A Minnie-Style Valentine

Continuing with this week’s unofficial theme of Valentine’s Day, here’s a jammy-looking mani featuring an OPI oldie, pink-red-and-white glitter topper Minnie Style.  This polish was released in 2013, and for a three-year-old glitter polish, it’s still doing pretty well for itself – no glitter curling, and the base hasn’t dried out or thickened up.  The one ding against this oldie but goodie is that over time the hue has leached out of the pink glitter, staining the once-clear base a rather vibrant rose.  Absolutely not a problem if you’re layering Minnie Style over a pink or red or some other dark hue, but be mindful that it will add a pink tinge to whites, pastels and other pale shades.

 

Disney Girl Challenge: Minnie Style (31DC2014)

I’ve already done a Minnie mani as part of my ongoing Disney Girl Challenge (and here’s another!) but that one focused more on Miss Mouse au naturel, as Mickey’s well co-ordinated plus one in all her red and white polka dotted glory. But Minnie’s also partial to pink, and so for today’s theme of dots in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, I thought I’d tackle’s Minnie’s periodically preferred pink polka dotted dress, along with a thumb’s worth of her namesake glitter, OPI’s Minnie Style.

Strawberry Jelly Sandwich

Today’s weather has been an unpleasant thing – cold, downpourey, dark – so this manicure, a summery, ultra juicy-looking jelly sandwich, feels like just the thing to let the light – any light! – in. And I’m one of those weird people who like it when it’s overcast and sort of drizzly, but this? Actual cats and dogs are pouring from the heavens. Total anarchy. Time to turn off the tap, Mother Nature.

Still, as bummy as this day has turned out to be weather-wise, I smile when I look at these cheerful nails. Here I sandwiched a favourite glitter topper, OPI’s red, white and hot pink Minnie Style, between a couple of coats of a polish I simply don’t show enough love, Nfu Oh’s syrupy raspberry, JS24, to create a manicure that reminds me a lot of juicy, seed-flecked strawberry jam. Fun nails to brighten up an otherwise crappy day.

Disney Girl Challenge: Minnie Mouse

It occurred to me today that over the course of 30 some-odd Disney-themed manicures, I’ve yet to tackle the OG grand dame herself, Mickey’s lady love, Miss Minnie Mouse. So I set about rectifying that lapse in judgement by whipping up these nails, which draw heavy inspiration from Minnie’s iconic red and white polka dotted bow. And as an extra meta touch, the glitter I used here is OPI’s red and white Minnie Style from last year’s Couture de Minnie Collection.

Too many years ago now my parents and I went to Disney World and visited Mickey’s Toontown, which was the kids area in the Magic Kingdom where the wee ones could ride a giant caterpillar coaster travelling at a rate of approximately half a mile per hour, or walk through Mickey’s quaint and cartoony family home. My parents and I, of course, being the perverts we were and continue to be, spent the majority of our walking tour trying to spot the encroachment of Minnie’s belongings into Mickey’s territory in an effort to figure out just what the heck their relationship status was anyways. I can tell you that there were giant yellow high heeled shoes in the closet, which…I mean, I guess it could go both ways, you know? That Mickey’s an enigma (and I’m a pervert; you can’t say you weren’t warned.)

Jelly Sammich

Continuing the mad run of jelly-based manicures I’ve been squeezing in between all the Disney stuff like some sort of glittery palette cleanser, here’s a jelly sandwich, a nice and simple, you’re-bound-to-have-the-necessary-supplies-at-home manicure for the newbie looking to try out an easy nail art technique.

You’ll want to start with two base coats of a super sheer polish. Here I used a creamy nude, Essie’s Adore-a-Ball. It’s important that the polish you choose be truly sheer – something that will take multiple coats to become opaque – because you’ll be layering it over a coat of glitter, and you don’t want it to simply cover the glitter. We’re making a sandwich here, not a cheese-sauce covered Monte Cristo. Ooh, Monte Cristo…

Sorry! Sorry, got distracted there for a second. Once your base coat has dried, brush on a coat or two of a glitter topper and let dry. Here I used OPI’s Minnie Mouse-inspired Minnie Style, a fun combination of hot pink, red and white square and hex glitter in a clear base.

Then returning to your sheer base polish, brush a nice, even coat over top of the glitter and let dry, then seal the whole works in with the top coat of your choice. The last thing you should do is a victory dance, because your nails will look wicked fly!

The goal here is to make the glitter appear to be embedded in the polish as opposed to riding on top of it. This is also a super fun method of creating your own dupes of more expensive or harder-to-find polishes by combining two looks-close-enoughs and seeing what shakes down!

Glitter Bomb

If someone were to ask me what I thought was the best part of my new-ish nail art hobby, I’d have to say it’s all the pretty glitters. Because the average adult just doesn’t have that many opportunities to bathe themselves in glitter unless they’re Ke$ha. Or a stripper. Or both.

I got my sparkle on here with OPI’s Minnie Mouse-inspired Minnie Style over Essie Plumberry, with a little mouse head accent finger action for good measure.