Firstly, I'd like to draw your attention to the layout of my blog - some of you may have noticed that it has now changed! I now have a 'Pages' bar underneath the blog title, and the bar contains a *mystery* page which I'm planning to update over the coming weeks. Ohhh, the excitement! ;-)
Onto the mani :-)
Today, I'd like to show you possibly the biggest fail of a mani I've ever done, logistically. This was my first attempt at colour blocking, and also my debut with a PVA glue base coat, and it was plagued with disaster from the word go.
The polishes used were:
- Rimmel At Ease (brown)
- Collection 2000 Buried Treasure #25 (gold base)
- Kiko 238 (red base)
- KBShimmer We Three Blings (gold topper)
- KBShimmer Berry Christmas (red topper)
- Model's Own black nail art pen (striper)
First, here's some pics (sorry for the quality - I took them very late at night with my phone and so they're a bit blurry):
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| Please ignore my fail-striping... |
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| A different angle so you can see the holo glitter... |
The entire mani was a logistic fail and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that this was my good hand... if you want to know why this mani caused me so much grief, just read my rant in italics below!
<rant> Firstly, after spending all weekend clearing out old polish bottles to fill with PVA, I discovered that PVA doesn't like to be decanted into tiny polish bottles, so I gave up once I half-filled one. Such a waste of time! I then found that it took well over half an hour for the PVA to dry on my nails before I could begin colour blocking (which also took forever, of course). I did O.K. with my freehand diagonals (freehand because tape would lift the PVA - grrr why didn't I think of that BEFORE starting) but then got my black striper out and found that despite usually being able to make elegant, thin lines, I only managed thick ugly ones, which sorta ruined what I'd achieved so far.
Since it took so long just to get the base layers down, I ended up staying up stupidly late (pushing 4/5am my time, only to discover that I'd truly planned everything wrong; I wore some of my new skinny jeans that day - the ones with the stiff top button - and, naturally, I totally ruined two nails just trying to get the things off. I tried saving the mani with some extra top coat but when I woke up in the morning I'd somehow ruined another two nails in my sleep and ended up removing the mani almost immediately - meaning it lasted a whole nine(!) hours altogether, eight of which I spent sleeping!
Finally, I found that despite trying to make sure my glue base was fairly thick, I damaged some of my nails (mostly around the edges) when peeling off the glue, which is sorta the reason I don't like the foil method. Since I stayed up so late trying to do something arty and fun, I felt very frustrated and a little disappointed about all of this. I'm also annoyed that I have ten glitter polishes in my collection that I was hoping to be able to wear whenever I want, but it now seems I still can't do this without damaging my nails in some way. GRRR. </end rant>
Now, given that this post is a ball of negativity right now, and in the spirit of positive thinking, what silver lining was there to all of this? I got to try out two of my Xmas KBShimmers (Berry Christmas and We Three Blings), which were both absolutely gorgeous (I will definitely brave swatching them alone sometime), and I discovered that Berry Christmas is a perfect match for a new and adventurous lipstick I bought recently! The lipstick in question was Clinique's Mighty Maraschino Chubby Stick and is a little out of my comfort zone, but I've been trying to revamp my image lately and so I decided to take a risk. I think I actually really like it (even though my ma hates it...). I think I'll wear it at Christmas with my KBShimmer Wrappers Delight. What y'all think of the lipstick?
(NB: I'm really tired, so please forgive me the picture quality!)
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| Nice pic |
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| Silly pic (nice pics are hard...) |
You know, from a distance the mani actually looked OK - too bad I didn't have time for it to grow on me :-( Better luck next time, I guess!
Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I can show you something better next time!
- Skye x
LOL, what a great post! I feel ya. Why do you think I'm scared to start "nail art"? I am afraid I will be frazzled and stressed all night. I love the photos of the mani by your face! It looks awesome with your lipstick. The good thing about a blog is that even though you had to remove the manicure so quickly, you will always have pictures to look back on. So were these glitter nail polishes that glittery that you had to use the glue method? It seems like that is what gave you the worst trouble.... :( It looks pretty to me!
ReplyDeleteHey :) Thank you :) :) I often do my manis right before bed, which perhaps I shouldn't when I'm trying new nail art. I didn't expect the mani to take quite so long, though! I'm glad you like the face pics haha. I went back and forth on publishing those over and over but eventually decided why not? They aren't hideous! I love that I have a record of this mani. I think it has potential lol.
DeleteIn hindsight, the glitter would probably have come off with a bit of scrubbing (the red one). I don't think the gold would have been a problem. I was just really keen to try the glue method so that when I do a full glitter swatch I'm not sobbing when it comes to removal :P The glue was definitely an issue for me and I really want to make it work as I only bought so many KBShimmers because I thought removal would be pleasant! I'm glad you think this mani is pretty :) I'm so happy I had the foresight to get pics before I ruined it!
PS - Thank you for confirming my suspicions about the lipstick! Unless told otherwise I can make a total prat of myself where makeup is concerned!
DeleteYou have such elegant hands, Skye! I totally understand how you feel about this, but it still looks really cool, and I'm jaloux that you did your stripes freehand :} Nice job, seriously. Lolol at your second pic... oooh, they match! ;) Mighty Maraschino looks lovely on you. I can see why you like it so much and it's cool that your new polish matches so well. <3
ReplyDeleteAwww Liesl that's real sweet of you <3 ! I think longer nails elongate my hands - they're actually tiny haha. And I take no credit for the hand positioning for this post - it's all Essie :P
DeleteThe stripes were done with a striper from Model's Own. The brush was actually real tricky to work with so the stripes are thicker than I wanted, but they look O.K., I guess. Thanks for liking them :)
I'm glad you like the lipstick, too! My mother practically laughed in my face when she saw it on, so it's nice to know I'm not mad. I decided to try to dress my age finally and the lipstick is a part of that lol. I think it represents a side to me that my friends have seen but my family hasn't. I am thrilled the polish matches, but I'm still gonna be sporting my Wrappers Delight for Xmas! Can't wait for that blog post ^^
Nice blog! I am IN LOVE with your curly hair <3 And I think this mani did not come out that bad at all! I still haven't tried color blocking yet, it's very intimidating and I can never think of the right colors to use together but I like the ones you picked. Everyone's gotta start somewhere!
ReplyDeleteHi Sandipa! Thank you so much! My hair actually looks a bit frazzled in those pics, but only curlies ever seem to be able to notice that haha. Now y'all can see why I named the blog Curly Polish ;)
DeleteThanks for the compliment re. the mani too :) Looking back, I think it was probably nicer than I really thought at the time, but then I didn't have long to warm to it haha. I will never colour block again with a pva base coat ;)
I'm glad you like the colours :) I'm normally really bad at choosing colours, which means my manis never look as gorgeous as what other gals come up with, but I was pretty proud of myself with this one. I always test out ideas on a bit of paper first and this was the pattern and set of colours I liked best. Once I work out the base coat, I'd like to use the brown (At Ease) with my KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone - I think they'd go together really nicely :)