Nubar 2010 Crackle Sandwich Matte (Pt 2)

Sorry, picture heavy!

Aw, man. I know everyone's sick of crackle. I can't help it though. Every single time I see someone use crackle I want to play with my own. I topped yesterday's manicure with China Glaze Black Mesh, and BLAMO! instant regret, again.

 

So I decided to rescue the manicure with another coat of Nubar 2010. A magically delicious sandwich!

In the photo the flakes pop even more in natural light, but in real life it didn't matter.

I wore this mani for five days, which is usually three days longer than I wear a color. Generally I don't take pictures after this point, but I lost my mind and wanted to show this.

This is five day tip wear. Not even noticeable in person!

For whatever reason I first decided to "wrap" the tips with China Glaze Ruby Pumps. It was like circling a minor imperfection with red pen. Oops! Anyway, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You. It really brought out the blue in the flakes that you can see in the bottle, but usually not on the nail. Hey, maybe that's why I was lukewarm about 2010.

Okay, I like it, but it just looked and felt so thick. This had me running for the acetone.

Maybe you'd like a palette cleanser too... Here, purposely blurry, autumnal nails. 

China Glaze Ruby Pumps Plus Nubar 2010 Pt. 1

Nubar 2010 was my first and biggest lemming. I have a confession though. I was really disappointed when I finally bought it. I'm not even sure why. I used up about one-fourth of the bottle wearing it over different colors and trying not to be underwhelmed. That said, I really love it over Ruby Pumps. This is two coats China Glaze Ruby Pumps and one coat Nubar 2010.

Under the lamp:

In natural light, shade:

This is with weak sunlight which is all that came out that day. Probably the most color accurate as well.

Huzzah, contentment at last! I didn't want to flood the post with too many pictures so I'll post my experiment tomorrow.

Nubar 2010 Over Black Plus Matte

This is one coat Nubar 2010 over one coat Essie Licorice plus topcoat. I felt like doing something autumnal. This combo makes me swoon!

I don't usually have trouble with Essie but I thought Licorice was difficult to work with. It was runny and I had to deal with cuticle pooling. And if I wasn't layering, I would have done two coats of Licorice because it was splotchy with one. I may add some clear to it to make a jelly black.

Sunlight:

 Under the lamp:

Topped with one coat of Matte About You:

Later in the day after a few rounds of handwashing and lotion:

NotD: School of Hard Rocks + I Lily Love You

It's so rare that I post a current manicure. The lag time between taking the picture and posting is (almost hilariously) months. This is also what I wore on Halloween. No time for a themed mani this year. /sad panda

This is two coats of Essie School of Hard Rocks (a dusty teal) topped with OPI I Lily Love You which made SoHR look grey with a blue undertone. I'm not sure I like that.

Weird angle to better show the iridescent glitter?

 

Hm, and I'm aiming to post every day this month. I don't know how long that resolution will last, but in by the hair of my chinny chin chin!

Not Like the Movies + I Lily Love You

As far as flakes go, I love I Lily Love You more than even Nubar 2010 (the Hidden Treasure dupe) because it flashes more than just two colors. This is three coats OPI Not Like the Movies topped with one coat OPI I Lily Love You. My camera really likes to make my hands look like a lobster, but I wasn't this red in person. Promise!

 I was worried this would cover up the green side, but it didn't.

I loved this so much I bought a bottle for my sister. She actually asked for work appropriate colors ("oops"... hee!) so I got some of those for her as well. I want to buy a backup for myself but I think I'll wait for OPI to release this in other colors and hopefully a clear. Well, I have hope anyway. Actually, I should just hope that they don't change the formula for the worse the way they did Not Like the Movies.

Two Frankens: Various Shades of Success

First of all, sorry for the dryness. I ran out of Burt's Bees cuticle balm and regular hand lotion is not cutting it. I don't know why that is but I ordered more (apparently it's coming by donkey...).

This first franken was just a random mix of what I had nearby. Note to self: since you're worried about smearing, get out your supplies before you apply basecoat. This is NYC Manhattan, Art Deco Gold Glitter (smells terrible), and some cheapo copper body shimmer that I think I picked up from the dollar store. I say cheapo because even though I added three drops of nail polish thinner it seized up like overheated chocolate, probably due to cheap fillers. I ended up adding a lot more thinner. The final product was one-third polish thinner! This is three coats. I love how much depth and visible glitter there is, even in the shade.

Natural light:

Under the lamp:
I'm not loving the stamping. I think it covers up too much of the natural beauty. Ah well. Stamp color is Essie Shifting Power.

Then I had the "brilliant" idea to use the body shimmer for a Piu Mosso copycat. I mixed NYC West Village with some of the copper body shimmer and added more thinner. I added too much thinner this time and had some cuticle pooling. Oops! I gave it another stir to encourage some evaporation. But the real problem is that the shimmer shows up as silver. Where did the color go?? I don't know if this would have looked better under sunlight. We haven't had any in about a month. Or maybe West Village is too pigmented and I should have added clear.

Three coats, natural light:

Under the lamp.

I'm inspired to keep playing with this particular experiment. Now I just need some sunlight, and maybe some red eyeshadow? Hm.

I added a layer of OPI I Lily Love You which soothed over hurt feelings. Ha!

Till next time, happy polishing.

A Couple of Glitter Gradients

Hi folks! Sorry I disappeared for a few weeks. I've been totally distracted by the MUA nail board. Eeep. Everyone there has got me preoccupied with glitter. *huffs* On the the polish.

One coat NYC Canal St with OPI Grape Set Match and Servin' Up Sparkle and Nubar 2010.

This didn't photograph too well, but maybe you can see the GSM shift from blue to purple? It's in theory an awesome polish, and I should to do a dedicated post about it but am dawdling because it took a really long time to dry.The dent window is ridiculously large, even with Poshe topcoat.

Here's two coats China Glaze Recycle with OPI I Lily Love You. Not the best combination, I personally prefer ILLY over darker polishes, but I wanted to see what it looked like over a polish that isn't so dark. I love the flakey iridescent goodness. I will definitely be wearing ILLY on the blog again! 

The pinkie is two coats, you can see the base color is too pigmented to try and "fix" with a second coat. But I have high hopes that OPI releases this in a clear, the way they did with Teenage Dream/Servin' Up Sparkle.

And if anyone's interested, these next few weeks I'm going to organize my NOTD photos, post the ones I've been procrastinating on, and then shift blog gears a bit.