Ecto Cooler Nails featuring Pure Ice Crackle in Shattered

Hello there! I have a bit of a weird manicure for you today. Every kid who grew up in the 80's and 90's loved Ghostbusters. It's just a fact of life. Ghostbusters and Halloween always seem to go together in my head, so I wanted to do a Ghostbusters inspired mani for you all this month. Since I'm crap at freehand nail art, I tried to think of something Ghostbusters related, and then I remembered Hi-C's Ecto Cooler!

Image Credit

Ecto Cooler was a staple in my lunchbox during my elementary school years. It was based on Slimer, the gluttonous green ghost sidekick of the Ghostbusters. The drink had a sweet citrus flavor but instead of the typical orange color, it was lime green. And it was damn good. It was discontinued in the late 90's, but us 80's and 90's kids remember this drink fondly.

Ecto Cooler Commercial

So, I'm not much of a crackle fan and I think it has been way over done since it's release early this year. However, if you can't do crackle in October for Halloween, when else can you do it? For this manicure, I did a base of China Glaze Papaya Punch, a bright (almost neon) yellow-orange creme. Then, I slapped on Pure Ice's Shattered, a lime green crackle. Definitely not my favorite manicure, but it's super fun for Halloween and definitely reminiscent of Hi-C Ecto Cooler. 

Have a great Sunday everyone!

-Jacqui

China Glaze It's Alive!

Happy October everyone! I'm so excited that it is finally my favorite month of the year. It is my favorite for several reasons, but mainly because of the holiday that it contains. Halloween is my number one holiday of all time, favorite until the end, till death do us part. Yes, I even had a Halloween themed wedding! Coming up this month is our one year wedding anniversary and I have a super fun post planned for that day =) But anyways, since Halloween is the most wonderful time of year (whoever said that Christmas is the most wonderful time of year was sadly mistaken), I have a month full of fun, spooky and ridiculously fun manicures for you all!

First up is from this year's China Glaze Haunting collection, a wonderfully murky polish named "It's Alive." Yes, I know you have all seen a lot of China Glaze polishes on this blog already, but they are my favorite brand so expect to see a lot more in the next month because they have some spectacular Halloween polishes! It's Alive was the only polish that I got from the Haunting collection, as I had dupes of the others in my collection already. It is truly the star of the collection, and if you can only buy one Halloween polish this year, It's Alive should be the one.

Anyways, It's Alive a dark and grubby olive green jelly packed full of lighter green hex and micro glitter to create a fantastic polish reminiscent of the Swamp Thing. It is so sparkly yet so dreary at the same time - a perfect Halloween polish! It took two coats to reach opacity, which is not bad at all for a glitter polish of this nature. Application was very easy. It's Alive is definitely a "hungry glitter," meaning that it definitely takes more than a few layers of topcoat to smooth it out. To solve the hungry glitter problem, I always use one coat of Gelous (available at Sally Beauty Supply) and then one coat of my normal quick dry top coat and I'm good to go!

I have been dying to wear this polish ever since I picked it up at Ulta a few weeks ago, and I knew that it would be the first polish I would wear during October. So here are a few pics, hope you enjoy =)

And here a macro shot for you, to see how awesome the glitter is in this polish!

Hope everyone's weekend is off to a great start! Thanks for reading =)

-Jacqui

Kleancolor Holo Chrome!

Good morning everyone! Fall has finally kicked in here, its cloudy, gloomy and chilly - just how I like it! Sunshine and warmth is way overrated =) Well, except when you are in Hawaii. Did I ever mention how Hawaii is my favorite place on Earth? But even in Hawaii it rains all the time so I guess it can't be sunny all the time there either.

But, I digress. Today I have for you a very blingy manicure: Kleancolor Holo Chrome. I got my first shipment of Kleancolors in the mail yesterday and so far, I am extremely impressed! I purchased them from beautyjoint.com, and they were $1.75 a piece. $1.75 is probably the cheapest you will pay for good nail polish anywhere, even drugstore polishes are generally in the $5-$10 dollar range these days (unless you count Sinful Colors, but I don't because I'm not really a fan of their products). So anyone on a budget who wants to try some unique colors should definitely give Kleancolor a try!

