The Night Circus Inspired Nails

For a brief period of time, I considered changing around the style of this blog. I was going to do my manicures based on the book I was reading. I quickly realized that wouldn't work out well, as my reading and nail polishing paces are different. Plus, I read a lot of embarrassing young adult books, and I don't know that I want you to know about all of those! At any rate, I decided doing that every once in a while would be fun. Here's the first one, based on Erin Morgenstern's novel The Night Circus.

The Night Circus is about a circus which only occurs, obviously, at night, and the only colors at the circus are black and white. There are fans of the circus who follow it around, and they wear black and white, with a red accessory so they can recognize one another. This color scheme was the inspiration.

I started out with a couple coats of Man Glaze's Mayo, and then added Man Glaze's Matte is Murder for the stripes. I chose these rather than cremes because I liked the added shimmer. The red was Tate by Nails Inc. I think these turned out pretty cute. But I have to say, I am so envious of those of you who can paint an even stripe.

There's much more to The Night Circus than I told, so if you haven't read it, I highly suggest you do so. It's so good! I really like circus themed things, particularly from the past, so I was really into all the imagery in the book. I also was a fan of Water for Elephants (not the movie though, that was awful). Actually, the first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a tight rope walker in the circus. Have you read either of those books? Are you a circus fan?

Inspired by a Tutorial: Plaid

I'm on the second to last post of The Challenge! Today is day 30, a manicure inspired by a tutorial. I spent some time peeking around YouTube, and finally found a plaid tutorial I thought was cute. I'll show the tutorial at the end of the post.

I started off with two coats of And a Cherry On Top by Sephora by OPI. I bought this polish about three years ago, and it's been one of my favorites since. It's red, and a jelly. My favorite combination! The consistency is more on the thin side than thick, but it applies really well. Every time I apply this, I'm reminded of why I love it so much. It's perfect!

And here's the final product! The black is Liquid Leather by China Glaze. The white is Mayo by Man Glaze. And the gold is Model's Own Gold Rush. I think it turned out pretty cute, and rather festive. I've had a fair amount of compliments on it, which is always nice.

Inspired by a Book: ManGlaze Mayo

Day 24 of the 31 Day Challenge is a manicure inspired by a book. I chose the book Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan. Brautigan is a post-beat generation hippie novelist and poet, and his work is seriously amazing. Brautigan's work is often satirical, and it often deals with some hippie counter-culture shit (such as living in a commune). I also love that his work, particularly his poetry, is about banal, everyday life. He's kinda like the writer version of William Eggleston. Anyway, he once said, "I have always wanted to write a book that ended with the word 'mayonnaise'." And that he did. Trout Fishing in America's last chapter is called The Mayonnaise Chapter.

So, without further ado, I present Mayo by ManGlaze.

Like all of ManGlaze's polishes, Mayo dries to a matte finish. One thing I love about the brand is that they add some shimmer to the polish, so they have a bit of dimension, instead of just drying flat. Unfortunately, the stark white freaked my camera out, so it looks pretty flat. But I assure you there is a nice shimmer. Everyone raves about ManGlaze, so I don't think I need to tell you how amazing they really are.

I used three coats here, but I should have stopped at two. The third coat turned a fast drying polish into an extremely slow drying polish. I went to bed about an hour after applying this, and got sheet marks on every nail. And mattes are known for their speedy dry times! So, take note, stop at just two coats!

Here's The Mayonnaise Chapter in it's entirety:

"Feb 3-1952

Dearest Florence and Harv.

I just heard from Edith about the passing of Mr. Good. Our heart goes out to you in deepest sympathy Gods will be done. He has lived a good long life and he has gone to a better place. You were expecting it and it was nice you could see him yesterday even if he did not know you. You have our prayers and love and we will see you soon.

God bless you both.

Love Mother and Nancy.

P.S.
Sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise."

 

Like I said, I highly recommend reading some Brautigan. My favorite book of his (and one of my favorite books period) is In Watermelon Sugar. So good! I want to get the word mayonnaise tattooed on me someday in honor of him (and also another of my favorites, Vonnegut - in a chapter of Cat's Cradle, I believe, he references mayonnaise). Brautigan also reminds me of my dad, so if there are more of you out there with hippie dads, you might be especially interested in him.


Happy weekend!

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!

