Kitten Mondays Marathon - Models Own Pro Olive Pearl plus KIKO crackle

Todays going to be a long Kitten Mondays post. It's long cause this polish really gave me a hard time, but I managed to get a nice manicure out of it in the end. ;)

 Ah, she always knows to sit exactly on top of what I'm trying to get at. Such a good kitten...

The look of incredulity.

 ("Move? But me comfy now")

Let's start at the beginning of my story. I really like green polishes and I'd been umming an ahhing over whether to get Models Own Pro polish in Olive Pearl. The other week I took the plunge and bought it. That's where the trouble started.

Here's my first attempt at wearing it. It was all streaks and bubble, humph! :(

Never mind, I'm not one to give up so easily, so I gave myself extra time one evening to apply it really slowly.

 Much better this time, but it took about 45min for just 3 coats and a topcoat.

The topcoat really helped even out the appearance of the streakiness.

As much as I liked Olive Pearl in the bottle, on my hands it kind made them look dead; which is fine if you're going for a "dead hands" kind of look. ;)

To try and warm up my dead hands I added a coat of Essie Luxeffects As Gold As It Gets. I think it really helped, and I've tried to capture the golden flakes in natural...

 h

 .....and artificial lighting.

Of course I couldn't stop there so I added a crackle topcoat in KIKO Light Gold (615) on my ring and pinky and Taupe (613) on my index and middle finger.

 

I am so glad I added those crackle top coats. The Taupe is my new favorite (great colour and formula), but the Light Gold is gorgeous too.

I hope you enjoyed that long post. I'll try and post a more sensible Kitten Mondays post next week. :P