Year of the Dragon by Pure Ice

So the Year of the Dragon pairing by Pure Ice is a gold metallic nail polish and a bright, crisp red crackle polish topper. I had never, for whatever reason, thought to pair these two together and I have to say, I just love the result.
The gold metallic polish is a very warm gold, almost has that "old gold" feel. I adore it - surprising for me, I don't usually care for gold, but this one is right up my alley. It reminds me a bit of Misa Ghetto Fabulous. I only needed two coats for this - I probably could have done one, it was really well pigmented.

I decided to use the red crackle, Show Stopper, in a diagonal pattern. This is a fun change up for me, I really like the look of it done in this direction. I had a mishap with my ring finger and the door, so I had to go over that spot again - forgive me if it looks a bit lumpy, but that's my fault and not the fault of the crackle. Like many crackle polishes, this dries to a matte finish. I added glossy top coat to all of my fingers but my pinkie, because I wanted to show you guys the texture of the matte - I actually like that contrast against the metallic of the gold. Pretty neat!

I know that many of us are burnt out on crackle, but when I wore this I got a TON of compliments on it, and I myself really loved the look of it. The combination of color and texture to me was really pretty and I haven't worn crackle in so long, I think I just enjoyed it. What do you guys think of this?

Disclaimer: Product(s) in this post provided in return for an honest review.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Grey Area and China Glaze Latticed Lilac

Okay, I found Grey Area in a small display this past spring? I hadn't worn it yet! As a matter of fact, I probably haven't featured the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line much on this blog, and I quite like them. I like the brush, I like the bottle, I like the range of shades. I just wish they'd quit discontinuing my favorite shades! *coughmysticlilaccough* Well, Grey Area has a bit of a fall feel to it. It's a deep plum purple shade that's very dusty and greyed out. I used just two coats for this, coverage was good!
I'd been looking for something to try out my last China Glaze metallic Crackle I'd picked up, Latticed Lilac - and Grey Area seemed a likely candidate. I was right - it shows up perfectly over the darker plum base! I tried a diagonal crackle on my ring finger, and I think I like that pattern best. These metallic crackles are so lovely - and there's something almost lacey about the way they look. That's weird, but apt to me. I had no trouble with it being thick or hard to crack, either, like some of the creme crackles.

I kind of want the other metallic crackles, the three I got were so lovely.

Sinful Colors Envy and China Glaze Cracked Medallion

Oh my GOSH. How much do I love Envy? SO much that I'm going to get a backup of it. Fingers crossed this hasn't sold out at my Walgreen's. Envy is from the Beverly Hills display, and it's a lighter green than Last Chance, which I think was introduced to the Sinful Colors core line this spring. It's got the jelly creme formula, and it's a mid toned forest green. Two coats of perfection here.
I thought it might look good with China Glaze Cracked Medallion, which I'm calling a coppery gold crackle. I was right - what a great combo.

Ahhh, so much love. I've still got to find something I want to pair with Latticed Lilac. I think these new metallic crackles are so awesome! Okay, I'm sure you're all breathing a sigh of relief - that's all of the two SC collections, Adventure Island and Beverly Hills, that I've got to show you.

OCC Radiate and China Glaze Oxidized Aqua

This is my first OCC (Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics) polish ever! The always lovely and sweet Jess of Polish Insomniac recently sent me a random act of kindness package that included this hothothot polish. Radiate is a neon coral - somewhere in the middle of orange and pink. It is a jelly, so there's a little bit of VNL - but not a lot, considering I only used two coats here. I added a shiny top coat to this, because as with most neons, Radiate dries to a satin matte.
I wanted to play a bit with my new China Glaze metallic crackles, so I decided to top this with Oxidized Aqua. Holy HOTNESS this is great!

I decided to include that bottle shot of Oxidized Aqua, it's SO pretty. I love this combo. I don't know if you're sick of crackles - I myself am not - but these metallic ones I picked up are awesome.

