Alice in Glitterland (31DC2014)

It’s glittery stripes all around for day 12’s theme of (brace yourself for the shock) stripes in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. Nearly halfway into the month I’m happy to say I’m continuing more or less apace with the daily prompts, and as tempting as it’s been to buckle on my self-imposed, all-Disney-manis-all-the-time rule, I’ve continued with that as well, churning out more Disney manicures than I thought possible (and this is coming from someone who has done, oh, 50 or more Disney-centric sets of nails?)

No Disney property utilizes stripes quite like Alice in Wonderland, and so I thought it fitting to create a mani featuring the stripes of two of the better known characters who live Through the Looking Glass, the Cheshire Cat and Alice herself. I had a lot of trouble with the stripes on my index finger, or more specifically, issues involving wonky striping tape and bleedy topcoat, which is why there’s approximately half an inch of nail polish on the tip of my index finger alone. But this is nail art AND Wonderland we’re talking about here, and does anything ever go as planned when you’re dealing with those two? 😉

Jack’s Back! (31DC2014)

Jack Skellington is a man (or a skeleton) with an enviably awesome wardrobe. My own wardrobe consists pretty much solely of black and white striped t-shirt dresses, so I get the desire to garb yourself entirely in negatives. I only wish I had Jack’s frame – long, tall and completely lacking organs, he has THE ideal body type for carrying off stripes. Okay, so maybe I don’t want ALL of the elements of Jack’s body that make him the perfect hanger for clothes – I’ll keep my organs, thank you very much.

This is most likely not the last Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired manicure you’ll see from me between now and, well, forever, because I really love that movie, but given my current Disneyfication of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge and today’s theme of black and white, it was only natural that I’d tackle a mani featuring my favourite eight-foot skeleton, Jack the Pumpkin King.

Beach Towel Stripes

Better get moving, seawater, sun and sand-worshippers, the clock is ticking on this year’s beach season. I suspect that most outdoorsy, adventurous, activity-oriented people (you know, not me) are spending the day unenviously running the roads, heading home from cottages and last minute vacations before the kiddies head back to school tomorrow. But I suppose there’s time enough for one last sprawl on the beach, if you’re into that sort of thing (guess which nail art-loving blogger is not?) I hope it’s a good one. Don’t forget to thoroughly apply your sunscreen. 🙂

Holo Haul

This every-nail-for-itself manicure is the result of absent-mindedly playing around with a trio of new, soon-to-be-swatched Cirque polishes atop an equally new Enchanted Polish holo. I have no idea what the design is or even what I had intended it to be, but it reflects the light so prettily, it gets to stay (even if my striping tape game could use a little work.)

Rock Lobster

I just returned from a few weeks out on Canada’s east coast where, amazingly enough, I ate not one bite of lobster. That’s pretty impressive given that from about the coastal town of Rimouski, Quebec straight through to Prince Edward Island, the lobster rules. You really can’t swing a seafood mallet in those areas without running into the king of the crustaceans. Lucky for them, though, I’m not all that fond of lobster (I actually find it to be sort of a pointless food – all work for not much play.) I like to think I saved at least a few happy homards (“lobster” en francais) from untimely ends, even if that had less to do with feeling altruistic and more to do with their lack of deliciousness.

The scallops, however, were shown no mercy. Poor yummy bastards never stood a chance.

The Beave (OMD2)

Day 29’s theme in the Oh Mon Dieu nail art challenge was national pride, which is a fitting one for me seeing as in the past week, I’ve crossed four provinces in this true north strong and free, eventually landing on Canada’s smallest provincial landmass, Prince Edward Island. PEI is gorgeous – green and verdant, with a whiff of saltwater in the air and beautiful, rolling fields of red earth stretching for as far as the eye can see (although not stretching that far, as PEI at its very widest point is only 140 miles across.)

But sadly for me and these nails, which draw inspiration from one of Canada’s more iconic, tree-biting critters, there are no beavers on the Island. Or if there are, I certainly haven’t seen them. But do you know what there are in droves? Foxes. Slim, rust-coloured foxes with bushy tails and prancing gaits that lounge around the backyard like dogs on a hot summer day. Except they move like cats and seem weirdly unperturbed by the presence of humans (of course, I just found out that one of the neighbours has been feeding them weiners, so no wonder they’re just this side of domesticated. I’d hang around any place that was throwing free processed meat at me, too!) It’s bad enough that while I was outside snapping this photo, taking advantage of the early morning natural light, I kept throwing glances over my shoulder to make sure Mr. Fox wasn’t sneaking up to take a bite out of my hide.

But I don’t know how to draw a fox, and so I went with this beave-tastic design instead (although one could argue that I also don’t know how to draw a beaver, particularly that one on my ring finger that looks like a dog with conjunctivitis.)

Vintage 4th

I’m Canadian, and so I suppose I should be concentrating my nail art activities on tomorrow’s Canada Day (also known as “Sweating Your Ass Off at a Cottage with a 2-4 Day”), but I thought I’d jump ahead and highlight a manicure I did in honour of the other national holiday taking place this week, Independence Day.  The American flag in particular, with its bold colour palette, whimsical stars and precise, horizontal lines is a design dream come true, and whether you stick to the basics or take a few liberties with the overall design, you’ll still wind up with perfectly patriotic polished paws to see you through every party this July 4th long weekend.

For these nails, I layered a handful of holographic polishes in subdued, slightly dusky hues (Cirque’s Luminous Owl and Sky Woman and KB Shimmer’s In Bare Form) over striping tape to create a soft, almost vintage-looking deconstructed American flag design, minus the stars!

Circus Stripes

Although I’m super pleased with how nice and crisp the taped-off stripes are in this manicure, I’m not sure the neon glitter-on-neon polish thing benefits either – it’s a bit of a muddled mess that does nothing to showcase those clean stripes or that fun glitter. Proof that sometimes you should take the less rather than the more. Still! Electric neon fun that reminds me a bit of the vivid stripes of a circus tent dusted with confetti.

Earn Your Stripes

The colour palette for these striped nails came out a tad more Golden Arches than I had planned (the unintended consequence of pairing red and yellow together without black in there to Mickey it up) but they’re still a fun, bright look to round out one of the first warm weekends of summer with a festive set of claws.

Disney Girl Challenge: Edna Mode

Again, much like Ursula and Cruella, I would never classify sharp, sassy Edna Mode from The Incredibles as a girl (rather, a black-clad, one-woman force of high fashion and wry remarks) but she’s a lady in the Disneyverse, and so for the purposes of this self-imposed challenge, she stays. Edna gets all of The Incredibles’ best lines (“My god, you’ve gotten fat”) and knows her superhero garb (“No capes!”) but based on her weird little black leather/rubber tire outfit, she has no clue how to dress herself.

Still, these nails, based on Edna’s funky little outfit of indeterminate material, were super fun to plan and, for a nice little change, utilize texture over colour. On my index and ring fingers I did a bit of fishnet-type taping work, layering a black textured polish over a simple black base, evoking the diamond scale pattern on the sleeves of Edna’s dress. And then on my middle and pinkie fingers, I layered matte black polish, striping tape and a couple of coats of Seche Vite one atop the other to create Edna’s puffy black dress (that really does look like an upside down lampshade made out of inflatable Vespa tires.) Finally, I added a pair of Edna’s iconic black rimmed glasses to my thumb. All the better to cut you down with a withering glance with, my dear.