patternpolooza

After my flamingo fiasco, I was still determined to do something fabulous. Unfortunately this mani was wrought with issues from the beginning just like the last (I need my mojo back). I stumbled across this design on Pinterest accredited to Flight of Whimsey and rather liked how it looked. First mistake was starting this at 3AM. Anyway... it was a pretty complex paint job, but here's the basics of how I did it. 

I started as I always do with one coat of butter LONDON's Horse Power Nail Fertilizer and one coat of their Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat. Next I painted each nail with their respective base color: Keks on the thumb, Union Jack Black on the pointer and ring finger, and Pillar Box Red on my middle finger and pinky.

After that had set I began the rather laborious process of replicating the design on each finger. I used a variety of brushes and dotting tools from my Bundle Monster nail set and the additional polish shades of Cotton Buds (white), PIMMS (bright yellow), and Silly Billy (a peppy orange). Once I had painted everything I finished it with a coat of SV Topcoat. 

Shown completed with butter LONDON's Silly Billy

Most likely because i was painting in the early hours of the morning after a full day of work (WHHYYYYY???) I kept messing up one nail and wasn't entirely satisfied with the overall product. To add insult to injury, a few days after completion I slammed my hand in a door and it ripped off a nail from the bed and I'm pretty sure something is broken because a few fingers are still numb. Like I said this mani was cursed from the get go. So you know I'm not satisfied with it, but I would still love to know your thoughts!

flamingo fail

Unfortunately this has been one of those times where I have been in a serious nail design funk. I just haven't been feeling that inspired lately, so when I came across a really fun Lily Pulitzer flamingo print I thought this could make for a cute summer mani. Sadly it didn't quite go as planned. I'm posting it anyway because maybe someone will like it or someone will have a good idea for how I could have fixed it... 

I started with all white nails courtesy of one coat of butter LONDON'd Horse Power Nail Fertilizer, one coat of Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat, and two coats of Cotton Buds.

 Next on my thumb and ring finger I decided to try and replicate the pretty aqua color of the pattern. Surprisingly, none of my polishes were quite right so I mixed a color using butter LONDON's Slapper (the closest shade I had, but a little too teal), Poole (a light blue) and a dash of Wellies (a bright yellow green to brighten up the color). It ended up being pretty close, though the lighting doesn't do it justice. I painted two coats of my custom color over the thumb and ring finger and let dry. Next I began the tricky part of painting the flamingos. I have seen numerous flamingo nail designs over the years, but they all end up looking the same. I loved how these Lily Pulitzer flamingos were so fluffy and had so many shades of pink in them. 

I started by painting the main body of the flamingo using a light pink shade, Teddy Girl. Next using the darkest pink color I had selected for my pallet, I painted the outline of the feathers with Macbeth. Next I added all the other feathers alternating with a light coral (Kerfluffle), a darker coral (Trout Pout), a soft pink (Fruit Machine) and Macbeth and Teddy Girl. After I finished with the body, I painted the beak and eyes using Union Jack Black. I finished the look off with a coat of my favorite SV Topcoat. 

The less favored left hand

In my opinion the right hand looked better even though my non dominant hand painted it

I ended up liking the flamingos on my right hand better oddly enough but I think the ones on my left hand though not as nicely executed look more like the Lily Pulitzer ones. After I finished the time consuming process of painting the flamingos I realized it looked rather unfinished with the plain white nails. I didn't want to add any additional designs to the other nails fearing it would make it too busy looking. However it looked like it was incomplete just leaving it white. I started painting it over in the aqua shade I made, but then the flamingos just blended in, so I scratched that and tried painting them over in one of the pink accent shades. 

Ewwww. See what I mean... not quite right. 

Once again I was unsatisfied. I ended up repainting them white, going to bed and taking it all off the next day...flamingos and all. Sometimes when you aren't feeling that inspired it's best not to force it. 

What do you think about this flamingo failure? Do you have any ideas for how to fix it? 

stars & stripes

Despite my ever present anglophilia, the 4th of July is always a holiday I look forward to celebrating. Not only is it the good old U. S. of A.'s birthday, but it is my firecracker of a mom's! We always spend the day at our cottage up north surrounded by family and friends decked in red, white, and blue, eat until we burst, play out on the water, volleyball, corn hole, have a bonfire and watch the fireworks over the lake. It really is a spectacular day. 

I spend quite a bit of it and the days previous setting up shop doing patriotic manicures for friends and family having hauled just about every red, white, and blue lacquer I owned up north. For my nails I decided for a simple but patriotic stars and stripes design. 

I actually had a really really reeeeaaaalllllyy awful break a few days before on my left hand pointer finger...we're talking just about down to the nail bed, so I got a little professional fixing and a good talking to about letting nails get too long... ooops! They were super nice and trimmed them down nice for me and even painted them white for my base color before sending me off with a hug and a "be careful!" 

Once I got to work, I painted over my thumb and pointer finger on each hand with butter LONDON's Blagger. My goal was to create a bright waving flag effect across the hand so the stars would be on the thumb and pointer and the stripes on the other three fingers. I painted the stripes next using one of my favorite red shades, Pillar Box Red. I painted three stripes along each nail continuing from one to the next in a bit of a waved pattern. Next I got my bright white Cotton Buds and hand painted stars on the two blue nails in a bit of a staggered pattern. This was by far the more time consuming stage of the design--particularly the right hand. 

I contemplated leaving the design as is--nice and bold stars and stripes, but ended up adding some glitter because whats the 4th of July with out a little fireworks. 

I outlined the red stripes with the beautiful red glitter Chancer and a select few stars with a beautiful blue glitter from the butter LONDON Rock Your Color collection called Inky Six. Once I was done outlining with the glitter--a more difficult process than I anticipated because a massive thunderstorm rolled in disturbing my concentration with floor shaking booms at the most inopportune moments, I painted a coat of SV topcoat to finish the look. 

Chancer                   Pillar Box Red                   Cotton Buds                          Blagger                          Inky Six        

The look got tons of compliments over the holiday weekend, and I certainly was pleased with the overall patriotic effect. What do you think? Did you do anything festive on your nails for the 4th? 

Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July festivities!