Manicure Monday: French Pink and White Gradient

So this is my idea of a professional manicure. I’m going on a business trip to Boston, and I wanted a manicure that was office-friendly without giving up glitter. Here I am, having my cake and eating it too.

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It looked different in my head, but I’m pretty happy with the result. From a distance, it looks like the traditional French manicure, and the glitter is hardly noticeable. I tried to be professional while still being myself, but I may have done better than I thought.

Another angle for glitter.

Another angle for glitter.

I still can’t get over how long my nails are.

Julep's Emmanuelle, Sally Hansen's Hard to Get, Sinful Colors' Pearl Harbor

Julep’s Emmanuelle, Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Sinful Colors’ Pearl Harbor

That Julep polish was full when I started.

Manicure Monday: Orange and Feathers

I wasn’t sure about this feathered/fuzzy coat texture trend. I mean, it’s just non-reflective glitter, right? What’s even the point of that? I want my glitter to be so shiny it’s blinding. Go big or go home, right? I placed a Sephora order a few weeks ago and needed one thing to push me into enough points for the 500 point reward (don’t ask, my logic module doesn’t work when I’m shopping). I saw the Nails Inc. Feathers and grabbed a couple bottles, just to try it out. Meanwhile, I had this orange I didn’t really know what to do with. It confuses me. It’s too opaque to be a jelly but too sheer to be a creme. Glitter disappears in it, but I can still see my nail line. When I finally got the Feathers in the mail, I put them together.

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This one looked better in my head, I think. I envisioned something like a glitter gradient, but the small fibers didn’t play well with that idea, and just formed colonies on the tips. I like it enough to keep it on, but I’ve gotten some interesting comments. One person described them as “strangely horrifying”, while another said they looked like bone shards stuck to bloody claws. Now I can’t unsee it.

Sinful Colors's Big Daddy, Nails Inc. Feathers in York

Sinful Colors’s Big Daddy, Nails Inc. Feathers in York

For funsies, here’s a test manicure I did with different colors.

Essie's Boxer Shorts and Nails Inc. Feathers in Cornwall

Essie’s Boxer Shorts and Nails Inc. Feathers in Cornwall

Manicure Monday: Blue and Gold Gradient

Yep, another gradient.

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I love the way this turned out, but I do wonder if it’s time to graduate to three colors, since my nails are so long now. With only two colors, it just looks a little lacking. Shiny as hell, though.

Sinful Colors' Love Nails, Julep's Zelda

Sinful Colors’ Love Nails, Julep’s Zelda

I ran out of Out the Door last week, and went back to Seche Vite. Now that I’ve gone back to it, I might have liked Out the Door better. I spend way too much time thinking about and writing about topcoats.

This was unintentional, but it’s E3 Week, and the gold shade is called Zelda. I swear I didn’t plan that.

Manicure Monday: Red and Rose Duochrome

This might be kind of a departure from what I’ve been doing with my nails lately. It’s been a really long time since I had a solid color without any embellishments, and I’ll look at them and think “Hey, dots” or “I should try those decals” and then I tell myself to stop because they’re fine.

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This is actually two colors, a semi-opaque red with a really tiny shimmer, and a rosy duochrome layered over it. At certain angles or lighting conditions, it shines pink, blue or lilac. On its own, it’s an odd color, but it is beautiful over this red.

You can see some of the other colors here. Kind of.

You can see some of the other colors here. Kind of.

Having red nails always reminds me of being in Rhode Island with my mother and my grandparents. My mother’s cousin, I think it was, was a nail tech and gave us manicures at least once. Actually, now that I think back on it, this was one of my earliest experiences with nail art. At some point, she gave us a manicure set, one complete with polishes, tools, fillers and fortifiers. I remember most of the colors being sheer, pretty neutrals, except for a bold red. That’s the one I went for, and even though I remember thinking that red was old and busted (blue polish was the new hotness and that was all I cared about wearing), I loved the way it looked on me. It was noticeable, attention-getting, it spoke volumes from my small nails and short fingers. Ever since then, there’s always been something about red nails that I can’t get enough of.

Bonder, LA Colors Animated, Orly Synchro, Out the Door

Bonder, LA Colors Animated, Orly Synchro, Out the Door

The more things change, the more they stay the same.