Fingernails that Shine like Justice
showcasing my favorites
After re-reading the Hunger Games in the last couple of days, I was reminded that Katniss herself had her nails done for the interview directly preceding the beginning of the Games. In the book, Katniss says Cinna’s team decorates her by “painting flame designs on [her] twenty perfect nails.” So of course, I had to do a flame design.
Described as “Grey Crystal” on the website, Facet is part of Illamasqua’s Sacred Hour collection. It’s a grey/taupe base packed full of coppery shimmer flakes, and is completely stunning! It’s simple yet still somehow unique in my stash. I think Raindrops will always be my favourite Illamasqua shade, but this comes very very close.
For my new technique, I’ve chosen a spray marble. The idea is to blob polish onto the surface of water (as with a water marble) but instead of drawing patterns in it, you spray it with hair spray. It was a bit of a risk because me and marbling do NOT get on. Not a bit. I thought this would be easier than a full water marble, and it was, but barely! Every time I sprayed the polish with hair spray it just flew off to the side or shrivelled. In the end I tried warm (almost hot) water, and it worked better. It’s still not exactly as I pictured, but I like the effect it created.
For a fun, festive look, I decided to do a simple skittlette. I used all three polishes from the China Glaze Dash of Dazzle set, plus OPI My Vampire is Buff, and a plain black polish. I love how easy it was to do, and it’s such a great look for a holiday party!
I began this manicure with two coats of Zoya Tomoko from the Fall 2013 PixieDust collection. I used it in this freehand design as well, heart design with Tomoko. I know I gush over the PixieDusts every time I use them..I will continue to do so. I adore them and their formula lends itself towards nail art so nicely! I used a nail at brush to paint side swoops with Zoya Arabella.
Just Spotted the Lizard is a gold and green duochrome. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again. I love an affordable dupe to an expensive polish. With that said, this is a dupe of Chanel Peridot. Very pretty and interesting color for any collection, and the formula was great too, three easy coats for full coverage.
I started out with my base coat (Cult Nails Get It On) then used 1 coat of OPI’s Thanks A Windmillion, which I then dry completely. Next, one nail at a time, I did a diagonal stripe with a 2nd coat of my polish and immediately dipped that nail into my desired micro-bead color. I repositioned any stray beads with a rubber cuticle pusher and then gently pressed the beads down into the still semi-wet polish to secure them. I repeated this step for each nail.
Silver Smoke is a cool gold metallic with bronze and silver microshimmer through it. Unfortunately the shimmer doesn’t translate too well on the nail so it’s very subtle but it’s just beautiful! 3 coats is pictured.
