Inspired by a Movie: 17 Fury

I'm up to Day 23 of The Challenge, which is a manicure inspired by a movie. Being a lover of the 1950s (aesthetically), I naturally have a thing for greasers. I'm automatically attracted to someone who is wearing rolled up jeans and a leather jacket, with hair slicked back (bonus points for traditional tattoos and a vintage car). So, as a result, I love any movie that features greasers. And probably the best one of them all is "The Outsiders" (I also love the novel by S.E. Hinton). Probably the most well known quote from the book/movie is, "Stay gold, Ponyboy," a reference to Robert Frost, of course. And that inspired me to put on some gold nail polish!

The gold I chose is Fury by 17, sent to me by Nicole at Top to Toe. Fury is GORGEOUS! I can't get enough. It's the kind of polish that glows in any type of light. I love the way it shifts in the light, too. It's not a duochrome, but the gold can go from looking bright and shiny one moment, to a darker, more antique-looking color the next. If it had some green, it could be quite similar to Peridot by Chanel.

The application process was a breeze! It went on in two coats, but I probably could have gotten away with one. It flowed really well, and dried to a nice shiny finish.

I am so glad Nicole sent this in our recent swap. I think it has become one of my favorites!

I dare you not to cry!

The next few are some screenshots I've had saved for years. I don't know the original source, unfortunately.

If you haven't watched or read The Outsiders, I encourage you to get up and fix that! Amazing stuff!

Galaxy Nails!

I'm up to day 19 of The Challenge, and that means galaxies!

All of the polishes I used: Street Wear Mmoody, 17 Glitter Top Coat, Love & Beauty Charcoal, China Glaze Cheers to You, ManGlaze Mayo, Orly Galaxy Girl, China Glaze White Cap, Love & Beauty Light Green, and Essense Choose Me! Phew!

I started out with two coats of Charcoal by Love & Beauty. If I was wearing this alone, I would have done three because there are some bald spots. Charcoal is, as you can see, a black base with silver micro-glitter. Application was smooth, and it dried decently fast. It does dry to a gritty texture, so top coat is a must. My biggest issue with these Love & Beauty polishes are their names. Charcoal? Really? Charcoal is just plain black! Graphite would have been slightly more appropriate, as that actually has somewhat of a sheen to it. Come on Love & Beauty, put more than two seconds of thought into your nail polish names!

And there's the final product! They are not totally perfect, but I think they look pretty nice. The shooting star on my index finger is a bit too prominent, but I adore the one on my ring finger. Doing these galaxy nails was so fun, and far less time consuming than you'd think (especially considering the amount of polishes that go into creating this look). My coworkers liked 'em, and they could tell what I was going for. And if the general public can tell these are space-based, then I'd call it a success. And I do have to say, a camera can not really pick up the beauty of these bad boys. Do some for yourself and see what I mean!

I was too lazy to take process photos, but I'll break it down into steps:
1. Paint base color. Ideally something dark and shimmery.
2. Sponge on white in cloud-like manner.
3. Add an iridescent color on top of the white to tone it down. I used Mmoody, Choose Me!, and Light Green for this, alternating on each nail.
4. Add a darker iridescent color to parts of the "clouds" that are too bright. This is where Galaxy Girl came in handy.
5. Add shooting stars with a silver or a glitter or a silvery glitter.
6. Use more white to add stars. It's pretty cute if you add some twinkling stars to the mix.
7. Cover said stars with a glitter to tone them down. Cue White Cap.
8. Add as many glitter polishes as you can find. This is where I used two coats of 17's Glitter Top Coat. I wish I had Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure (or similar polish) because the flakies add some great dimension.
9. Add some top coat and tada! The universe has exploded on your nails.

If, like me, you are a visual person, here are the tutorials I followed when doing my galaxy nails: Here Comes The Sun's video tutorial, and Rebecca's photo tutorial.

With that, I am off to "space out" (heh!) to It's Always Sunny and fall asleep!

17 Spiced Plum

Finally getting caught up on posting!

For the past few days I've been wearing Spiced Plum by 17, another polish sent by Nicole in our recent swap.

Spiced Plum is a really great vampy color! It's the perfect mix of brown and red (a dried blood sorta color), and it dries to a really shiny finish. In the photos, you can see some bald spots, especially toward my cuticles, but they aren't visible in real life. It needed two coats for opacity, and I didn't have any issues with the application process. I definitely have not experienced anywhere near 10 days of wear, but I did get a couple days out of it without any chips, which is pretty standard for me.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with Spiced Plum. This was my first 17 polish, and I'm excited to try the others Nicole sent. This is a very "me" color, so I'm sure it will get a lot of wear in the future.