Lately I feel drawn to a weird phenomenon: the Mattified Mannequin Manicure (MMM)
I didn't come up with this concept, I came across a pic that inspired me to experiment. It's been a couple of weeks now and I've been searching for my perfect Mattified Mannequin Manicure shade. I find it weird and wrong but so different and exiting at the same time.
Dior Safari Beige topped with Essence Nail Art Twins Julia, mattified. Pic taken with flash.
Same manicure, in daylight
Same manicure, before I mattified.
Dior Safari Beige
Dior Safari Beige, mattified
Try to say Mattified Mannequin Manicure 5 times and you will find your tongue in a knot. So let's just say MMM okay ;-p
I wonder which of the versions of my Dior Safari manicure you like best. The mattified or shiny one? With or without the holo hex glitters?
And have you also been intrigued by mattified mannequin hands? I keep on seeing them popping up.
Those Nubar holo's have been on my wishlist forever, but where I live they are not easy to obtain (for a reasonable prize that is)
So I decided to buy just 2 of them. They have been standing on my special *mommy's favorite children stand* and they smiled there upon me for a few weeks. But, today was the rare event that I'm off AND there are a few rays of sun! So.... for a true Lacquerista that means... HOLOS! I enjoyed swatching these next polishes a lot, hope you enjoy seeing them:
Nubar Prize
Nubar Prize
Nubar Jewel
Nubar Jewel
These are my first Nubar's ever and I'm sure more will follow. I have my eyes set on Gem, Reclaim and Violet Sparkle but I am not looking forward to paying around 12 euro's for them. I guess I will have to hold my patience for a future swap :-)
What is your favorite Nubar? And don't you just LOVE it when the holo season starts?
Don't forget to enter my Black Shatter Giveaway!
In the nail polish community we call it "crackle" others might now it by "shatter". I don't care what we call it, but it's highly addictive and I can't stop playing with it.
Crackle or Shatter polish is a topcoat that shrinks when it dries to leave a shattered layer. It is applied on top of a "normal" nailpolish. The shattering creates a pattern that looks somewhat like an animal print, leaving the base color underneath peek trough.
OPI by Katy Perry Black Shatter over Nfu.Oh 61
Eversince OPI and Katy Perry announced their collaboration that includes a Black Shatter, the hype around crackle polish is exploding. I was lucky enough to have crackle polish experience for a few months now and I discovered some tips and tricks I want to share with you.
Apply the shatter on a dry manicure
Make sure your colored polish is completely dry before you apply the Black Shatter. If you apply the Shatter on a semi-dry polish, you will not get that nice animal print look but ugly thick streaks.
Example of Shatter polish on top of thick layers of semi-dry base. In the proces of shattering, the crackle fragments adhere to the semi dry layers, tearing them apart. Do not want!
Example of crackle applied over a thin layer of semi-dry base polish.
The crackle layer shrinks into weird strings. Do not want as well!
Can you wear crackle/shatter polish by itself? The answer is; yes, you can. But it won't crackle. It would just be a chalk board like streaky, thin layer. SO probably not a good idea.
Work quickly
Shatter and crackle polish dries super fast. You would want to apply it very quickly. Very quickly. Í reccomend not to even re-dip the brush, that takes too long.
Quick dry topcoat
Be aware when you dry your base mani with a quick dry topcoat before applying a shatter. I didn't like the patterns the crackle made when I applied it over my quick dry topcoat (I use Seche Vite). Quick dry topcoats dry to a glass-like finish and I wouldn't be suprised if Seche Vite leaves an oily residue on the nail after it has dried. Either way, it makes the surface of the nail so smooth that the shatter won't have enough grip to shatter in a nice pattern.
Ugly patterns over quick dry topcoat. The shatters fall apart in string like pieces. Not so pretty.
Creating patterns
Experiment with the amount of Shatter polish on your brush when you apply. When you apply a thin layer you will get a fragile fine craquelé look. On the other hand, when you apply too much, the Shatter will "break" into huge pieces. Personally I like to apply the Shatter like this: I take the brush out of the bottle but I don't swipe away the excess of one side of the brush.
Also, I found that the more "grip" the base polish has, the better the crackles are. For instance; holographic or semi bumpy glitter polishes display a more linear shatter (the Leopard and the Turtle) as opposed to creme, glass-like polishes (they tend to display either the Giraffe of the Tread/String like shatter)
The turtle has a linear pattern
of medium sized shatters. You create this by
applying a medium to thick layer of shatter.
The Leopard has a very fine shatter
pattern that is mostly linear.
It doesn't show much of the base
color and the pattern is blurry
from a little distance. You create this by applying
a super thin coat of shatter. If needed,
thin out the formula of your shatter first!
The Giraffe has big, bold patches of shatter in a random pattern.
