"I'll be back... and I am back"

Hi all! Hope some of you caught "The Office" reference in my post title ;) Anyway, it's been a few days. My explanation? I have been so busy with work that I haven't painted my nails since the last post. Yup, you read that right. Epic Winning came off, and my nails became epic fail of nakedness. Since I'm trying to work some exercise into my daily life, it's been kinda hectic (although I can proudly report I learned to ride a bike this week!).

No more excuses though! I bought an orange no-name crackle from Rite Aid... I was feeling down, needed some retail therapy, and this is what called to me. It's Nickelodeon colored orange and pretty bright, but I kind of like it. Not sure I could do my whole mani in this, but it would be a good summer color crackle.

The brand is Republic Nail, never heard of them before but it came in packaging, much like mascara would (with the cardboard backing and everything!). Kind of weird for a polish.

These three are over Nina Ultra Pro Purple X-ing, ChG Lemon Fizz, and OPI Planks a Lot with NYC In a Minute topcoat over them.  This crackle actually worked pretty well. As you can see, it can vary in crack sizes much like the more expensive brands, but it wasn't clumpy at all. Even when the bottle was exposed to air for a little bit, there wasn't any sign of thickening. Kind of impressive!

Also, my China Glaze crackle Metals came in (!!!!) the other day, and I have been meaning to experiment more with them. I only bought the 3 colored ones (in order in the picture below: Oxidized Aqua, Latticed Lilac and Haute Metal) because I feel like the neutral colors are getting a bit overdone and I like my colors! I guess since the polish ends up looking predominantly the color of the crackle, I'm sick of having gray, black, white... it's a bit bland, to me. What colors would you like to see the colored crackle metals over?

(Did you notice I got an "oops" bottle of Oxidized Aqua? Instead of the Crackle Glaze logo, I got the normal ChG logo with "Crackle" stamped on the left side of the bottle, which you can see vaguely.)

Above, I stamped the ChG Metal Crackles over some skittle swatches. From left to right:
-Haute Metal over ChG Lemon Fizz
-Oxidized Aqua over OPI Planks a Lot
-Latticed Lilac over OPI Sparrow Me the Drama
-Oxidized Aqua over Ulta Blue Streak

xoxo,
Amanda