True Blood Season Four Premiere!

So I've read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, and I'm addicted to the HBO series - even though they veer greatly from the books. I missed all of season three, but I'm finally caught up in time for the premiere of season four tonight!
Naturally, I did a little True Blood mani - not the most original one ever, but that's okay. I have a bunch of Sinful Colors I haven't shown off here yet, so I did a base of Good Girl, a bright red jelly. Truly bloody looking. I then topped it with China Glaze Black Mesh crackle.
Now, I was stupid and accidentally left Black Mesh open one time, so mine is a little goopy and the brush is wonky because it dried up and bent the brush. I've had to thin it quite a bit. Still, I like how this came out - I did some diagonal crackling. It looks like blood oozing beneath the crackle.
Good Girl looks a little too orange here - it's really not. I'm not one for orange reds, they look terrible on my skin. The color is more true to life in the second photo.

And under the break, a video that's a little graphic  -

Confetti My Favorite Martian and Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Antiqued Gold

That's a long title, huh?
Confetti My Favorite Martian should be pretty well known to folks by now, I know it was really popular among green lovers, everywhere when it came out. I was on a no buy....well, forever and when I finally came off of it, I didn't pick it up for the longest time. I don't EVEN know why. I love this so much! It's an olive green jelly base jam packed with emerald green shimmer. Three coats here. So freaking awesome. You can kind of see that olive base color peeking out at the base of my nails, so this is definitely a yellow tinged green!

And since I'm not sick of crackle yet, I tried out the Sally Hansen gold crackle - Antiqued Gold.

Oh yeah, that came out awesome. The green is kind of oozing underneath that gold, haha! I love it. So, as you can see, the fluke application trouble I had with their purple crackle was just that - a one time fluke. I'd used it before with no troubles! And this one came out great. I kind of want to snatch up the red crackle now, as I don't have one of those. Also, I must be a glutton for punishment, because I want some of the new China Glaze metallic crackles coming out - they look super pretty!

As you can see, I'm not sick of the crackle craze yet. I know many folks are.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Overcoat Vintage Violet

Okay, this was a bit of a fail. I really haven't had any problems with my crackles - and yeah, I'm probably one of the few people still excited to play with them. This time though, I totally failed - my Lacey Lilac application was a bit of a fail, and I thought oh, well this will look good with the Purple Potion crackle version, Vintage Violet. You guys know that Sally Hansen's purple Crackle Overcoat, Vintage Violet, is the same exact color as Xtreme Wear Purple Potion right? It's AWESOME. Seriously, I do love it. I've used it a couple of times, but I hadn't snapped a picture. Of course, the time I DO decide to snap a picture, it's a fail. Hah, go figure! Vintage Violet is a deeper purple shade with a blue flash. Anyway, I decided to show this to you anyway - if I had done it right, this would be a pretty combo.

So, Lacey Lilac is a really pretty pale purple - just a hint dusty. I only needed two coats for opacity, it's well pigmented. As you can see, I somehow nicked my index finger. I had wanted to try Vintage Violet over it anyway, I thought it would be a good match - I don't think that my base mani was dry enough, for one. Secondly, the brush on the Overcoat is wicked thin - I had to do about five swipes, so I probably got it on too thick! I like my index finger best, that's what Vintage Violet looked like on my first couple of manis.

Anyway, I'm chalking all that down to user error - because I hadn't had problems with it before. I have a mani coming up with SH Antiqued Gold that went perfectly, so that's something to look forward to. 

P2 Summer Rain and Golden Rush Crackling

I mentioned the other day that I got an awesome care package from Jeanette of The Swatchaholic. She had sent me a couple of the P2 crackle top coats, and I decided to use the gold, Golden Rush, over this gorgeous neutral from the P2 Sun Love collection, Summer Rain. Summer Rain is a light brown with gold shimmer throughout! Looking at the macro I snagged, it also seems to have some copper shimmer interspersed - I really didn't notice it on the nail, but it shows up in photos. What an awesome neutral, one of my favorites. The shimmer didn't get lost on my nail, and it looked fantastic with the Crackling top coat.

