7 Days of St Patrick's Day Nail Challenge: Day 5: Funky Fingers Throwback

Continuing with the 7 Days of St. Patrick's Day Nail art challenge I found on Facebook, I decided to do a little throwback to one of the first times I did a crackle manicure.

This photo is from September 2, 2012!! This is right when Funky Fingers came out with a plethora of metal crackle colors, including this awesome sparkly one. 

I have Funky Fingers Mint Montauk on all nails and Funky Fingers Teal Scales on top. Don't you just love the combination?!

Crackle may not be the "in" thing anymore, but I still like 
seeing manicures with it. It's a fun, easy way to create nail art without much effort when you just need to "polish and go." What's your quickie nail art look?

Blue Lightening!

I really like the way this looks. I started with Funky Fingers Zeppelin and then put on Funky Fingers crackle in Blue Scales. That's all! Been a while since I've done such a simple manicure and I love it :)

Seven Deadly Sins Nail Art Challenge: Gluttony - Cocktail Hour!!

My nails today represent a cocktail hour during springtime. I really love the end result, it looks so Florida to me and my husband thinks it also looks sort of like some sort of ceramic piece/pattern.

This is the second part of the Seven Deadly Sins Challenge: Gluttony.
I am only doing one day for each of the weekly challenges. I chose to do "Skip your diet and paint something that makes your stomach growl." I love drinking slushy drinks (usually non-alcoholic) and enjoy a glass of wine every once in a while.

I thought this would be a cute spring manicure to do for the challenge.








I started with a base of Funky Fingers Daiquiri on Deck (very fitting for a  cocktail theme, right?) and then did different stamping on each nail.

Starting with the pinky, I put a coat of Funky Fingers Neon Green Crackle first and then used BM-05 to stamp the grape design with China Glaze Virtual Violet. I did the same thing for all nails on both hands.

BM-05

The ring finger has Glitter Gal 24 Carat stamped with RA-107 and the sort of water-marbled look design. Then, I stamped the same design again with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Emerald City followed by another stamp with Glitter Gal 24 Carat. I offset each one to give a holographic design effect to the nail.

RA-107

The middle finger has the flourish in the lower left corner of BM-224 stamped with OPI Did It On Em (I thought this image looked sort of like a citrus rind). Then, I stamped  BM-208 first with OPI Green-Wich Village and then Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Emerald City to give a shadowy effect (I thought this could be mint leaves).

BM-208

BM-224

The index finger is first stamped with the citrus image from BM-209 and Funky Fingers Ectoplasmic. Then, I stamped the leafy image from BM-05 with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Emerald City.

BM-209

The thumb has a wine theme going on (might have to do this as a full manicure someday, my husband really liked it). I started with the grapevine and leaf image from RA-115 stamped with OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window. I really like that color for the grape-leaves and it stamped really well too. I then used the grape image again from BM-05 with China Glaze Virtual Violet.

RA-115

 

 

I fished it all off with Seche Vite topcoat and really enjoy the end result. What do you think?



China Glaze For Audrey, OPI Mermaid's Tears and Silver Shatter

This manicure allowed me to compare China Glaze For Audrey and OPI Mermaid's Tears. The OPI was used for the accent nail. You can see the difference between the 2 colors easily. Mermaid's Tears leans greener than For Audrey. I actually like both colors very well and both applied nicely. I then used the OPI Silver Shatter on the accent nail and just love the combination!

Here is a close-up to show the sparkles in OPI Silver Shatter. It's a greart formula, not as thick as the black, and shattered nicely.

Swatch: 4 Recent Funky Fingers Metal Crackles

These have been around for a few months. They seem to be more metallic type crackle and one even have gold shimmer!

This is Burgundy Scales. It is a shimmery metallic color and this one, along with the rest, crackle just like the other ones.

This is Orange Scales (so creative, lol). It cracks really well and looks great with that green underneath. The green underneath all of these is Orly It's Not Rocket Science from the Cosmic FX Collection.

This is Teal Scales and it REALLY pretty. I didn't get a really good photo here, but I kinda did this quickly before I took off a previous manicure. It has gold shimmer/very fine glitter in it that just sparkles! It's really pretty and cracks pretty well too.

And last is Purple Scales. I think purple crackles just don't work very well. It has the same problem as the China Glaze purple too. It is a metallic purple and was thick and probably my least favorite of these 4.

Swatch - Sinful Colors Fiji

This is Sinful Colors Fiji. It is a dark purple color and the photo is a little lighter and bluer than real life.

This photo is more color accurate. It s a nice dark purple and applies nicely, although mine is older so it was a little thicker.

I added OPI Black Shatter over it and they go very well together!

Here is a purple eye look I did with the Stila color pallette and LA Splash Cosmetics glitter eyeliner.

And a close-up to show the glitter liner better. I really love the liquid liners from LA Splash, they come in sooo many colors and are AWESOME!

Frankenstein!

This is Finger Paints Chrysanthe-Mum's the Word. It is a nice opaque light green color. I am starting to think that all Finger Paints are really goopy and hard to work with because this sure fit that description.

I then added Nubar Reclaim (my first Nubar experience!) on the accent finger. It is a dark green linear holo. I also added OPI Black Shatter to my tips because I have always thought that it would be great to use as "hair" if I ever did any faces on my nails.

