Daily Manicure: 7/16/11

While walking around Friday in NYC, I stumbled upon llamasqua's Poke ( a slightly muted but beautiful purple w shimmer) in a Sephora in Chelsea. I decided to paint over my blue shatter and white, because I had had it on for more than a day, and as I said in my last post, I didn't like how the white got distorted.

Aside from the fact that my ghetto ass didn't buy anything from Sephora and simply did a whole manicure, it actually came out half decent. Usually tester polishes are clumpy, and this one was bit clumpy also, but for the circumstances, I wanted to share the color and swatch. These are $14 dollars a bottle, so be prepared to hand over a larger chunk of change for these.

I also want to add that while at Sephora, I noticed that they have brought out red, turqouise and navy blue "blasted" shatter colors. They also have come out with new lines of nail stickers similar to their other ones called "nail bling", some of them have sparkles and lines and are clear at the same time, so you can paint your nails then put them on for a really cool design. They now have loose glitter in several colors, and NAIL ART PENS. I didn't get a chance to write down all of the prices of each new item, but its a fairly new thing, so go to Sephora ASAP to check it out. They probably range from $6-10, maybe even more. Also, if I were a betting woman I would put my money that they aren't the best quality, especially the stickers. The girl I babysit tried the nail pen, and actually it looked really cool, so I'll have to get one and draw obscene images for you guys.

Thanks for reading

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Manicure of the day-July 14 Color Club fractured blue

So like I said earlier crackle/shatter/fractured/frictured/broken/whatever polishes are being made by every single nail polish brand imaginable. Only a handful of companies have stayed behind and have not released a shatter-like collection. Yesterday's manicure was Color Club's Blue Shatter over orly white, and although it looked bomb in the beginning, I do have to say that I didn't wait long enough for the white to dry- or maybe didn't put enough white layers on my nails, because I noticed that the white looked yellowish or dirty in some spots.

I love the Color Club shatter formula, I own two shatters that I found at a local beauty supply store here in Astoria, and I have to say they both Shatter like crazy in every which way possible. When I ventured into Manhattan today with the girls I babysit, we found a small beauty supply store called Essentials on 5th avenue by around 18th street/19th street. They had the Color Club collection, but they didn't have the Fuchsia and blue I bought (picture below). This makes me think that the full color club shatter collection is bigger than this one.

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American Apparel, Summer peach Mystery

So I have been on an American Apparel polish kick, I love the formula, the colors are amazing, and for the most part they mix well. I have had some trouble when using my latest base coat, which is a silk wrap made by Bucci, I also tried Nailrepair, both forumlas used as base coats caused the American Apparel polish to bubble. When I switched to a .99 cent, garlic thin base coat by Jordana, everything worked out really well.

That being said about the formula, it was my birthday recently and my mom bought me a fifty dollar visa card, so I decided to go look at American Apparels polishes. Although I have the full neon collection, they had FINALLY come out with a neon blue which I had to get. My husband and I walked down from the restaurant and we saw that they were giving away a polish (from a select color array of course) with purchase. Not only that, but American Apparel sells the polishes for 3 for 15$ (individually priced at $6) So I got four polishes for $15, no tax yay.

As you can imagine, I went on the AA website and tracked down swatches of every color to see which ones I wanted, And I bought like sixteen new polishes. My latest attempt was the most interesting. So I wanted this color, Manilla, which wasn't available in any store in NYC for some reason, probably because they were recalled, or discontinued (each store told me a different story, or didn't know). The one store in Tribecca DID have it, so I went down, after having asked if they were doing the promotion. They said they did (but didn't).

When I got there I picked out the manilla, and summer peach, another color I had been eyeing. The manager who had helped me immediately noticed something about this bottle, it had a weird style number and it was a slightly different color than the other bottles of Summer peach. As you can see by the photos, they are completely different and, well I thought it was so cool that I overlooked the fact I couldn't get a free polish and I bought the two different tones plus the manilla Polish.

The photos of the mani are of the weird summer peach, which has a more yellow tone to it. It is sort of like Butter by American Apparel, but SOO much better.

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More Crackle photos

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Crackle is EVERYWHERE

Hi all

I know its been a million years since I have been posting regularly or relevant information. I work seven days a week now, saving my money for the fall where I won't have enough time to work. In the last few months I have been coming across dozens of different brands that have created crackle, and I wanted to share the information with all of you lovelies because crackle is rad, and I have found many new hot colors that OPI and China Glaze have failed us.

