I'm finally at the end of the Lazy Days of Summer Challenge! I can't believe I made it before the autumn challenge starts, lol. So for the last theme, I actually planned something else than I did in the end. Originally, I wanted to create a layer mani picturing this layer salad we usually did at home whenever we barbecued. But when I went through my stuff to pick what I needed, I suddenly had a change of heart and decided to create something different.
You know, when I was a kid, we used to barbecue over hot charcoal. It is a bit messy with all the clean up afterwards, but I think stuff tastes better because of the charcoal smoke taste that clings to the meat. A couple years ago, my parents decided to use a propane gas grill and since then I haven't had any charcoal BBQ. Even though we sell it a lot at the store I work at, I rarely know somebody who still uses it. So just because I miss it, I decided to do a glowing charcoal mani.
Yep, I revisited the good old crackle polish. It just seemed so fitting for this mani.
Anyway, I started this mani by creating a red jelly sandwich. For the base of the sandwich, I started with an unnamed polish by the brand Sabrina, a 1€-Shop brand. It looks awesome in the bottle and surprisingly, it's a one coater and doesn't even stink as badly as the other Sabrina polish I tried before. The pretty golden glow from the bottle doesn't translate perfectly to the nail, but you can see it.
Next, I added one layer of essence gold fever on top, a gold glitter polish that has tiny red glitter pieces thrown in. I had hoped the red glitter was more prominent... But it doesn't matter all that much, because I was going to cover it up anyway. For my red jelly polish, I used Kleancolor Red-hot. I'm not very much in love with it, because I find the glitter pieces slightly too big for my taste. But the red jelly they are suspended in is just great. I placed a couple of those big glitters too, just about 2 per nail. I ended up applying two coats of Red-hot, just because I liked it better a little deeper red.
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| Pointer & Pinky: Sabrina + gold fever; Middle & Ring: Sabrina + gold fever + Red-hot |
Originally, I wanted to keep it this way, because charcoal is not glossy. But after I took my pictures, I felt like trying how it would look like topcoated. Totally different, but also pretty. Well, if I consider my theme, I like the no top coat version better, because it is so much closer to my memory. But I have been sporting it all glossy for 3 days now and got a couple nice compliments.
What do you think? Which version do you like better, glossy or non-glossy?
Last but not least, one more time, the list of participants to this challenge:
