#NOTD: black and white crackle

Since I started working a couple of weeks ago I've been trying to stick to a schedule of painting my nails on a Sunday night to make them presentable on Monday morning. This week's manicure was particularly striking and earned me a few compliments despite being really easy to do.

Nail polishes used: New York Color polish in white, Barry M Nail Paint in black crackle

Crackle nail polish was a big trend a couple of years ago and it's one that I always like using since the effect appears as if by magic. This black-on-white look is the best that my nails have ever turned out using the effect and I spent most of the week looking at them in awe, especially since it's such an easy look to achieve - all it took was a couple of coats of white polish (that wasn't enough to make the white opaque but it didn't matter since I was covering it anyway), a coating of Mavala Mavadry to seal in the colour and add shine, and finally a swipe of black crackle over the top to create the dramatic look.

I like to take the photo for my blog after a couple of days so that I can give an indication of how long this manicure lasts for: as you can see from the photo my nails had just begun to chip at some of the tips but it remained presentable for most of the week. One curious thing that I noticed though was that the crackle started to fade from the tips almost immediately which I can't explain. Although I didn't anticipate it happening, I think it still made for a cool effect. 

This is a look I'll definitely repeat for a day when I want my nails to stand out, it looks great and it's also Halloween friendly which came in handy yesterday. It's also made me rethink crackle polish, which I'd almost given up on since it doesn't look this good with other colours as the base, but now that it has provided me with a new favourite look I think I'll have to use it more often!

What I watched while painting: the teen prostitutes episode of Tyra on YouTube