Ahh, you can totally see the gold and copper shimmer in that macro! Cool. I think because these were photographed in overcast conditions (we haven't had a lot of sun lately!) it doesn't show the true beauty of this combo - the gold and neutral together was really eye-catching.

Revlon Black With Envy LE and P2 Crackling Silver Blast

Revlon came out with another LE Chanel copy recently, Black With Envy. If you hadn't already heard, Black With Envy is supposed to be a dupe for Black Pearl - see Mary of Body & Soul Beauty's awesome comparison! It seems the Chanel leans more green, and has more of a metallic finish. I don't have the Chanel and this has not made me want to go seek it out - but I do like that strong undercurrent of green. I do love the finish of the Revlon version. I used two coats here for my swatch, the pigmentation and application is excellent.
It also slightly reminds me of Deborah Lippmann's Hit Me With Your Best Shot. I sold that off, so I cannot do a comparison, but the finish and color is similar in my opinion.
I recently received a care package (RAOK!) from Jeanette of The Swatchaholic. (!!!!!) She sent along so many squee-goodies, I have some swatches for you coming up. She sent me two of the P2 Crackling top coats, Silver Blast and Gold Rush. These are both lovely. I decided to top my Black With Envy mani with Silver Blast, and I thought it was awesome!
I just picked up a couple of the new Sally Hansen Crackle overcoats, one of them being the silver - Fractured Foil - and it's more glittery/shimmery and crackles a bit better than P2. Being a silver addict and a big fan of crackle top coats, I feel like I need them both, because they're definitely different!  Obviously, I haven't posted any swatches of these yet, but I will - in case anyone's wondering, the Sally Hansen Crackles are AWESOME.

As you can see, on my ring and pinkie fingers I applied the crackle a bit thicker. It's kind of a cool effect! 

Essie Little Brown Dress, China Glaze Crackle: Crushed Candy

Long post title, eh? I'd been wanting to try a brown underneath the turquoise and pink crackles, so I picked up Essie's Little Brown Dress. It's yummy and glossy on its own, and I quite like it under the turquoise - Crushed Candy - as well. I tried different angles as well as straight up and down, I did sideways and diagonal. Fun!

Little Brown Dress is such a yummy dark chocolate shade. I LOVE browns, I know that's a little unusual, but I do have a thing for them, and this is a pretty one. It's dark, but it's obviously brown even in low light. And the application was nice - my luck with Essie formula has been hit or miss, but this one was divine.

Turquoise and brown, as well as pink and brown, are a favorite color combination for me.

And I'm a little backlogged on posting, I've been so busy with work I just can't keep up with anything I've got going on the side. I like my job, but I hate the hours - I don't think I'll last forever, at this rate. Well, that's an aside for you on a nail polish blog, but that does kind of explain my sometimes sporadic posting. Have a good night everyone!

China Glaze Crackle: Broken Hearted

Okay, getting started off right with this crackle obsession and one of my favorite polish brands: China Glaze Crackle. I picked up five of the six - I just couldn't get into the purple and I may find myself regretting it later, but we'll see. I found them at Sally's - they were still in the back!

With Broken Hearted, I hadn't decided what else I wanted to pair it with, but I knew a basic black would look great. Liquid Leather it was.

On the other hand I tried swirling it horizontally and diagonally. I'll have to try that on my swatching hand the next time I do a combo! It's a pretty funky effect.

As to application, very easy. You'll definitely want to wait to apply the crackle topcoat after your base color is dry - thinner coats give more of a crackle whereas thicker coats give less, as you can see from my pinkie finger. These dry pretty quickly and the wear is good with your favorite top coat. I should mention my HG (holy grail) top coat is CND Air Dry.

And that's it! What are your favorite color combos to wear with Broken Hearted, other than black?