Sunday, July 31, 2011

200: shatter, crackle, & ...pop?

Alright alright, I'm doing it up for post number 2-0-0 since it's the long weekend and I'm not at a cottage like my fellow Canadians out there :(
Also, I think that's enough of my recent hack food posts but can you blame me? I just love food...haha

So I was able to buy some shatter and crackle nail polishes pretty recently. I've been putting off really looking into where they sell them around here but I was finally able to look up some ebay listings. I didn't want to spend too much on OPI polish so I figured I'd look up some reviews of other good brands.
I ended up buying a "China Glaze: Crackle Glaze" online and because I'm not the most patient person ever; while waiting for the China Glaze Crackle Glaze to be shipped to my house from the USA I went out and picked up two "Kleancolor: Crack Nail Polishes" from the local Urban Planet.

I'm going to be a brief review of my thoughts and comparisons of  China Glaze's: Crackle Glaze and Kleancolor: Crack Nail Polishes

Beware of tons of photos below and be warned that I'm not a professional nail polish applicator and some of the results are a little messy!


These are the colours I decided to work with. Rainbow fingers! I ended up taking out the orange since I only have 5 fingers...but I thought I could form a nice rainbow for the photo


I did my nails maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago using the awesome Konad system. I love it!!


Clean nails ready to be painted


Just letting my nails breathe for a bit =)


Starting with my left hand. I bought this polish from Shoppers Drug Mart for pretty cheap. It's Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #4917-25 and it has a nice sort of metallic glow to it.
I really love the size of the brush and the fact that is does dry fast!!


I bought this nail polish from Urban Planet for $2 on sale. It's L.A. Colors Color Craze: Atomic Np420. It's pretty good for the price but it is hard to get away with one coat. The brush is just an average size.


I bought this nail polish from Urban Planet for $2 on sale as well. It's Kleancolor Nail Polish #17 Neon Green. Again, it's good for the price but it is hard to get away with one coat. The brush is just an average size.


I bought this nail polish from Urban Planet for $2 on sale too. It's L.A. Colors Color Craze: Current Np413 and it has a slight glitter to it. Again, it's pretty good for the price but it is hard to get away with one coat. The brush is just an average size.


This is China Glaze 87-2086 Pink Underground. I really like the milky pink look of it but it also has a very slight glitter to it. It's hard to tell but this is a smaller bottle of polish but the brush is average sized.


My nails done with one coat of each colour. Looks like Easter!


Two coats done and now ready for the shatter polish.


After my nails were completely dry, I applied one coat of China Glaze's Crackle Glaze #980 Black Mesh on my left hand. As you can see on my middle finger, I ran the brush horizontally across my nail and it caused the shatters to run lengthwise. I don't like that look as much on top of the fact that I didn't do a great job of it. I love the fact that the Crackle Glaze itself is matte.


I finished off my nails with Kleancolor's #90 Madly Matte Top Coat. It turns any polish matte and I absolutely love it!


Complete nails with assorted colours, China Glaze Crackle Polish and Matte Top Coat


Moving on, first coat on my right hand in preparation of for Kleancolor's Crack Polish. My plan is to just alternate between the Kleancolor Teal & Purple Crack Polishes. I ended up doing two coats of the base colour (no photo).


I bought this nail polish from Urban Planet for $2 on sale. It's Kleancolour's Crack Polish #239 Teal Crackle. I had to apple with before the base colour was completely dry


I bought this nail polish from Urban Planet for $2 on sale. It's Kleancolour's Crack Polish #241 Purple Crackle.


This is an "Crack in progress" photo. As you can see Kleancolor's Crack Polish takes more than a few seconds to crack. You have to wait a couple of minutes for the coat to completely dry before you can see an cracking.


Complete nails with assorted colours and Kleancolor's Crack Polish


More detailed shot of the crackle.


Assorted colours, China Glaze Crackle Polish and Matte Top Coat VS. Assorted colours and Kleancolor's Crack Polish (no top coat)


China Glaze Versus Kleancolor. Both finished with Matte Top Coat


A major difference with Kleancolor's Crack Polish application is that it requires you to apply the Crack Polish to partially wet nails


China Glaze requires you to apply Crackle Glaze to completely dry nails

I will have to say that I absolutely love China Glaze's Crackle Glaze but It really depends on what you would like your final you are looking for. I find that with China Glaze I was able to keep the look of my rainbow colours of nail polish thanks to the manner in which the China Glaze was able to not act like a coat of nail polish but more like a secondary layer.
Kleancolor's Crack Polish is a little less friendly in terms of application. It's hard to tell if your nails are "partially wet" without have to touch your nail and potentially damaging your coat. I don't like the fact that when I applied the Kleancolor it cracked like a mini desert. You can barely tell that I painted my nails in rainbow colours really...it just looks like I went and painted the most random colours on each of my fingernails.
China Glaze's Crackle Glaze is fantastic; it's simple to apply, instant results, matte finish, and quick drying! Kleancolor's Crack Polish is difficult to apply because of the fact that it needs to be applied to partially wet nails. I have experienced accidents in which I applied the polish too soon and mixed it with my base colour of nail polish. The end results are okay but I think that I would have looked better if I chose basecoat colours that don't contribute to the Crack Polish colour, I think white would be ideal. Also, it takes too long for the Crack Polish to show any signs of cracking and the finish of the polish is very shiny.