It allows a lot of base color peek through. Create this by
applying a very thick layer of shatter. If your shatter
is too runny, leave the cap of for a while to thicken it's formula.
You can be messy
When you apply the Shatter, don't worry about how tidy you do so. You won't see smudges or missed spots after all. Do not pass the brush a second time! It's better to apply just one wide stroke op shatter and leave that nail alone afterwards. Passing your brush over an already (crackle) painted piece of nail can mess up the effect.
Clean up
After the Shatter has crackled, I like to be precise with my clean up. The crackle look is funky and can crackle all it wants on the nail, but because it is so "out there" it can easliy end up looking trashy. So I make sure my cuticles are clean. I use a thin brush dipped in acetone.Have a look at my tutorial if you want to see how this works.
Finish
The Black Shatter dries up matte. I do like the contrast of the sparly, shiny base color peeking trough the matte crackle but you can also apply a regular topcoat on top to add shine. This will also deepen the black of the Shatter itself.
Shatter polish without topcoat
The same manicure as above topped off with a shiny topcoat
Combinations
Experience with different base colors. Glitters, holographics, duochromes, cremes, light, dark are all options. And you can even apply a shatter on top of a Konad design, marbled manicure or any other nail art.
China Glaze will realease a collection with different colored crackles. The options are endless!
Formula
Crackle or Shatter polish will thicken after a few uses. You can apply a few drops of nail polish thinner but never, EVER use polish remover for this purpose. It will destroy your polish.
I like to add a drop of 2, 3 of thinner after each use, so my crackle always has the right cosistancy.
So far my experiences with crackle/shatter polish. How do you feel about crackle? Do you have tip's and tricks about crackle that you feel like sharing?
A special mani today! I was inspired by the so called Patchwork Mani by Chloe's Nails. The design is made by using scotch tape.
The polishes I used are all by OPI: Parlez-vous Opi? Done out in Deco Panda-monium Pink DS series Original
What do you think about my creation? Any color suggestions for my next Patchwork Mani? And.... to those of you that read my post yesterday about watermarking... how do you like my current font? Heehee :-D
My taste in nail polish is pretty broad. But I'm a sucker for color's that would be considered outrageous to most non-Lacqueristas. The more glitter, holo or *ugly* the better. I would literally DREAM about funky collaberations in the nail polish world. My wishlist: Lady Gaga, Bjork, Nelly Furtado, Lilly Allen, Kat von D, MIA, Ivy Queen, Macy Grey but most of all Katy Perry. And that last one just came true!
Katy Perry for OPI was released on January 1st, the collection exists of 4 different shades and one black shatter topcoat. All four shades can be topped off with the Black Shatter to create an unique leopard pattern.
Teenage Dream
A transparent mellow pink shade with shimmer and holographic particles. In the bottle it looks like the polish is pink but it's actually a clear base packed with pink shimmer particles. That's what makes it look pink. On the nail you don't really get the pink. It applies VERY sheer. Teenage Dream would make a great topcoat!
Besides the fine pink shimmer, this polish is also loaded with small perfectly round holographic particles. These look like tiny mirrors that make the finish extremely vivid in the right light.
Teenage Dream in daylight
Teenage Dream in sunlight
Teenage Dream with Black Shatter, no topcoat
Teenage Dream with Black Shatter and topcoat
Here's a video I made of Teenage Dream. Incredibly vivid glittah and holo! And in the video I didn't even have sun, so imagine what the sun would do...
Last Friday Night
In the bottle this looks like a vibrant blue with lots of glitters. A closer look tells us this is in fact a clear polish with the slightest touch of blue, with sparse blue micro shimmer and small turqoise and silver round particles. I'm not sure if these silver particles have a holographic quality to them. So far, I do not think so.
Last Friday Night applies the sheerest of sheer. After four thick coats there is finally some blue visible. The glitters are also very sparse, it does not even come close to Teenage Dream (that is packed with these goodies). I experienced a strange change in color when I was taking pictures of Last Friday Night; in some light setting the polish appears more pinkish then blue-ish...
Last Friday Night, daylight
Last Friday Night with Black Shatter, no topcoat
The One That Got Away
OPI describes this as a deep berry pink. I would say they might be right :-) On some websites I have read that The One That Got Away is considered a multi-chrome (Showing different colors depending on angle/light). In the bottle I do see a golden duo chrome going on, but once applied on the nail I was not able to catch that again.
Either way, this is a pretty and flattering pink although it's not unique. In the formula you find tiny glitter.The finish and formula falls somewhere between Let Me Entertain You and Teas-y Does It. I did a comparison with LMEY and they don't come close.