"Delicate" Nails

First, I have some good news. Well, good for me anyway. I won the 400 follower giveaway over at The Phalanges Files! How awesome! I have never won a giveaway before, and I am beyond excited. I can't wait to try out all the goodies.

I'm halfway through the 31 Day Challenge! Number 15 is delicate print. Uhhh what does that even mean?! I had a tough time with this one. I spent a lot of time pouring over blogs and searching the nail art tag on Tumblr. Eventually I stumbled across this photo, and thought, Well I guess that kinda looks delicate?

First I applied a couple coats of Peony by Love & Beauty. Under the fluorescent lights of Forever 21, this looked like a shimmery champagne, which I thought was pretty chic. As it turns out, it leans way more pink than I anticipated. I still like it though, so I guess it turned out okay. Application was a pain. It's kinda thick, and hard to control. It also bubbled a lot. The second photo is soft, I know, but I think it shows the shimmery quality of it nicely.

I used OPI's Thanks So Muchness! as the secondary color for this. Mad as a Hatter and Absolutely Alice grabbed all the attention from the Alice collection (rightfully so), but I think the reds of the collection are gorgeous! This is a really lovely shimmery red, that is a one coat-er! I used hole reinforcements to create the curve for the larger half moon look. The polka dots are Mayo by Man Glaze, and the gold studs were sent to me from Nicole at Top to Toe.

This look didn't turn out perfectly, but I'm pretty pleased with it. One thing I enjoy about this challenge is that I force myself to do things I normally wouldn't. I would have never created a look like this, without the prompt of the challenge. It's not a very "me" look, but it is nice to break away from routine and challenge myself. I'm not sure that I'd ever look at a mani like this and think, Oh look how delicate that looks! But at least it's cute?

I do want to apologize for posting photos with my cuticles in such horrid condition! This is the worst they've looked in a while. I promise I just globbed moisturizer on, so hopefully they'll be looking better shortly.

Man Glaze Matte is Murder + House of Isis Amulet Glitter

I tested out one of the nail art glitters Nail de Royale sent me - Amulet by House of Isis. I wanted it over something dark so the glitter would really pop, so I chose Matte is Murder by Man Glaze as the base color.

I love this stuff! I like that the black is not a flat black - it has a nice shimmer to it, which is a nice addition to the matte finish. It applies incredibly smoothly. I used two coats for full coverage. Like all mattes, it dries very fast, but also chips pretty quick. I knew I'd be putting a top coat over it, so  wasn't terribly concerned about the chipping. I just adore the way this polish looks. The finish looks so chic! Which I'm sure the dudes at Man Glaze would hate to hear me say, but it's true!

Artificial lighting.

Flash.

Blurred for optimal glitter viewing!

The next step was whipping out the glitter! My basic procedure was to lay down a piece of paper (or something for the excess glitter to go on), dip the tips of my nails into the pot, and then use a nail art brush to sprinkle glitter on the rest of the nail. I was trying to get a gradual effect - with more glitter towards the tip, and less as you move toward the cuticle. It worked pretty nice. It doesn't look perfect, but  didn't want it to. I like the "messy" application. I added a layer of top coat over the black so the glitter would have something to stick to. When I was finished, I added two layers of top coat, to even out the texture and make sure everything was sealed in. It was certainly a messy task, but definitely worth it.

I really love the way the smaller green glitters interact with the larger holographic pieces. It's a very pretty combination, especially over a darker polish. It's sort of space-y in a way, and I think if the smaller glitter was multi-colored, it would certainly give that effect. The larger pieces are definitely eye-catching, and I love the way the light bounces off of them.

I can't wait to play around with this glitter more, and try out other combinations!

A big thanks to Nail de Royale for sending this to me!


And, for the purposes of a proper disclaimer: the House of Isis glitter was sent to me for review.

Springtime Nail Art

In honor of the weather finally getting nicer in Minnesota, I decided to do some cute nail art.

Artificial lighting.

Artificial lighting.

Flash.

Flash.

Yellow: Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow (2 coats)
Blue: OPI What's With the Catitude? (2 coats)
Purple: OPI Rumple's Wiggin' (2 coats)
White: Man Glaze Mayo (3 coats)

The stripes could be better, but otherwise I think it turned out nicely.

Is the weather getting better where you are?