Grey Mani with Pink Splatter Glitter

Today I have a quick and easy glitter manicure to share:

This manicure uses Rimmel's 'Grey Matter' as a base, under a coat of Claire's Cosmetics's Splatter glitter polish in the colorway 'Paparazzi'. 'Paparazzi' was featured on the blog before as part of a manicure I did for my 'Project Polish', you can click here for that entry.

The whole impetus behind this manicure was actually to give 'Paparazzi' one more chance before deciding whether or not to declutter it. The polish is quite old, and it has gone a little gloopy. On top of that, the colorway is pretty limiting, in that it's hard to think of base colors that it would look good with. And finally, the polish isn't really my cup of tea anymore. Because of this, I've decided part with this polish. 

Pastel Green Manicure with Splatter Effect Glitter

Today I have another mani photo pulled from my archives - the metadata advises that it was from October 2013. This is s simple glitter mani using 2 polishes: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Green Tea', and Claire's Cosmetics 'Splatter Paint'.

There's actually something really awesome about this combination of polishes. I really like how this look came out...  I would even repeat this look now, almost 7 years later!!!  

Glitter Mani: 'Cherries in the Snow' and 'Flashing Lights'

Today I have a quick post to share. It's a simple glitter manicure using Revlon's 'Cherries in the Snow', and Claire's Cosmetics Splatter 'Flashing Lights'.  I've been struggling to find base polishes that would look good with this glitter topper from my 'Project Polish'.  I think that this red, white and blue combo worked out quite nicely! 

Truthfully, I am really over this glitter topper... I don't really enjoy glitter polishes as much as I used to, and this one in particular has a very limiting colourway, so there's not as many polishes that it can be used with. I'm really not sure if I'm going to be able to finish the entire bottle - this polish is most likely bound for the giveaway pile.

Glitter Mani using Nicole by OPI 'Rich in Spirit'

Today I have a quick glitter mani to share using one of my 'Project Polish' polishes: Nicole by OPI's 'Rich in Spirit', and a glitter polish that I'm thinking of adding to the project: 

The glitter is called 'Paparazzi', and it's by Claire's Cosmetics, from their Splatter Effect Collection. I used the teal version of this polish called  'Flashing Lights' in my 'Blue and White Splatter Manicure'. 

Polishes Used: 'Paparazzi' and 'Rich in Spirit'

For a simple gliter mani, I kind of like the way the colours work together!

Blue and White Splatter Manicure using Claire's 'Flashing Lights' and Sally Hansen 'Sky's the Limit'

Today I have a fun glitter manicure I did using one of my 'Project Polish' polishes, Claire's 'Flashing Lights':

Since this polish is a topper, I'll include my 'Spotlight' on the polish (where I give a little history, and some details about my 'Project Polish' polishes) in this post. Claire's 'Flashing Lights', is a blue splatter effect glitter with matte turquoise hex and bar glitters, and white hex glitters. From what I can see on-line, it looks like this polish was released in 2013. I used a sister polish from the collection, a black version called 'Splatter Paint' in a couple previous manicures that I blogged. The earliest is from August 2014 (and here is the other). I remember I bought a bunch of these splatter effect polishes from Claire's on clearance, so I probably bought them in late 2013 or early 2014 - it's really shocking how quickly time flies!

Polishes Used

Claire's Cosmetics Splatter 'Flashing Lights'

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure -                   'Sky's the Limit' (colour number 565)

For this manicure, I decided to go with a mostly monochromatic theme, so a chose a light blue Sally Hansen polish as the base, 'Sky's the Limit'. I'm pretty sure that this was previously untried, so I'm glad I got a chance to use it despite doing this project. That's one reason I'm really glad that there are topper's included in this 'Project Polish'... It's only been a few weeks, but I'm already starting to feel a little constrained. Once I realized that I needed to choose a base colour from my collection to go with this topper, I was so eager to look through my stash of polishes to find one to use! 

I'm probably going to have to take a small hiatus from the project a little closer to the holidays, because I'm really looking forward to doing some fun Christmas manicures using Reds and Greens, and I don't want to feel pressured to include some of the 'Project Polish' colours.  

Polishes Used

Project Polish

In my Blue and Gold Manicure using Quo by Orly 'Celestial Star' post, I mentioned that I wanted to do a 'Project Polish': A deliberate attempt to use up particular nail polishes over a period time by using them frequently and consistently until they are gone.

In that post I explained that when I was going through my collection, I noticed some glitter and special effect polishes that seemed to be drying up in the bottles. I decided that I wanted to try to use them up as soon as possible, in order to avoid them becoming unusable before I had even gotten a chance to get my money's worth.

I finally got around to photographing and listing all of the polishes that I wanted to include in the project. First here are the pictures:

I'm starting to realize that creme polishes seem to hold up better over time, as all of these polishes that I found that seem to be evaporating away, are glitter and shimmer heavy polishes. I'm glad that they still look relatively good. Some need to be thinned out with lacquer thinner, and some of the glitters may actually even perform better as the base has shrunk away - hopefully this should lead to denser glitter coverage during application.

In addition to the 'Blue and Gold' manicure that I discussed earlier, I have already managed to do two other manicures using some of these polishes. I used Gone Wishin' in my 'Purple and Silver Negative Space Stamping Glitter Mani', and I used 'Scandal, Secrets & Sparkle' for my 'Remembrance Day Manicure - 2018'.

