October's Polish Party: Halloween...

It's been a while since the Polish Party has been participated in! Don't know why they've been missed but loved making this simple manicure that's suitable for this months theme. You'll have probably guessed it by the look of the nails, it's Halloween themed. Time to dust off the old crackle polishes and give them a whirl in deep dark Halloween colours.

Barry M Collection: Top Five Picks

As far as nail polish goes, Barry M is up there at the top of the best brand list seeing as they are always great colours and effects, long lasting with the Barry M top coat and really opaque meaning they are going to be statement nails! Therefore I thought I'd give you guys a top five series of all the best brands (in my opinion) and Barry M just had to come first.

GOT Challenge: Blue

Trying to decide what to do for this post was a little bit of a conundrum for myself this week seeing as all the blue nail polish which are in my collection have been purchased fairly recently in my eyes therefore I didn't know whether to 'skip' this week or to use a fairly recent nail polish in the shade of blue. Then inspiration hit when looking through all the other fabulous GOT entries this week - Vic and Her Nails used a crackle nail polish that was blue which they say is due to naivety when purchasing the product. This is similar to mine and the reason for the colour combination. (I'll explain!)

Crackle for a trip away!

Now I was setting this post to be put up on a certain day seeing as I was going away. But when I arrived back I realised that this didn't happen and there's been no new blogs, so here is what you guys where suppose to get two days ago... I wanted to paint my nails extra specially well so that they would look amazing with little effort and they'd last all the trip. What is simple to create an amazing effect on your nails? It wont come as a surprise that I'll be using crackle nail varnish, it appears in seconds and doesn't make a mess! I'll reveal the crackle nail varnish a little later on in this little blog but here's the base colour which has been picked...

It's recently been reviewed on this little blog and it made such an impression I am doing it again. (really soon after...) This little beauty is a Sinful Colors nail polish that I picked up in Boots and the colour is Savage which is a bright blue which is one of the many favourite colours I have currently. There is only one con I have to disclose to you guys today is that I discovered that the brush in this nail polish is a terror for dripping nail polish everywhere! And I promise it's not my poor holding skills which causes this. Onwards and upwards to the crackle nail polish, these crackles are probably seriously out of date seeing as they were purchased at a 99p shop but they are good quality, they are:

China Glaze - Platinum Pieces and Oxidized Aqua which are really really really glittery crackle nail polishes which look really great, the only downside is that they don't stand out as well as normal crackle nail polishes seeing as they aren't a solid colour. Here's the results...

Pretty crackle-ly and glittery! That's all my Christmas wishes rolled into one nail polish! Obviously the crackle lines don't stand out that clearly as others would but I think I'll be able to live with that seeing as it's glittery... They wouldn't be top of my recommend list for nail polishes but if you can get them at the price I did, I'd recommend them then. If you can't I'd recommend the solid colours by this brand instead.

Getting into the spirit of things: Christmas Crackle!

Seeing as the lovely red and gold theme Christmas tree has now been put up inside the house, definitely going to beat all the other Christmas tree designs just kidding! It's now the time to get into the festivities therefore the nails should be also. After a few attempts at deciding a good colour combination I copied the tree colours - red and gold. However seeing as I am so addicted to crackle at the moment, the red is going to be crackle!

It's a combination of Gemey Paris by Maybelline New York and Red Shatter by OPI. The gold is definitely a mute gold as opposed to a bright gold so that it lets the red stand out and also so my fingers don't look too much like a bright Christmas tree...

Layer number one: Good so far! Definitely needs another coat as it's quite see through at the moment.

Layer number two: Okay-ish coverage, it's fine seeing as the crackle layer is going on over the top but sadly you'd need another layer or possibly two if your just wearing it as it is. Therefore the nail varnish doesn't get a total thumbs up.

Here's the final results! And another shot of the Christmas tree. Overall it came out pretty well, the OPI nail varnish was lovely to apply seeing as at one point too much nail polish was applied yet it didn't come out in one big blob (which does happen with less expensive nail varnish effects) also the under coat colour complimented the crackle effect! Therefore this combination has a thumbs up and a definite recommend of the OPI red shatter effect. Finally Merry Christmas!!!



Loving crackle nail varnish a bit too much!

Hello again! As you can probably tell from the title thingy I am going to be posting about crackle nail varnish again... It's just such a simple nail varnish that adds a lot to your set of nails and it's really really easy anyone can do it. The brands I have chosen to show you my new combination is:

OPI in the colour Shatter the Scales and Rimmel Pro in the colour Jade Green which is more green than the picture shows (it comes up very turquoise in this photograph.) The OPI colour was purchased first, none of the colours I had really matched it. Then this colour caught my eye and you just know it'll match underneath the crackle. So here's the first coat.



Goodish coverage bearing in mind it's only one coat so to make the nails look really professional another coat was added...

This colour looks brilliant by itself (at this point I was tempted to leave it but I wanted the crackle also, so I carried on.) It's really deep green colour as the name suggested, a great colour also for this time of year as it's cold but not cold enough yet for me personally to go for the browns and navys. It brightens up your feeling in comparison to the bleak weather.
Fun bit now!! Adding the crackle!!

There you go - instant effect on your nails, I'd have to say that this was brilliant to put on as you could get different range of effects depending on the thickness which you applied. Tip - don't put too much on or it doesn't crackle and you get a big blob on top of the lovely painted nails. Definitely recommend this nail crackle as it was effortless to apply. Finally adding the top coat.



They came out so well, sun came out to show them off to you guys! I'd give a thumbs up to these nail varnish as they were great to put on as they weren't gloopy as well as the nail brushes were practical shapes and also dried very quickly (good for me as I am very clumsy with wet nails...) The crackle is great with other colour combinations as I found out trying with other nail colours after this success.

Crackled Nails: Easy Peasy!

Here's the first how-to/review of crackle nails. When this effect first came out I was amazed by the design, as I thought it was art instead of a polish, yet it's really simple to create. So here's what nail polishes I used...

As you can see by the brands I am not a big spender but in my opinion they are very good nail polishes especially the clear one from the natural collection at boots. So to start the painting of my nails, I washed my hands to remove all the dirt that's been lurking (Messy day job!) then painted the clear nail varnish to smooth the base for the brighter colours.
The next thing to do is paint the nails with the under colour to the crackle. It my experience bright colours work well but also light shades such as pastels as these types of nail colours oppose the crackle therefore they STAND out. Here's my base coat.

Looking good so far! I normally do two coats of the base colour as for me it tends to last longer but you can just do one if you want to or just don't have the time for two. The next bit is the fun bit. Putting on the crackle. To get the best results, you have to apply the crackle layer thinly and don't put loads on as this is what happens.

Big black blobs as it's not thin enough to crackle. This means (In my case...) that the nail has to be redone to get a much better effect. Here's a good set of nails.

Then all you have to do now is clear top coat...

That is a good looking set of nails completed which doesn't require any artist skill :) As for the review part of the post which is that the Barry M black crackle nail varnish is in my opinion very good as you have the ability to vary the size of the crackle. Also it doesn't crackle when left so much that you can't use it at all which is beneficial!