Hi Goddesses
Happy Hump Day! Today we travel back in the vault to January, before my break / breakdown and when I was busy prepping posts for the 52 week challenge.
I loved this when I did it, and it deserves to see the light of day. The base is the gorgeous Very Sirius by Literary Lacquers.
I tried to create a houndstooth pattern you don't usually see, and went with this retro / mod version. In my head, houndstooth is usually black, so I wanted to invert what was expected of that pattern.
I was really happy with how this turned out - all it needs is some white eyeliner and false eyelashes and it's ready to party like the 60s never ended!
Hi Goddesses
Today we turn to what I think is at the core of my being - the love of the written word. I am so thankful for the pleasure that reading gives me - the ENDLESS pleasure - and also the way I can get lost in the joy of writing.
My earliest memories include reading - Enid Blyton, mainly - and I remember being a voracious reader who had to read books over and over again. That hunger has never waned, although sadly, I find depression has a major impact on my ability to just sit there and soak up a book.
Lately I've been loving YA stuff, mainly, I think, because it just zips along, and there's a breeziness to it that generally makes it a quick read. I've loved Divergent, The Maze Runner, The 100 oooh and We Were Liars.
My true love though is poetry, and they do say a poem a day is a great way to fight depression. My imaginary self (the one that's also rich, slim and does yoga), spends days swaying in a hammock, using the pencil that was also knotting my hair back off my face, to decipher the tangle of words and underline the especially visceral ones. Sylvia Plath remains the most mesmeric writer I have ever encountered. I know she's not everyone's cup of tea, but she was the one who taught me what a punch a word can deliver, and I think she taught me well.
I've written lots of things over the years - 500 pages of a novel I never finished, poetry, the opening pages of books I bored of before I could get them written or imagined - and you'll find lots of writing on this blog too, probably more than any other nail blog, and not all of it nail related. In fact, the first dozen things I ever posted were just writing, no nails.
I'm particularly proud of the Depression pieces I've written, and how people have identified with them, or felt less alone because of them. The pinkie nail is a homage to that corner of the blog - with the green colour for depression just creeping in around the edges.
So, a quick canter through the nails -
* thumb - Blogger symbol
* index - a bookcase
* middle - writing, courtesy of MoYou Pro 07
* ring - a bunch of Tulips, courtesy of MoYou Princess 12. Tulips are the front cover of Ariel by Sylvia Plath. Tulips is also my "gateway" Plath poem and the moment I fell in love with her writing style
* pinkie - also from MoYou Princess 12
Also, this mani is my first one using Sharpie pens for nail art - I used them to colour in the tulips (and then watched in horror as they turned from red to orangey-red after a coat of Poshe), and also used them for the spines of the books on the bookcase.
Overall, I really love how this turned out - and hurrah - it actually feels like it fits together!
Hi Goddesses
We end Vault Week with another mani that wasn't quite what I wanted it to be.
This features Too Fancy Lacquer Silent Night on base, a lovely murky, slightly undefinable holo.
I had seen a lot of people do cool manis with these birds on a wire so I pulled out my MoYou Pro 07 plate, and addedmy birdies in black.
Why didn't I totally like this? I think it was more about placement. I think the stamp was a little bigger than I expected so I couldn't quite frame the nail the way I had planned. Oh well xx
Hi Goddesses
And welcome to the first Tri Polish challenge of the year! This month we have the amazing combination of yellow, orange and red to play with, and I can’t tell you how happy those colours make me.
We’ve changed the rules slightly this year – you no longer have to stick to the exact same 3 polishes for all 4 manis – and hopefully this will allow us to be even more creative.
Today I have some roses, stamped using MoYou Pro Collection 07 and yellow Konad, and an orange Konad with shimmer. I blobbed these randomly on my stamp, so that when I swiped, the colours mooshed together a little.
On base here we have the stunning Scarlet by Above The Curve – a delicious ruby red holo. Sadly though, a think a paler red would have looked better here, and allowed the orange to stand out a little more.
This is a super simple design, and really effective – prepare to see this in a LO-HOT of colour variations over the next few weeks lol.
Hi Goddesses
A couple of weeks ago, I was sent the new Christmas Collection by Too Fancy Lacquer for review. Charlene was very excited as these holos were deliberately opaque, 1 coaters, and she set me a challenge to see if they would stamp (challenge .... accepted :) lol).
What's weird though, is that these polishes are so beautiful, I didn't want to lump them together in a Collection post, so you're going to see them mostly one by one, although some of them will share the spotlight. You'll see what they look like stamped over, and also how beautifully they stamp over other polishes.
Ok, brace yourself for a shock, especially you, Momma, in Florida. This, this is a brown polish, and I FLIPPING LOVE IT!! That is an official Crumpet First. Crumpet has NEVER loved a brown polish before, but wow, this is some holy holoballs of fire.
This baby is called Chocolate Gold, which is a perfect name. She's sultry, walnut-tanned and golden, all in one. She's also an earth holo - I see all the colours of the earth in there, from soil to moss to sun.
You know I hate brown, but the colour shift in this is just mesmeric. I am fascinated by how beautiful this is, and how many shades of nature, all at once. Utterly beautiful.
And if anything, possibly more beautiful with the stamping. This houndstooth pattern is from MoYou Pro Collection 07, and is stamped in a Konad swampy dark olive which matches sublimely.
I can't get enough of the contrast of these 2 polishes. It's like the gold in the holo FIGHTS to get out through the windows of the pattern.
Utterly spectacular. There are 6 polishes in all in the Collection, and they are available to buy HERE. Follow Charlene's FB page HERE for details of this weekend's restock.
And to end, here's a picture of the whole family xx
