purple crackle over lime green

I really just liked this combination, got a lot of comments about it. It is Mattese shimmery purple over a lime green color. Enjoy!

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FINALLY:silver metallic crackle I can adore!

Some of you may have noticed that I have been trying to get myself into the metallic crackles- when they were first released I didn't get excited. The swatches on the internet were cool- but when I tried them in the store I was dissapointed. Gold crackle is easy to pair, blues and reds go great with it and make a great holiday manicure. Pink metallics go really well with pink shades and blue shades, and blue metallic crackle goes great with purples, pinks and blues. The Silver crackle took me forever to figure out however, but I think I finally got it! I need to pair it with dark purples, blues and blacks- and I mean dark for me to really enjoy it. I believe these photos are of the silver over a really dark green- American apparel's Hunter I believe. Although I haven't worn something like this since (its been at least a month) I do like this manicure.

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Mattesse blue crackle swatch plus factory mix up?

I was at a Ricky's store the other day drooling over nail polishes when I saw that Mattesse, like many other brands that have crackle nail polish, has made a shimmery and non-shimmery purple and blue crackle but doesn't distinguish the two colors. I saw this with color club also. Its as if they manifacture them differently for some reason but don't distinguish the colors- and the difference is obvious! Here I also have a swatch of their new dark blue crackle that they have on the shelves which I love!

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bubble gum pink manicure w sparkle

I'm not too proud of these nails. Its not like I was at a costume party and I was hello kitty. Its not like I was at a babyshower for triplet girls. Its not like I was walking for breast cancer. Its not like I was at an all female feminist poetry rally against Misogynist companies. I was just bored.

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Pink crackle from claires over mattesse blue

I know, I'm in the process of changing this blog's name to the dailycracklemanicure because thats how much damned crackle I put up on this thing. I just want to give people pictures of all the options- and there seems to be a hundred brands with a hundred different colors of crackle. Also, I have to try them all and every manicure I have has a pic. So here you have it, shimmery pink crackle by Claire's over Mattesse sky blue.

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Matesse blue crackle fun

I have to admit I am really excited about the glitter crackles from Sephora, if I weren't so into magnetic nail polish at the moment I would definitely splurge on them. Maybe I will in a few weeks after the christmas post season is over and my finances are (sort of) ahead of schedule. I have here the Mattesse dark purple crackle that is currently in Ricky's stores. It is one of my favorites, I've worn it with white, glitter, light blue. All of which are pretty bomb. I had a problem with my old purple crackle from china glaze, because I used it so much it dried out and I had to get polish thinner. At the time though it gave me an excuse to buy a new bottle of purple crackle- as I had none that worked. Here it is over an electric blue glitter.

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Purple metallic crackle over dark purple

When I was going through my metallic crackle phase, another one of my favorite color combos was this guy- deep purple covered by purple metallic crackle. I got a lot of compliments on this one.

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Gold Crackle over turqoise

This has to be one of my favorite color combinations using gold crackle. Another good one is gold crackle over a deep warm red, or a bright cool red. The China glaze metallics collection is interesting because they have a coppery gold and a brighter warmer gold, so you all have more to choose from ;0

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China glaze haute metal crackle swatches

As my husband snored next my awake ass last night. I thought of all the nail polishes I wanted to work that were hanging out in my closet next to my ex's skeleton(like the gray that was on my nails at the time). Recently I purchased the China Glaze's metallic crackle collection from Amazon, they didn't send me the silver one, but refunded me anyway.

I decided to try the pink metallic over a darker purple/pink, and the blue crackle over a dark blue, the purple over a dark purple ect. Today I decided I would start with the pink. I already had China glaze's "Ahoy!" on my toes from a few days ago, which is a really pretty reddish pinkish rose amazingness. The crackle looks amazing over it (sorry for a toe shot). I know you can't really see the color combination of "Ahoy!" with "Haute metal" but it is my favorite, it brings the rosey-ness out of the pedicure, and I honestly wish I wore it on my hands instead of the purple combination.

I also decided to use a dark purple from L.A. Colors metallic nail polish collection as my mani and place the haute metal over it to see how it looked. It looks fabulous. I finally figured out how I can wear these and tolerate them. I do not like using the metallics with colors not in the same family, but then I saw a few good combinations of dark purple with the aqua metallic from China Glaze. So Bottom line, there is hope for me yet, and I think I will play with them all this week and show them to you, just because my life is so interesting otherwise.

