Week 38 - Metallic/Magnetic Nail Fail

Another semi-weekly installment of A Year's Challenge! Click on the link to see a list of the weekly themes and other amazing blogs that are following the challenges. I admit to having skipped last week's theme, because I honestly didn't feel like I would do it justice, and while I don't begrudge anyone else's desire to put a memorial/tribute to 9/11 on their manicures, it seemed too deep of a subject to put on my fingernails. If I had the creativity and artistic talent of 10 Blank Canvases or Sonoma Nail Art, then I would have tried my hand at giving homage. But my only creative talent lies in words, not pictures, so I declined.

But on to this week's attempt! And why I labeled it a 'nail fail' in the title of the post. If you've been reading my blog rather than just looking at the pretty (and sometimes not-so-pretty) pictures, you might remember that I've said my main failing is to not know when to stop? That I don't stick with simplicity? I always overcomplicate things? And I babble...but that usually makes people giggle rather than grumble, so I tend not to try to fix that one. ^_^

I'm really happy with the polish part of this manicure. I used Nabi Red Wine, and a straight line magnet on most of the fingers, and a star-shaped magnet on the accent nails - thumbs and ring fingers. If I'd stopped there, it would have been a beautiful manicure. Regrettably, I did not...

The stickers looked so cute on the sheet! They actually looked pretty cute going on my nails, too, but for several problems. The plastic was thick, so the cut edges of the stickers look extremely abrupt. That might have been okay, except that the stickers did not want to stick on a curved surface, like my nails. And topcoat? Didn't hold them down. At all. I ended up using nail glue to stick down a few stubborn edges!!

Also, do you see the difference between the different flowers? The pink, purple, and blue look like simple flat colors, while the green and yellow have holographic spots on them? There turned out to be a verrry thin clear plastic layer over the top of each sticker which decided to peel off overnight (and a few more peeled off after these pictures were taken, even!) Out from under two layers of topcoat, these things shed their iridescent film!

And the last annoying thing? One of the stickers either turned completely clear overnight, or it not only lost the iridescent layer, but the colored layer, too, leaving only a clear plastic bottom!

You see that index finger there? It was green when I went to bed the night I did these nails. I took these pictures the next day at lunch, as I frequently do to take advantage of the natural daylight for taking pictures, while I do my nails late in the evening most times.

In summary? I loved the magnetic polish (though the magnets that came on the lids are far too weak, but I fixed that by buying a 3-magnet set off of EvilBay) and HATED the stickers. I think I'll give the rest of the sheet to my short people (also known as spawn, or just children to normal people) to play with, as they're clearly not suited for nail adornment.

But at least that red striped sparkle is absolutely gorgeous!! :)

Scrapbooked Talons

A while back, V and I went wandering through Hobby Lobby thinking, "What can we put on our nails?" A previous post showed one result of that trip, with embroidery floss. For this manicure, I pulled out another item we purchased on that trip, from the scrapbooking section. These decals were intended to be placed on page corners, but I decided to trim them down to decorate my nails instead. ^_^

First, for a base, I did a gradient with two new polishes I just picked up at Walgreen's the other day: Sinful Colors Zeus and Neptune. Honestly, I could have kept this as a beautiful manicure all by itself! The two colors go sooo well together - I described it to one friend as the horizon just after the sun has gone down. You still have that pale purple color along the horizon, and the farther up you look, the darker blue it gets until you start to see the sparkle of the stars shining.

One thing I am annoyed by is my inability to clean up well at the moment. I'm out of pure acetone, and I just can't seem to clean up as well with polish remover. And while I can put on straight polish well enough to not need too much clean-up, I did this gradient by putting the two colors next to each other on a plastic palette, picking them both up with a fan brush, and then painting sideways across my nail. The sponging effect has its place, but when you want a smooth blending of colors, you can't get better than painting them together with a fan brush.

I actually did this manicure twice. My first attempt with the stickers didn't come out nearly this well. I had to figure out how best to trim them to fit my nails. Also, I need to buy some of The Best Glue Ever that Robin Moses is always touting, because these stickers just don't react well to top coat. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, they were! Came out looking gorgeous, though, and everybody who saw them thought they were awesome. :) This first picture was the best one I got for color accuracy, but I included a shot of my other hand as well.