One word of warning about Kleancolors though: they stink! The smell on these is very strong, something akin to the chemical laden polishes of the olden days. From what I gather from the ingredients label, this polish is toulene and DBP (dibutyl phtalate) free but does contain formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin so that is probably where the strong smell is coming from. You will come to learn that I have a penchant for very old, vintage polishes so the smell does not bother me one bit.

Holo Chrome is a fantastically beautiful nail polish! It is a blue-violet (also known as blurple) jelly with tons of holo micro glitter. I used three coats of it in the photos, but you can also layer it over another polish to make it more opaque that way. Application was average, the Kleancolor brush was a bit wider and floppier than normal so it made it a bit more difficult to apply thin and even coats. I really don't mind though, because for a $1.75 polish it is absolutely gorgeous and a little bit of difficulty in the application doesn't bother me. I can't stop starting at my nails, Holo Chrome is so damn awesome!

I nicked one of my nails when I was taking photos, so unfortunately the photo selection I have for you guys today isn't my best. I hope you can get a feel for how sparkly and beautiful this polish really is. So I hope you enjoy the ones I was able to take =)

First I have one taken outdoors in natural light to show you the true color of Holo Chrome:

The rest were taken in artificial light to show you the blingtastic-ness of this polish!

And don't forget to click on the pics to englarge them =)

Hope everyone is having a fanastic Friday!

-Jacqui

Pink Wednesday: Lynnderella Connect the Dots over Essie Pink Parka

Good morning everyone! Today I have a neon pink manicure for you for Pink Wednesday. I chose Essie Pink Parka as the base color for this manicure because it is my favorite neon pink nail polish that has ever existed! I have several neon pinks of all different shades, and this one is the brightest one that I own. Neons can be pretty tricky as far as application goes, and this was no exception. It was streaky and had several bald spots along the way, so I needed to do a good three coats to get where I wanted this color to be. A good tip is to apply a coat of white under a neon color to help the color really pop, but I didn't do that this time because I feel that Pink Parka is just so awesomely neon on its own. But difficult application aside, this is truly an amazing shade and I'm glad to have it in my collection.

I layered two coats of Lynnderella Connect the Dots over Pink Parka. Isn't it fabulous?! I just love all my Lynnderella polishes. Connect the Dots has black and white square, hex and bar glitter in a clear, shimmery base. Application can be a bit tricky with this one because sometimes the glitter doesn't go where you want it to. So you just have to play around with it a bit and see how it works for you. I put two coats of top coat over the manicure just to make sure everything was extra smooth and shiny!

You may notice that the color of my hands seem a bit off in these photos. That is because neons are notoriously hard to photograph, and you really have to mess with the white balance to get the true color to show up. I find these photos to be very color accurate as far as the polish goes, but my hands, not so much! You can tell how really eye-searingly bright this color is in real life. I think Connect the Dots looks fantastic over neons, so this combination for Pink Wednesday was perfect!

And here is Pink Parka by itself:

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fantastic day everyone!

-Jacqui

Ugly-Pretty or Pretty Ugly: China Glaze Trendsetter

Good morning everyone! Hope your day is going swimmingly. Today, I am starting a series of posts titled "Ugly-Pretty or Pretty Ugly" because I realized I seem to have an attraction to ugly colors. Well, perhaps colors that others would find ugly and I find them to be fantastic! Anything murky, old lady or baby poop colored, send them my way!

Ugly-pretty is a phrase often credited as being coined by Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model meaning something that is so damn ugly that it actually looks pretty awesome at the same time. This modeling concept also applies to nail polish. What's hot in nail polish now are colors that may be considered fairly ugly by many people.

