Right, so it’s official: There’s nothing I can pair with the word “leopard” that doesn’t make me think of a strip club, including the names of every manicure I’ve ever done with this polish, KB Shimmer’s leopard-spotted glitter, Spot Sign. It’s a sickness. Then one day I’ll use some flocking powder to create The Velvet Leopard and that’ll just put me right over the edge. 😉
Skittle mani style. A skittle manicure, for those not in the know, is an every-nail-for-itself type of mani in which you paint each one of your nails a different colour, or one single colour (say, purple) but in a variety of tones, as I have here.
The purple polishes I used for these nails were, from index to pinkie, Finger Paints’ neon orchid, Pop Art Purple, Essence’s Color & Go in Break Through, Essie’s lilac-hued Play Date and Bonita’s lavender Splendid Love.
I then topped the whole works with one and a bit coats of Enchanted Polish’s Rainbow Juice (With Pulp), a sparkly holographic topper stuffed with silver holo flakies. It makes everything it touches look like it’s been sprinkled with ultra fine diamonds. I think Rainbow Juice looks the best here paired with Pop Art Purple, because the holograhic flakes play off so nicely against its lush neon hue, but Play Date is proving to be no slouch either.
Also, apropos of nothing, but it is so hot and humid here today. I was bundled in a giant sweater yesterday morning. Wither the spring?
The colour palette I used in this every-nail-for-itself manicure – grape purple, dark turquoise, nude, gold and black – is a rich, bold and unusual one that begs for multiple types of nail art to showcase it to its best, from stripes and swirls, to blossoms and scales. So why settle for one design when you could have a little bit of everything? I really love this type of random/not random mani that’s limited only to what you think might look nice on each one of your nails, although I think I like it even more when there’s a little bit of polish cohesion to tie the whole beautiful package together.
I think I hit all the salient plot points in this somewhat abbreviated, lacquered retelling of The Wizard of Oz. I mean, there’s a sepia-toned tornado that sucks up Dorothy’s house (not shown) and a cow (shown.) A Wiccan with fabulous taste in striped tights and glittery red shoes is crushed to death. Dorothy jacks the dead lady’s heels (BAD FORM, DOROTHY) and then walks for miles on an improbably-hued road before going to the Emerald City, the end. And that’s pretty much it, right? Can’t imagine what else I might be missing here… 😉
I was feeling a whole lot undecided today when it came time to choose a theme for this manicure. Fruit? Pastries? Random sprinkles and dots? So in lieu of actually have to make a decision, I instead decided to employ the old every-finger-for-itself approach, combining all of my ideas into one super cute, perfectly pastel mani befitting the gorgeous “Has it really stopped snowing?” afternoon we’re all enjoying this fine Spring day. 🙂
And now for something a little different from my usual. Regular readers or repeat stopper by-ers know my taste in nail art veers towards a lot of pop culture-inspired designs and more glitter and rainbows than a Pride parade. But when week two’s theme in March’s N.A.I.L. Challenge called for gold, I decided to go with the traditional pairing of simple black and gilded gold in an array of stripes, dots, gradients and swirls. There’s a little something for everyone here, whether you like the every-nail-for-itself approach or decide to keep it simple by choosing one as an accent nail. It’s the little black dress of nail art!
Here’s a simple skittle mani (that’s a sort of “every nail for itself” kind of manicure where each nail is a different colour and/or design) that shows off this glitter topper, Candy Lacquer’s Santa’s Sweet Shoppe, to great effect. This manicure was actually at the behest of Mr. Finger Candy, who figured I’d get more mileage out of the swatching experience if every nail gave the glitter polish a slightly different look. And you know what? He was absolutely right! Time to file that one under the special skills section of his resume, methinks.
I am pleased to report that unlike my last outing with a Candy Lacquer polish, the rather disappointing Penguin Presents, Santa’s Sweet Shoppe is a fine return to form. A truly bizarre mix of matte satin glitters of every shape, size and colour, it’s weird and pretty and makes every manicure look as though your nails have been dipped in sprinkles. And as I’m fond of saying, that can’t ever be a bad thing (unless they’re actual sprinkles, in which case you should really wash your hands.)
It’s all grumpy, cold and overcast in my neck of the world today, and if precipitation were to happen, it’d be snow as opposed to rain, but none of that is going to stop me from brightening up my day and yours with a simple, glittery mani featuring all the cheery colours of the rainbow. The glitter topper I used here is Sally Hansen’s Over the Rainblue, a basic, but deceptively pretty, nail polish stuffed with blue hex glitter and silver iridescent bar glitter. I know not everyone is a fan of bar glitter, but these are wee little baby bars that don’t stick up all over your nails, just waiting to snag on something and destroy your manicure. And as you can see, the iridescent glitter looks fabulous over a wide range of colours, throwing off rainbow prisms (or is that rainblue prisms?) with every shift of your nails. Just lovely!
Finger Candy 