Queen's Bounty: Color Club Broken Tokens

Hello ladies,

When I created this manicure, I was thinking about pearls, diamonds and silver pieces spilling out of a black velvet bag. I imagined jewel encrusted brooches and golden pendants, a bounty for a queen.

I began with a basic black mini polish from Color Club. I drew a diagonal line with an Art Club striper in Gold Hologram. I varied the angle of the line on each hand. With silver crackling polish, I filled in half the nail. On the left hand, I added Broken Tokens to the lower half; on the right, towards the top of the nail. Decals, silver and gold gems and pearls were chosen from the Pretty Shiny Things Kit.  

The Art Club Gold Hologram striper makes exquisite rainbows. 

Butterfly bush

My right hand showing varied placement of striper lines and silver polish.

Daisy flower ring on my right hand. 

A baby praying mantis!

Like a prayer.

Reaching a foot to its mouth like a human baby. So sweet!

A baby bunny! She has natural eyebrow markings! Adorable!

Bye, bye bunny!

Broken Tokens is my first crackling polish since the Cover Girl line from many Halloweens past. The formula is easy to work with. I prefer layering on a thick coat for bolder fault lines. The shimmer is elegant in Broken Tokens. I highly recommend adding this color to your collection. 

I hope you enjoyed my experiment with the Fractured polish. I am looking forward to trying the rest of the collection. Perhaps the next shades I have for review Smash Hit (black) and Clean Break (white) will attract more garden friends. If you like mantids, check out the baby praying mantis I met last summer. Have you ladies seen any baby animals recently?  

Items mentioned in this post were sent for review. Broken Tokens, part of the Fractured Collection, is available for purchase at victoriasnailsupply.com. They also sell the Art Club Pretty Shiny Things Kit.

Happy painting, ladies!

The girliest you will ever see me!

Don't worry, these are MY nails, not those of Katie Price or any of the cast of The Only Way is Essex. I would never call myself a girly-girl (she says with a blog centred entirely around nail polish art and makeup), preferring to do more colourful, eyecatching and badass designs. This manicure is, however, the most trashy-fabulous you will ever see my nails haha. All that's missing is a giant 3D acrylic bow.

I've got exams coming up (BOOOO), so wanted something on my nails that would tempt me away from removing it and doing something else, to maximise revision time. Anyone whose ever had a full glitter manicure on, will know what an utter ARSE they are to remove. I am hoping that the fear of removal will make me concentrate harder on revision, and resist using nail polish as a distraction!

I started with two coats of Catrice Be My Millionaire, a silver polish, then added 4 coats of Models Own Juicy Jules. Juicy Jules is AMAZING, it's a holographic glitter, and catches the light beautifully - perfect for sunny days. I could have got away with 3 coats, but I wanted maximum glitter coverage. I had a hard time photographing the sheer awesomeness of this glitter, and I'm sure that if I had got it perfect, your eyes would have exploded anyway. I resorted to using a lamp directly over the nails, and using the macro setting (as opposed to the SUPERmacro setting) on my camera to blur the image sliiiighttly so you can see more of the holographic-ness. *gets a bit pic heavy from this point onwards...*

Juicy Jules on its own:

blurred so you can see the holographic sparkle

a sharper picture that doesnt show the colours as much! also sorry for my STUPID index finger that broke, I know it looks ridiculous!

I added a coat of Seche Vite to smooth it out and create a base for Barry M's new pink crackle polish Pink Fizz. I find the best way to use the Barry M crackles is to apply them thickly, as they crack better, with larger spaces between the pink bits. I hate it when you use a crackle and it barely cracks, so you can only just make out the base colour (I'm looking at you Boots 17!).

I added another coat of Seche Vite to top off the whole thing, and because the Barry M Instant Nail Effects dry Matte.

under the lamp

under the lamp

natural light

I tried my best to capture it, but imagine all that holographic glitter shining through! BLINGTASTIC! Now, this was somewhat of an experiment, but I took a video on my camera to see if I can better show you the sparkle. The quality is pretty poor, but it does give you a good idea of the shine. (bloody nicked my cuticle right before though didn't I?!)

 

Hopefully you get an idea! I actually tweeted this manicure at Amy Childs from The Only Way is Essex (a trashy reality TV show over here in the UK - IT'S BRILLIANT), she is yet to reply though haha :P

Let me know what you think everyone, was it worth it to include a video? I really wasn't sure about it, but thought I would get some feedback from you :) I realise this isn't strictly Nail Art, but that's what I love about crackles, they add instant interest to a Manicure with minimal effort. I know they've been around a while now, but I've not seen this combo before :D

Em x

Bats in flight

Hello ladies,

I have my last Halloween manicure of the season to share with you, along with some flora and fauna. My friend David and I journeyed to Longwood Gardens today to revel in the fall color. My festive nails added a bit more paint to the landscape.

