Dexter Week - Opening Credits

Hi Goddesses

Sadness!  Today is the end of Dexter Week – boooooo.  I’ve really enjoyed doing these manis.  It’s a highly visual show and it’s translated really well to the nail.  Unlike the hell of Book Week which the Digit-al Dozen are doing next week but that’s another story …

So today we end with the beginning, and the coolest opening credits in the history of television.   They are mundane and sinister all at the same time, with that superb music tinkling through the background.

It’s so easy to assume that each image is an image of death or its instruments, but it turns out to be floss, a shave, a t-shirt.  Genius.  Pure genius.

I found this amazing collage on the web, which I used as my inspiration piece.

source - moniqueuneekdesigns.blogspot.com

So what have I got on my nails?  Welllll ….

Thumb – sinkhole with drippy blood

Index – coffee beans in the grinder – stamping image of beans from Cheeky Jumbo Plate 7

Middle – the egg!

Ring – I struggled a little with this one – it’s supposed to be the smooshed up blood orange after it’s been mushed on the glass juicer thingy

Pinkie – floss

So, Dexter endeth this season.  I have to say, they’ve done amazingly well not only to make something so abhorrent so watchable, but also to keep the quality ratio so high.  I personally felt Season 7 wasn’t of as high a standard, but that’s also the only series I haven’t been able to watch in one great big chunk (it’s my first experience of watching it week by week).  So I need to see for this last series whether I can manage to store the episodes up and then watch them just as the last one approaches.  Argh, so much planning!

Oh and you know how I mentioned the other day how imdb can ruin a storyline by showing you a character doesn’t make it all the way through the series?   Yup, I’ve done it again.  Ggggrrrrr.

I’m going to read the books next – I’ve heard great things about them, so I’ll let you know.  I hope you’ve enjoyed Dexter Week, I sure have, and make sure you check out my besties – they’ve really played a blinder this week, especially Emma :)  Enjoy xx

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Ashley at Smashley Sparkles

Emma at Manicurity

Kerrie at PishPoshandPolish

Dexter Week - Day 4 - Foxy LaGuerta

Hi Goddesses

Day 4 of Dexter Week already!  This show is so rich and textured that coming up with 5 ideas wasn’t hard, and as we all love the show so much, I bet we could have done a whole month with a bit of effort.

Today’s post is all about LaGuerta, a character I have loved and occasionally hated, due to her unfixed moral compass!  I love that there is such a powerful female character in the show, someone so overtly ambitious and political, yet also human when it counts, and true to her roots.

Truth be told, I love her wardrobe too – all hothouse flowers and animal prints.  Scrap that – I want her jewellery!  She wears some amazing long delicate necklaces, and I hope she’s left them to me in her will :)

I made this collage of the images which inspired today’s mani.  Whilst my recreations aren’t spot on, I hope you can at least tell which is which!   I think I need to do a whole mani at some point with that amazing green blouse – there was just too much going on for one nail.

I’m still slightly conflicted about the end of Season 7.    The photos below sum up the narrative of that Season, but the last scenes were still pretty shocking – and for me, slightly incredulous.   For once, the writers trapped the characters, and with nowhere else to go, LaGuerta’s death was inevitable.  As the last EVER episode of Dexter, I could accept it, but it seems strange with this last season to go – I just don’t know how they’re going to weave it.  I desperately want this show to go out at the top, but I’m worried they may have blown their load too early.

photo source - http://t.qkme.me/3r5d7p.jpg

photo source - http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md6owpJT9h1r42tjao1_500.jpg

One last mani from me tomorrow, and then the official countdown begins …. Ah Dexter, whatta show!

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Ashley at Smashley Sparkles

Emma at Manicurity

Kerrie at PishPoshandPolish

Enjoy xx

Dexter Week Day 3 - The Death of Rita Cupcake

Hi Goddesses

Day 3 of Dexter Week and today we turn to a pivotal character – Rita.  I have to say, I hated her eventually, yet I loved her at the start, so where did it all go wrong?

In Season 1, she was great, the perfect beard for Dexter – mousy, fighting to not remain a victim, struggling for independence.  She was downtrodden, but you rooted for her, apart from when she kept being nice to Paul.

By Season 2, Julie Benz, (the actress who played her) had had Botox.  And this was when I started to get ratty.  Rita wouldn’t have had Botox …. What Rita did do though was become a right royal pain in the ass, trying to get Dexter to admit he was an addict, practically hurling him into a support group … and the waiting arms of the annoying Lila.

Season 3 and Rita has aspirations.  Life is getting better, and I really didn’t mind her “I’m going to be a realtor” story line.  But look at the Rita in that wedding – where did the original Rita go?

And then Season 4.  THUD.   I’ve been asked not to give spoilers, but it’s so hard to discuss Season 4 without discussing Rita.   Firstly, her martyr-mommy act really got on my nerves.   Secondly, I really wish I didn’t have a bad habit of going on IMDB to find out more about actors …. And then notice that some actors star in less episodes than others ….

