FrankenShortcake

So it would seem that when you combine a predominately red, green and white, Christmas-themed glitter topper with delicate, pastel-hued base polishes, the resulting look is very nearly always Strawberry Shortcake. As in the doll. With snowflake glitter. Which really isn’t a problem for me, as I’ve been on the hunt for a Strawberry Shortcake-type polish for a while now, and I quite like the overall look. I had actually forgotten how much red Strawberry Shortcake has in her costume (had – today’s Strawberry Shortcake is all about the hot pink.)

I think the thing I like the most about these nails, though, is that I was able to create the look without having to buy another polish. And it’s not even necessarily that I dislike the financial outlay (although who likes parting with their money?), it’s more that I’m finding that the redundancy in my polish collection is becoming a bit of an issue. I’ve never felt the need to own 13 nearly identical turquoise polishes because this one is a shimmer and that one is a holo, but that’s precisely what’s happening, just with my favourite type of lacquer, chunky glitters. And as any nail polish aficionado will tell you, while they may be fun and beautiful, mega glitters have a somewhat limited application – it’s hard to make them look like anything other than glitter bombs (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

So when I can find a way to combine some of my existing pretties into a gorgeous Frankenstein of a manicure, I’ll take it, which is precisely what happened with this mani, in which I layered one coat of my very favourite polish, Candy Lacquer’s Candy Cane Fiesta, over, on alternating fingers, Bonita’s pale pink Sweet Ever After and China Glaze’s pale green Re-Fresh Mint.

Green and Gold

Getting a jump on my St. Patrick’s Day nail art with this green and gold manicure I actually did a couple of weeks ago, which is quite fitting, as I’ve been having some troubles as of late with the whole time-space continuum thing and keep thinking it’s two months later than it actually is. No, really – today I attempted to invite my parents and grandmother to lunch at my home this coming Sunday for Mother’s Day until my mom reminded me – with a great deal of puzzled concern in her voice – that Sunday is not Mother’s Day as we know it in North America with the flowers and the tea and the brunch, but Mothering Sunday, a religious holiday celebrated by both Protestant Christians and Catholics in the UK. So right sentiment, wrong continent. This discovery is kind of a good news/bad news sort of thing – good news in that I haven’t lost two months of my life, bad news that I’m kind of an idiot!

But the good news here is that these glittery nails are still pretty dope, and super appropriate for this coming St. Patrick’s Day. Here I combined Ruby Wing’s mega glitzy gold-to-red UV colour changer, Strawberry Shortcake, with Whimsical Ideas by Pam’s green and gold holo glitter, There’s No Place Like Home. Very gilded leprechaun.

Strawberry Fruitcake

My favourite everything-AND-the-kitchen-sink glitter, Candy Lacquer’s Candy Cane Fiesta, meets my bestest background polish, Serum No. 5’s Awesome Blossom, in this super fruity manicure that – Christmas-themed polish notwithstanding – totally reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake. Miss Shortcake’s cousin from Christmastown, perhaps, Strawberry Fruitcake? So gimme a call, Tim Burton, if you’d like to collaborate on a foodie-themed sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas, because I’ve got at least a jumping-off point here. 🙂

Gold at the End of the Rainbow

A new technique befitting my new-ish nail shape, these nails were my first attempt at a vertical gradient. It’s a fun look – and easy, too, although aren’t gradients always sort of fussy? – made a touch sparklier with the addition of a couple of coats of a simple holographic glitter. And seeing as all good rainbows come with a pot-o-gold chaser, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dress my pinkie finger nail in a favourite gold polish, Ruby Wing’s colour-changing Strawberry Shortcake.

Strawberry Shortcake

I didn’t have a lot of Strawberry Shortcake toys when I was a child, favouring Barbies and My Little Ponies above all else, but I always loved Miss Shortcake herself. And what’s there not to love? She smells great, wears an adorably dorky hat and counts a pink and white spotted kitty as her best friend. That’s girl toy pay dirt right there!

It’s probably wise to not get me started on the recent thinnification of Strawberry Shortcake, however. Actually, call it a de-dorkening. It’s like the focus groups for today’s modern children just flat out rejected Strawberry’s old look – sturdy, redheaded fruit geek in a too-frouffy embroidered dress her mom probably picked out for her – in favour of replacing it with Strawberry Shortcake, junior fashionista. I mean, have you seen what she looks like nowadays? Her hair is hot pink and sleek under an adorable strawberry baseball cap. She’s gained two and a half feet in height and lost at least half her body weight. Her babydoll dress stops about an inch down from her butt. Even her cat was put on a diet! Tell me, what kind of world do we live in where an animated cat can’t even have a few pounds on its strawberry-scented frame?! A world gone mad, that’s what!!!

See, I told you this was a path we shouldn’t have started down! I also have a lot of thoughts on the sexification of My Little Ponies, but that’s a dismaying argument for another day (and another post.)

(Pretty) Indecisive

I’ve had this polish, Ruby Wing’s colour changing Strawberry Shortcake, for a while now, but polish application skill level and/or a lack of actual sunshine in my neck of the world prevented me from showing it off. But no more! For today there was sun! And in those 47 and a half minutes I did indeed make hay, or at least whipped up these super quick nails.

A gold glitter polish run through with holographic glitter, Strawberry Shortcake is a UV colour changer that shifts from gold to rose-gold to lush strawberry red in about 20 seconds flat. In fact, its colour changes so quickly and dramatically, you’ve got to MOVE if you wish to photograph your work, which leads to all sorts of assuredly concerned looks from any peeping neighbours as you (as in me) leap in and out of a beam of sunlight on your balcony in an attempt to capture its many different colours.

A note: In addition to being glittery and a colour changer, this polish is also supposedly scented. I say “supposedly” because mine smells like nothing so much as straight up nail polish. I may have gotten a bum bottle, as others have reported its delightful cake scent, but I ain’t gettin’ squat.