China Glaze Trendsetter is one of those colors. It is from the fantastic fall 2011 Metro Collection from China Glaze. The Metro Collection was probably the only fall collection this year that I really loved, and I think this color is one of the reasons why. Trendsetter is a mustardy-green-yellow-brown color with golden shimmer throughout. Some may look at it and think it is hideous, while I think it is brilliant! The shimmer really pulls this color together, making it have almost a brocade finish as it is very dense and velvety.

The following pictures are all two coats plus one coat of topcoat. It is a bit thicker than the rest of the colors in this collection, but the polish leveled out fairly well and did not create any bubbling or other problems. It tends to pull quite green on my skin tone, but I have seen other pictures where it looks very yellow on people. I am completely in love with this color! I don't really care how it looks on my skintone, it's just such a fascinating color that I will wear it no matter what.

Natural Light

Natural Light

Natural Light

Natural Light

Artificial Light - click to enlarge to see the pretty shimmer!

Artficial Light - Mattified with Essie Matte About You Topcoat. Love this!

And there you have it - China Glaze Trendsetter. What do you think? Ugly-pretty or just plain pretty ugly?

-Jacqui

Lynnderella Love Potion 99 over Illamasqua Baptiste

Happy Sunday everyone! So I'm on day 3 of the nubs and I'm starting to regret it. I miss my long nails already. Ahh well, the good thing about nails is that they will grow back. I'm not the most patient person though and I'm thinking about running about to Sally's and getting some sort of growing potion.

Speaking of potions, today I have for you an amazing polish from the one and only Lynnderella! For those who don't know, Lynnderella is a polish making goddess! All of her polishes are handcrafted from several different types of glitter. Her collections are very limited edition, as she only opens up shop every once in a while for an extremely short time window. I was lucky enough to squeeze in and snag some of these babies for myself!

The one I have for you today is Love Potion 99 from the Early Halloween Collection, which has medium purple hex glitter and smaller holographic glitter in a sheer purple base. It is phenomenal! These glitters tend to go on a bit thick, and once they dry they are a bit rough. It is advisable to do at least two layers of top coat to get a smooth and shiny finish. With my limited photo skills, I wasn't able to capture the true beauty of the polish, but I did my best! Hopefully, I will be satisfied with my picture taking skills one day =)

So here is 2 coats Lynnderella's Love Potion 99 layered over 2 coats of Illamasqua Baptiste. So sparkly! Also, please excuse my cuticles today. I forgot to moisturize last night =/

Artificial light

Artificial Light

Natural Light to show the glitter shapes better.

The last two shorts are of Illamasqua Baptiste. Illamasqua is a British brand currently only available in the US on Sephora.com (as far as I know). I love, love, LOVE my Illamasqua polishes! They apply so smoothly and the colors are so rich and beautiful. They wear like iron too! I currently have around a dozen Illa polishes, and they are all well-loved. 

Baptiste is a gorgeous shimmery dark purple. In certain lights, it looks almost black. It has awesome red and blue shimmer throughout, making the purple tone stand out in bright light.  Those photos are two coats.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jacqui 

Orly Royal Navy NOTD

Hello hello! Just wanted to show you guys my nail of the day today. For some reason, I have really been on a blue kick lately, which is really unlike me. I swear this is the last blue for the week!

Orly Royal Navy is from last summer's In the Navy collection, and it is one of my favorite nail polishes of all time. It is a bright royal blue jelly with the most amazing aquamarine shimmer throughout. The shimmer always settles to the bottom, so I have to shake it up for a good few minutes before application. It is a bit of a pain, but it really is worth it because I feel that the shimmer really sets this polish apart. It applies almost like a cream but has that sheer, squishy nature that a jelly has.

I got my bottle at Sally's, but I believe this color is no longer available. I believe many of the online polish retailers still have this in stock for a reasonable price. If you are a fan of blue nail polish, I think this is an absolute must for your collection. I even bought a backup of it when it was on clearance at Sally's, which is something that I don't normally do. That's how awesome it is.

And here are far too many pics of Orly Royal Navy (two coats plus topcoat):

Thanks for stopping by, and hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

-Jacqui