Here's a list of the names of the polishes above that I want to use up as part of the project (the grid of names is in the same order as the pictures in the collage):

China Glaze I love Your Guts	Kleancolor Starry Night	OPI Glow Up Already!	Nicole by OPI Nicole... Spotted!
Nicole by OPI Honey-Dew You Love Me?	Quo by Orly Turquoise Moonlight	China Glaze Water You Waiting For?	Quo by Orly Celestial Star
Nicole by OPI Rich in Spirit	Claire's Cosmetics Flashing Lights	China Glaze Liquid Crystal	Nicole by OPI Gone Wishin'
China Glaze All Wrapped Up	Quo by Orly Night Sky	China Glaze Snow Globe	Nicole by OPI Scandals, Secrets & Sparkle

Now, I've never done a 'Project Polish' before, so this will definitely be a new and interesting experience for me.  Since I love nail stamping, my approach will be to use one of these 16 polishes as the base for a nail stamping design for each of my manicures. Three of the polishes are technically toppers ('Honey-Dew You Love Me?', 'Flashing Lights', and 'Snow Globe'), so there's also an option of doubling up for each manicure: using one of the polishes as a base, and then one of the toppers to complete the look. The best thing about this approach is that I will still be able to use all of my other polishes along with these ones, so I'm not limited to just 16 polishes.
I think the most challenging polish to work with will be China Glaze's 'I Love Your Guts', a frosty semi-matte red textured polish with black micro-glitters from their 2014 Halloween collection 'Apocalypse of Colour'.  I previously used it for my 'Halloween Themed Test Mani', and my 'Red and Black Tree Mani'.  Since the polish already makes quite a statement on it's own, my first instinct is to use it for Halloween-type designs, but I'm going to have to try to rethink that now that Halloween is over.
I've decided that I don't want to come up with an arbitrary deadline for using up the polishes. I can commit to trying to use them for every manicure, and to trying to do my nails more frequently, as needed. I don't want to commit to changing my nail polish every day (as many other 'Project Polishers' suggest), as I typically spend a lot of time planning and executing my nail art, and I like being able to wear each manicure for a few days, in order to decrease the total amount of time I spend doing my nails on a weekly basis. Also, I think forcing myself to do my nails everyday would eventually feel like a chore.
Now that I am in a nail polish collection culling frame of mind, I'm starting to notice some other polishes that I would like to add to the project. I may make this project on-going, and as certain polishes are used up, I may add others to replace them. We'll see how this goes...

Crackle Polish Challenge #15 - Rainbow Graffiti Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #15

Featured crackle application:
Combining multiple crackle polishes with regular polishes for a graffiti art effect

Featured crackle polish:
OPI 'Black Shatter'

Rainbow Graffiti Mani

Polishes Used

Claire’s ‘Splatter Paint’

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat ‘Cherry Smash’

Nicole by OPI ‘Tangerini Bikini’

OPI ‘The “It” Color’

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure ‘Grass Slipper’

OPI ‘Turquoise Shatter’

OPI ‘Super Bass Shatter’

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri ‘Silver Sweep’

OPI ‘Black Shatter’

Konad Special Polish in Black

Polishes Used

Nail Stamping Plate Used:

Moyou London Rockstar Collection - 12

I wanted this manicure to be colourful and fun, so I decided to use a bright yellow base colour (OPI 'It Color'), to layer all of the other polishes over. I started with small strokes of the four shatter polishes (red, turquoise, purple, and black) , and tried to vary the direction, placement and length of the strokes for a random effect. I used the black shatter polish last, to help it stand out a little more.

Then I used a dotting tool to add dots of the orange and green regular polishes, again varying the size of the dots, and their placement. After that, I topped all of my nails with a splatter effect glitter topcoat. I made 2 graffiti tag nail stamping decals using silver and black polishes, and then placed the decals over my ring fingers. I finished the look off with some topcoat to seal everything in and to add shine.

I really love the finished look! This manicure was so much fun to do, and to wear - I found myself looking at my nails a lot as I went through my day!

Here are some more shots of the completed manicure:

Rainbow Graffiti Mani - Extra Shots

'Clueless' Inspired Manicure

Recently, the 90's cult classic movie 'Clueless' has been brought back to the public consciousness. The music video for one of summer 2014's hit songs, 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX, paid homage to the movie by recreating some of it's most memorable scenes. Fashion played a major role in the movie, and one of the movie's most unforgettable pieces of wardrobe was prominently featured in the music video - lead character Cher's iconic yellow plaid skirt suit. I remember being amazed at how awesome that outfit was, the first time I saw the film! Seeing it again in the music video brought back so many memories. All hopped up on nostalgia, I was inspired to create this manicure based on that outfit.

'Clueless' Inspired Manicure - Left

  

'Clueless' Inspired Manicure - Right

 I really liked the way this turned out. It's a bright and fun twist on a traditional plaid.  I used Sinful Colors 'Chick Chick' as the base colour for the manicure.  I used three different plaid images from Moyou London's Hipster Collection Plate 05. I double stamped all of my nails, except for my ring fingers, with Konad Special polish in both white and black. On my ring finger, I applied a splatter effect top coat. The one I used was from Claire's Cosmetics, called 'Splatter Paint'.   I topped everything off with a high gloss topcoat.  I was tempted to go matte with this one, to make it more reminiscent of fabric. I was also thinking about trying to incorporate the jacket's silver buttons into the manicure as well, however I decided against both ideas in order to keep things simple.

This look was pretty quick and easy to do. Also, it would work with pretty much any base colour. I think I will definitely be trying this out with different colour combinations sometime in the future!