So the end didn’t come as a shock, per se, which is a shame, as I can only imagine the electricity of watching the Season 4 closer, not knowing what was to come.  The shocker for me though, was not the what, but the when.   Dexter wins, or so we think.  He kills Trinity.  He wins.  And THEN he loses.

So I was glad to see Rita go, which is a shame, as I haven’t liked any of his post-Rita women with the exception of the fabulous Hannah McKay, but wow, if you’re gonna go, go in a way that will be remembered forever.

source - forums.gametrailers.com 

Today’s manicure features – 

Thumb – Home Sweet Home stamp from Cheeky Jumbo Plate 7, over a sponged mani reflecting the colour scheme of the Rita-Dexter home

Index – the bath tub, with taps

Middle – the pool of blood and the poignancy of how Dexter found Harrison

Index – Rita Cupcake, always cooking something in that bloody kitchen!

Pinkie – the bath ….

Don’t forget to check out my awesome lady loves – I’ll be back tomorrow with a LaGuerta inspired mani :)  xx Enjoy.

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Ashley at Smashley Sparkles

Emma at Manicurity

Kerrie at PishPoshandPolish

Dexter Week - Ice Truck Killer mani and some Dexter-themed Black Cat Lacquers

Hi Goddesses

Welcome to Day 2 of Dexter Week, which has a couple of nods back to where it started – firstly to Series 1, and secondly, to the wonderful Black Cat Lacquer, whose Dexter themed polishes actually made me watch the show – thank you forever Sabrina!!!

Let’s start with the mani.  It’s hard to believe that a show like Dexter should come with its own nail art lol, but it does.  The true significance of it isn’t revealed until the final episode of series 1, and it really pulled my heartstrings when it was.

I loved Series 1.  I think it’s the best in so many ways – the rich characterisation, the snark (which I think has been lost), the plotting and the reveals – wow, just all so brilliant.

For my nails I used really cheap polishes, as befits Mom, and I toyed with doing nasty streaky one-coaters, but I couldn’t quite commit to it lol.  I did however play around with some dead hand poses :)

Revlon – Cherries in the Snow

CG Sunshine Pop

Wet n Wild Buffy The Violet Slayer

Revlon Tangy

Sally Hansen Limestone

I then added Black Cat Lacquer Ice Truck Killer over the top, for a double dose of madness!.  Each of the glitters in this polish takes its colour from the ITK mani.

For me, the glitter was an amusing reflection of how much glitter has changed in the last 6 to 12 months – it’s mainly hex glitter, and mainly the same size.  It’s rare now to see a glitter without different sizes or shapes or variety.  That aside, this glitter is a really cool summer popper.

As I was featuring BCL anyway, I thought it would be fun to round up her other Dexter inspired polishes that I own, even if, at the time, I had no idea what genius interpretations they were.  I remember being baffled by the oddity of The Skinner, but now I know who and what he is, it’s perfect :)

The Skinner

Bay Harbour Butcher

Trinity

photo from BCL Etsy page

Doomsday

Don't forget to check out what my favourite ladies are up to - enjoy xx

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Ashley at Smashley Sparkles

Emma at Manicurity

Kerrie at PishPoshandPolish

Dexter Week - Blood Blood Everywhere!

Hi Goddesses

OMG IT’S DEXTER WEEK ON THE BLOG !!!!!

Honestly, I can barely contain my excitement.  Dexter is one of my favourite TV shows EVERRRRRR, and yet I only got into it a few months ago.  Advantage?  Watching 6 series in 4 weeks is just AWESOME!

I blame Black Cat Lacquer.  And Missy.   BCL sent me some polishes to review which were inspired by Dexter, and I didn’t have a clue what they meant lol, and then Missy was all “omg you HAVE to watch it.”   So I did.  And I loves.

Today’s mani is the only blood mani of the week.    It’s so easy to do blood splatter to represent this show, and it’s about so much more than that.  Also, I only just did a Dexter mani with blood in a couple of months ago, so I wanted this week to go in a different direction.

However the show IS all about the blood.   It’s defined Dexter’s life since his memories began, it soothes him and it heals him.  So there had to be 1 blood mani :)

The thumb is the blood slide – from the calling card in Season 1 to LaGuerta’s fate in Season 7, it’s been all about the blood slides, an oddly clinical keepsake of such an emotional event.

Then we have a lake of blood.  I actually made my own blood for this mani.  My recipe was 50% clear polish, 25% China Glaze Velvet Bow and 25% Bettina 47.  It was a really good move, and gave me the less opaque tones I was after.

I then splattered with it, and created a blood drop with it.  These are over a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff.  I particularly like the dripping blood.  I just put a huge blob of my recipe on my nail, and then let it dribble down – simples!  And then finally, another blood pool.

Don’t forget to check out my lovely besties, and I’ll be back tomorrow with my Ice Truck Killer nails :)  Enjoy xx

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Ashley at Smashley Sparkles

Emma at Manicurity

Kerrie at PishPoshandPolish