Polish Us Pink: Heart Tree

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and even men can get this cancer. To the survivors, the people struggling with it today, and the people whose lives have been touched by it, this is for you. Read my first post for more about how cancer has effected my life.

 Another Monday mani for Breast Cancer Awareness! Yea I know it isn't Monday anymore...whatever...I got distracted :P. This is kind of a nail fail so forgive me, but the idea is cute so I still posted it. Feel free to laugh.

 I used Barielle Big Apple Red for the base, with one coat each of Barry M Pink Iridescent and Color Club Fame and Fortune. The accent nail is a base of Milani white with Barry M Dusky Mauve for the tree. The hearts are stamped in white, Orly Pixy Stix, Barielle Big Apple Red, and Revlon Electric Pink.

This image was my inspiration for this mani. I was searching for images about breast cancer awareness and this cute pink heart tree with ribbons in it came up. I didn't add the ribbons as I thought it would be too much detail, but this is what I was going for.

I swear I waited a good amount of time before the topcoat....but it never seems to matter. The hearts weren't really showing up over the red, so I decided to double stamp them over white. I've seen loads of people do it even with full nail designs. Line em' up...BAM! Fail...lol.

But ooh that glitter! I love Pink Iridescent and those big flakies from the Color Club are pretty cool.

 The flakies give off a dark color at some angles. This one isn't so bad, right? The little tree is at least ugly pretty :D. So this mani isn't predominantly pink, but it's the thought that counts!

Feel free to join in the fun this month as we post a mani in support of breast cancer every Monday in October. Don't forget to tag your posts on Twitter/Instagram with #PolishUsPink!

Barry M Dusky Mauve

Ah yes, my first Barry M from my European birthday haul. Thankyou Amber love :D. Meet Barry M Dusky Mauve, a dusky grey brown with slight lean towards purple and a purple chromey shimmer. Formula fabulous and lasted days longer than my recent manis.

This is how she looks most of the time. The purple duochrome is kind of difficult to see on the nail. 

Here is the purple shimmer coming out in the sunlight. Click to see it bigger and appreciate the shimmer more. It really is a bit more obvious in person than in pics, but still not ever wow. 

Bright sunlight

Pretty pretty

This is in dim light so you can see her darker side. 

And on my purple comforter to see that she really does have a tint of purple to the gray/brown. 

Overall I totally love Barry M for it's application and wear. It really held up to gardening, dishes, and more. Do you have any? Do you covet any?

European Birthday Haul

Amber sent me an awesome goodie package for my birthday! Yes, my birthday was in May lol, but she wanted to wait till after she got back from Europe so she could get me some fabulous polishes. 

 Meet my new girls!

 Nicole by OPI Wild Blue Yonder - Matte, NOPI Virtuous Violet - Matte

 Barry M Pink Iridescent and Dusty Mauve

 Mavala Lisboa and Glasgow

MeMeME Defiant and GOSH Purple Heart

And two of my favorite eyeshadow ever that I haven't been able to find in America - No7 Wheatsheaf

Yay thanks so much Amber!!! :D

Crackle Polishes

I don't own any crackle polishes yet, but boy do I want to. Loads of brands are coming out with crackles now. Shall we begin? China Glaze, for example, has 6 colors:


Head2ToeBeauty sells these for 3.49 each, 8ty8beauty sells them for 3.18 each, Transdesign sells them for 3.20 each, and I found them on Amazon for as cheap as 3.80 each. If you want to buy it in store, Sally Beauty and Ulta should both be carrying it soon, as I don't see it on their web pages.



Crazed Expressions has an awesome collection of 20 shades. They look pretty sweet. The only bad thing is I can't find them for sale...anywhere except Ebay. I sent them an email so we'll see if I get a helpful reply.

BYS also sells a crackle polish in 14 shades. They also come in little sets with a base color, the color of crackle, and a top coat too. You can buy this online at FashionAddict for 4.95 each. This is the only place I can find it.


This weird foreign brand that looks like BK has some cool colors that the other lines don't carry, like brown and some different reds. You can still order them from TrendInCosmetics for 6.00. I've heard that you can get them for less than 3.00, but I haven't found where yet.

Bornpretty, a store you should all be familiar with, sells 7 colors for 4.52 each. Free shipping! They also sell a lot of cute nail art stuff like rhinestones and brushes.

Barry M has a black crackle polish like OPI's, not to mention loads of other cute ones, but I can't find a single place in America that sells this. It's a European brand.

I'm really interested in how people will start taking the crackle polishes to new levels and doing some great nail art with it. The first picture is an example from Crazed Expressions. I founds some more that I will link to instead of posting them here since they belong to other bloggers. The Laquerista did OPI's Black Shatter over a holo here, and over neon sponged nails here.

So the crackle fad is spreading! Though many brands now make a crackle polish, it looks like the China Glaze one will be the easiest to get ahold of. I'd love to try all the colors from Crazed Expressions though.

Will any of you be purchasing a crackle polish, or have you?