Cowboys Half Moon Mani

 The Cowboys lost. How did this happen?? They were winning and then they had to just be plain stupid and lose their first freaking game. Now they are 0-1. Grr... as Ni hao Kai-lan would say, "I'm so mad!" The only plus side to their loss last night is that I get to redo my nails, yay!

 Let's move on to today's post before I ramble some more about the Cowboy's suckage. Hehe. I used Sally Hansen's Celeb City for the half moon and for the background on my accent nail. The navy polish is Nina Ultra Pro in Sailor. I am not great at freehand, so I used some hole reinforcements as guides. This was the first time I attempted to do a half moon mani and I didn't plan on outlining the half moon, but due to my less than perfect outcome, it was necessary. The tattoo decal was purchased on Ebay from seller Lucky Star Style for $1.80 for 20 decals with free shipping. (No affiliation, just a great deal.)

 The application of the decals can be a little tricky, but here are some tips that helped me:

• Cut as closely as possible to the image, that way less of the "clear" portion of the tattoo will show.
• To get accurate placement, use tweezers rather than your fingers to position the decal on your nail.
• You want to leave the plastic backing on the tattoo when cutting out the image because the tattoo is sticky and it will adhere to your fingers and mess up the design.
• Since you are leaving the plastic backing on and cutting as closely as possible to the image, you will find it difficult to remove the plastic backing once you are done cutting. This is where the tweezers will come in handy. Actually, if you have to pairs of tweezers it would be much better. You can hold the tattoo with one pair of tweezers and with the other you can slide the tip in to start removing the backing. That way your fingers will have no contact with the tattoo, leaving the design intact.
• The last thing is you don't want to submerge the tattoo in water when applying. A cloth, cotton or felt with some water is the best way to apply tattoos. You want to just lightly dab on the tattoo until the paper falls off.

 In real life the tattoo isn't too noticeable as it seems in the first two pictures, that's just the macro doing it's job. The last two pictures are a better representation as to how they actually look in real life. Regardless of imperfections and *ahem Cowboys sucking ahem* I was pleased with the outcome, especially the accent nail!

I would love to get some feedback, so what are your thoughts? What colors would you use for your favorite sports team?

Hard Candy Mr. Wrong, Mr. Right and some CRACKLE!

 I am so excited today! I will be conducting my first swap ever this week on MUA! I have been a member of Makeup Alley for awhile now, but I never really visited the site too often. I  have been iffy about swapping, but I decided to go ahead and try out swapping to try and get some of my wishlist items fulfilled. It took some work, though, to find someone who was willing to swap for my Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Finally, I did find someone who had a China Glaze 2Nite and was willing to swap. The only caviat to this, however, is that she's from Canada. I don't necessarily look at this as a bad thing, but since this is my first time swapping, I would have felt more comfortable doing so within the US. Regardless, I am super excited and hope that all goes well! Well, enough about my excitement and on to some polish goodness!!

 Mr. Wrong is a polish that I had been lemming for awhile, and I almost bought it off eBay. I'm glad I didn't, though, because I actually came across this one last week and it was only 4.00. (That's the normal price for any Hard Candy nail polish in my area, but way cheaper than eBay.) When I first started applying it, I was amazed! I couldn't believe how sparkly it was. This polish is a lilac shimmery polish loaded with gold microglitter and I needed two coats for complete coverage.

It was really hard to try and capture all the gold glitter, but if you click on the pictures you will get a better look at it. This picture was taken in the shade with no topcoat.

This was taken in the sun with no topcoat. 

A closeup in the shade with a coat of Seche Vite. Even though, it looks somewhat gritty, it was actually really smooth after applying Seche Vite.

Closeup in the sun with Seche Vite.

Mr. Wrong was a lot easier to find and this is the second time I use it, but I had not seen it in it's pure glory. The first time I used this polish was as a base under my Tron Inspired Look. I don't recall ever seeing it in the sun, but then again the striping tape I used stole this lacquer's thunder! This is two coats with a coat of Seche Vite.

See what I mean?? At first, it seems as if it's your standard navy blue creme, but once you get this color under the sun... OMG! I had to file my nails really short because of a break I had in my pinky, but this polish makes me crave my claws again just to see more of this shimmery greatness!

Finally, the crackle that was promised in the title. This is one of the new metallics from China Glaze, Latticed Lilac. 

I have the first Crackle collection that China Glaze came out with, but because some of them take work to get them to crackle, I haven't used them. This one, though, is comparable to OPI Silver Shatter. It was incredibly easy to get this one to crackle. I loved this combo! I only wish that the cracks would be bigger to let some more of the awesome blue show through.

  That's it for today! I hope you guys enjoyed!!!