China Glaze Haute Metal over Hot Mess

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing China Glaze Haute Metal, the pink from the China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals I swatched for you yesterday.  I paired it with Man Glaze Hot Mess, which until I ran into it in my living room yesterday, I would have denied ever owning.  I just wandered around looking at some polishes I hadn't used in a while until I came across one that would go well with one of the Crackle Metals, and Hot Mess was the winner.

Hot Mess is a glittery whitish silver matte, and very pretty.  I used three coats over a completely dry base coat, and this is Hot Mess on its own.

Man Glaze Hot Mess Nail Polish, Three Coats, No Top Coat

As you may recall, I recently discovered with OPI Turquoise Shatter that the crackling happened oddly over a matte with no top coat, so even though the surface of Man Glaze mattes feel more like powder than that weird rubbery feeling of many mattes, I top coated it.  That made it sparkle a bit more and gave it some depth.  I'd wear this one alone easily (I wish I'd known I had it sooner!).

Man Glaze Hot Mess Nail Polish, Three Coats, with Top Coat

My original plan was to pair this with Oxidized Aqua, which I still think would look cool, but somehow the notion of Haute Metal, the pink, over this made me think "futuristic ice princess."  I don't know what that means either, but I ran with it.  I added Haute Metal and two coats of top coat to make it nice and glassy smooth.

China Glaze Haute Metal Crackle Glaze over Hot Mess

This one's odd and it's hard to see what's going on without looking carefully, but it's sparkly silver pink so I'm happy.  I like it a lot.

That's what I know this morning, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I'm back much sooner than I'd planned because I have swatches of the upcoming China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals to show you.  China Glaze sent them for review and they arrived this morning, and once the bottles had cooled down to room temperature, I got to swatching.

I used them all over a charcoal shimmer - I figured charcoal would let them show up well and show us their opacity, and I thought shimmer would work better with the almost-chrome finish of all six Crackle Glaze Metals.  I did just single nail swatches for this preliminary test drive and look at them - in addition to the fact that I was racing predicted storms for sunlight and didn't want to change lighting conditions halfway through, all six are gorgeous and I'd rather put a little more thought and effort into full manicures with them than just pairing them with charcoal.

Since I used three colors on each hand I split them up as I figured you'd want to see them, putting the true metallics (silver, gold, bronze) one one hand and the others (teal, pink, lavender) on the other so you can see how they look relative to one another.  They all have top coat, and this is in good sunlight.

First, we'll look at the true metals.  They are, from the top down, Cracked Medallion (bronze), Tarnished Gold (gold) and Platinum Pieces (silver).

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, Round I

I think you can see how well these apply, and the application was  the same for all six shades in the collection.  The consistency of the polish is like normal polish, and so it was easy to apply a thin coat.  With crackles, I pay no attention to how even or opaque the crackle is during application - when it splits up, the pieces become much more opaque and things even out.  When applied, these looked somewhat sheer, but you can see that all three broke up beautifully and are opaque enough to completely cover the charcoal base between cracks.  Here's the same picture with the polish names added - I find labels on pictures can be distracting, so I figured I'd let you get a first impression without them and tack on the labelled version for reference.

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, More Round I

As for the colors, I really like them a lot.  I've always loved metals and chromes, but the fact is, a chrome finish isn't the most forgiving.  If there's one ridge in a nail, and I have many, a chrome finish pretty much places a neon sign flashing "RIDGES" on that nail.  These have the same overall effect as regular chromes without that shortcoming, and they are really solid renditions of each color.

For Round II, also from the top down, I have Oxidized Aqua (teal), Haute Metal (pink), and Latticed Lilac (lavender).

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, Round II

Here, you can see that these three are as opaque as and broke up just as well as the first three, and the colors are stunning.  These three will require a little more thought to pair up with good bases.  Here's the labelled version of Round II.

China Glaze Crackle Glaze Metals Swatches, More Round II

All six swatches have just the one coat of top coat, and you can see that the crackle layer isn't terribly thick, which is nice.  I'm a huge fan of this collection, and I'll be trying them out individually this week.

That's really all I have for today, Dear Reader, so until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Revlon Copper Penny

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have a nice simple manicure today with Revlon Copper Penny.  It's one of three metallic Revlons that were in a little tabletop display I saw a few weeks back, where the other two were a silver and a gold.  Although all three looked great, I'm set for golds and silvers I love, so I passed them by.

Copper Penny is, as the name suggests, a copper metallic.  It's extremely pigmented and was even and opaque in one coat, but I used a second because I thought the ridges in my nails would show too much with only one coat.  Since it is so pigmented, I'd wager this one would work well with Konad.

Revlon Copper Penny Nail Polish, Two Coats

The picture is under artificial light with the polish completely dry.  Photographing a metallic under artificial light is difficult since the light reflects more easily than usual, but this at least gives you an idea of what the polish looks like.  The super tiny silver flecks do not show up as silver flecks just walking around - it takes magnification to show them.  The overall effect on the nail is that it really does look like copper.

Although I have a few polishes with the word copper in the name, I don't have any other metallic that really looks like copper, so I like Copper Penny quite a bit.  I'd been saving this one until my XL plates arrived from Chez-Delaney because I thought some of the geometric tip patterns would look cool in Konad Black Pearl over this, but  they're not here yet and I really wanted to wear it.  I do have that big plain French tip on one of my Chez-Delaney plates, so I might just add that and stamp another pattern in Copper Penny over it.   I'll see if I can find something relatively straightforward that seems good - my stamping confidence has been shaken by my arduous ENAS stamping experience!

There are just a couple of hours left to enter to win Essie Ruby Slippers in a random drawing, so please throw your name in if you haven't already.  It's open to everyone with the only restriction being one entry per person, and the only reason the email address entered would ever be used is to notify you that you've won.

I think that's everything for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you! 

For Your Thoughts.

Hey everyone! Guess whose birthday it is today? I'll give a hint... he'd be 201 years old today. He sported a lovely beard. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. ;) Ok, if you haven't figured it out yet, its Abe Lincoln!! :-P In honor of our 16th President's birthday, I decided to do penny nails, since he's on both sides!! :-P It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, because I quickly discovered it is very hard to paint the detail of a penny on a fingernail with a nail art brush. :-P it'd have to be like a single bristled art brush! lol



I used Milani Sassy Brassy, which to me looks more like copper, as a base, with a mixture of Zoya Raven, Zoya Angelina and Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme for the linework, and Zoya Raven for the black background, topped with Essie Matte About You. Penny art was topped off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to really make 'em shine. ;)

Now, how about your 2¢?

Nubar Liquid Metals, Part I

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I thought I'd show you Nubar's Liquid Metals, *the* metallic polishes. There are eight, so I'll do four now and four later. Each is two coats over a base under artificial light.

Unfaithful Red is a shiny, shiny, scarlet with a gold cast to it.

Risky Rose is a perfectly metallic rose.

Precarious Lavender is a foily pale purple.

Fickle Amethyst is an amethyst silver.

Stay tuned for Part II, soon to come (depending on what today's mail brings!). If you *need* any of these before then, they can be ordered from Nubar (link to the main page), and the collection is here (link to the Liquid Metals) if you want a peek at the rest of the collection.

Until later, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!