The One That Got Away, sunlight
The One That Got Away with Black Shatter
(look at how ugly the shatter pattern turned out. This is what happens when you are impatient! Have a look at my tips n tricks at the bottem of this post ;-)
Not Like The Movies
My favorite of this Katy Perry Collection. A multi chrome with a dominant grey base color. Once applied the pink becomes more dominant and depending on the angle you will catch green, pink, purple, grey. The color shifting is not bold but subtle and that makes this polish stand out. It is elegant, office appropiate yet funky baby. There's also some speckles of micro glitter in the formula. Awesome!
Not Like The Movies in day light. Check out the (subtle) color shifting
Another one, just because I can
Artificial light
Not Like The Movies with Black Shatter, no topcoat
Overview
Katy Perry for OPI is a fun collection with some funky shades. The formulas of Not Like The Movies and The One That Got Away are excellent. The formulas of Teenage Dream and Last Friday Night are very thick, gel-like but still manageable. Overall I found that the four polishes dried quicker then usual. The concept of a crackle polish is not new but I think OPI is the first big high end brand to release a crackling polish.
Tips and Tricks
Working with the Black Shatter, a so called crackle polish is something you have to get the hang of. Here are some tips I want to share with you:
Make sure your colored polish is completely dry before you apply the Black Shatter. If you apply the Shatter on a semi-dry polish, you will not get that nice *leopard* look but ugly thick streaks (like in my picture of The One That Got Away
Experiment with the amount of Shatter polish on your brush when you apply. When you apply a thin layer you will get a fragile fine craquelé look. On the other hand, when you apply too much, the Shatter will "break" into huge pieces. Personally I like to apply the Shatter like this: I take the brush out of the bottle but I don't swipe away the excess
When you apply the Shatter, don't worry about how tidy you do that. You won't see smudges or missed spots after all
After the Shatter has crackled, I like to be precise with my clean up. The crackle look is funky and can crackle all it wants on the nail, but because it is so out there it can easliy end up looking trashy. So I make sure my cuticles are clean. I use a thin brush dipped in acetone to achieve this, have a look at my Tutorial how you can learn this too
The Black Shatter dries up matte. I do like the contrast of the sparly, shiny base color peeking trough the matte crackle but you can also apply a regular topcoat on top to add shine. This will also deepen the black of the Shatter itself.
Experience with different base colors
Skittles of Katy Perry by OPI
Here's a lil bonus for yous! Interesting to see how the extra layer of topcoat intensified the color of the Black Shatter...
All three coats, exept for LFN (4 coats)
Same order as above, with Black Shatter, without topcoat
Same order as above, With Black Shatter and a layer of topcoat
Well dear readers, that was a quite an article. I have not posted in months, due to professional and personal occupations but I certainly didn't lose my love for polish! I hope you guys enjoyed my review and pictures. I'd love to hear from whatever remarks or questions you have.
My questions for you: What is your favorite shade of this collection, and how with what nail polish would you combine the crackle polish?
1. Is this the holiest holo that you have ever seen? I'm sure it is the holo-est holo I've ever seen. More holo then Gosh Holographic, China Glaze OMG or any of the OPI holo's I've ever seen. Word is that Chanel's holograpic might be even more holo, but since I don't own that I can't confirm that.
2. Guess the polish (brand/name) The right answer is: Nfu.Oh 61
3. Did I photoshop the colors? (other then the obvious duplicating and erasing of some parts of the bottle) I did not photoshop the picture (or enhance contract/colors etc) in any other way then cropping, duplicating and erasing the Nfu.Oh letters and cap. These colors and effects are 100% "natural". This is how my cam picked it up. The fun part is that in real life, the effect is even more holo. Full on rainbow, with true, vivid colors.
4. How many colors do you see in this particular picture (on the nail) I think I counted 7 color shifts on the nails.
5. What should I do for the winner of this lil guessing game? How about offering a guest blogger stage? Or the winner can choose/come up with the next guessing game? Other ideas? I liked the "pat on the back" idea, but I never gave a cyber pat before. So how about a lil guest bloggin'?
And because every guessing game has a winner:Pariski!!!Come and claim your lil stage lady!
Now on to more pics of the holo-est holo that ever holo-ed:
And now the pic that turned out with the littlest holo showing up:
I even had to try to find an angle where the holo would be more subtle
Nfu.Oh 61 is defenitely a must-have. A show stopping polish that looks like it wanna jump up your finger. The holo effect is so spectecular that it will even entertain species like men.
I did use the Nfu.Oh aqua base as a base coat before applying the actual polish. It helped quite a bit but I still found it pretty challenging to apply without streaks and drags (you can click on the pics to enlarge them to see those flaws better)
On a side note; without a light source this polish might look kinda dull. It really needs rays of light to make it come alive. Not a polish for rainy days, but keep this pretty for those sunny afternoons :-)
Did you enjoy playing the lil guessing game? Wanna do it again soon? Any ideas?
