Accidental St. Patrick's Day Mani

Spring has sprung early here in Georgia, which is what I was thinking about when I was painting these bright green nails. Only later did I realize that I did them on St. Patrick's Day.

The base color here is Color Club The Lime Starts Here, which is one of the scented polishes they put out last spring. I have to say the scent on this one was pretty bad. It didn't really smell like lime, and it was overly sweet and very strong. On top of that I put a little bit of Orly Here Comes Trouble, then used a make-up sponge to blend in the edge where the two colors meet.

Geek Nails: Pern Edition

This manicure is one that I've been planning for a really long time. I wanted to wait until I could get just the right stamp to do it because it's my tribute to something very close to my heart, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series.

The Pern novels are set in a distant future on a colony world that Earth has forgotten. The colonists have survived the main natural threat of their world, a voracious organism called thread, through a partnership with telepathic dragons. The world is rich and complex, with it's own politics, culture, and social mores developed over two thousand years. The series covers several periods in that history, including everything from colonization to Pern's present day.

The dragons of Pern were my inspiration for this nail art. There are five colors of dragons: gold, bronze, brown, blue, and green, and they have faceted jewel-toned eyes.

The polishes I used to represent the dragon's colors are (from thumb to pinky):
China Glaze Mega Bite
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Bronze Ablaze
Loreal Owl's Night
Maybelline Colorama Blueberry Surprise
Wild and Crazy Colors Erie

I stamped the dragon image using Chez Delany plate D10 and Konad White Pearl. I added the jewel on my thumb to represent the dragon's eye.

I started reading the Dragonriders books when I was in middle school, and they were an important part of my life from then on. I've re-read the majority of them in the last two years because they are still a place I escape to when things in my life are hard. I was lucky enough to hear Ms. McCaffrey read from one of her books and meet her briefly at DragonCon several years ago, and I'm glad that I got a chance to tell her how much her books mean to me.

Bright Peacock Mani

Today's mani is an example of the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts.

I started with a coat of Nina Ultra Pro Blu Blaze, then topped it with two coats of Sally Hansen HD Spectrum. Both of these polishes are a little meh alone, but together they have a foil-like finish that almost seems to glow!

The final product reminds me of Orly Sweet Peacock, which I never picked up from the Birds of a Feather collection.

Luna Moth Mani

I did a report on luna moths once when I was in elementary school because they are so beautiful. For some reason this polish combination just hit me one day when rifling through my polishes looking for something good. I was really happy with this one, but had a hard time with the photos due to some uncooperative weather.

The base color is China Glaze Bogie, which is actually a little purpler in person. I did the stamping with Sally Hansen Color Quick Green Chrome using Red Angel plate RA-119. I added the gems because they reminded me of the moon.

I'll leave you with a picture of my inspiration for this mani.

Check It Out!

So, one of the reasons my posting pace slowed down for a while was that I've been focusing more on crafty projects. Really, I should say other crafty projects, since the craftiness is really what I love about doing my nails. As of today, I decided that I need a blog for my crafts in addition to Digit Decor, so now you can also find me on Athena Handmade.

Here are a few pictures of the kinds of things I'll be posting over there:

Tiger's Eye Mani

As I mentioned in my post about China Glaze Pull Me Close, I've been super excited about the China Glaze Magnetix polishes for a while. China Glaze seems to hit the right combination of colors, theme, and price for me more often than most other brands.

 
My second indulgence from the Magnetix collection is You Move Me, and I used the striped pattern from the China Glaze magnet. The way this turned out with all the tones and highlights reminds me of the stone tiger's eye.

Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?

I'm always drawn to polishes that create a star field effect with light glitter in a dark base. This is Finger Paints contribution to that genre, Where Art Renoir? On the other hand, I'm super annoyed by polish names with punctuation in them, but I like this polish a lot any way.

Sorry for how beat my cuticles look in this picture!

What goes with Digit Decor: Hunger Games!

My latest geekery is the Hunger Games series, which I read in under two weeks (I got a head start by reading the first book in one day). Now that I've read them, I'm super excited about the movies. Of course, that also means that I've been eagerly awaiting the China Glaze Hunger Games polishes. I've only picked up a few of them, but I have some cool nail art featuring them coming up.

Hunger Games Obsession by sckesler featuring a chain necklace

Baroque Nude Mani

I picked up Borghese Biscotti Beige on clearance at CVS quite a while ago, and this is exactly what I had in mind for it when I got it. It's the closest thing I've seen to my skin tone, although it dries a little darker than it looks in the bottle.

I did the stamping with Red Angel plate RA-112 using KleanColor Black.

L'oreal Owl's Night

I'm a little late to the party on this one, since it was all over lots of blogs way back last fall, but it's a great polish, and deserves another airing.

This is L'oreal Owl's Night. This pictures isn't great because I had to take it inside due to inclement weather, but hopefully you can still see what a great polish this is. It's all full of lovely copper sparkle.

Star Sapphire Nails

I've been on a serious polish no-buy for several months, but my one indulgence has been three of the new China Glaze Magnetix polishes. I really hope the magnetic polish trend continues to pick up. First, I bring you Pull Me Close. I used the star pattern from the China Glaze magnet. I think the pattern will turn out crisper as I get better handling the magnet.

Wet N Wild Diamond in the Rough

Today, I just have a quick, basic mani to show you.

Meet Wet N Wild Diamond in the Rough. These indoor pictures, don't quite do it justice; it is SUPER sparkly in person. It's very pretty, especially for the economy price tag.

Geek Nails: Batman Edition

Pretty much since I started getting really into nail stamping I've been craving a few of the Chez Delaney series D plates. One of my most coveted was plate D25, which has Batman and Dharma Initiative logos. Well, I finally got it for Christmas, and it doesn't disappoint.

The base color here is three coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow topped with two coats of Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Night Glow. I stamped the bat symbol on top with KleanColor Black. While the glow wasn't super bright, this did have the desired effect of glowing all around the logo, which was blocked out like the Bat Signal.

Coming soon: Lost themed Dharma Initiative logo nails.