I know that I sound in love with China Glaze over Kleancolor but there is one thing that I like about Kleancolor over China Glaze though. When using China Glaze I made an error in the coat and when I went to fix it; the shatter effect was affected by my error and it did not turn out as planned. With Kleancolor because it does take a few minutes to dry and then crack: I was able to fix errors in the coat before letting it dry and not having any noticable affects in the final result.

All in all, China Glaze's Crackle Glaze gives you a matte shattered glass look while Kleancolor's Crack Nail Polish gives you a shiny cracked snakeskin look. The price difference was $10 and $2 respectively and I think that for the difference in price, Kleancolor is a very affordable alternative!

Thanks for reading my review! What do you think about shatter and crackle polishes? Have you tried any? Which ones do you prefer? What color combinations are your favourite?


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Saturday, July 30, 2011

199: ikea breakfast

Recently, Syl & I visited an Ikea right before 11am. We didn't mean to time it out that way but we dashed for the food court and were able to grab the last two plates of breakfast. I'm not sure if it's the same in other countries but have you ever tried the $1.00 Ikea breakfast? If yes, what do you think?
I think for the amount it costs, why not? It's filling and a good start to a long shopping trip. As long as you're not making a mission out to Ikea daily to eat the breakfast minus the shopping. :P


My breakfast. Check out that ice cream scoop of eggs...


Syl's breakfast. mmm lots of Frank's Red Hot Sauce.


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198: fast eddie's

I haven't planned much this long weekend but I made a trip out to Waterloo, Ontario today and I'm so guilty of going on a little shopping trip. I bought some great things that I'm sure I will blog about in the near future. But during my shopping trip I was very surprised by the fact that I ran into Katrina of thedemuremuse! Katrina if you are reading this, I know it was brief but it was great to see you again!!

On the way from Waterloo, I made a stop at Fast Eddie's in Cambridge, Ontario. If you've never been to one; it's a drive-thru, or walk-thru only, burger place. I've never really been a fan of drive-thrus because there aren't many of those types of restaurants around here. I really prefer to walk in to pick up my food and if I want to eat at home, I do. But Fast Eddie's is the type of place where you go to pick up your food and then park your car to eat in it.

I had a great experience and I will definitely return when I go back out west =)


My chicken burger, it was very hot








Fast Eddie's has what they call "CrazyFrys". mmm, they were good!

Hey you Canadians, what are your plans for the Civic long weekend? (although I just found out that It is not a statutory holiday in Manitoba)


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Friday, July 29, 2011

197: the bachelorette

I'm at that age. My friends are done school, they're settling in & some of them are even getting MARRIED. So this past weekend I went to my THIRD bachelorette party of the year! whoa.

We went up to Collingwood, which is one of my favourite places in Ontario because of all the great memories I have there. The plan was to go to Le Scandinave Spa (featuring outdoor 'baths', steam rooms, saunas etc) and then go out for an amazing Italian dinner at Trattoria Azzurra & then for a crazy night out in Blue Mountain at Kaytoo! Here's the photo summary!








The bride refused to wear any ridiculous "accessories" when we went out, so I made some cute little birdcage veils for everyone from some tulle & mismatched vintage laces :)


They did the trick & everyone knew we were a bachelorette party! ...and without being those other girls who were walking around with pink penis accessories all over themselves. lol.

Of course, that doesn't mean we didn't get crazy though. We went home wasted & planked all over our chalet.







xoxo

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Thursday, July 28, 2011

196: my green thumb

I talked in an earlier entry about how much of a grandma I am because of my love for vegetable gardening. I posted photos of my garden when it was still very young & green but lately, some more tasty treats & bright colours have been appearing! Here's another peek into what's been keeping me busy!


a little harvest of cherry tomatoes & yellow pear tomatoes


cayennes. they are SUPER hot! YAY!


these are some form of heirloom tomato, but we have no idea what kind yet!


aren't these little signs cute? they're from ikea!


our pot of lettuce hasn't been giving us huge salads but we've been able to garnish burgers with it :)


brussels sprouts, which we'll see sprout out in october.

stay fresh, babies.
xoxo

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