Nail MADNESS - Sumer Skittles Mani

So, I really wanted to do an ombre manicure, but I didn't have any colors that I wanted to do it with.  Or cosmetic sponges.  Or will.  (I had surgery last week, so I've been riding the Vicodin pony all this week.)  So I decided to do a skittles manicure with bright, happy colors.  Summer's back in Texas.  You may be asking what happened to Spring; we had that in February.  That's over now.  The high was in the nineties today, I'm running the AC nonstop, my tanktops are in full rotation - it's summertime, bitches.  So I slapped on some polish - Chanel Midori on my thumb, Hard Candy Yellow on my index, Chanel June on my middle finger, Julep Gloria on my ring finger, and Julep Parker on my pinkie.  On top of that, because I always like to up the ante, I put on some Essie Shine of the Times.  But I still didn't like that, so I matted it out with my favorite matte topcoate, ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe. Here's how it looks, and the colors by their lonesomes.

This is the other hand, with the colors just opposite - Gloria, Parker, June, Midori, Yellow.

And this is my cat, who isn't as yellow or orange as my nails, but handsomer than anything else in the world.  He's also more photogenic, don't you think?

Nail MADNESS - Haute Metal Santorum

This is a random manicure that I kind of threw together to see how I'd like Haute Metal (from China Glaze's "Crackle Metals" collection).  I figured I'd better use a darker color, and I really love the hell out of brown and pink together, so I grabbed one of my favorite polishes - Santorum by ManGlaze.  Here's what I got.

Okay, so I don't like Haute Metal as much as I thought I would.  Sure, at first it sounds bomb - shiny pink crackle?  Fucks to the yes!  But then it didn't... really crackle much.  You can barely see the sexiness that is Santorum (and yes, that is the only time you'll see me type/say/express that sentiment).  It's confusing.  So, maybe I'll use Haute Metal less than I expected.  Bleh.  How are you guys feeling about crackle?  Are you over it yet?  Do you care?

Nail MADNESS - Matte Magnetic

I'm pretty sure magnetic nail polish is going to become the new crackle polish - something everyone loves, rocks the shit out of hard for a year or so, and then gets sick of all at the same time.  But that's totally okay with me, I love crackle still (always did, I'm a child of the eighties) and I love magnetic polish too.  

What is magnetic polish?  It's nail polish with a higher iron content, so I'm lead to believe, so when you put a magnet just above your nail during the second coat, particles in the polish move and leave you with patterns.  China Glaze is supposed to be coming out with some magnetics later this year, and there's lots of foreign ones, but the one I'm most familiar with is at Sephora, by Nails Inc.  I own both Trafalgar Square and Houses of Parliment, but Trafalgar owns my heart.  I love me some silver.

That is my velociraptor hand from earlier in the year wearing said Trafalgar (also with some lazy ass Konading).  See the pretty sheen?  See how it looks almost like moving liquid?  The silver would be gorgeous even without the silvery magnet effect.  But I wondered to myself - what would it look like matte?  And as luck would have it, I own a bottle of Matte-astrophe by Manglaze, which is my favorite matte topcoat, to hell with you Essie!  So, I magnet'd up my polish, slapped on a topcoat, then slapped on a matte coat.  And what I got is gorgeous, gun metal looking pewter goodness.

Pictures don't really do this justice, it's just so three-dimensional and textural and a whole bunch of other words that end in -al that I can't think of right now because it's late and I'm tired and still fighting off an URI which is why I haven't posted in a while.  But yes!  Nails Inc. is a fantastic company with some great formulas, as is ManGlaze.  If you want mattes, get ManGlaze.

Here's hoping I'll remember to swatch some stuff on Sunday when I'm off work.  Until then!