The other day my girlfriend J called me and the conversation went a little like this:

J: I’m in love with shatter/crackle polish.
Me: Huh?
J: I’m in love with that nail polish that cracks all over your fingers. You’ve got it right?
Me: Oohhhh! No. Not a single bottle.
J: What? How do I have it and you don’t?!

Ironically when I got my hair cut on Friday my stylist asked me how come I didn’t have the crackle polish and she did. I don’t get EVERYTHING in the world of beauty, folks. I know I have a lot of stuff, but again I don’t get everything. And a lot of times when it comes to polish I like to read nail polish blogs like All Lacquered Up to see what they have to say about new nail collections. So I decided to take the plunge and pick up 2 bottles of the new China Glaze Metallic Crackle (because the standard colors have been sold out at my local Sally Beauty but they told me to come back on Sunday for the Metallics).

Since I picked up China Glaze Oxidized Aqua Crackle Glaze Metal I decided I should really make the color pop so I put it on top of OPI by Sephora in I’m Wired, a bright coral creme. The results were pretty cool and now I want to layer this aqua metallic crackle over a dark navy or teal to see what it looks like with dark and sparkle mixed together.

It’s a fun alternative to my traditional manicure and next I’ll have to try it on m toes. I also picked up a gold shade of the crackle glaze, so we’ll see how that goes next. But have any of you tried the crackled polish look? What do you think about it?

Happy Monday, how was your weekend? Mine was entirely too short and to wake up on a wet Monday with more rain to come is not my favorite way to start the week. But on the bright side, it will be 71 degrees today (I’m ignoring the torrential rain and high winds part) and tomorrow is March 1 so spring is definitely on it’s way – YAY!

So last night when I was painting my nails I decided I needed to do something that would go against this dreary Monday and brighten up my day. I’ve had Zoya nail polish in Dana in my arsenal of polishes since November but I just hadn’t been in a hot pink kind of a mood, so it sat waiting patiently for me to open it. I honestly bought this color because of the name I’d like to think that after a tweeting campaign of suggesting the name Dana they finally gave in with that summer collection but who knows. I also thought it was ironic that when I bought my sisters’ namesake polishes (Charisma for my next polish purchase color. But I definitely think Dana will be in my spring/summer rotation a lot this year.

So what are your favorite shades to wear to help perk up your mood? Do tell!

Like my nails? These are the new Sally Hansen Salon Effects that I picked up at CVS during my lunchbreak last week. I walked by the display and saw so many colorful options and said, well I will try that!

I haven’t done Minx because so many people have said they chip so easily after a few hours. I wasn’t going to waste my money on something like that when I have so much polish at home. But when I saw the at-home version I had to try it. I picked the houndstooth print, but  there is lace, fishnets, camouflage, butterflies and even glitter! Which is great because glitter is a pain to remove. But the black and white was speaking to me, so I picked them up and wanted to give them a go. Last week my friends at We Heart This posted about their Salon Effects experience too and that made me pull them out this weekend and put them on.

They were very easy to apply, even on my right hand. You pull the strips off of their plastic backing, apply them to your nail and then smooth the sides with a cuticle stick and remove the excess (I found that it’s easier to just fold the nail decal over your nail and use your nail as a file instead of the little file they provided). In about 30 minutes, I had 10 very fancy nails and I loved how they came out. I also loved that I convinced my husband that I had painstakingly painted the pattern on my nails. HA! He believes I such a creative person, gotta love him.

So far they’ve worn nicely for the last 3 days, so I’m anxious to see how long they last without chipping. I picked them up at CVS for about $10 for a pack, so cheaper than a salon manicure but definitely not an every week kind of thing. I’ve definitely got the denim and zebra print pattern on my list to pick up to try again. I think they’re a fun alternative to my normal nails.

Have you seen Salon Effects in your store? Have you picked them up yet? Are you interested?

This Monday’s Manicure is a repeat of a FAVORITE color of mine, Rescue Beauty Lounge Teal. The only reason I’m really repeating this color is to tell you that for today only from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm (November 1, 2010) EST Rescue Beauty Lounge is doing their 50% off sale again!

All polishes (except for the new Tudor Dynasty collection) will be 50%, that’s a great deal considering they’re normally $18 a bottle. But believe me they’re worth it. The colors are GORGEOUS and like nothing else out there. So stock up! Use code FIFTYOFF at checkout and then tell me what you bought!

Remember in early September when I showed you the MAC Digi-Dazzle lipstick I purchased in Baby’s On Fire? Well I realized the other day after I painted my nails that it was an exact match for OPI Designer Series, DS Reflection!

I realize this is becoming a bit of a pattern from me now, LOL. I fell in love with Essie Splash of Grenadine and Revlon’s Haute Berry, so why wouldn’t I do the same with Baby’s On Fire and DS Reflection?

My sister likes to complain that I always paint my nails in shades of green, blue and purple (I am wearing Lincoln Park After Dark right now…) and I don’t do enough pinks or bronzes. I kind of hate the color bronze, so it won’t be showing up on my tips anytime soon unless it blows me away, but I do have tons of pinks, reds and oranges. I’m just not usually drawn to them like I am a sassy teal shade.

I remember when I bought DS Reflection a while ago, I was just as excited about it’s strawberry pink color and sparkle as I was when I saw the Digi-Dazzle lipstick. What I love even more about the nail color is that it gives you that sparkle like a glitter polish does but without the headache of having to remove a glitter polish. I just don’t understand why glitter is so difficult to remove and yet so sparkly and pretty?! Why?!

So perhaps this will be a new trend of mine? Matching my lips and tips, what do you think? What do you match your polish to? Your mood? Your outfit? Your lipstick? Do share!