dry time was pretty quick. This polish will definitely be going in my favorites.

Manicure the Fifth

My apologies to all my followers for the lack of posts recently. I have been under the weather and am just now getting things back on track. This gorgeous manicure was designed with a particular outfit of mine in mind. I chose one of my favorite China Glaze colors, Bohemian Chic, a classic burgundy that I always gravitate towards when I have a desire for a classy and simple look. Tung worked her artistic magic to hand paint some pretty flowers in colors to match my skirt. Check out the fantastic results:

Can you tell I've been practicing my photography? I also purchased some fancy new photo editing software for my iPad. I'm just loving the results. And while my condo's balcony banister needs repair work it does make for a lovely contrasting background. Despite the tremendous amount of rain, thunderstorms and cloudy skies recently, I did manage to get some swatching and photographing done this weekend so posts will resume as normal this week. TTFN!

Giveaway winner!

And the the winner is: imfeelingnailventurous Congrats! I will be sending you an email asking for your address so be on the lookout for that.

My First Giveaway

Today is the last day to enter my very first giveaway.  Please check it out:

My First Giveaway!

Swatch the Tenth

I'm sure this is starting to sound really old, but don't forget to check out my giveaway, it ends August 1st!



This week's swatch is a bit of a fail to me.  I used two think coats of Orly's Royal Navy, a vibrant shade of blue (and one of my favorites), paired with China Glaze's Black Mesh Crackle.  I thought the Royal Navy would shine through a lot more than it did which is really the only reason I consider it a fail.  I think I'll stick with neons under the black crackle, they work better.

Orly Royal Navy

With Black Crackle



What do you think?

Check out this Giveaway:

from Haute Lacquer:
http://hautelacquer.blogspot.com/2011/07/follower-appreciation-giveaway.html

Swatch the Ninth

And yet another reminder to check out my giveaway.

This week is all about nudity! Kidding of course, but I did go with a beautiful nude color from CQ called Silver Taupe. Why the Silver in the name? Because this nude color was accented with gorgeous silver glass fleck and just the tiniest bit of halo micro glitter. This simple color scored me lots of compliments and it will be making my top polishes list for sure.  The polish went on smoothly and was fairly opaque in two coats.  There was still a bit of visible nail line after the two coats but with a nude I expect that. 

Manicure the Forth

Before I begin, I just wanted to give you all a quick reminder to enter my giveaway, just a few more days before the winner is chosen! This week's manicure is once again brought to you by LaRosa. This time Tung went with LaRosa's purple crackle (called Purple Rain). It's a metallic purple that cracked wonderfully with one thin coat. I was undecided on which color to go with for the undercoat so, we went with both of the two finalists: China Glaze's Caribbean Temptation and China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise. Check out the results:

Despite Pink and Purple being such a classic color combo, I ended up liking the Turquoise much better. I think it showed off the purple crackle much better.