Spirit of Truth Swatch & Review

Spirit of Truth, with a glossy top coat. 

A couple of days ago I got a hold of Spirit of Truth and Obey Me, the 2 nail polishes from MAC's limited edition Wonder Woman collection.  Spirit of Truth is a Navy Blue, Creme, that applies like a dream and its opaque on ONE COAT, I am not kidding you! I was very impressed with MAC's new formula, I hope they keep it this way. Also, it doesn't dry to a glossy finish, but it isn't matte ether, it looks like satin.  Anyways, I am very happy with the color and formula. If you plan on getting anything from this collection, act fast because these are flying off the shelves (like it usually happens with any MAC limited edition collection). This pictures were taken ore-clean up, sorry for the messy cuticles! 

No top coat, indoors, no flash.

No top coat, with flash

Glam Slam

Well, I was so excited about getting Black Shatter in the mail, that I decided to try another manicure.

I read in a blog that this shatter polish is not supposed to be applied over top coat, and I realized I was wearing a glossy top coat underneath. Well, time to get rid of the old manicure and see Black Shatter work the way it was intended to work.

Another thing you should know: DO NOT apply over wet or semi-dry polish. Your base polish should be completely dry before you apply the shatter.

"Simply smashing" is a yellow-green metallic almost foil like polish, it looks different that what I had imagined, I thought it was more green. Truth is I wouldn't wear Simply Smashing by itself. It's just not my kind of shade. I had to go for 3 coats, because at 2 you could still see my nail through it.

Now, Simply Smashing + Black Shatter… WOW! See for yourself!

Shatter!

I know I'm kind of late with this post, there's been Black Shatter reviews all over the net for quite some time now, but I could barely get my hands on this puppy. This polish is HARD to get! I felt like I was trying to score some weird designer drug, seriously.  I ended up going on Amazon.com and buying OPI's Glam Slam, which is a nail polish duo by Serena Williams, very cool combo, I can't wait to try the other polish (can't remember the name).

If you don't know about OPI's Black Shatter, it is a "crackle" polish. This means, you use it over another shade, and as soon as it starts drying, the nail polish starts cracking open, and you get a very cool effect. Cover Girl first came out with a crackle polish back in the 90s but it really didn't look as cool as the new ones.

I hear China Glaze is working on a "crackle" nail polish collection, with 6 different shades. Can't wait for that one! I love China Glaze and I love their prices and availability even more. 

Anyways, a few days ago I was all over town trying to score some Black Shatter from the Katy Perry collection, but no such luck.  I ended up buying The one that got away and Not like the movies, both shades are amazing.

Now, this is my first time using a "crackle" polish, so from personal experience, my advice is to apply over a completely dry shade of your choice, and then go light with the crackle polish. If you apply it too thick, or if it takes you a long time to do it, it will not shatter.  So, light and quick is the way to go.  It works very quick! Also, it dries matte, so don't forget your top coat! 

Well, here are the nails, The one that got away with Black Shatter on top.

Glitter Gradient Nails

These nails were extremely easy to make, so much that I almost feel bad posting about them! But I love how they turned out SO much, I think they are super cute!
There are several ways to achieve the gradient effect, and I think that the most popular one is the sponge method, in which you paint your nail using a sponge instead of a brush. But I didn't do that! For this look, I used 3 coats of my glitter nail polish just in the tip of the nails, and then one coat that started right at the half of the nail.  I left the rest natural, because I wanted my glittery tips to be the center of attention.

I used Icing - Sparkle me happy and finished it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out and to add a gloss effect.

Fluorescent light

Natural light

Sophy Robson inspired nails: Dripping tips

Lately I've been totally obsessed with Sophy Robson's blog.  Robson is the "Nail Queen" of London, and her designs are just amazing.  She's known for doing the nails for a lot of designers on fashion week runways and a whole bunch of Vogue covers as well.  She is a trendsetter, and an inspiration.  You can check out her blog HERE.

