May Polish Days - The Number 5

THE NUMBER 5!

The theme for May's Polish Days is, as you can see, the number 5. Any interpretation of 5, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with! Being who I am, my mind immediately went to the five elements: earth, water, air, fire, and spirit. 

The fire element is on my index finger, with a base color of Ulta Eye Popping Poppy. Air is in the middle on top of Sinful Colors Unicorn. For Water on the ring finger I used Avon Vintage Blue, and Earth was done with Avon Jade on the pinky finger. For Spirit I used a base coat of Sinful Shine Wisp and a single coat the indie polish Wonder Beauty Diamond Dust to highlight the airy, ethereal nature of one's Spirit. All of the symbols were done in Sinful Shine Dark Room on a layer of top coat on a piece of plastic, then cut out and transferred to my nails after they were dry.

For the other hand I used the same base colors, and then drew a star on each finger. The five points of the star, in paganism, also represents the same five elements, so I thought that tied the two hands together nicely without me having to do the same intricate symbols twice. I'm so lazy! I used Dark Room to draw most of the stars, though I drew one of them in Wisp for an accent, then topped all five of them with Sinful Colors This Is It. I honestly wasn't careful about putting This Is It on any of the stars - they all went over, but it only really showed on top of Wisp. They look actually outlined in the black ones, but it just ended up looking messy on the white one. Ah well, we learn something new from each manicure, yes?

This picture is slightly blurry and it really shows how beautifully the Diamond Dust shimmers on my thumbs. I don't remember whether I purchased my mini bottle of Diamond Dust or if someone gave it to me, but I wish I could find for sure where I got it so I could purchase a larger bottle. It's been a go-to polish when I want to just add sparkle to any polish without affecting the color. But while my stash list has it labeled as a Wonder Beauty polish, the only label actually on the bottle is "Diamond Dust" (hand written, round label, on a mini bottle), I've never purchased anything else from Wonder Beauty, but I can't find it on their website or on the other company I might have gotten it from, Spooky Bones (Strange Polish). So if anyone knows who made/makes Diamond Dust, I'd love to know. I need more. :)

In general, it's not one of my manicures that are just pretty on their own, but I'm really happy with both the symbolism and the rendition of this month's theme.

Now it's time to check out what the others came up with for "the number 5"!

April Polish Days - 7 Deadly Sins

"Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Unless you're a saint there's a chance you're guilty of at least one.  I'm leaving this one up to your imagination though, so however you chose to interpret the theme, it's up to you! Afterall, who am I to judge your sins ;)"

It's Polish Days again, and as you can see, this month's theme is the 7 Deadly Sins. It was hard for me to take this one seriously, though, because I'm not a Christian. As a pagan, I believe that while emotions can sometimes lead to evil actions, it's not the emotions that are the evil. Your emotions hurt only yourself - only your actions can hurt others.

So here's my interpretation of two of the "deadly sins".

There's Pride and the Grapes of Wrath for you. :) I started with a base of Rimmel London's Sage All the Rage, which is such a pretty shade of dusky light green on its own, but when I put these bright colors on top of it, it washed out to nearly gray. The colors used in the rainbow, in order, were: China Glaze Salsa, Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up, China Glaze Solar Power, OPI Jade is the New Black, China Glaze Man Hunt, NYC Purple Pizzazz Frost, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

For the grapes I started with a dotting tool and Rimmel London I Lilac You. I then dotted Purple Pizzazz Frost on top with a slightly smaller dotting tool, and then used a detail brush to make light reflection curves with I Lilac You. Jade is the New Black made the leaves, and a good coat of Seche Vite tops it all off. I was really happy with the way the grapes came out - they look almost like decals sometimes when I look at them! :)

Check out all these other interpretations of 7 Deadly Sins today!

March Polish Days - Vintage

VINTAGE

As you can see, this month's Polish Days theme is Vintage! The last time I had this theme, I ended up with what is usually referred to as "vintage roses", even though I took the pattern off of a rug in a very old advertisement. This time I wanted to go with something different...even though I still ended up with some floral elements.

I started by googling "vintage patterns" and after adding six new pictures to my "Inspirations for Nail Art" folder on my pinterest board, I decided on this:

 This picture is from a listing on Etsy (which was sold last summer) for a Super Mod dress from the 70's. I used Milani Whitest White, NYC Black Lace Creme, China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, and Primark Beauty orange neon in my recreation.