Perhaps the best one I have found, in terms of color variation and price is a small brand called 2012, they retailed at my local beauty store for $3.99 a piece, but they had a wide variety of Neon colors, which I thought was rad. In terms of formula however, they are very smelly, and are not 4-free or 3-free by any means. They go on very well and dry almost immediately. If you have sensitive skin however, or are against the harmful chemicals in some nail polish, these are not for you. They are definitely a cheap brand making a quick profit. Also, I found that you must use the crackles over lighter colors in order to show off their true color potential. I put the blue pictured below over a darker color and it didn't show itself well, rather it appeared as though the two colors mixed together to form a new crackle color.

Walgreens in Times Square has a huge set up of Pure Ice crackles, which retail also retail at 3.99, they have almost every color- except a huge selection of neon colors. They have black, white, gold, silver, a silvery blue, a shimmery yellow. I bought a few for the girls I babysit and they liked them. I went to two other Walgreens in Manhattan and they were either sold out, or half of their small display was gone. The formula, according to my knowledge is NOT 3-free, but I don't have the bottles in front of me, so don't hold me to that. They apply smooth and look really good in my opinion, and they crack really well, with the exception of the silver polish, which cracks slightly different than the others.

Color club is another brand that came out with a good selection of crackle colors, including the hot pink and cobalt blue I purchased happily. I found these at another beauty supply store for $5.99. I feel like I could find them cheaper at another location if I tried, but it was a very spur-of-the-moment buy. These polishes aren't three-free either, but on applying them just as I was creating this post, I have to say they are some of the best cracking crackles out there. The picture below will show you, compared to 2012, they crack much more frequently, and I didn't even manipulate the brush! I simply brushed on.

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Sally Hansen Crackle: Distressed denim

I have been calling every CVS, Walgreens, Duane reade and whatever else in NYC asking when they will get the Sally Hansen Crackle overcoats in. FINALLY I found one sort of close to my house that carries it. I put the distressed denim over Finger paints Winter wishes ( I wore it at my wedding woot) it looks cool, definitely in love with the color, and the price- only $7 compared to $9 or $15 that Rickysnyc.com is charging for the OPI blue shatters.

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China Glaze Crackle: Crushed Candy Blue

I really love Crackle, in case you didn't know. I got all six of these on Amazon some time back- I put on American Apparel Neon Red and Crushed candy over it, really bright, amazing mani. I also Included some photos w/ Lighting Bolt (China Glaze's White Crackle). A girl stopped me at my job wearing the white and told me that OPI's white Shatter was terrible. I have heard mixed reviews BUT the China Glaze crackle rocks. As you can see, but of course, I get hundreds of chips after just one day. :(

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My favorite Manicure: Sephora L16 & Wild about Shimmer

I was killing time at Sephora when I saw a BEAUTIFUL cobalt blue sample with micro Gold glitter on top. After asking every employee at the store with no avail, I figured out that it was the combination of the Sephora mini nail polish L16, a beautiful cobalt bright blue, with Wild about Shimmer, which is OPI for Sephora. Its a clear polish with micro glitter. Basically it almost looks like turquoise stone with Gold pieces in it. LOVE IT

I just wish I had taken better photos for you. meh

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zebra print!

So I was bored and looking through a google search of electric blue nail polish when i saw a few pics of electric blue with black zebra stripes. I remembered one time when I was at Sephora getting samples, that the girl who made my samples had a home made sick-ass zebra print. And I said, hey if I can do watermelons, I can do zebra. Well here it is! I used a Jordana 99cent nail art in a bright purple to go over my american apparel Neon Green, and, with the exception of my right middle finger (for all the assholes in my life) I think I did a decent job!

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American apparel limited edition:neon green

Alright so for the last few weeks i've been workin like a slave and studying like a fool(ha we all know my ass doesn't study.. unless you call drinking bud light lime as practicing spanish..). Today I had my final exam for my masters program this morning(thats right, I'm one step closers to putting "masters" under her achievements, along with largest nail polish collection, and the Guinness world records of hangovers) so I decided I would head over to American Apparel and buy three of the limited edition Neon colors. According to refinery29.com, they only shipped out like 2000 bottles or something, so I got overly excited. I bought Neon Green, Neon Red and Neon purple. Today I tried Neon green, and its awesome.

At first I put a base of white because the girl at the counter told me it would help to brighten up the color. Well the damn color blinded me temporarily, so I had to bathe myself in polish remover so I could regain sight. After I put on the green over a clear base and I must say its still bright, but awesome. In fact, its almost a tad bit sheer, unlike the other American apparel colors, where you'll only need one color. It kindof reminded me of OPI's texas sorbet finish, but these have a matte finish... if that made any sense. (I know it didn't)

Here are some photos of my nails, put on some shades cuz the bright ones have the white underneath, and the neat ones are from when i was sober without a white base.

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