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Gray Crackle (it never works)

I really don't know what to tell you on this one. I love crackle, I love easy nail art. But I don't love gray and I don't love silver crackle. Maybe I'm missing the color combinations, I know I have tirelessly looked online for color combinations and failed. I don't see anything I like or, when I do try it on myself I think it looks like a pile of ass. This time I said to myself, I like crackle over glitter, so lets try a nice darkish purple glitter, thinking it would look nice. I put china glaze's "Cracked Concrete" and then I instantly hated it. Wore it for one day because I can't do my nails more than once a day for fear of ripping them off, but hated it nonetheless.

I will continue to look for other combinations, I kindof like it with pink, but think I should like it with more colors then ones from the hot pink family. And anyway, I like anything thats hot pink so I don't think it really counts.

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Shoe Nail art manicure

I decided to be really bad ass and create a silvery shoe nail art manicure. I used stamps from Amazon's bundle of nail art plates.

The pro of this manicure was that it was shoes, and the silver and purple(my awesome iphone camera doesn't do it justice..) the color combination looked really good in person. People kept complimenting me on it, at which point I told them it was a high heel design. At which point they either oo'd and aaah'd, or walked away from me slowly.

Oh, and yes, I took these photos on the train.

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My Halloween Nails

I'm not going to lie. Even though I barely post on this blog anymore, I still give myself over extended manicures every day. I'm just too lazy to share them. This one was especially long because I had to come up with the designs of each nail and make them. I was watching that movie with katherine Heigel(ugh) and johnny knoxville where he pretends to be mentally retarded. So I had entertainment for this. Overall, everyone in my class liked them, the girls I babysit and my cooperating teacher even oo'd and aahh'd at them. So I GUESS it was worth it. I stole the designs from a few places, including refinery29.com

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thanksgiving (sort of not really) nails

Like every other meat shoveling gluttonous american, I love thanksgiving. Its a day where I can shamelessly poor pig grease all over my buttery vegetables and claim that I'll start my diet the next day!

I had mozzerella sticks for breakfast, so that diet will have to wait for tomorrow.

We went upstate to my parents friends house, so I had to have fall festive colored nails. I saw some nail art tutorials on refinery29.com and decided against them since my halloween nails took 45 minutes, and I'm lazy. For this particular color combination, I used American Apparel's "summer peach" as a base color and Matesse's new red crackle so cleverly named "red burgundy".

The good thing about this manicure is that it didn't chip until today(like my diet)! Mostly my manicures chip immediately because I'm constantly scrubbing my floors and cleaning dishes. I guess the pig grease was good for something!

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magnetic nail polish!

It is a real shame that this stuff is so expensive and pretty hard to find. I'm not sure if it will become a big trend, but I absolutley love it. I haven't bought a bottle because I'm too cheap, so I just go to sephora and do them there. 16$ a bottle is entirely too much money to pay for one nail polish, now.. I know I wouldn't have said anything like that a year ago when I had money to burn! They do have a brand called LCN thagt makes it in several different colors, but until then I will be stuck with Nails inc. Sephora is currently out of the green :( but the purple is nice! (can't you tell my cheap ass took the photos at the sephora lol)

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Pink sponge + flowers nail art

So In the spirit of my recent dotting tool purchases, I have been researching easy- intermediate nail designs that I can do on my short nails and have it look halfway decent. I have never sponged before, so I figured I needed to try sponge design as well. I came across a tutorial for something similar to what I wanted to do. I wanted to sponge hot pink of the top half of my nails, and then put hot pink glitter. After doing this, I wasn't sure what else to put on, but I knew these nails needed more. I found a design similar to mine but with flowers, and this is how it turned out.

I received many compliments and people couldn't believe I had done them myself. Here is a quick written guide of what to do.

1. Base coats, I used my 99 cent garlic base coat plus Sephora's whitening base coat. Let dry

2. Color, I decided to use a hot pink by Matisse. Take a cosmetic sponge (or household sponge like me if your cheap ;) Place a bit of polish on a paper or plate, then dip the sponge into the color. Dab on the side then lightly dab onto your nail until desired consistency.

3. Sparkle Color, I chose a hot pink sparkle by Matisse. I simply painted this on the top of the sponged color, but you could also sponge this on as well for a less sparkled look.

4. Top coat. I applied one layer of top coat to even out the tips. Let dry completely

5. Take your two colors for the flower, pour the petal color (I used white) onto your plate or paper and dab your dotting tool into it, place five little dots in a circle on either diagonal side of the nail. Do for all ten nails and let dry.

6. Take your "pollen" color, or the color for the inside of the flowers, put a small amount on your paper or plate, and dot the color on your flowers. Let dry completely.

7. Top coat, two to three coats and let dry.

8. Voila!

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Cheetah print nails!