Here is the finished product! It is my Halloween Frankenstein manicure and my first foray into painting faces on my nails. I used a dotting tool with black, white and yellow to make the faces.

Some up close shots of the holo-iness of Reclaim, isn't it pretty!

Finger Paints Dahlia My Number Swatch

I decided to create another orange and black Halloween manicure using these 3 polishes: OPI Black Shatter, Finger Paints Dahlia My Number and Revlon Orange Fizz.

Here's a swatch of Finger Paints Dahlia My Number all by itself. It is a pretty color, but very sheer. It would probably work best layered over another polish.

I added Revlon Orange Fizz as my accent nail and then put OPI Black Shatter over it. I then addesd another coat of the Revlon because I really like that shiny orange hue it gives to the black.

Funky Fingers Crackle Swatches!

These are quick swatches I did of each of the new Funky Fingers Crackle Collection. There are six colors, just like pretty much every other crackle collection.

The colors are:

Blue Scales- It is on my pinky nail in the photo. It only had a few cracks in it, so overall I am not that impressed. But I do really like the color!

Gold Scales- On mypointer finger. This one I really didn't like much at all because it only had one crack line and was rather sheer even after I did a pretty thick coat.

Silver Scales- This is on my thumb. I really liked this one and it pretty comparable to OPI Silver Shatter. I liked the amount of cracks and the opacity of the polish.

Fuschia Scales- This is the second photo (only have 5 fingers, lol!) I liked this one too, it cracked nicely and wasn't too sheer like some can be.

Black Scales- LOVE this one! It cracked awesomely and I just really love the look of it dry. It's pretty matte, but not that sort of vinyl matte like OPI Black Shatter. This is a asphalt-like black finish.

White Scales- LOVE this one as well. Cracked very nicely and I think it would make a nice Halloween manicure.

Overall, I liked these. They are $3.99, so comparable to China Glaze online pricing, and half the cost of OPI. My store did not have all 6 at first, they had 5 and I heard some stores only got 2 or 3. They added the Fuschia Scales later. These are limited edition, so get them while you can!

Revlon Siren + Revlon Orange Fizz Scented Nail Polish

This beautiful coral cream is Revlon Siren. It looks really good on me (Corals usually so). It was a little wierd to apply, but not sure if that might be due to the cutical oil I had just put on or if it's normally that way. I put 2 coats and felt like it was a little thick so didn't want to push t with a third t get rid of some of the VNL remaining. But, overall, the color is awesome!

I recently got the Revlon scented nail polishes that have been out for a few months and HAD to try one. I decided that since I love the smell of orange candy to try Orange Fizz first. It smelled really good, except the scent does not last as long as the Funky Fingers :(

It is a sorta flakey/glittery jelly and it applied very evenly and nicely. It is also smooth on the nail., No chunky bumpy at all. It is really shiny too as you can see in the pic, I didn't put any top coat over it.

Of course I needed to mattify it! I aplied Hard Candy matte top coat on the nail on the left and nothing to the nail on the right. You can see it looks pretty matified as well. Although I might like this non-mattified better.

And, finally: shattered it with OPI Black Shatter!! I decided to also put another coat of orange fizz over the shatter and it really popped. I LOVE the way this looks and it would make an awesome Halloween manicure. The orange jelly over the black made it seem brighter and more joyful, which is pretty cool.

Overall, lovin' both Revlon Siren and Orange Fizz!!

Nail Stamping AND Shatter!

I kept on the pink and decided to do some nail stamping and Shatter.

I used:

-Pink is Finger Paints Did You Ast-Her Out?

-On Accent Finger I painted Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter and then put OPI Black Shatter over it

-I used Funky Fingers Dark Knight to stamp in black the design from plate BM19

-I then used a dotting tool with the Pinky Glitter to put in the middle of all the circles

For my eyes I used the Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette

Happy 4th of July!

My manicure for 4th of July is all red, white and blue. I'm actually really proud of this one. I decided to go all out and this is what it turned into.


Here is a close-up of my thumbs. I did that with nail art brushes and it turned out better than I had expected. The way I found to steady my hands easier was to rest the finger on the table and also rest my hand while moving the nail art brush. This helped tremendously!

The products that I used were:

-Blue is Sinful Colors Midnight Blue

-Red is Sinful Colors Striper polish

-On thumbs and ring fingers I used OPI Alpine Snow Matte

-On the pinky, pointer and middle fingers I used Revlon Powder Puff for the white

-Red crackle is Sally Hansen Crackle overcoat in Cherry Smash

-Blue crackle is Sally Hansen Crackle overcoat in Distressed Denim

-The holographic glitter polish on the ring fingers is Funky Fingers Baby Baby Baby from their recent Justin Bieber collection

-Topped off with a coat of Seche Vite

I must say that I like the Sally Hansen crackles. The color is bright and it is thinner than the China Glaze and OPI versions. It cracks nicely as well. I put a thin coat of each on the nail and those are the types of cracks I got.

Here is my eye of the day (EOTD). I used the Coastal Scents 88 pallette and a Revlon white color for the highlight. I even got compliments! :) I used blue eyeliner and put some Victoria's Secret glitter eyeliner in areas too (but you can't really see that in the photo).