Models Own Concrete Mixer & Nail Tattoos!

Day 16 of The Challenge is supposed to be tribal print, but I have some qualms about it. I feel a bit odd doing a print that is supposed to be "tribal" without knowing anything about the pattern itself, or the tribe it comes from. I see it posted a lot as Aztec nails, but do you know anything about the Aztecs? Do you know what that particular patterns means? Like, if the stripes are red, does that mean it was used in times of war? What about if the stripes are yellow? Time to eat bananas? I'm not picking on anyone whose done "tribal" print nails, I just don't feel okay doing it. If you want to learn a bit more about cultural appropriate/using culture(s) to be trendy, the tumblr My Culture is Not a Trend is a great starting point. It focuses a lot the recent hipster trend of white people putting on a war bonnet and some face paint and being all "look at me I'm an Indian lol," but I think it still pertains to stuff like this.

At any rate, I have modified the Challenge. Since Lindsay at Nailtopia sent me some nail tattoos, I decided to try those bad boys out!

I started with two coats of Concrete Mixer by Models Own. This is a really great medium grey creme, that applied pretty smoothly. It dried really shiny, even before adding top coat. I am loving this color. A great fall/winter shade. It looks a little brown in a couple of my photos, but it is a true grey. The second and fourth images are the most color accurate.

I am in love with the 50s/60s designs of these nail tattoos! So cute! I want wallpaper of these graphics. The nail tattoos applied just like temporary tattoos. Cut the design off the sheet, stick it on, press a wet cloth to it for a bit, and tada! you have some cute designs on your nails. The easiest nail art ever. The hardest part is trying to get them to be center, but I obviously wasn't terribly concerned about that. I can't wait to try more.

What do you think about the nail tattoos?

No doubt you've all heard about Steve Jobs's passing. What are your thoughts? I must say I am more saddened by it than I would have thought. Without giving too much away, I work at a place that I guess you could say was instrumental in making Apple products successful, so I feel more attached to him than I did before I worked there. Do you own any Apple products? What was your first? In the mid-90s, my family bought a Performa, and after that we bought an iMac G4 (which was like the coolest thing ever at the time). In school we had the candy colored iMacs, and we all fought over what color to use. The first computer I bought on my own was a MacBook Pro.

And speaking of work, I have to leave for it in a few. Happy Friday, everyone!