This look is inspired by one of her designs, the "blood dripping" nails.  I used China Glaze's For Audry, and Finger Paints' Black Expressionism for the tips.  I used my dotter tool for the dripping and I just started drawing random patterns, and a dot here and there.  With the same dotter tool, I finished off the whole tip.  I thought about using the polishes' own brush, but I decided on the dotter tool because I thought I'd give the tips more dimension, and I was right.

I waited for it to dry a little bit before applying my top coat because I didn't want my colors to run or mix.

This is the final product, I hope you like it. 

Nail Fraud: Disco

I have another Nail Fraud post, and this will be my last one, because i'm out of decals, but I think I saved the best for last.  I have to say that this is my favorite print from the 3 sets that I got.  The design looks amazing, but I do have one big fat complaint, though.  This set was very different from the others.  The other decal's presentation was very similar to the Incoco appliques, they have a protective film on top, and they apply better, they kind of bend to match the shape of your nail.  But this ones really just look and feel like plane ol' stickers! They do not have a protective film and they are very hard to match the shape and curves of the nail, they feel kind of stiff on the nail. Also, they didn't came inside a sealed package.  On the other appliques, if you are left with wrinkles on them, they often disappear the next day (I think heat helps with this), but not with Disco.  I applied them yesterday and I still have stiff wrinkles towards the free end of my nails (and I don't think they are disappearing any time soon!).  Also, the print seems very fragile, like any little scratch is going to damage it, so I applied a thick coat of a glossy top coat over it.  In the end, the result looks pretty cool, because this design is amazing and colorful, so I am happy with how my nails ended up.  See for yourself. Click on the pics to make them bigger.

Hold decal with thumb and index, apply close to the cuticles. If you mess up, gently remove the decal and reapply

File off excess with nail file (Nail fraud includes this cool nail file!)

Final result! See the gloss? I used OPI's top coat

This is NF's Goldfinger sealed package, with a holding strip and protective film over decals

This is how Disco looks in the package, very different! It lacks all those cool extras that the other designs have!

Hard Candy Beetle

This nail polish is too much on its own, I really did NOT wanna mess with it.  This is a duo-chrome, it goes from olive green to a pinkish purple… It really changes as you move, and it looks way better in person. I was even told by someone that my nails looked like a chameleon! It is that impressive! 

I hear this is an Orly Space Cadet dupe, and I am glad because I couldn't get a hold of the limited edition sold out Space Cadet.  Another great thing about this polish is the price and availability: only 5 bucks and you can find it at your local Wal-Mart. 

Indoors

Direct Sunlight

Nail Fraud: Houndstooth

I'm using nail appliqués again.  They are just too perfect and easy to apply, they save me a lot of time and I end up having gorgeous nails without much effort… What's not to love about them? Well, there is one thing I do NOT like: the glue residue left on my nails after I take them off… but it's not a deal-breaker.

These are from Nail Fraud and they are called "Houndstooth Hottie", how adorable! I got TOO MUCH compliments on these manicure. I wore it during Christmas break, so a lot of friends saw it on me, and they really liked it. So here it is, review and all.  For more information about Nail Fraud, click HERE.

Hey, and if someone has any suggestion on how to do with my out-of-control cuticles (please see above pic for reference), I'd seriously appreciate it!

Christmas Plaid Konadicure

More Holiday themed manicures!  I love this color, I used Emerald city from Sally Hansen as a base.  I'd been looking for something like this for a while.  I really like Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, I like their long brushes and their highly pigmented, easy to apply formulas.  This nail polish was no exception, almost opaque in 1 coat, perfect in 2 coats.

Nail Fraud

With Flash

Nail decals are everywhere these days.  I ordered Nail Fraud a while back.  They have really cool designs and they are a bit cheaper than other appliqués out there… But there was a big mix up with my order, it took them a while to get here.  I don't really know what happened, if there was a post office issue or if Nail Fraud messed up my order… in the end, I received my decals.