SIMPLE(R) SUNDAY: The Black Knight

I went to see Monty Python's Spamalot tonight. It married the goofiness of the original with the camp of musical theatre, which was great. It also had a tendency to keep all women on stage as scantily clad as possible, and featured a huge foray into gender/sexual orientation stereotyping, which made me uncomfortable. Especially the ladies thing, it was pretty blatant.

HOWEVER.

Because the original Quest for the Holy Grail is awesome, I did up some nails.

Ah, the Black Knight. Good bloke.

This look could not be easier. Paint shapes in white, then fill in with black and dark grey (for the gauntlets). Thank YOU, Monty Python's amazingly low operating budget! I used a nail art pen for the writing, and clearly need to find a less watery nail art pen. Any suggestions?

I have one other look inspired by the Quest for the Holy Grail, which I hope to get to sooner or later. It'll be a bit more effort, but could be hilarious. And who doesn't love hilarious?

Polishes used:

Pretty Serious - Nightmaren (seriously SO glowy in person, click here for a picture)

acrylic paint in white and black

nail art brush (standard size)

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food

Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri (top coat)

J.

SWATCH SATURDAY: Comet Tail

Hello lovelies!

A very quick Swatch Saturday for you today. Having used Still Waters yesterday, I wanted to use its blue sister, Comet Tail.

What I could not capture in my photos is the pinkish flash that Comet Tail has, which makes it look lavender in most direct light. The lavender glow mixes with the red microglitter for an amazing look. Depending on your light source, the polish looks totally different: in this light, it looks blue; it direct light, it looks lavender; in the shade or indoors, it tends to look silver. A very pretty polish. It does dry a bit gritty, so you will need whatever glitter topcoat you typically use. You also want to let it fully dry between coats, as the formula has the same sort of marshmallow thickness as Still Waters.

On my accent finger, I used Full Spectrum. I cannot hope to convince you of what a sparklebomb it is based on these photos-- but it is a full-coverage glitter, a mix of coloured microglitter and super-microglitter in an astonishing pink-to-green duochrome. Zoom this photo to see everything in action:

Polishes used:
Liquid Sky Lacquers - Comet Tail
China Glaze - Full Spectrum (Scrangie's review, as she does a MUCH better job than me)
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri


J.

Violets

I'm sorry I've been quiet these past few days-- this one gave me trouble! I had to restart it 4 times before I was satisfied. This is my second entry to The Nail Artist's contest: violets!

For this look, I started with a base of Still Waters. Ignore the bubbles!! They are my fault; I was in a rush so I painted my nails too soon after giving the bottle a very vigorous shake. This remains one of my favourite polishes. It's golden-glowy aqua green perfection.

I then painted the violets with acrylic paints. I wish I could remember the colours to tell you. I had two palettes and a ton of brushes in action... I'm sorry!

This one is less colour-accurate; too blue. But adjusting it gave me lobster hands. Loooobster haaaaands.

Polishes used:
Liquid Sky Lacquers - Still Waters
Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)
Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri (top coat)
acrylic paints
detail brushes

Swatch Saturday tomorrow! I have no idea yet which polish I'm going to do, but I'm looking forward to it. Then I have something special planned for Sunday for a very special IG lady! (She'll know who she is when it happens.)

If you're in the Edmonton area like me (HEY SUNSHINE HEY), are you going to the Royal Bison craft fair this weekend? I'm broke but thinking of going anyway...


J.