It was late at night on a Sunday, I hadn't intended to do my nails until Monday night, but I'd apparently worn my manicure one day too long as first one nail broke and the nail polish didn't just chip, the polish popped off the entire nail. I intended to just repair that one nail but five minutes later when I sat down to fix it, I discovered another (unbroken) nail on the other hand was missing its polish. So here I am, tired and ready to hit the sack, but I have a meeting at work the next day and I want a full manicure. So I went ahead with this one...but I didn't have the time or patience to use striping tape, so those stripes are free-handed.

And then, of course, I had NO desire to attempt free-hand stripes on my dominant hand!! Out come the handy-dandy dotting tools instead! Using the same colors, I made what I think is a very period-accurate floral print to go with the stripes on the other hand.

So that's my interpretation of this month's theme. Now go check out everybody else's gorgeous nails!

February Polish Days - Back to Nature

This month's theme for Polish Days is obviously Back to Nature. Given that here in Arkansas, we seem to be stuck on a seesaw between winter and spring (one day the high is 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and the next it's 35...and a few days later we're back again!) I decided to split my nails between the two as well.

I started with a base color of Sinful Colors Cinderella, as it's a gorgeous pale blue as the winter and early spring sky often is when the sun is high and bright. It has that hint of sparkle in it, though, that makes it completely appropriate for winter, when crystals of frozen water are often glinting in the sky, and in the spring, the bright sun (especially when it comes after numerous thunderstorms!) often seems to make everything glow.

I used a handful of different colors for trees and flowers, but the primary colors are Snow Me White (appropriately named, as I used it for the snow, though also for the spring clouds) and Exotic Green for the grass, both also Sinful Colors. I think I used SC Call You Later for the sun, but I won't swear to it.

And there's my back to nature manicure. Please check out all these other gorgeous interpretations of the theme!

January Polish Days - Something New!

So our theme this month is, obviously, something new, and we're supposed to use a technique we've never used before, or an untried polish (except that I don't actually have any untrieds - I tend to incorporate each new polish into a manicure within weeks, if not days, of getting it!) The first thing that popped into my head when I read the theme was the little jars of powder I have sitting in my stash, that were purchased waaaaay back when V and I went to Hobby Lobby and wandered around for an hour going, "What can we put on our nails?"

I started with one coat of China Glaze Mahogany Magic and topped it with one coat of Orly Buried Alive. I don't know why I started with Mahogany Magic given how opaque Buried Alive is. I blame it on painting my nails at 6:30 in the morning - I'm a night owl and my fingers usually get painted closer to 10 P.M. than anything A.M.!

I headed off to work that way, but I took my supplies with me...so lunchtime found me adding a layer of topcoat and dipping a few of my fingers into little jars of embossing powder. Obviously, I used brown embossing powder on two fingers, and green embossing powder on my thumbs.

I can't decide whether I like this or not, honestly. One of my co-workers said it looks like mud and grass, which wasn't an insult. It's kind of cool. I like texture, and it's like sandpaper on my fingernails. Which sounds bad, I know, but it doesn't feel bad. I just don't feel like it's very nail art-ish, maybe. Meh. I'm ambivalent. I didn't take them off the minute I got home, so clearly I don't hate them. I think when I do take this off, I need to do a fish egg manicure next. :)

Polish Days - MANicure

It's November's Polish Days, and the theme this month is MAN-icure. I decided to dedicate my MANi to the most important person in my life: my husband. When I first got the email describing this theme, I thought about nail art with guitars, computers, cooking...all the things he's awesome at. Maybe add in a truck and a gun for things he likes. However, I have a board meeting at work today, and while working at a University means that even my more outlandish nail art is not only allowed, but enjoyed, I do try to put on a bit more of a professional look for the monthly board meetings, since they actually are important.

So instead of doing art to represent all the cool things about my guy, I decided to ask him to choose what to put on my nails - either the design, the colors, or both - whatever he wanted. Within minutes, he actually had an exact design in mind that he wanted to see, and even ended up drawing it out for me so we were both sure I knew what he was looking for. I even swatched out four different colors of "green with a subtle shimmer" to see which one matched his mental image best.

I started with a base of three coats of Sinful Colors San Francisco, which is a lovely green jelly with a beautiful shimmer that builds from a pale green at one coat to a luxurious deep emerald at three. I then added black tips with the curved shape Chris asked for in NYC Black Lace Creme, and matted the black tips. The edge between the black and green was then lined with first Sinful Colors This Is It and then topped it with All About You.

Enjoy all the other amazing nail artists that are participating in this month's theme!