Purple goldstone skull

Color Club: Bewitching, Cast a Spell Kit

Art Club: Bewitching Halloween Gems

Look who came out to the meadow to greet us! One of the feline workers at Longwood Gardens pauses during a hunting expedition.

My striped and bejeweled manicure was created using the Cast a Spell Kit from Color Club and the Art Club Bewitching Halloween Gems. I began with a whitening base coat, added two layers of Spellbound (neon orange), and sealed it with top coat.

I then painted two coats of Charmed I'm Sure (purple shimmer) at a diagonal across the upper two thirds of my nails. I wrapped the tips throughly and added topcoat. I layered a stripe of Hocus Pocus (holographic glitter) in the center. Hocus Pocus has a fast dry time.

I waited a bit for the glitter polish to become thoroughly dry and then placed bat stickers along the stripe. I alternated solid bats with bat outline decals. The kit has a great variety of Halloween designs: haunted houses, ghosts, ghouls, moons, stars, spirals, gravestones and glitter dots. The Gothic ladies among us would be enchanted by Cast A Spell all year long.

Because I can't keep away from rhinestones, I positioned a silver dot over the orange polish and an orange dot over the purple. The Bewitching Halloween Gems wheel also has pearls! Although they didn't appear in this manicure, you will be seeing the pearls in future designs. I also have plans for the miniature black and orange beads.

I hope you enjoyed my Halloween fun!

The Color Club Bewitching Cast a Spell Kit and the Art Club Halloween Gems were sent to me for review. These can be purchased at victoriasnailsupply.com.

Happy painting, ladies!

Red Moon, rainbow stars

Hello ladies,

I managed to catch a bit of sun today near red berries and goldenrod. It was largely overcast, the perfect weather to enjoy the scents of moss and leaves at the beginning of autumn. I wish I could make this post scratch and sniff.

Beginning with a base of Cosmic Polish, I stamped Halloween witches from image plate T29. I chose white Konad special polish to compliment the black with multihued glitter. I hung a red Moon in the sky.

If you click the enlarge any of the first few pictures, it will be apparent why Cosmic Polish is subtitled for space age nails. Love the starry glitter!

A black jelly formula with rainbow micro-glitter, Cosmic Polish was fascinating to wear. I love the holographic sparkle enlivening the classic black. The formula was easy to work with. It required only two coats for opacity. I appreciate how the smaller glitter particles yielded a smooth finish. Truly gorgeous!

Cosmic Polish was sent to me for review. This shade is available for purchase at eyeko.com.

Image plate T29 was provided for my consideration. To view the entire line of nail art stamping plates, please visit chez-delaney.com. Would you like a chance to win four Halloween and fall harvest theme design plates? Stop by Trick or Polish? A Halloween Giveaway.

Happy painting, ladies!

Cooling

Hello ladies,

At the last moments of August, the temperature in Philadelphia asserts that summer is still in residence. I decided to create a cooling manicure to help offset the weather. I can imagine this look worn in January under wool mittens.

I began with the glittering grey from the Color Club Untamed Luxury Collection. The polish is De-luxe-cious. I am rather in love with this shade. The grey base is stirred with silver and holographic glitter. The bottle is as entertaining as a snow globe.

I chose the starry flowers image from fauxnad plate H30. I used white Konad special polish for stamping. My inability to resist the mirror gems from the Art Club Boudoir Collection continues. I alternated with the white buttons from the gem wheel.

The diffuse light photo below best displays the stamping design and gem placement. The brighter, sunlit pictures will show more of what De-luxe-cious can do.

De-luxe-cious needed three coats and a layer of topcoat to best showcase it's wonders. It looks decent at two coats, but I highly recommend adding a third. I don't think I own another grey based glitter polish. It looks like the month of February went to a disco. I love it!

This polish was sent to me for review. Color Club Untamed Luxury can be purchased at Victoria Nail Supply. The Art Club Boudoir Collection was provided for review. It is currently in stock at enailsupply.com. For a chance to win the Boudoir Collection and Technicolor Doll nail art kits, please visit the Art Club: Black, White and Bold Giveaway.

Image plate H30 was provided for my consideration. Please stop by chez-delaney.com for the full selection of stamping nail art design plates.

Happy painting, ladies!