Cracklin' Gemma

Sorry for the delay - I'm on vacation from the day job, and thus my routines are all screwy (or non-existent) this week. But I do think this manicure turned out pretty nicely, although the clerk at the hardware store today took one look at my nails and asked, "Did you do that on purpose?" Cracked me up, so to speak. ;-)

The folks at Sally Hansen were kind enough to send me a couple of crackle polishes with the polish strips, so this week, I decided white and green were the colors du jour. I've been wanting to try Zoya's "Gemma" for awhile now, and since it was already on the manicure tray...

As always, I started with a coat of Seche Vite base coat, followed by two coats of Gemma. I have to say, I love, love, love this color. You'll be seeing a lot more of it, for sure!

 

 

After it dried, I put on a somewhat thickish coat of "Snow Blast" crackle overcoat. The formula for this crackle is nicer than some I've used...it's got a nice consistency that is easy to work with. It started cracking soon after I applied it, and the crackle is matte in it's dry state. I put a matte topcoat over it at first, but I didn't care for the matte finish - it left the lines really sharp.

So I finished it off with two coats of Seche Vite, which smoothed out the lines and gave it a nice shine - so it looked like I did it on purpose (supposedly). ;-)

I think they turned out pretty nicely...reminds me of leaves, or snow on grass. Or distressed paint on old furniture...

Thanks to the Sally Hansen team for providing the crackle...and a purple one, which I fully intend to use for my Halloween costume this year. Stay tuned for that!

Next week...hmm. I'm not sure. I'll think of something though. Until then, happy polishing!

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Crackle & Dupe

This week it's all about the crackle polish, and I stumbled over a fun dupe as well! Many thanks to Born Pretty for providing me with the black "Crack Polish" used this week. They sent me some other goodies for review that I'll be using over the next few weeks too.

Apologies for the yellow tone on this photo - it gets better. ;-) When I decided to play with the crackle polish, I decided something really bright underneath would work best. I went digging in the fridge for a nice bright pink, and came up with these two - Urban Decay's "Big Bang", and Avon's new "Pink Radiance".

They looked so close in the bottle, I just had to see them side-by-side on my nails. So I used Big Bang on my index finger below, and Pink Radiance on my middle finger. Can you see the difference? Me either - they really are an exact match, in my opinion. Fun, yes?

After my little dupe discovery, it was time to get down to business. I used the Avon polish for the rest, because the bottle is easier to deal with than the tiny (and cute) Urban Decay bottle. Undersides first...

And then two coats each to lay down a nice base for the crackle polish.

Then it was time to crackle! I used one very thin coat, then watched it crack as it dried. Super fun to watch the cracks form like magic.

On my right index finger, I did just the tip, but I got the polish on very thick, so it didn't crack as nicely as I'd have liked. As you can see though, it cracked nicely on the other nails.

On my left hand, I did a thinner coat on the tip of my ring finger, which worked a bit better.

I coated the whole thing with two coats of Seche Vite top coat - be careful with this, it will smear if you slide the brush on the crackle polish. Use a lot of top coat, and just float it on top the polish for the first coat to avoid smearing. Then cleaned up my cuticles, and voila - a very cool, leathery look.

I *need* some green crackle polish now, so I can do a reptile look over yellow polish. :-) Next time I will make sure the crackle polish is closer to the edges of my nails - it looks a bit messy even after cleanup just because it tends to break/chip a the crack lines if you aren't careful. It's really fun though - I love it...very hip, in my opinion.

Next week, I'll start the Christmas manicures...better dig out my red, white and greens! Until then, happy polishing...

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