I will be honest with all of you, I have been in a big ball of depression, dealing with life. Working so hard for no money, with no health insurance and no security is really hard. The other day at work I needed a pick-me-up, and I decided to go to the beauty supply store across the way and decided to buy a dotting tool. Now, even though I do my nails constantly and I watch tons of online videos about nail design, I never really cared to invest in the dotting tool. Luckily I found a set of three double sided dotting tools for five bucks, mega score. They are all different sizes for all kinds of designs- so stay tuned.
My first design I did on the train, literally (okay well not the base color). But it was pretty simple. Here is a very basic set of instructions. You will need a piece of paper, base coat, top coat, and a base color, and two "design" colors, for the inside dots and outside dots of the cheetah print.
1. clean nails, apply base coat, and two coats of color. Let dry completely. I used NK enamel in Pearl, very inexpensive, you can find it at many beauty supply stores in NYC
2. When your nails are dry, place a dot of the "inside" color of the cheetah print on a piece of paper. I chose NK enamel cotton candy(also very cheap but a girls gotta work with what she has to work with!). By putting the polish on a piece of paper to dip into with the dotting tool, you will save a lot on clean up. You can however (if you want) just dip it into the bottle onto the nail.
3. Dip the dotting tool into the bottle or onto the drop on the paper. Make random dots on your nail, it doesn't matter if they are big or small or messy. Let completely dry.
4. Take your second design polish and put drops on the paper, using the dotting tool, draw little c's around the dots you made with the first polish. Let completely dry
5. place two coats of top coat, let dry

And there ya have it. Let me know what you guys think!

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Post from Beyond the summer- I'm back!(forrealthistimeiswear)

I'm sorry! I worked all summer so I could work all year and not get paid for it! (I'm a grad student for teaching, and I am student teaching this year.. yeah). Anyway, the summer was FANTASTIC, my awesome, lucrative job included lots of cooking, swimming in the sunny Astoria park pool, and going to awesome and cool museums with my two "minions" (my husband calls them that because they perform my every beck and call, love you ladies). Well I have put of posting all summer and now it is fall here in NYC, and the new colors have been out on all of the blogs for months. I do not see many ladies on the sleek streets sporting the deep blues that I was SO excited about (Chanel's new colors). I am however, still seeing a lot of people sporting neons and brights on their toes and on their hands, especially in the reds and other warms category.I am trying to move into fall, today I have for you Finger Paints Mistletoe mischief (okay I'm ready for Christmas, I'm a twenty four year old grandma in case you havent figured that out). ItI think its lovely, a hunter green with shiny sparkly green glitter. I think that the darkness of it matched with my pink blouse and grey trousers will really stand out, in case you were wondering why I chose a Hunter green with sparkle (think about it, a matte hunter is more applicable for fall, but this may stand out more). In any case, I'm wearing it until tomorrow, when it will inevitably chip.

Speaking of chipping- I have gotten into the horrible habit of not doing my nails every day. As you may know, my nail polish chips on the first day or at MOST the second no matter how well I do my nails, or how much I pay for a professional manicurist. My nails are flimsy and I do a lot of dishes and other hand-related things, grading, cleaning, clenching my head in hope that it will all stop, ect. That being said, I usually do my nails or at least touch up every day, because my nails bother me if they are not well-manicured. However, going to the pool every day, eating ice cream, cooking, cleaning and washing for the girls I babysit and for my husband came first this summer, so I didn't do them every day (eep). It was a great summer, we all had a blast, but school is back in session, and that means Mrs. Fiona will have a slammin manicure every lesson, every day.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy!

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Daily Manicure: July 16, 2011: OPI ms.Universe & Color Club Fuchsia fractured!

My manicure of the day (tomorrow really, cuz I'm going to bed now) is a combination of two of my new favs. I told you that I bought color club's new shatter (fractured) in blue (have a bash) and fuchsia (Crush on you). Well, as I was walking around Chelsea, we stumbled upon a collection holder of the Fractured collection, but instead of these two colors, they had different ones for blue and purple- they had splitting image (a blue with shimmer)and Kiss and Break up ( A true purple w shimmer). These two colors seem to be dupes of the Mattesse line, and I've looked at swatches and they don't crack quite like the two I have, so I'm happy I got what I got. Also, fuchsia is much hotter than purple and I don't care what anyone says! The good news for all, is that there are several options out there for blues, pinks and purples thanks to Color Club!

I also wanted to share with you that I bought 3 OPI shades,(they were 3 for $20, bday present from husband) two from Ms. Universe collection and one from the Summer Nice Stems collection. I bought I lilly love you, a jelly pink w crazy glitter action, Crown me already, pure intense s

ilver glitter, and swimsuit...nailed it, also from the Ms. Universe collection ( a GREAT blue). I will swatch them all for you tomorrow, but I needed to tell you that I bought them because Crown me already, paired with the Color club Fuchsia, is my Manicure of the day, and tell me it isn't AMAZING!

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