Hipster manicures

This post on Regretsy cracked me up. Comedic genius is just perfectly toeing the line between the ridiculous and the truth, and this nails it.


ETA: Funnily enough, that hand looks somewhat familiar...

My Little Pony: Friendship is Manicures - Fluttershy

Fluttershy is a little girly, but also really shy, so I didn't want to do anything too over the top for her. I kept it simple - a solid color with a little bit of nail art embellishment.

I ended up custom mixing these colors to make it just right for Fluttershy. My base colors were Rimmel Lasting Finish in Sunshine, Barry M Limited Edition Pink, and Eyeko Rain. I added white to both the yellow and pink to make appropriate colors, mixing them drop by drop.

Rimmel Sunshine is really the perfect color for Fluttershy, after I diluted it with some white - at first glance it appears to be just a yellow creme, but when it comes out into the sunshine it has a lovely subtle hidden shimmer. Fluttershy's a bit like that too - at first she appears shy, timid, and easily frightened, but the best shines out of her when the time is right.

After the base of yellow, I carefully dotted on cutie mark butterflies in pink and blue. Actually, this manicure gave me the most compliments out of any pony mani so far - several people said how much they liked it. A sunny yellow is just the thing for a dreary day.

Nailgirl

My Little Pony: Friendship is Manicures - Applejack

My next My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic inspired manicure is Applejack.
Applejack is a no-nonsense pony who probably wouldn't paint her nails (hooves) anyway. So, I went with a nude shade and just a little bit of embellishment.

The base color is Astor Diamant Sensation 981, and I added gold freckles with Rimmel Lasting Finish 'Bling'. I used the same method for nail art polka dots as I've done before - a bobby pin dipped into polish. It's easy and cute.

Applejack's a tough pony, and this was one tough manicure too. It lasted over a week without a single chip! Perfect for such a low-maintenance pony.


Nailgirl

Porcelain NOTD

Sometimes, the simple looks are the most effective. I call this porcelain because it reminds me of the teacups my boyfriend's family has - they're white with a blue band exactly this color. These nails are, of course, blue with a white band.

You're not tired of Eyeko Rain yet, are you? Because I'm not. It's a perfect one coater in a lovely color with hidden shimmer. I can't, can't, can't get enough of it.

So this is a really simple look, just a cellotape funky french with a white creme. But I really really liked it. It's classic.

Nailgirl

When bubbles aren't so bad...?

So here's a strange conundrum for you. Polish lovers hate bubbles. They are the bane of our existence. They ruin perfectly decent manicures and once they're applied, there's very little you can do about them.
So why then... do I like the look of these bubbles???

These bubbles are like a design effect, albeit one I have no control over. I dunno, I think it looks cool!

Have you ever enjoyed bubbles in your polish? Am I crazy??

Nailgil

Christmas nails #1

I don't do red-and-green, but here's my sparkly red Christmas manicure the first.

It's a coat of Nails Inc Clarges Street, because I loved it so much before, with scotch-taped triangles of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Bronze Ruby.

I will tell you I'm not in love with how this turned out... It's very messy. I didn't wait long enough for Clarges Street to dry before taping, so I had to redo a lot of my fingers. Plus, the triangles ended up looking like botched french tips instead of interesting blocks of glitter.

One thing did go right though - the color pair. I was afraid the pinky-red wouldn't go together with the true-red/gold duochrome, but it works great. (The gold is less apparent IRL than in photos) Anyway, it's getting wiped off before Christmas proper - I have plans for a new mani before then.

Nailgirl

Too many layers

Warning: the following manicure consists of seven layers of polish. View at your own risk.

If you think this mani looks familiar, you're right. It's my brown & blue polka dots from earlier, with funky french tips added on. I really like it much better this way - I think the tips pull it all together. And, you know I'm a fan of adding tips once my mani starts wearing. I use my hands too much to avoid tipwear after a few days.


Nailgirl

Flip-flop polka dots

I messed up my previous mani while frankening, unfortunately, so I had to put on a new one. This time, I decided to do the same idea in reverse - instead of blue with brown spots, this time it's brown with blue spots. I don't love this one as much as the other one, but it's still cute.

I started with a coat of Astor Diamant Sensation, color 981. I originally bought this for use as an underwear polish, because in the bottle it literally looks like liquid foundation. Unfortunately it's too dark for me. It's holding a strange middle ground on me; too dark for 'mannequin hands' but too light to be a trendy taupe. I don't love it. It's also wearing really quickly.


Anyway, same business as before - I used a bobby pin in lieu of a dotting tool and applied unevenly sized dots. I made sure to let the dots dry enough before applying topcoat, because I had a little bit of dragging before.

These photos aren't as true to color as I'd like, unfortunately - for some reason, the Astor didn't want to photograph right. It's lighter than shown here in reality.

Nailgirl

Freshening it up with nail art

I have a very short attention span when it comes to manicures. Whenever I have a bit of time to myself, I like to paint my nails - I enjoy the ritual of it, and having something new on my fingertips. Of course, doing a full-on manicure is more time consuming than adding on to your existing manicure - either by layering something over it, giving it a funky french, or adding some other kind of adornment.

I am loving these silly spots. Brown and light blue are one of my favorite color combinations. I don't have a dotting tool, so the dots aren't a consistent size - but I think I like them that way. I just used the tip of a bobby pin dipped in polish, placing the spots at random intervals until I was satisfied.


Nailgirl