Turquoise stone nails using China Glaze Crushed Candy crackle topcoat

This is the first time I've EVER put on a crackle topcoat and not immediately reached for the polish remover. I love this look! It's not perfect, the crackle was a bit too lumpy so I'll need to perfect my technique, but I'll work on it for sure :)



What I did:

First I painted my nails with two coats of Nicole by OPI Not a Gold Bigger (the best gold foil EVER)

Then I dabbed on random strokes of Revlon's Copper Penny and butter LONDON's The Black Knight for some sparkle. I then sponged on a few bits of American Apparel's Meteor Shower (I can't believe I found a use for this!), then topped the whole works with a layer of Nubar 2010 for the flakies.

Next, I loaded my brush with China Glaze Crushed Candy, painted on a thick coat of crackle, and made random swipes with the brush to get it to crack in different directions.

Finally, I topped it all with two fairly thick coats of Seche Vite to try and smooth the whole thing out.

Overall I'm pleased with how this turned out. It could use some work, but it was a first attempt so I'm not going to stress too much over it :)

Flakie-palooza, Part 2

All photos can be clicked for a full-sized version.


Flakie-palooza Part 1 can be found here.


I actually had a lot of sunlight to work with today - clear blue skies, and a cooperative bright sun made me a happy swatcher!

Today I managed to get through the rest of my collection of flakies: the entire Finger Paints line up, Nubar 2010, and Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory 3D Holo (I know it's not a holo, but that's what it's called). As with all my other swatches, these are all over one coat of Edge of Glory black creme polish.

First up, Nubar 2010

The bottle:




One coat:



Two coats:




The colour scheme in this polish is identical to Picture Polish Splendour and Essie Shine of the Times. Of the three, this one has the ideal amount of flakie goodness in my opinion. It was easy to apply, and quite pretty!

Next up is Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory 3D Holo.

The bottle:





One coat:


Two coats:


This one was tough to apply neatly. The formula itself is quite thick and goopy, more so than any other flakie I've tested. Having said that, it's quite lovely and flashes a ton of colours. Primarily it's a blue/orange combo, but you can see pink, red, green, and purple at times. It's also the most expensive of the bunch, retailing for $40 (on sale for $29) for the combo set.

Onto the big collection: Finger Paints!

First from this collection is Motley.

The bottle:





One coat:



Two coats:



This was a surprise favourite. I thought it'd be dull and monochromatic, instead I fell in love with how beautifully cool my fingers looked. Flashes of deep indigo, teal, and aqua keep this from being just a plain blue flakie.

Next up, Asylum.

The bottle:





One coat:





This one is probably closest in colour to the Lippmann flakie - primarily orange and blue, but with some bright yellow too. The flakes are also nice and varied in size. Lovely!

Onto Flecked.

The bottle:





One coat:



Two coats:



A green version of Motley. This is perhaps my least favourite of the bunch, but it's still quite lovely.

Next is Flashy, the last of the Nubar 2010/Shine of the Times/Splendour colour scheme.

The bottle:





One coat:



Two coats:



This red/yellow/orange combo seems to be the most common one out there. All look pretty much identical except for the density and size of flakies. If I had any of the ones in this scheme, I'd give this one a miss.


Last but certainly not least, Twisted

The bottle:





One coat:


Two coats:


Definitely my favourite of the Finger Paints collection, this one has all sorts of interesting colours packed into it! I'd pick this one up no matter how many other flakies I already had.


I like all of these flakies. Do I need them all? No, but given that they're all just a bit different, I'm not unhappy to have them. If I was going to give up any, I'd give up Shine of the Times, Flashy, and Splendour as I think Nubar 2010 does this colour combo the best of all four.

So there you have it. 11 flakies, all swatched and presented in (I hope) a useful manner. If you want anything swatched side by side for better comparisons, just leave a comment and I'll do it when I redo the two I missed!

2012: The Flakening

This is what will occupy me for a good part of the upcoming weekend.

All photos can be clicked for the full-sized version.

This is my basket o' flakies, eleven in total. I was waiting on the Deborah Lippmann to arrive before I started swatching, and I'm glad I did!




All polishes are layered over two coats of Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory black creme polish. I realised after I downloaded all the pictures that I didn't have any pictures of Nubar 2010 in the single coat lot - I'll have to fix that this weekend when I do this on my nails!

