Loose Powder

Some Like It Haute is part of China Glaze‘s Eye Candy 3D Glitters Winter collection.

This polish is a clear base with a dense mix of gun metal, black, blue, and holographic glitter! Two coats was enough to cover the nail completely.

Though there was a bit of texture on the surface, it wasn’t lumpy and a coat of top coat got it almost completely smooth. One thing I wish was that the polish was a little less blue and more gunmetal grey. Otherwise, this was a great color. Glitters always wear a bit longer, so I was able to wear this for over a week.

As an accent, I wanted a lighter glitter polish and picked Fairy Dust, which is a fine holographic glitter. It was actually more sheer than I wanted and even four coats wasn’t enough to cover the nail line. I also used a water slide decal on it.

It’s a fun look and next time I’d probably put a silver polish under the Fairy Dust.

I’ve been back into glitter polishes lately and started off my latest round of glitter manis with this green/gold combo.

I used China Glaze’s It’s Alive! on my pinky, middle, and index finger and Butter London’s West End Wonderland on the ring finger and thumb.

I love, love, love this combination! The gold glitter adds a great highlight to the dark green. Both of these glitter polishes looked great after two coats, but It’s Alive! is amazing with it’s green jelly base and different sized glitter.

You can see in the close up of Butter London’s West End Wonderland that it’s not just gold glitter, but there are also silver and copper colored glitters. It’s a really pretty combination.

I used two coats of top coat to smooth out the surface, but if your top coat is thicker, one might be fine for you. This  manicure lasted 10 days before I had to take it off. I’ll be using both of these colors again for sure!

Early in September I was heading to DragonCon, a yearly science fiction convention held in Atlanta, and I wanted to do a fun look for the weekend. I came across Asami’s Space Nails tutorial and I had to try it out!

The looks requires three or four different polish colors and a textured paper towel to sponge on some of the design. I didn’t have the exact polishes that Asami used, so I picked ones I had that were closest.

From my stash, I found China Glaze’s Techno (large holo glitter), Pitch-Black Glimmer from Nicoole by OPI (black with silver glitter), What’s Your Name by Sinful Colors (black with purple/blue micro glitter), and Sally Hansen HD polish in DVD.

Next, I followed Asami’s video tutorial:

The results are pretty great! I love the bits of glitter that catch the light and the subtle clouds of blue.

There are parts I’m not completely happy with, of course, but overall this was fun and easy to apply. It didn’t take much longer than a regular manicure to apply since the layers were thin and dried quickly.

Can’t wait to apply this design again!

A quick but fancy manicure that I put together to wear out for Liz‘s bachelorette party!

I started with a metallic silver base – two coats of Zoya Trixie. Once dry, I applied one quick coat of China Glaze Black Mesh Crackle polish. The ringg fingers I left silver so I could apply a floral water slide decal. Finished it off with two coats of top coat to smooth out the crackle.

This manicure was quick to put together, but looks much more complicated. Very fun to wear!

This manicure actually evolved over a week. I started with China Glaze Heaven:

The glitter is from a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust:

Love the bit of hologlitter the Fairy Dust adds to the nail surface:

After about a week, the base of the manicure was still okay, but I wanted a different look, so I tried one of thew new OPI Shatter polishes:

The OPI Turquoise Shatter is great! I actually like the formula better than the China Glaze crackle polishes I’ve tried. The formula is thinner, which makes it much easier to  spread quickly. I also like the way the cracks form. Here’s a closer look:

I’m not sure I really like the look of such a sheer polish under the turquoise shatter, but I did like the OPI Shatter polish! It would look great over silver or black.

Here’s a lavender and gray manicure using crackle polish and Konad stamping!

I used FingerPaints Aren’t You Glad-iolous for the base. Next, I applied China Glaze Crackle polish in Cracked Concrete, then used China Glaze Recycle to stamp on the Konad design.

Mega Bite is part of China Glaze’s Spring 2011 Tronica collection.

It’s the only polish I picked up in that collection, but I wish I’d gotten some of the others. The Tronica polishes seem like toned down versions of the OMG collection from 2009 – the holo isn’t nearly as prominent.

Still, I really love this color that’s not quite gold and would definitely wear it again. The manicure lasted a little over a week with touch ups of top coat.

I accented the look with a decal from Big Ruby, which I’ll talk about in my next post!

Here’s another manicure using China Glaze Crackle polish!

I applied two coats of Zoya’s Trixie, a silver foil polish. (I think Sonia Kashuk has a similar silver polish for sale now.)

This is a great polish, but it feels kind of Christmas-y. On top of that I applied a thin coat of China Glaze’s Crackle polish in Crushed Candy – a light turquoise color that is similar to For Audrey.

Like all crackle polishes, apply thickly for larger cracks and thinly for smaller cracks. Brush the polish on quickly and with a minimum of strokes.

I really like this look and got a few compliments during the week I wore it. I think next time I will try this crackle polish with a copper base.

Below Deck is part of China Glaze’s Spring 2011 Anchors Away Collection. This greyish purple polish is just a bit darker and more purple than Sephora OPI’s Metro Chic.

I used two coats over a base coat and topped it with Essie 3-way glaze. The manicure lasted the standard week  on me with no reapplication of top coat.

When I first heard about the new Crackle Glazes from China Glaze, I was pretty curious to try them out. I ended up buying Black Mesh (black), Crushed Candy (turquoise), and Cracked Concrete (grey).

The first one I wanted to try was Black Mesh. It seemed like it would be easy enough to work with. First I applied my usual base coat and one coat of Fuchsia.

After it had dried, I applied a coat of Black Mesh. The crackling happened as it dried.

I admit this was all a bit trickier than I imagined. You have to put the crackle polish on pretty quickly with as few strokes as possible. Also, thicker coats will get you larger cracks while a thin coat will get you many smaller cracks.

Because I’d only used one coat of Fuchsia, you can see that the crackle glaze actually pulled the Fuchsia with it, meaning I shouldn’t have been lazy and ought to have used two coats.

You will definitely need a top coat with this look, but even then you’ll have texture on your nails from the crackle polish pulling as it dries.

Overall, I thought this was a quick way to get a fun look. Crackles might not be a favorite for everyone, but when I’m in the mood for something quick, I would definitely grab one of the crackle glazes to throw on top.