Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Color Club Red Velvet

Traci and her blog sales and giveaways are going to be what fills out my polish collection haha and I love her for it!

Traci is running what seems to be an on going Blog Sale. She keeps updating and adding all kinds of new polishes at super fair prices and she ships fast and all over. So make sure you check it out.

One of the gems I was able to snag from this sale was Color Club's Red Velvet from their Fall 2010 collection. Its a black jelly base with a whole lot of bright red glitter.

I can't believe Traci never got around to swatching this one. It's amazing. I should have done my True Blood mani and used this!

So this is basecoat and then 2 coats of Red Velvet (first thin, then a thick coat. I was too impatient to do 3 coats and if I had done all thin coats I think it would have needed the 3rd coat) and then Out the Door topcoat.




There's nothing I really need to say beyond the fact that these pictures don't do it fair justice. These are only a hint at how amazingly the red glitters pop from the base which is a very true black.

She's at it again!

That's right, the fabulous Traci has hit a new milestone and is doing something special to celebrate!

The TraceFace Philes: The Trace Face Philes 500 Followers Giveaway!!: "YAY!! My blog has hit another milestone thanks to YOU!! OF COURSE we need to celebrate!! I am pleased to announce The Trace Face Philes ..."

Sunday, June 26, 2011

True Blood Inspired cupcakes!

So if you're cool you know that tonight was the True Blood Season 4 premiere. If you didn't know, well, I'll forgive you if you promise to take a crash course in that awesomeness that is this show ;-)

So in honor of the premiere I decided to whip up some Bloody Cupcakes!

(click image to enlarge)

So these were really simple and super yummy.
They're just strawberry cupcakes with some strawberry filling and cream cheese icing with some drips of red food dye for the blood.

Now I can't wait till next weeks episode!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

China Glaze Crackle Metals

Alrighty then. Have you been won over by all the companies putting out their version of Crackle and Shatter polishes? If not, I think you're about to!

China Glaze has recently (or is very soon depending upon if your local stores are slacking) released a second set of crackle polishes. This time they're all metallic! Instead of black and white they've added bronze and gold. I happen to not care very much for anything in those colors so I didn't bother grabbing them when I was lucky enough to stumble upon these beauties at my local Sally's Beauty Supply this week. They did keep the aqua, pink, purple, and grey (silver) shades.

All I can say is that these are PERFECT! They have great application. They don't start to dry and crack so fast that you can't even get your coat finished. You actually have a moment to play around with them a bit before your committed to whats on the nail. And the way they crack? Just WOW! I don't think I can describe it any better so I'll just show you what I mean....


This is Platinum Pieces over Color Club's Alias
I love the patterns this stuff creates!

Platinum Pieces over Alias again.
Despite the tip wear I needed a shot of the incidental Star-burst on the middle finger =) 

Here is Oxidized Aqua over an unnamed Funky Fingers purple and Latticed Lilac over SH Celeb City 

Here are my Beauties!
Platinum Pieces, Haute Metal, Latticed Lilac and Oxidized Aqua 
(and ChG Broken Hearted since I finally got that one too) 
Each over Sinful Snow Me White and Hard Candy The End

 Comparison
The top swatches are OPI Silver Shatter
The bottome swatches are China Glaze Platinum Pieces

As much as I love the OPI shatter I think I like the China Glaze Crackle better. The chunky bits that it breaks into appeals to me more. I think that's part of why OPI chose the name Shatter for their line since it does have more of a shattering lengthwise vs a all over crackling pattern.

 I just want to note real quick that there are several different opinions on what works best to get the best performance out of any of these polishes. Some swear by topcoating in between your base color and your crackles. Some of the brands seem to work a little better on bases that are not completely dry yet. But on a cream or shimmer polish I, myself, don't see the need. All I can suggest is to play around and test out different methods with each brand till you find what works for you. I personally chose to apply these to dry base colors without topcoat in between. I think if I did a glitter base I would definitely want to add topcoat in between to smooth the surface.

Now, who else is excited?!

Traci's "Just Because" Giveaway

Go...Run...Enter!!!...she's got some BRAND NEW RELEASES that you're sure to want!!


The TraceFace Philes: The Trace Face Philes "...just because!" GIVEAWAY!...: "Yesterday I was fortunate enough to snag the Nice Stems Collection and newest Serena Williams sets for cheap! I thought of you..."

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Slacking

Yes yes, I know, I'm being the Queen Slacker of the nail blog world. Ok, that might be an exaggeration but close enough. I just wanted to throw in here that I have not forgotten about this fabulous little page of mine, nor any of my fantastic followers. I've been super busy with work and some stress that I don't really feel like blabbling about here. But I promise you that I have quite a few fun manis that I've done in the past couple weeks and I will be doing a couple entries, one of which will most likely be a spam post.

In the mean time, if you haven't already joined my Facebook group, Polish-aholics Anonymous, get on over there and submit your request. Anything and everything you'd ever want to know about polish is discussed there, or can be if you bring up something new ;-)

So for now, I bid you Adieu and Happy Polishing!