Swatch Spam: Klean Color Metallics (157-168)

So I got my nail art practice sticks that I have been planning on getting for swatching on since I have a really hard time doing my own nails cleanly. Since these arrived I have been painting almost non-stop. Here are the results. be prepared for lots of color!

Klean Color 157, Metallic White

This one is extremely sheer. I usually use it as a top coat to get a "frosted" look to my nails. Used alone it is super frustrating trying to get it to be opaque. Obviously on a white fake nail it looks solid but looks can be deceiving.

Klean Color 158, Metallic Pink

This is a lovely hot pink that I have used for gradients and stamping. On it's own it's a bit too much for my tastes. This is two coats.

Klean Color 159, Metallic Mango

A lovely orangey shade! I love this color more then I love the actual metallic orange (next picture) because it is closer to a coppery gold in hue. This is two coats.

Klean Color 160, Metallic Orange

A bit more orange than mango, which is probably why this shade got the name "orange." It's a lovely color. This is two coats.

Klean Color 161, Metallic Red

This color gets me every time. I love red, I love metallics, and a metallic red like this is one I am very happy to have gotten. It reminds me of velvety heart shaped pillows and I love it. This is two coats.

Klean Color 162, Metallic Yellow

A beautiful golden color! Why didn't they just call it "Gold?" Whatever the reason this shade is, to me, a must have in one's nail polish collection. This is two coats.

Klean Color 163, Metallic Green

While I love this color to death I doubt I will use it much any more, it has a nasty habit of staining my nails yellow even with a base coat.... So sad because this color is stunning. Two coats again.

Klean Color 164, Metallic Aqua

Have I mentioned how much I adore blue in nearly every shade? Well I do and basically no blue I find makes me go "eww, blue..." instead when I see shades like this my eyes pop out, my jaw drops and I snatch it up as fast as I can. This is two coats.

Klean Color 165, Metallic Sapphire

This is my favorite out of all the colors in this series. While it doesn't stain my nails it does stain my skin when I remove it and the polish contacts my fingertips. However the color fades fairly quickly. This color is so deep and rich it is no wonder it is called Sapphire. It deserves a gemstone for a name. Two coats.

Klean Color 166, Metallic Fuschia

This color will turn heads as it catches the eyes of everyone in a room. Vibrant without being overly neon and such a feminine color! Not much to say but "Ohh la-la!" Two coats again.

Klean Color 167, Metallic Purple

Very beautiful. Very girly and very, very shiny. One of the best purples I have seen in this price range. This is two coats.

Klean Color 168, Metallic Black

Deep dark black with hints of silver to make it a sparkly metallic color. A great black for those who love the darker shades of life. Two Coats.

And that is all of them for now. I am off to do more painting!

Klean Color Holo and Swatch Sticks!

Well my Klean Color Holos arrived today, minus the green color due to the sellers error.... But the ones I did get are GORGEOUS!

Beasue no photo did justice to the sparkle here is a video:

That's the "Holo Chrome" color. Which is probably my favorite. That is also four (yes, 4) coats to get that opacity. My only complaint is the ultra fine glitter makes for a sandy textured finish and I am not a fan of texture, a layer or two of top coat takes care of that.

I also got my "polish display sticks" which I am working on painting now as my new swatch method, Much better then me relying on my own photos to remember how great (or not great) a color is!

Mor photos will be uploaded later today.

Online Polish Shopping Hazard....

Broken bottles.... oh how I dread them. I've only ever gotten one and I could tell as soon as I got the package out of my mail box that one of the bottles was broken... the smell was pretty intense.

I carefully opened the package and was greeted with this beautiful mess....

I e-mailed the seller and they sent me a replacement for the bottle that broke but the lingering problem here is the bottles that weren't broken that I then had to clean up the outsides of. My Metallic Sapphire still has an orange tinge on the bottle's cap.....

So, just be sure when you buy online that the person you are buying from has good reviews for their nail polish sales as far as how the bottles were wrapped and packaged.


A busted bottle is a nightmare.... ain't no body got time fo' dat!

Things I have learned over the last 6 months....

So I have only in the last 6 months started my nail polish adventure, so today I am gonna tell you all the random stuff I have learned either through online research or trial and error. Here we go:

1: Staying Clean!

So as a nail painting newb I was pretty bad about slopping polish pretty much all over the place. My cuticles, my nail folds, my desk, sometimes even my arms. The best thing I can tell people about how I learned to not be so messy is "I would practice small even strokes." Which means I would Do my level best to paint with a light amount of polish on my brush and make sure to apply it somewhat slowly. I used to go fast and heavy and that was a disaster. While it can take longer to paint with thinner coats (if the polish is lightly pigmented and needs a few coats to have full opacity) I really think it has helped me to not make as much of a mess of myself.

