Hi Goddesses
How are you? I feel like we're rarely together these days. I honestly can't tell you how much this flu has knocked me for 6, but tonight is the first night in WEEKS that I have felt full of energy, so blog post here we come!!
A couple of weeks ago, my nails were in such bad shape (peeling, splitting), that I felt I had no choice but to nub them all and turn to Trind. Trind helps repair and strengthen nails, and a lot of my blogger friends swear by it, so I decided to finally give it a try.
However, the nubbins were sad. They felt pitiful and naked, and flirted shamefully with the new OPI Brazils sitting in a box on the nail desk. After a LOT of cooing and flattery, I finally decided that Don't Bossa Nova Me Around was probably the ONLY polish I could get away with wearing.
DBNMA is awesomely named and awesome. It reminds me a lot of Steady As She Rose from the Pirates Collection. It's a beautiful creamy base with hints of pink and it's just heavenly. Elegance in a bottle.
I then decided to add the 2 other taupes to the mix - Taupe-less Beach and I Sao Paulo Over There - for a little bit of nail art. My nubbins must have reminded me of Sammy The Nailasaurus, but I didn't want to do a waterfall. Instead, to try and distract from the lack of length, I went for a reverse waterfall.
Waterfall manis are really easy. The reverse one is still easy, but is logistically trickier. As the brush has to start at the tip of the nail, it's very much about painting from unnatural angles, and as a result the brushwork probably isn't as crisp.
That said, I think these colours work beautifully together in their shades of chocolate-coffee-caramel-biscuit awesomeness.
Just a LITTLE bit longer, and then we can crack open the colours!!
Hi Goddesses
Apologies. This post is 24 hours late. Whoops. As you know, I've been suffering with the flu for 6 weeks, and this week, although I've felt heaps better, I've been super tired. So I got home at 6pm last night for a little "pick me up nap", and woke up at 2pm this afternoon. Lol. I am hoping that was Flu's Last Hurrah, and normality will soon resume!
Today's post is a bit of a double, as it features 2 Orla Kiely manis, one of which was a fail. For those of you haven't heard of her, Orla is another British designer with signature, recognisable patterns, and is mainly a homeware brand.
This pattern is her most famous, and although it comes in a variety of colour schemes, this is the most famous version of the colours.
Again, I tried to stick to unused polishes and used a lot of the OPI Brazils -
I Sao Paoulo Over There
Taupe-less Beach
Toucan Do It If You Try
Red Hot Ayers Rock (not Brazil)
China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin
Bondi Lady Liberty
Konad Pale Blue
The 2nd Orla Kiely design is this one (this was actually the first brand mani I did), which I saw on a cushion.
I instantly saw skittle nails, and quite liked that the design was big enough that I would only need to do one and a half per nail. And then it went wrong.
This is one for me where I'm not sure why it doesn't work, I just know that it DOESN'T. Beth thinks I should have done a smaller pattern, and had 2 rows on each nail - she may be right.
I'm also sure part of why I don't like it is the midle nail. This was Sally Hansen Grass Slipper, and I don't know what it is, but EVERY SH green I have bleeds like this (not that I have millions lol). So I look at this mani and all I see is that putrid contamination in the middle, and ... ugh look away!
I think the bolder colours work the best, the navy nail in particular, but agh, you win some, you lose some!
Please make sure to check out what the other ladies did - it's been a spectacular week, and proof that you can find inspiration in even the most everyday items :)
