TopCoatIt

I sing this song to my daughter all the time.  When I showed it to my husband he couldn’t read it.  It’s called cursive.This didn’t turn out as cute as I had imagined.  Cursive is hard enough with a pencil, but try it with a paint brush and it’s a lot harder.

The sun is American Apparel Butter and the blue/grey is Zoya Ktisten.

Inspiration is all around us. Sometimes it’s something you see everyday.  One of my daughter’s favorite toys is a little lamb.  This is what little lamie’s face looks like.

Isn’t she sweet?  I started with a white base of China Glaze White on White, but it was too white.  Lambie was probably pure white when she was brand new, but she’s been through the wash many times.  She is very loved.  So to take the gleam off the white I put a coat of OPI Swedish Nude on top.  Lambie’s eyes are Sinful Colors Nirvana with China Glaze White on White as the highlight.  Her pink nose is OPI Pink Friday.

I don’t know if my daughter recognized these nails as the face of her beloved lamb.  She didn’t really react any differently to these as she does any other manicure I show her.  My husband recognized them immediately.

Today’s Twinsie Tuesday is supposed to be a matte polish.  I only own 2 matte polishes and I didn’t want to use either of them.  I compromised.  I did a mani inspired by Erica of Chole’s Nails (who isn’t inspired by her!)

I used Julep Boris and Nicole (the rust color), and Sinful Colors Nirvana and did my polka dots.  I topped it with Seche Vite.  That combination by itself was so pretty.  Then I free handed the tip with Nirvana and added Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love just to the tip.

I haven’t experimented with matte all that much.  I want to play with it more, but I really want to get my hands on some Essie Matte About You.  It seems like it’s got a stronger matte effect.  To be honest, I still like the glossy mani better than a matte one.

Be sure the check out every one else’s mattes today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
Jenn of All That is Gorgeous
Jenna of I’m Still Thinking
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

I did my first feather manicure months ago. I only did one accent nail.  It turned out pretty good, but I never took a picture of it.  I’ve been wanting to do another one ever since.  I picked up some fun colorful, polka dot feathers at Michael’s and was eager to get to work.I started with a white Nailside cloud on each tip as a back drop.  I put on a coat of Jordana Quick Shine top coat and while that was still wet, stuck the feather to it and pressed it down a bit.  Once it was stuck I trimmed it up with some scissors and topped it all off with Seche Vite.  I had to put on a couple coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the rough edges.

I love the blue feather, but think my index finger turned out the best.  I love how that yellow feather fanned out.  So much fun and so unique.  Hopefully it won’t be too difficult to take off.

The purple feather on my thumb was really dark (almost looked black) and didn’t fan at all.  I was disappointed in my thumb.  Oh well.

What do you think of feather manicures?  Have you tried one out for yourself?

I don’t know why I decided I wanted to do a manicure to pay homage to creepy, poisonous spider.  I guess I just saw the colors in my stash and was inspired.  I had some issues with this mani.

Originally I did the opposite; my ring finger was red with black and the rest were black with the red hourglass.  First the tape pulled all the red off my ring finger and when I topped the rest of them with Seche Vite they buckled or something.  They looked awful.  What a mess.  So I started over.  I used tape on my thumb and pinkie, but I just couldn’t get it to look right.  I free handed my middle and index fingers.  The Seche Vite didn’t buckle this time.  I don’t know what happened the first time.  Odd.

I used Color Club Reddy or Not under Barry M Red Glitter and China Glaze Liquid Leather.