Believe me, I tried REALLY hard to capture the holographic hotness in this next polish. But I failed. Impossible. I don't know if it was my camera (Canon Powershot) or the lighting (direct sun, flash, bounced flash as well as artificial) but I didn't manage to even come close to how incredibly HOT this polish is. Have a look at my attempts:
You think this looks kinda pretteh? Imagine the holographic action x 10.
GS14 has a black base, not straight a jelly but too squeesy for a creme. I'd say 70% jelly quality. The base is packed, but absolutely PACKED with medium size holographic particles. It gives the finish a non-linear or shattered holographic look (as opposed to linear as in China Glaze OMG / Nfu.Oh 63 etc)
The semi translucency of the formula lets the holographic particles peek-a-boo through to catch the light on the surface.
I have heard many rumours about the supposed application difficulties with GS14. I din't wear this polish as a full mani yet, but for the swatch above I did notice some minor goopyness. Pretty shure though that had also to do with the act that I applied 2 thick coats instead of 3 thin ones.
Now on to the comparison. I own just one other polish that meets the discription black holo and that is Collistar 18. (Funny, that both brands don't actually name their creations but give them numbers)
The reason I painted only the thumb with Collistar is that the difference is too obvious to go through the hassle. Collistar's holo is much less dense and because the black base has no jelly quality to it, the holo particles are not peeking through. In real life this makes a huge difference. Nfu.Oh just isn't competition! I'm totally in awe with the overall quality of this brand... wow.
A lil video to show some more holo in motion
The funny part is that I'm holding the Collistar bottle, that looks pretty holo in the video. Just for the record; Nfu.Oh is like that... times 10. No joke. All fingers are Nfu.Oh GS14 but the thumb is painted with Collistar 18.
Here is the evidence: Nfu.Oh GS14 in full sunlight, twinkling likea zillion crushes rainbow diamonds :-D
I wore this manicure for a full day but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. In my memory it looks somewhat similar to China Glaze TMI, they both have the same pretty base color but are both blurred and washed out by the holo particles when you are not in direct sunlight. When you are in full sunlight though, it is much prettier. My favourite holo from the Designer Series is Extravagance wich is stunning, even in indoor lighting/shade.
Anyways, Reflection has a coral-ish/reddish base color but as I mentioned before, in the shade it looks kinda faded. In this base you will find holographic particles that come alive when the sun hits your nails. The holo-effect is not as obvious as on other DS polishes but it does as a depth and vividness to Reflection. Formulawise: it applied like a dream. Two coats for these swatches. No problems here! I used OPI's Ridge Filler as a basecoat and Poshe for topcoat.
What is your favourite polish from the OPI designer Series? And if you could make up your dream holo, what would it be? I think I would opt for a true bright red as in ChG Ruby Pumps but then holo!
I have gotten so many emails of people that were sad that they couldn't qualify for my Nfu.Oh giveaway (which btw is still open to enter, check out if you qualify to win these 7 Nfu.Oh items!)
In my original post I promised you another giveaway that would be open to enter for anybody. Well, here it is:
OPI My Private Jet Original holographic version!!!
A while ago I was in the Santo Domingo in a mall with a small OPI display and I couldn't believe my luck when I found THIS! I bought it and ran outside in the sun to see if it really was what I thought it was... when the sun struck the bottle in my hand, I knew it could be only one version of MPJ... holographic heaven! I went back in and found one other bottle, that I bought with the intention to share with my fellow lacqueristas ;-)
My Private Jet came out in the OPI Bright Nights collection in 2007. It is a charcoal jelly base with holographic glitter. Very unique and flattering. My Private Jet is still available but not in this original version. Nowadays there's about 6 other versions. I own a bottle of the brown MPJ that is widely available in retail and the difference with the original is huge.
Trivia:
* MPJ is one of Kim Kardashian favourite polishes. Even featured in their reality show
*Sometimes you could find the original MPJ on Ebay. The biddings go up to 75 dollars
The sought after original version of MPJ is getting so hard to find that many lacqueristas that finally do get their hands on one prefer to layer it over a black base. Because the formula is very sheer you would have to put 4 layers of MPJ to reach opacity.
But now, here's you chance to WIN your own brand new bottle of the original My Private Jet! The rules???
*You have to be a follower with Google Friend Connect
* One entry per person
To enter this giveaway you will have to leave a comment with your email adress. You may want to disguise it for Googlebots but make sure I can still make out what your email is.
No extra entries, so even if you don't own a blog or if you don't have twitter you will have the same chance to win.
This giveaway will be opent to enter until August 7th, and the winner will be drawn shortly after.
Good luck to you all :-)
Do you know more trivia about this nailpolish? ( I will use your trivia in this post)
Have you ever ran into a HTF just like that?