Additionally I have discovered that applying chap-stick to one's cuticle and nail folds makes the polish stick to you less. I use Lip Smackers cuz it is cheap and I don't care if I use it all up on my fingers. You still need to be careful about not getting the polish everywhere because I am fairly sure that picking up the chap-stick on the brush and putting it in the polish bottle is not good for the polish. This is more of a help for little slip ups not big ones.

When water marbling you can use the above technique only apply the chap-stick to more of your finger or you can use masking tape or scotch tape to cover the finger more fully because water marbling IS. MESSY. No matter how hard I have tried I can never get a good water marble without totally coating my nails in a thin layer of polish which can be a pain in the keester to remove.

When you've tried everything and there is still polish on your cuticles and skin then it's time to break out the paint brush and acetone. I actually don't use a paint brush I use a make up brush. Specifically I use the E.L.F. Professional Concealer Brush. It has firm short bristles that work great for me to dip in acetone or polish remover and paint off the stray polish. Getting the right brush for you will be a sort of trial and error, I initially bought a bundle of paint brushes from Walmart for 4 dollars and it had brushes that were nice but not what I was wanting. My mother got me the E.L.F. brush and it's been my favorite ever since. I have two in a drawer for when this one gets old.

2: Patience is Important!

Another thing I did as a nail painting newb was I didn't wait for each of my polish coats to be completely dry before applying the next layer. BIG. MISTAKE. This is the number one reason I would always smoosh up my nails when I thought they were dry, but they actually weren't.

Each new coat of polish softens the coat under it, if you don't let the previous coat dry completely you will wind up with one think coat of nail polish goo that takes FOR-EV-ER to dry. If the previous coat is completely dry it softens less so the whole thing will dry more evenly and be less likely to do the "candy coating over gooey center" thing a lot of people complain about.

This is also where thin coats comes in handy as well, they dry faster, even if the actual application takes longer.

3: Slap it on Quick!

I'm referring to Crackle polishes. Not regular polish. Because crackle dries so fast you really need to slap it on as fast as possible to get an even coat, however this isn't always important because it IS crackle after all it isn't made to be a full coverage polish.

If you apply it to slowly and take time you run the risk of pulling off partially dry crackle and stretching or smearing the base color coat. So fast is good even if you aren't going for an even coat.

A few pointers on crackle that I have figured out:

1. Shake the bottle before every application. (Most of the time with regular polish you shouldn't do this to avoid bubbles in the polish when you apply it.)
2. Base color coat MUST BE DRY or it may get pulled by the crackle as it shrinks which is not pretty... I usually wait 10-20 minutes before applying the crackle coat.
3. Almost all crackles will be a matte to semi-matte finish, if you want super blinding shine go for a really good acrylic top coat!

And on the subject of top coats....


4: Cover your Bottoms and Tops!

Some people don't use base coats. I do, especially after having my nails stained both yellow and blue. Sometimes I even use two layers of a base coat when I know the polish I am using has the tendency to stain. Some base coats are also really good at making your color polish stick to your nails for a few days longer than if you hadn't used a base. 

There are also "ridge filler" base coats that help if your nails are damaged or just grow with ridges and you want an even look to your nail.

Top coats can do three things, add super glossy shine, lock in the color coats underneath and add strength to the nail to help prevent chipping.

And lastly:

5: Have Fun and Be Creative!

Painting your nails should never be a chore it should be super awesome fun ME time. Never let it get you down if you mess up or need to redo a nail or two, it just extends the personal pampering party!

I may do another post like this later in the year if my knowledge expends to cover more topics or improve on the ones mentioned here.

In closing:

HAPPY PAINTING!

Pure Ice Purchase.

Went to Wal-mart to return something and left the store with all of 7 cents left from my $5.37 refund.

I bought two Pure Ice polishes and one bottle of remover. The colors I got were "Saddle Me Up" and "Silver Star" here are the bottles:

 With Flash

Without Flash

I really "needed" another green, and I loved this shade in teh bottle and love it on my nails as well!

It isn't the most solid of colors, so I used two coats on my nails but here is a picture of the "very subtle" differences between 1 coat, 2 coats, and 3 coats.

These were taken with no top coat, and you can see the differences are fairly subtle but I liked the look of two coats best.

Tomorrow I may try Silver Star but for today I am enjoying the green.

Crackly Mail Day Two!

So today I got 6 more bottles of polish in the mail. I kinda went over board with the crackles when I was shopping online and I didn't really realize it till they all started coming in.

I now have three bottles of black crackle from different brands. xD

Anyway today I got the following bottles:

 China Glaze Crackles in Luminous Lavender, Latticed Lilac, Cracked Medallion and Black Mesh

OPI Shatters in Blue Shatter and Silver Shatter

So naturally I had to try them. the only one I didn't try was the China Glaze Black Mesh because I don't expect it to be super different from the Sally Hansen Ink Splatter and the Pure Ice Strobe Light polishes. I could be wrong but I will find out another day.

