Shattered on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! For those of you celebrating, I hope it's a great one! I decided to keep it simple and kick it old school at the same time... Can crackle be considered old school yet? Too soon? :) 

I started off with a new Essence Color and Go in "Glamorous Life". It's a really pretty deep pink, almost red, with glass fleck shimmer. It reminds me of crushed up strawberries in the bottle! I really love it! And, it was $0.99 at Ulta... can't beat that price!! It's only 5mL but honestly, I love minis! They are cheaper and I don't feel like I have this huge bottle that I will probably never finish! On top I added some China Glaze "Black Mesh" crackle. I added some thinner to it months ago, and I think it has really made a difference in its shattering. I love the way it broke apart on the nail. A coat of Seche Vite and I am ready to go!

Essence Color and Go "Glamorous Life"

China Glaze Black Mesh

Black Magic Friday

Happy Friday everybody! Have you ever walked into a store, saw a polish that looked absolutely GORGEOUS in the bottle, and bought it on the spot? Then, when you get home, so eager to paint the glorious beauty on your nails, experience utter disappointment? The polish is thin and almost invisible, and you feel as though you might as well have painted water on your nails? Well, this post is for you, my friend! All hope may not be lost! There is a well known trick/secret amongst the nail polish community, and that, is black nail polish. Yep, that's it! Just black lacquer! It doesn't have to be anything fancy, in fact, the cheaper [as long as it is opaque in two coats] the better, because the black is just the catalyst for your poor, sad nail polish to show it's true pop of color! Duo/Multi Chromes really benefit from the black polish trick. You can usually see every facet of color over black, and it really makes each shade stand out depending on the angle of your nails. 

Here are some examples of how black can transform different colors of polish. Unfortunately I don't have swatches of all of these colors on their own... I can make a swatch wheel for you, or you can google the colors and will mostly likely be able to see how they fare on their own two feet. I love looking at these pictures and seeing the magic transformation of colors that, on their own, are nothing special, but when layered over black, become a magic, enchanting display of razzle-dazzling beauty.

Flash

(1) Essence Holographic 03 Blueray (2) Pure Ice Busted (3) Pure Ice Spitfire (4) OPI Sugar Plum Yum (5) Golden Rose Scale Effects 14 (6) Kleancolor Starry Meteor (7) Kleancolor Silver Star (8) Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black (9) Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple (10) Color Club Magic Attraction (11) Color Club Wild & Willing (12) Misa Mega Margarita (13) Misa Denim & Lace (14) Orly Rock Candy (15) Sally Hansen DVD

No Flash

This is very picture heavy, so if you want to see more, click below!

There's been an accident...

... and it isn't pretty. Wednesday started out like any other normal Wednesday would. I went to work, answered e-mails, returned phone calls, the usual. Then, in the afternoon, I had to replace a tuning gauge on a timpani. The pedal is spring loaded and you have to be careful that it doesn't snap back and slam down on your hand. Well.... I didn't quite get the pedal SLAMMED down on my hand, but it did get pressed on a little bit too hard. My pointer and middle finger nails just snapped. The guys I was with were like, "Are you ok?!?!" And I was all like, "NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... That's my picture taking hand!!!!!!". It was a tragedy. So I cut down all my nails, but I wanted to cry. It took me such a long time just to get them to the length they were, which wasn't very long, but I liked them! Sigh. The life of being a percussionist. 

So anyway! Today is a special polish I received in a swap I participated in with my friend, Kati. She lives in the Netherlands and they can get polish there that we can't get here. She was so kind as to send me some real gems, and I can't wait to post more of them! This is Essence 03 Blue Ray. It's a blue/purple duochrome and is really cool!! It reminds me of the back of a CD. Or fine, a blue ray disc. Hence the name. :)

Please don't judge my short nails! :(

You can see the purple flash here! And the piece of cotton stuck to my ring finger! Grr.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a great weekend!!