Geek Nails: Rue Edition

As you know by now, I recently got really into The Hunger Games. When China Glaze came out with their Hunger Games polishes, it gave me all kinds of ideas for themed manis. The first one was inspired by Katniss, and this one is based on Rue. Specifically, it's based on Katniss' tribute to Rue.

The base color is, appropriately, China Glaze Agro, the District 8 color from the Hunger Games collection. I absolutely love this color; in fact, it was my favorite from the collection. It has some gorgeous, if subtle, multi-colored shimmer that you can't really see in my photos.

The texture on this seemed like a dream going on - it could almost have been a one coat polish - but it bubbled a lot afterwards. So, I'll probably thin it a little next time I wear it.

I did the stamping with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White and finished off with a few flower-shaped jewels in two sizes.

My cuticles could have used a little work, but I'm happy with how the mani turned out.

Sunny Petals Mani

I'm currently running behind on blogging because of getting ready for, going on, and recovering from a cross country business trip. It was a great experience, but all phases of it ate up a lot more time and energy than I expected. So, I'm going to be posting more frequently over the next few days to get caught up.

This first catch up post features some Super Nail brand flowers that I got at Sally's toward the beginning of the summer. I'd had my eye on them for a while, but once I had them, it was hard to decide exactly how to use them. They're real dried flowers (although I think they're dyed to give them consistent color). In the end, I decided to go with something simple, to keep the focus on their delicate prettiness.

I started with a base of Finger Paints Tangerine Tint. This polish is a medium orange creme with just a little pink. While it's nowhere near a coral, that little hint of pink keeps this shade looking spring/summery instead of creeping into fall or Halloween territory. I had no complaints with the application or pigmentation. The texture of the polish was a little thick and gooey, but despite that, it flowed on very smoothly and was opaque in two medium coats. The dry time on it's own seemed to promise to be very slow. I had no trouble at all doing all my painting, then applying the flowers and pressing them into plenty wet polish. However, once I added a layer of Out the Door, it dried and set in a reasonable 30 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, I don't think Tangerine Tint is really a very flattering color on me. It's beautiful in it's own right, but it brings out the wrong elements of my skin tone. Ultimately, I'm going to be looking for an orange creme with a cooler or browner base. Any suggestions?

Moon Flowers Manicure

I love morning glories, and I bought some seeds to plant around the fence in my yard a while ago. While I was shopping for them, I found some seeds for moonflowers. They appear to be similar to morning glories, but they're white and bloom at night. Life being what it is, all of these seeds are still sitting in a drawer, but I have a beautiful mental image of what it will look like eventually.

For this manicure, I started with OPI Steady as She Rose from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. For some reason both this and Mermaid's Tears made me do floral manicures, maybe because they're delicate shades. Steady as She Rose is a pale greyed pink. On the nail, it has hints of lavender as well. The formula was a little thin, and tended to want to run away and pool up around the edges of my nail. In part because of the puddling issue, I used three thin coats to get it opaque. It dried pretty quickly and very glossy.

On top of Steady as She Rose, I stamped a little vine pattern from one of my Bundle Monster plates using Revlon Top Speed Emerald. I'm going to have to grab a back up bottle of this polish because it is perfect for stamping leaves and plants. On top of the vines, I used a toothpick to add dots of Wet and Wild French White Creme for the flowers.

I absolutely love this manicure and was almost hesitant to take it off. However, it was time for Nail Night, so my next post will show the results of our first Nail Night at one of my nail mentors' house.

Sleeping Beauty Manicure

It's been a rough week here at Digit Decor headquarters. However, there have been some bright spots: being appreciated for my work, having really great in-laws, and fabulous nails. I did these before the proverbial excrement collided with the whirling blades of my week, and I was in a cheerful, springy mood. There is some particular variety of rosebush that is planted lots of places in my town that has these very bright, yet dark, pink flowers that are in bloom right now. They were the inspiration for this look.

The base color is OPI Mermaids Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. First, I love this color. No, seriously, I LOVE it. It looks almost mint green in this picture, but in person, it's closer to a light sage. I think OPI described it as a sea green, and it does a good job of evoking that to me. The application was ok. The texture of the polish is a little thick, meaning it didn't spread out as easily as some things, but it wasn't bad. I still got uniform, opaque coverage in two medium coats, I just had to pay a little more attention to do it. Overall, a definite winner for me.

Next, I stamped little bushy plants over about the bottom 1/3 of my nail using Revlon Top Speed Emerald. I finished it off by using a toothpick to apply pink dots of Revlon Top Speed Bubble. I tried to make the dots big enough compared to the leaves to read as flowers rather than berries. I've mentioned it before, but I find that the Revlon Top Speed cremes work really well for stamping because they're thick, very opaque, and really do dry quickly.

This is one of my favorite manicures that I've done in a while. I think I'll get the plates back out and do some more floral stamping this weekend, as those often turn out to be my favorites.