Working The Stripes Again

Eh.

A base of Zoya Raven, striped with Barielle Enduring, OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, and OPI Glitzerland.

I added too many stripes, and Lucerne... didn't show up as well as I thought it would.  So what could have been cute quickly fizzled into not so cute.  But I worked it out for a day, and resolved to try it again later.

A Pretty Mild Disco

Purple and green is probably my favorite color combination.  I like playing with light purple/dark green, dark purple/light green, frosts, glitters, you name it.  They were also the colors we used for the wedding many, but not so many years ago (awwwwwwwwwwwwww!) and I love them still.

The polish was one of the gifts Ulta was handing out during the holiday Buy 2 Get 1, OPI Gift Cards For Everyone!  It's a dark purple with blue shimmer that's, apparently, pretty hard to photograph.  It's lovely and thick in one coat, but I'm not careful so I did two.  I have a whole box of hex glitter to use, and I thought I'd whip a new tub out for today's manicure in the peridot green color.

I used a toothpick dipped in topcoat to place the hexes in a kind of alternating row pattern, shellacked two coats of quick dry on top, and called it a day.

OPI Gift Cards For Everyone & Lime Green Hex Glitter

It may look like I missed one on my ring finger but I assure you - I did not.

Oh disco green, why must you torture me with only looking good in tiny doses!

Getting On The Skyfall Bandwagon

I have resisted OPI polish buying for a while, because I want to discover the other amazing polish brands out there.  But after seeing the display time after time in my local Ulta, and the friendly pressure from my sister, I picked up the below shade and am so so glad that I did.  Layered over my fall love, Color Club's Nothing But Truffle, it makes a grand entry onto my "Most Complimented Manicures Ever" and "Most Horribly Photographed Manicures Ever" lists.

OPI The World Is Not Enough over Color Club Nothing But Truffle

Pink and mint green flecks splash out of a light brown and pink hued base.

Ignore the George Hamilton skintone I gave myself, and focus on the flecks people!

This shade is a stunner.  By itself I was not sold, so I began the quick search for a great base, and found it.  I also think a carnation pink would make a great under layer, to reflect more of the glass flecks shimmer.  Another bonus?  Flecks = NOT GLITTER, so clean-up doesn't make you want to cut your fingers off.  If you're looking for a topcoat to give your fall manicure a few more days, pick this one up and sigh with love.

Oh, What A Night

Does that get The Four Seasons stuck in anybody else's head?

No?  I see.

After the trees were gone, I wanted to see what else I could come up with using those fall colors, so I cleaned off my striping brush, and set back to work.  I used OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons as a neutral base, then dropped dots of Zoya Cheryl, China Glaze Riveting, and China Glaze Lighthouse and attempted to swirl them together.

Now I realize that I spend more time than not griping about how stuff doesn't turn out, and any new skill takes time to master blah blah blah.

Frankly this stuff is so time intensive that it blows when I hate it at the end.  If you love it, then please! feel free to try it at home and make it gorgeous and send me the picture.  But I drank a gallon of haterade before the post, so that's what I'm sticking to, as far as how I feel about it.

OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Zoya Cheryl, China Glaze Riveting and China Glaze Lighthouse

This was after a few starting over acetone swipes, too.

Blargh.

When these colors look good together, they look GOOD.  But this is not one of those times.  I couldn't get the swirls right, so it ended up looking more like finger paint, than anything arty.  Also, be warned that the shimmer in Cheryl, while making it gorgeous, is a beast to get out.  Especially out of the over-acetoned skin I was working with, so I just quit.

I want to go back to this and see how it would look in a water marble, which I think would be flawless, but I erased this turkey combo pretty quickly after I took the pictures.

It's National Free Candy From Strangers Day!

Happy Halloween!   

I don't engage in costume selection and dress-up now that I'm an adult. It's not that I don't want to - I see a ton of great costumes every year that I know would be so fun to put together and go out in.  The problem is that my house is awesome, and it's full of all my stuff, and I can wear sweat pants and eat mini Twix there.  So the incentive to leave has to be incredible.

Instead of a costume that might jeopardize my candy bowl obliteration, I thought - why not a costume for the nails?  How about I subject them to freehanded designs and starting over a thousand times because I don't like what I "drew"?

Nails can't talk so I did it!

 I used a crapton of polishes.
Zoya Purity, Raven, Rekha, Cheryl, Harley, Song, Tracie, China Glaze Angel Wings,
China Glaze Lighthouse, A England Saint George &  Barielle Glammed Out Garnet

Ruby Red Slipper, Witch's Sock, Dorothy's Dress, Wicked With's Face/Hat, Yellow Brick Road
Emerald City, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and the other Ruby Red Slipper.

Once I decided that I was going to do the Wizard of Oz, picking the things to be represented, and their associated colors was quasi-easy.  Deciding on the order and not messing up one wet nail while I tried to handle another was a gigantic pain in the ass.  I redid the dress nail five or six times, re-drew items for the witch a dozen times (I first tried to draw her warty nose.  awful idea.  just awful.), and I was irritated that the Tin Man's rivets smeared, but way too lazy to go fix it.

Now that I've sufficiently castigated myself for mistakes, how cute is this??  It's 100% not work appropriate, so I had to take it off that night, so excuse the crappy lighting.  My husband correctly identified every character, which left me confident that it made sense.  I think outside of my explaining it to anyone, it might just look like a mish-mash of stuff, but with the explanation, I'm pretty proud of my first foray into...ummm, interpretive nails?  Manicure fever?  I don't know. 

And for your viewing pleasure, some close-ups

    

Sorry Alicia Keys, But THIS Girl Is On Fire

I stripped off the Halloween manicure, after being positive that my topcoat wrecks everything, and set to thinking of a new design.

"I'll just give my nails a quick trim so I can file them down." turned into a short hack job.  As a viola player for well over a decade, long nails oog me out.  To celebrate feeling my finger pads touch they keyboard again, I opted for something simple and fall-like because it's supposed to get cold this weekend!

Barielle Pin Up with Zoya Chloe

I stared and stared and stared at these.  Like a moth to the...nevermind.

I got Pin Up as part of a Barielle Holi-Craze package I picked up a while back on clearance.  It's a little more red and a little less orange than it shows in this picture, but it is definitely not what I'd call a classic red.  It's also got a hint of gorgeous shimmer that makes it a winner all on its own.  But I am a sucker for flakes, and with all the sunshine in the forecast, wanted to exploit a little more color, so I reached for Zoya Chloe, which contains orange to yellow (and very occasionally green) flakes in a clear base.  

Voila!  A campfire on your hand!  I think tonight I'll mess with it a bit to give a new look, but I wanted to preserve this first in case I eff it up tonight and have to acetone the whole thing off.


*Update*

I was going to do this elaborate tape job, but it was time to sleep, so I opted for a black shatter instead.  My sister convinced me that it would look like embers under charred wood, and I have to agree with her.  

OPI Shatter in Black

You can almost smell the smoke.