Shatter Polish Vs. OCD

When I first saw shatter/crackle polish in a YouTube video several months ago, I was so enthralled and couldn't wait to get my hands on a bottle of it! I went all over town and finally found it at a salon not far from my house. If they hadn't had it there, I was going to buy it off eBay.

The first one I bought was the basic OPI Black Shatter. I don't have any pictures of it on my nails, because I never ended up even wearing it out of the house. I have just been completely unsuccessful in getting it to look the way I want, which frustrates me to no end.

I've since tried numerous other colors and brands, and I have yet to find one that actually shatters the way I think it should. It's either too thin and the cracks are s small that they are barely visible, or it is too thick and it doesn't crack at all.
Colette is my shatter idol, and if I could get mine to look like she does, I would wear it happily and often.

However, mine usually ends up more like this:



Not only does it not look good to me, it also annoys me that I can't get every finger to look (somewhat) the same. I guess that's kind of the point of shatter/crackle polish in the first place, to have a unique design on each finger, but my OCD just will not let that stand.

So, I've all but given up my pursuit of perfect, crackled nails. I gave the black shatter polish to a girlfriend of mine because I just can't see myself using it anymore. It's too much of a pain for me because if it doesn't look perfect (at least in my mind) then I have to take it off and try again, which also means I probably have to reapply the base coat too.

Way too much trouble.

So because of all this shatter drama, it made me even more interested in the Konad Stamping System. And I finally got one this weekend! More on that later. :)

Strawberry Fields

Stopped by Sally today to replenish my polish remover and of course had to pick up a couple of polishes while I was there. The one I'll be wearing tomorrow is by China Glaze and is called Strawberry Fields.

This is a really lush color and I like it a lot. As I said in my previous post, I usually tend to gravitate towards more creamy, opaque colors than to shimmery or sparkly ones. But Strawberry Fields is a very shimmery pinky red color. And the shimmer/sparkle has a gold undertone, which you can kind of see in the picture.

Here it is with the flash, which really shows the gold undertones:



I decided to try to add some adhesive rhinestone flowers, since I finally picked up some top coat "bonder" while at Sally today. I think it's cute but I have my doubts as to how well they will stay on, especially at work shuffling papers and folders:



Overall I'm happy with the color. I also got another pinkish color from China Glaze called Designer Satin. I might try this color next time I change polish.

Let's Go Brewers!

Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm obsessed with my fingernails!

For my first nail of the day, I will show you the manicure I did in honor of the Milwaukee Brewers. I was privledged to attend last night's absolute TROUNCING of the Cardinals, and I did my nails the night before to match what I wore to the game. The only polish I bought for this manicure was the gold chrome. The other colors I already had.

As luck would have it, the Brewers team colors coincide perfectly with my absolute favorite nail polish of the moment: First Mate by China Glaze.

A side note about nail polish brands. I don't consider myself a nail polish snob, and by no means would I ever spend more than about $10 on a bottle of nail polish, but I do find myself gravitating to several specific brands, mostly due to price, color variety and availability in my area. My favorite brands are China Glaze, Sinful Colors, Sally Hansen, and Revlon. I'm a single woman, and I can't afford to buy the more expensive polishes so even though I may take inspiration from the more expensive brands (Mac, Illamasqua, etc.), I always use drugstore or beauty outlet brands. I like OPI polish, but I find it's usually a few dollars more expensive than other brands, and they have more shimmery colors, where I tend to gravitate to more creamy colors.

Back to the subject, First Mate is a very creamy, gorgeous navy blue. It's from China Glaze's Anchor's Away Collection. I do have a couple other colors from this collection, which I might do an entry on later, but First Mate is definitely my favorite. I got it at Ulta, but not until after I had been to 3 different Sally stores and almost bought it from eBay. I've found that the Sally closest to me doesn't often get the new collections very quickly, and mostly carries the stock China Glaze colors.

So the Brewers colors are navy blue, gold and white, so I decided to do those colors on my nails. First I used a clear base coat (which makes the polish come off easier and doesn't stain your nails as bad). Then I did two coats of First Mate.




At Shopko, I found a Sally Hansen Color Quick nail pen for $7.99. It goes on very easily, and it does dry super quick. The color is Gold Chrome so it is sort of metallic. Definitely need a good topcoat on this because the gold will flake off or chip very easily after it dries.



I added the Gold Chrome to the tips, followed by a white stripe, done with a So Easy Stripe Right in white. I got this at Sally for $1.99.

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The white stripe was really sloppy, and I tried cleaning up but it didn't look good. I'm so bad with small stripe brushes because they are so long. Even with my dominant hand, I still do a crappy job every time:



So, my OCD would not allow me to leave them looking so sloppy, so I took the tips off, then reapplied the blue and gold. By the time I did that, I was annoyed and didn't feel like attempting the white stripes again, so I just left it with the blue and gold. I was happy with it:

I also did gold eye shadow with navy blue on the outer corner and the crease. I don't know why I didn't smile in this picture!



So that was my look for the Brewers game last night. It was a fun time and I got a lot of compliments on my manicure. I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep my nails at this length, because it's becoming increasingly difficult to type and dial the phone, etc. But I'm going to let them go a bit longer and see if I can get away with it. It's so much more fun trying to be creative with my nails when they are longer.