Neon Nailart

Hi there lads and ladies!

I hope you're having a great weekend?  Mines gone really well, only a teeny tiny bit of shopping, despite it being payday, so I'm back on track with my low-buy.  Which is a good thing.

Todays nailart idea came a little bit out of the blue.  I was just sitting here wondering what to put on my nails (as you do), and I decided I was in a neon mood today.  You'd think that I would have thought this while the suns shining, but oh no, not me, I had the idea in a torrential storm.

So anyway, I do have a few neons, but they're all sheer and need undies, which gets on my nerves.  I only have a couple which can hold their own.  This is one of them, Pixi No.14. 

In real life this is so much brighter.  Almost hurt to look at it, bright.  This is only one coat, which is why there is VNL, but in 2 it's opaque.  However I knew I'd be going over it anyway so didn't bother.

I took a make up sponge and dabbed a gradient with OPI Alpine Snow on the tips of my nails.  I despise sponging as it's so messy, but I couldn't get around it with this idea I had:

And then, the tip of my nail wasn't coming out white enough, so I went over it again just using Alpine Snow with the brush from the bottle to get it properly white.  This shows the most on my little finger.

So, once I was satisfied I stamped over the white, using the same Pixi polish, with Gals stamping plate GA14.  How weird that they're both number 14?  I never realised until now, it must have been meant to be.

So after a coat of Seche, and some clean up, this is how they turned out:

They actually came out nicer than I thought they would.  I thought they were going to look really messy, but they don't look too bad.

But then, I still wasn't satisfied!  I've rekindled my love for matte top coats at the moment (expect to see more soon) and so I decided to give this one the un-shining treatment.  Here's how it looks:

Yep, that's better!  And because the only camera in the world that seems to be able to pick up colours properly is my rubbish resolution phone camera, here's what it sees:

Bright eh?

So, I'm liking this alot, just what I was in the mood for.  I love it when that happens.

What's on your nails today?  Do you know of any opaque neons I need?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Nails - Rimmel Crackle First Try

Hi there again!  Hope you're all well today

I have to start this post off by saying that I've never been a fan of the look of crackle.  Have always thought that it looks a bit messy, and for some reason it reminds me of how zombies nails look in films (yes I'm a weirdo). 

I got this one as a Christmas present with some other colours, which was a lovely and thoughtful gift, but I never got inspired enough to pick up the crackle and try it.

However, this morning I was just sitting and watching TV, and for no real reason, the crackle polish popped into my head.  Well, I've never been one to ignore my 'vibes', so upstairs I went to my polish stash and got the crackle out.  I decided to paint it over bright red to give me the biggest contrast.  The red I decided to use was the brightest one I own, Pixi in No. 16.  I only have 2 Pixi polishes, but I love them both because the brush is so thin and precise.

Here's a pic of the bottles and brushes:

I was very surprised by the brush on the crackle, it's kind of like a pro-wide brush and for some reason I wasn't expecting that. 

So after applying my base coat of matte nail envy, I applied 2 coats of the Pixi, and this is how it looked:

As you can just about see, after 2 coats I still had very slight visible nail line, another coat would have sorted this out, but I didn't bother because I'd be applying the crackle over the top.  Its not self levelling, so I had to be quite slow and careful with my application.  It dried nice and quickly though!  I'd say I got both coats done and bone dry in less than 10 minutes.  Please forgive my cuticles being drier than the Sahara, I don't know what their problem is lately, it's an ongoing moisture war.

So onto the application of the crackle, have never done it before, but I have seen it done, so I knew not to just apply it like a normal polish, I did little light zig zags with not much polish on the brush, and this is what I got:

As you can see, its a kind of rubberised finish, very textured.  For me, this needs a top coat, so on with good ole Seche Vite:

Thats better!  Although it did still have some texture to it even after the top coat.  I did a slightly thicker application of crackle on the other hand, just to see how much difference it made, and here's how it came out:

Its quite handy to see these one on top of the other, as it shows that you can get some variation in the finish even when using exactly the same polishes.  I even used the same brush strokes.  I personally prefer the lighter look, but the heavier look gave more of the 'cracked' finish.

I actually like this more than I thought I would, of course the colours are a bit much for every day wear, but would be perfect to jazz up a LBD for going out dancing!  In some ways it reminds me of lava flow, and that makes me like it more.

Am now wondering (as you do) if I shouldn't have tried this before, I think a grey crackle over a lilac polish would be a nice look... hmmmm...

Anyway, would be interested to hear what you think, how do you feel about crackles?

- MASPOOASE X X X