Harry Potter manicure!

Today I felt like a Harry Potter mani.  Primarily because I wanted to use two colours I bought at the Dollar Store (Revlon! They're on my middle finger), and for whatever reason I thought blue/grey, I thought Ravenclaw, then I realized I should just go all in, HP-wise.

Hard to tell with that glare, but the HP in the Harry Potter font took me three tries and it's still not that great.  I have a really poor brush for detail work, I need to find something a bit better before attempting anything like this.

Here are the polishes I used:

Slytherin: China Glaze Exotic Encounters, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep

Ravenclaw: Revlon Timeless, Revlon Fashionista

Gryffindor: Mix of OPI Manicurist of Seville and Essie Lacy Not Racy (I think) and mix of Color Club Editorial/Snakeskin (no label... problem with polishes from Ross) and NARS Kismet.

Hufflepuff: Rimmel Black Satin, OPI The "It" Color

The label on my Essie polish fell off, and judging by their website, I have it narrowed down to about five possibilities.  'Lacy Not Racy' seemed to ring some sort of bell with me, so I went with it.  As for the Color Club, I personally don't think it is Editorial or Snakeskin, but the good people of the internet seem to think it so.

Anyway, love the manicure!

Funky French!

Ooh-la-la! I wanted to try a French manicure but switch things up a bit. I love it!  The grey is L'Oreal Greycian Goddess (the names, the names), and I recently switched to Rimmel Pro Finish Black Satin.

Nothing too exciting going on here, but I even managed to do my right hand this time.  The left hand I free-handed, but made good use of Scotch tape for the right.  Easy-peasy!

Leopard print!!

Today, I went for leopard print!  How exciting!  Let's have a look:

I started with a base coat, then painted on three coats of Essie Mint Candy Apple.  I'm going to say this... I strongly dislike every single Essie polish I've ever had the misfortune of using.  They go on streaky, globby, uneasily, and chip immediately.  I haven't tried all of them, obviously, so I can't make a blanket statement, but come on.  This one needed four coats, but I couldn't be bothered.  

Anyway, I blobbed on dots of OPI You Don't Know Jacques Matte, and then added some plain ol' black.  I am loving the colour combination.  Next time I might make the blobs a bit smaller, but I really like the effect of these.

I have no facility at all on my right hand, so I never really know what to do with it.  I guess I'll just paint the Essie on, but it won't look very good, as it is already an incredibly hard polish to work with.  

This mani deserves another picture.  Enjoy!

 

Flowers!

Daisies!  Something like that, at least. I don't know any black daisies, but whatever.  Use your imagination.  I did them in a bit of a rush, so they're not quite as perfect as I'd like.  Next time.

I was looking at paint sample booklets during the day, and there was a beautiful picture of greys and purples in a house, so I suppose I was inspired by that.  You can't quite tell, but there is a really pretty purple on those flowers.

The base is this colour:

mixed with some white.  Such a nice grey!! It came in a set I bought at Ross in San Francisco, all grays and mother of pearl type colours.  Some glitter too.  8 polishes, and nicely, no top coat.

How pretty!  I love these flowers, they are cute and very eye-catching.

Gradient!

Hey-ohhhhh!

I was in love with this gradient mani, but this was a few weeks before I had the brilliant idea for this blessed blog, so I apologize for the bad picture and the major tip wear.  This was at least four days into the mani, so it was still pretty good.  

My pinky was painted a beautiful elephant grey, and had a cute blue heart on it.  Here's how to make an easy heart, courtesy of The Beauty Department.  And I have to say, I never would have imagined that I would love love love a blog from Lauren Conrad ever, but it's totally my jam.

Easy-peasy!  To achieve the gradient, I first painted my nail the lightest shade of blue.  Then, since I was using several (five, which is TOO MANY), I painted each other colour directly on the sponge and then went to town. 

The ombre nail kit I got at Shopper's (on clearance, natch) was perfect for this gradient business, ideal, actually! Much better than as an ombre manicure.  Here's a crappy picture:

Hastily taken, just minutes ago.

Gradient turned into drip mani!

Here's my first attempt at a "drip" manicure!  It started out as a gradient manicure, but it looked like bubblegum and was far too subtle for my dramatic tastes.  I turned it into this drip mani, but I could do a lot better version next time.  My pointer finger nail broke and is now dreadfully short.

There has been a lot of activity going on in the house the past few days, which is why I haven't had the chance to do my nails quite as often.  Stay tuned, more nail polish is coming!

Tape manicure

I used my handy-dandy striping tape, direct from China, which arrived today!  I always attempted tape manis with thin stripes of tape using regular Scotch tape, but I do not have any skill in cutting the perfectly equal stripes of tape.  Enter the striping tape.

A little portrait view, anyone?

The China Glaze Patent Leather Top Coat is so shiny! Equally so as SV, I have to think.  Delightful!

As for the colour scheme, I was watching 'Repo the Genetic Opera' whilst lacquering up, so I can only assume that's where those colour choices came from.

Such a good film! But only if you're into weird things, don't mind musicals, and can handle gore.  It's a cult classic already, I think, and honestly, Giles from Buffy is in it. And he sings and sings and sings.  He also played Dr. Frankenfurter on the West End.  But I digress.  Nail polish!

Rimmel Stiletto Red, Rimmel Black Satin, China Glaze Top Coat

I think I just might even keep this manicure on for a day or two!