A few general observations:

I was convinced before I started that there'd be at least one exact dupe in this mess, but surprisingly, there isn't! The colour, size, variety, or quantity of flakies differed in each polish.

Essie Shine of the Times was the single most packed with flakies colour out of the whole bunch! I'm sure a third coat would have reached full flakedom. Second up was Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory 3D Holo.

Picture Polish Hypnotic was the sparsest on flakies, but it should build easily enough. All the Picture Polish flakies were less generous on the flakies, but this could be a good thing if you wanted a less in your face look. It also gives you more options as it's easy to layer on more flakies, but tough to reduce them! Having said that, I think you'd have to use the whole bottle of Splendour to get the same effect I got with two coats of Essie Shine of the Times.

Closest dupes: Essie Shine of the Times, Picture Polish Splendour, and Nubar 2010. You'd have to layer the last two to get the effect of the Essie though!

Most unique: Picture Polish Festival and Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory 3D Holo

One coat, no flash. From left to right:

Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory 3D Holo
Picture Polish Festival
Picture Polish Hypnotic
Picture Polish Splendour
Essie Shine of the Times





One coat, flash. From left to right:

Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory 3D Holo
Picture Polish Festival
Picture Polish Hypnotic
Picture Polish Splendour
Essie Shine of the Times





One coat, no flash. From left to right:

Finger Paints Flashy
Finger Paints Asylum
Finger Paints Twisted
Finger Paints Motley
Finger Paints Flecked





One coat, flash. From left to right:

Finger Paints Flashy
Finger Paints Asylum
Finger Paints Twisted
Finger Paints Motley
Finger Paints Flecked







Two coats, no flash. From left to right:

Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory 3D Holo
Picture Polish Festival
Picture Polish Hypnotic
Picture Polish Splendour






Two coats, flash. From left to right:

Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory 3D Holo
Picture Polish Festival
Picture Polish Hypnotic
Picture Polish Splendour





Two coats, no flash. From left to right:

Finger Paints Asylum
Finger Paints Twisted
Finger Paints Motley
Finger Paints Flecked






Two coats, flash. From left to right:

Finger Paints Asylum
Finger Paints Twisted
Finger Paints Motley
Finger Paints Flecked





Two coats, no flash. From left to right:

Picture Polish Hypnotic
Picture Polish Splendour
Essie Shine of the Times
Nubar 2010
Finger Paints Flashy






Two coats, no flash. From left to right:

Picture Polish Hypnotic
Picture Polish Splendour
Essie Shine of the Times
Nubar 2010
Finger Paints Flashy





I like all of these for different reasons. Essie Shine of the Times just blew me away with how packed with glitter it was. Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory 3D Holo stands out for the unique colour profile - cooler with more purple and blue flashes than the others. Picture Polish Festival is a stunner for the sheer number of colours packed into it and how varied the sizes are.

I can't wait for this weekend so I can swatch these properly and get some sunlight on them!


I had extra nails left on the wheel when I finished with the flakies, so I swatched some other random polishes because hey, why not?

One coat, no flash. From left to right:

American Apparel Meteor Shower
American Apparel Constellation
American Apparel Light Year
Essie Pure Pearlfection
Essie A Cut Above





One coat, flash. From left to right:

American Apparel Meteor Shower
American Apparel Constellation
American Apparel Light Year
Essie Pure Pearlfection
Essie A Cut Above





Two coats, no flash. From left to right:

American Apparel Meteor Shower
American Apparel Constellation
American Apparel Light Year
Essie Pure Pearlfection
Essie A Cut Above




Two coats, flash. From left to right:

American Apparel Meteor Shower
American Apparel Constellation
American Apparel Light Year
Essie Pure Pearlfection
Essie A Cut Above



American Apparel Meteor Shower is funky and different. Glad I grabbed this one!

I can't think of any reason I'd want to wear American Apparel's Constellation polish. What a mess! I'm glad it only cost me $3!

American Apparel Light Year is neat, though a bit tough to work with on the wheel.

Essie Pure Pearlfection will be fun to play with. I need to swatch this over light colours!

Essie A Cut Above - I really like this one! I bet I could get it opaque in another coat or two. I don't have a lot of polishes yet so even though it's not that unique, I don't personally own anything like it.