Fruity Fingers

These nails, which rely heavily on those little Fimo pieces that never, ever want to lay flat on your nails, turned out much better than anticipated.  Although the little Fimo fruits would not, could not, lay flat on my nails, and this manicure is impractical plus-plus.  So pretty much business as usual for 3D nail art embellishments. But cute?  So cute!

In combination, the two glittery polishes I used here, Smitten Polish’s green Not Your Mama’s Easter Grass and turquoise Glacial Springs, remind me of an icy tropical drink. And because no good, blue curacao-soaked frozen cocktail is complete with at least a bit of garnish, I added some of that, too.  Drink up – there’s lots of good-for-you fruit in there!

The Punny Punkin

This super festive polish, which looks like fall leaves, a Jack-o-Lantern and 1970s-style shag carpeting, is a Smitten Polish creation by the name of Orange You Glad It’s Pun-kin Season? I salute Smitten for the creative wordplay, this beautiful glitter polish coming from their four-piece What a Punny Autumn Collection (along with another gorgeous polish I’ll be featuring this weekend, espresso brown Can You BeLeaf These Puns?)

Readers of this blog and even casual stopper by-ers know that it’s puns aplenty here at Finger Candy, some super cheesy, while others are merely gouda (*grrrrroooooaaaaannnn*) So that quality certainly appealed to me about these polishes. But beyond that, they are absolutely lovely, with this particular formulation of Smitten’s, a mix of holographic micro glitter in a lush jelly base, being a favourite. Like a similar Smitten polish I already own and adore, turquoise Glacial Springs, Orange You Glad It’s Pun-kin Season? is a stunner under direct light, its holo glitter throwing off mad rainbows.

But in the shade is where I think these kind of polishes do their best work, taking on a deep, almost textured look where the glitter glimmers softly from the jelly depths. Poetic, right? 😉

Texture-wise, these polishes do have a bit – I’d expect nothing less from a micro glitter – so I’d recommend a layer or two of a good, glossy topcoat to smooth out the barest of rough edges and deepen up all that amazing glitter for a perfectly punny Pun-kin.

Seaweed (OMD3)

Under the sea, you say? Well, what about on top of the sea? Does that count? I certainly hope so, as these super glitzy seaweed nails are my entry towards day 23’s theme of under the sea in the Oh Mon Dieu Nail Art Challenge.

I adore the base polish I used here as my sea, Smitten Polish’s Glacial Springs. It has acted as the gorgeous, glittering stand-in for water in more of my designs than I can count, and it works for nearly every type of water at that, from tropical lagoons to the iced turquoise waters of the Arctic. Here I topped Glacial Springs with some very random tangles of lacquered seaweed in a couple of different shades of grass green and gold before topping it off with one coat of shine-enhancing Seche Vite. Quite ritzy for a slimy water plant we all prefer to sidestep (or possibly eat, but in an entirely different context!)

Dancing Butterflies

Holy cats, did these nails ever put the “challenge” in “nail art challenge.” I haven’t had to fight for (or against) a manicure this hard in forever! These simple white butterfly silhouettes on a beautiful background of Smitten Polish’s glittery Glacial Springs are actually my third run at week two’s theme of butterflies in the May N.A.I.L. Challenge. I initially started out with a much more complicated design before I realized I’m total crap at drawing butterflies, and wisely returned to the drawing board to hammer out a simpler, more streamlined design. This is so much better than my first two pitchy attempts, even if you wouldn’t be mistaken in confusing those dancing butterflies for floating leaves.

Smitten With These Mittens

When I was a kid I had THE most perfect pair of mittens. They were beautiful – iced turquoise (like the polish I used in this manicure, Smitten Polish’s Glacial Springs) to match my snowsuit, knit through with tiny pink hearts and little white dots. They were part of a matching hat-and-scarf-and-mitts set, and I adored them for the, oh, 36 hours I had them in my possession before I left one of them (as well as the hat and scarf) in the change room at figure skating, after which they disappeared from my life forever. I really loved those mitts (the whole set, actually, but I’ve always been a mitten person), and it’s most vexing that I lost them whilst partaking in an activity I bloody HATED (hey Mom, hey Dad, is this the first you’re learning of how much I despised that one year of figure skating? The things your children neglect to tell you, right?) I was a pretty active kid and took dance classes for the entirety of my childhood and young adulthood, but I just loathed figure skating and it never, ever stuck. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I really would have preferred skipping the stupid bunny hops (also known as “falling on your ass hops”) and keeping the mittens. I hope their thieving new owners gave them a good home (minus one…)

But you may be glad to know in the intervening 30 or so years I’ve pulled my act together quite substantially, and I no longer require my mittens (and purses and wallets and, in one particularly egregious case, my childhood teddy bear) to be stapled to my person in order for me to remember they’re there. It really only took me leaving my purse behind in a Florida chain restaurant in my early 20s for me to snap out of that bit of thoughtless stupidity (fret not, I got it back, as well as the teddy bear many, many years earlier, both instances owing to the kindness of a couple of quick-thinking (and acting) waitresses who I guarantee you we did not tip enough given their ultra good deeds.)

Tropical Ice

Here’s another beautiful pick from Smitten Polish, Glacial Springs, a lush turquoise jelly stuffed with blue and green and blue-green holographic micro glitter. Its prettiness is undeniable, but I particularly love its name, which is incredibly apt. Having travelled to northern Canada in the ghastly dead of winter, I can tell you through first-hand knowledge that offset against the stark white of the ice and snow, the water that peeks through the cracks in the ice far out in the ocean (plainly visible from the plane, owing to what felt like our super low cruising altitude) is the most gorgeous shade of electric neon turquoise. Most people associate this type of deep, glittery blue with tropical water, but it also works in the other direction, temperature-wise!