Hi Goddesses
I really did not think I was going to get this mani done in time. I've been battling flu all week and yesterday it looked like it had won, but waking up this morning, it seems we've called it an amicable draw. Now I just need it to bugger off entirely!
I had a theme planned for this mani. The Adventures In Stamping theme for this week is Under The Sea and I was going to do a whole mix of sponging to create that underwater aquarama thing. Well, enter the flu, and suddenly easy seemed best, so I reached for the next best thing - Deborah Lippmann's Under The Sea.
Oh yes, sorry - you and Deborah tend to call this one Across The Universe. I disagree, for me this is just so mermaidy and underwatery, so I renamed it. :P I layered it over a new purchase - CG Sexy In The City. Usually I do it over a navy base, but I didn't want this to look too dark with the stamping still to come. And woah - what a surprise!
Here's an uncleaned up photo of ATU over Sexy, and a comparison pick of when it's worn over navy. Did YOU know it could look so different ? I certainly didn't, and it's given this polish a whole extra dimension for me, as well as making it perfect for this theme.
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| with a navy base |
Sexy In The City is a very strange colour, but mainly strange in a good way. It's a dark turquoisey blue with hints of teal and shimmer - VERY hard to pin down, but very interesting. All the nails had 1 coat of this and then either 1 or 2 coats of ATU. There were a couple of bald spots I wanted to cover up, but I also didn't want the layers to look uniform, as the sea twinkles all sorts of colours.
Getting the ickle fishies onto the nails was harder and sadder than I thought it would be. I'd picked out some great colours like For Audrey and Zoya Dawn, but they were just too thin against the darkness of the "sea".
So once again, trusty foils and chromes to the rescue! The hot pink and champagney one from the CC Foiled Collex, and 2 SH Chromes - Royal Purple and Aquamarine.
The drama didn't end there - this was a ****** to photograph, a constant battle to get the fishies into stark relief against the swimmery shimmery background. Never mind, in person they look pretty damn decent, and I love how on certain nails the glitter from the ATU almost looks like bubbles from the fishes' mouths. Cute.
oh, nearly forgot - fishies are from Konad M82.
Enjoy xxx :)