Also as usual since there were five to test I did one on each finger of my left hand with a black base and one on each finger of my right hand with a white base. So  you will get an idea of how they will look on darks and light colors.

Here are the pictures starting with my left hand:

 Full Sun

Shade

And my right hand:

 Full Sun

Shade

Again the OPI polishes won for quality and ease of application but you can't deny the sparkly beauty of the China Glaze polishes.

My favorite of this bunch ir hands down the OPI Blue Shatter. Blue is my favorite color and this shade is particularly lovely.

A quick bonus picture, my nails as I had them yesterday and earlier today, having used a Klean Color Metallic Aqua base with OPI Super Bass Shatter and topped with a clear high gloss top coat:

Because I am slightly crazy...

I made a spreadsheet listing my nail polishes, and only those with color, as in no clear top/base coats or nail treatments. However I did include my Matte top coat.

The list.

Not huge but still... most of my friends kinda see my polish collection, beautifully displayed in racks on my wall, and inform me I have far too much of the stuff. My reply is generally "No such thing as too much!"

Here are two pictures of my display:

 This Has My Sally Hansen's, Top & Base Coats, Treatments, and my Mom's Mary Kay Polishes

And this one is my Pure Ice, Klean Color, Sinful Colors, and Revlon Polishes (And my one OPI polish)

Yep, there they all are. And I love them all.

The Pure Ice polishes are all around $2 a bottle with the crackles having been found on Ebay for 17 dollars for the 8 bottles, they used to retail at about $4 , but to my knowledge are not on the market anymore. I was thrilled to see them on ebay and for less than original retail!

The Klean Color polishes can be bought on the company's web site for about $3.50 each, however once again I got them on ebay for a steal. The metallics were the 12 bottles for $16s including shipping making them around $1.40 each! The chunky holos were more though at $17 for 9 holos and the matte top coat (so 10 bottles). Making them around $1.70 each.

My Sally Hansen polishes were all bought full retail price at WalMart or RiteAid, same with my Sinful Colors and Revlon polishes. they all range form 2 dollars a bottle to 6 dollars a bottle.

The one OPI I have I got on Amazon for about 5 dollars. It is an awesome color and the price was right. I'm glad I got it.

So. How much have I spent on polish in the last six months?

Well over $100 dollars. When I put a price on them it makes me go "oh god I can't believe I have spent that much!" but in the long run I will enjoy them for potentially years to come. Which to me makes them totally worth the pricetag.

And in other crackle news....

I know a lot of people are sick of crackle but I still love it sooo... here is my latest haul I got in the mail today:

The Bottles

The Bottles With Camera Flash

As you can see I got some Pure Ice crackles and an OPI Shatter. As far as I know the Pure Ice company doesn't make crackles any more so finding 8 bottles for 17 bucks (including shipping) was awesome considering I have heard so much good stuff about them in how they apply and work. The OPI Shatter is from the Nicki Minaj collection which is from 2012 if my research is correct. The Pure Ice crackles are from 2011.

The colors in the above pictures are: (from left to right)

OPI: Super Bass Shatter, Pure Ice: Jetsetter, Pure Ice: All Shooked Up, Pure Ice: Show Stopper, Pure Ice: Crushed, Pure Ice: Catwalk, Pure Ice: Shattered, Pure Ice: Flash, Pure Ice: Strobe Light

And here they all are on a white base coat (except Pure Ice: Flash which is on a black base coat for obvious reasons)

Now the Pure Ice went on great for the most part but some of the bottles had gloopy chunks on the brushes which I assume is due to the age of the polish I will try cleaning them out with a tooth pick if i run into any again. The OPI Worked like a dream. It's my first OPI polish so I wasn't sure what to expect but it is pretty much as great as everyone else says it is. It helps that I lovelovelove the color.

And once again I find myself stressed and chewing my fingers and finger nails to an extent... mostly the finger tips as the polishes I use have done wonders at keeping my teeth off my nails.

Happy Painting errybody!

Sally Hansen Crackle Dissapointment...

So I got the blue crackle I'd been eyeing for a long time. Sally Hansen's "Wave Break" which looks so gorgeous in the bottle.

Well I got home and applied it over a gold base coat and was sad to see it turn the polish color green as it was so sheer the blue and gold "combined" to make green.

I wanted a bold blue. I got a sheer glittery one. 

I am disappoint Sally Hansen....

Note: I don't have the pictures of the paint job on this computer but will edit them in later, when I can.


Edit: As Promised, pictures.  

 

 Left Hand. Gold Base with Wave Break and Ink Splatter Crackle

 Right Hand. Gold Base with Wave Break and Ink Splatter Crackles

The pictures really don't show just how green it wound up looking. It wasn't an unpleasant shade, it just wasn't what I had been wanting.