Lindsay Lohan Jail Nails Inspired Nail Art!

The nail polish obsessed world has been abuzz the last several days following Lindsay Lohan's sentencing. She was sporting a very interesting manicure that garnered additional attention because one nail advertised a subtle yet profane message to the court. Of course, we all wanted to do our own interpretations, sans message. You can see a pic of the manicure here.

Obviously, my version is only inspired by Lindsay's (mine is far more pastel), which we believe was airbrushed, and also inspired by the interpretations of other lovely ladies on the Makeupalley Nail Board. This required a shocking 10 coats of polish, but hey, such are the things we do for polish! Here is a pic of the tools, in order of application from left to right:

After basecoat, I applied three coats of Essie Ballet Slippers. I could have gotten away with two given how much went over it, but this polish is so streaky, I had to go the extra mile. After that, I randomly brushed splotches of OPI Do You Lilac It?, Orly Lemonade, Funky Fingers Daiquiri on Deck, and China Glaze For Audrey. I would have been much closer to my inspiration had I used a sponge instead of the brush, but, well, I wasn't that dedicated! Then, to soften the lines, I applied two coats of Essie Tennis Corset (what the heck is a tennis corset, anyway? Wouldn't wearing a corset while playing tennis be horribly uncomfortable?). Finally, I added a little Konad with Konad white Special Polish to get something like the pattern on Lindsay's. Here is the final product:

I haven't had a chance to clean it up completely yet, so that crap around the cuticles is polish, not nasty skin. Sorry about that. Anyway, I rather like it, to tell you the truth. Hopefully it won't turn me into a crazy person. I am, of course, holding the Mean Girls DVD. I actually show this movie almost every year in the university sociology class I teach because it is filled with sociological themes, but I am holding it here to remind us of the sweet girl Lindsay used to be. What a shame.

And that's all for today, folks! I expect my next post, either tomorrow or Monday, will be one of the polishes from the Nordstrom exclusive Deborah Lippmann collection, All That Jazz. Because I just got the set and it is all glitters, and I am a glitter h00r. Polish to the People!

July 4th Mani

I know, I've been MIA and I never posted that neutral mani I promised. I just couldn't. It was.... unsightly. Then I got an airport mani on my way home from the trip that required the neutral mani because I couldn't handle the sheer polish anymore, and that wasn't really worthy of posting either. So I decided to come back with a bang!

American Independence Day is one of those great holidays that just beg you to come up with some obnoxious, over-the-top manicure with glitter and nail art. Other such holidays are Christmas, Halloween, and the first day of football season.

As such, there's a lot going on with my July 4th mani. It's got an accent finger, it's got Bundle Monster, and it's got glitter. It's also a combination of easy to find, not so easy to find, and hard to find polishes, because if I don't show you something it's almost impossible to get, how will you know to look up to me?

Okay, on to the manicure. For this monstrosity, for the majority of my fingers, I used a white base, OPI's The Ghostess with the Mostess, the glow in the dark treat from OPI's 2008 Halloween line. As a consumer, you could only get a mini of this, and only nail professionals got a complimentary full-sized bottle, so if you could find a nail professional with loose morals, you could get a regular bottle of this. Which I did. So, as you can imagine, it's very difficult to get now, but honestly the only reason I used it is that it was the only white I have. Yes, that's right: I, crazy nail polish maniac, have no white polish. Like other whites, it is streaky and somewhat difficult to work with, but it does glow in the dark (pretty well, actually), and it served its purpose.

Over the white is Untold by Illamasqua, which I bought this week when I had the chance to go to one of the few Sephoras in the US who carry it. I was always attracted to this primary red glitter when lusting after Illamasqua, and now it is mine! This is one coat, so if you wanted this to be opaque, you'd probably be looking at three coats or so. Like all Illamasquas, this was perfection.

For the ring fingers, I pulled out an old stand by, China Glaze Frostbite. It's a nice shimmery, bright, primary blue, and it actually applies and dries pretty well. I have a very hard time wearing China Glaze because of application, drying, and wear issues, but this one isn't actually too bad. The ring fingers also feature a Bundle Monster pattern in Konad white Special Polish.

Pretty festive, eh? Freedom and Polish to the People!

Orly Royal Navy and Bundle Monster!

First up in this special double post today is my NOTD (nails of the day, in polish maniac speak), Orly Royal Navy. This is a new polish from Orly, part of a small July 4th themed collection which features repromotes Star Spangled (a bright red jelly with red glitter) and White Tip (a white creme). This polish is really special, in my opinion. I took the above picture in the one minute of blinding sunlight we had in Pittsburgh today so you could see how cool this polish is. Inside, it looks like a navy blue jelly that leans on the bright side, but in the sun, you see that it is jam packed with light blue glitter that can even look a little green in some lights. For a glitter maniac like me, this is fantastic. The application was fairly good, if a little gloopy. Because it applied sort of thickly, my fast dry topcoat gave me tip pull like no one's business (there are things you can do to avoid this that I was really too lazy to do when I applied this), which is why it looks like I have tip wear. This was good in three coats - since it's a jelly, it misses the point to pile too many coats on, and as such you could get away with two coats. Definitely a winner.

Now, on to the awesomeness I got in the mail today, the famous Bundle Monster plates!

Those of you out there who are fanatics may be familiar with Bundle Monster, but may be more familiar with their inspiration, Konad. For the people, you poor, unwashed nail masses, Konad is a nail art product that allows you to apply little polish "stamps" onto your nail. I'll show this process in more detail in a future post, but basically you apply polish to one of the designs on these metal plates which are engraved in, scrape off the excess so that the polish is only inside the pattern, roll a rounded rubber stamper over the design so that the polish transfers to the stamp, and then stamp your nail with the design.

Anyway, on to why Bundle Monster is awesome. Konad plates are $6.99 each. A set of 21 knock off Bundle Monster plates cost a shocking $17.99 with free shipping! And they have so many rad designs!

If you were ever thinking to yourself, man, I wish I could have a picture of a pot leaf on my manicure, you are in luck! Bundle Monster has images for every taste. I cannot imagine any situation in which I would use the pot leaf image, actually, but hey, it's there if I get the urge.

I haven't really looked all of the plates over too closely yet, but from other pics I've seen online, this is already looking to be a fave with the stars definitely in the lead for first pattern I will try.

A couple notes about these plates. First is that, unlike Konad plates, they are not backed with any material to mitigate how razor sharp they are. You could give yourself a mighty cut with these if you were careless with them, which is why I am using oven mitts and tweezers to pull off the protective cover. Seriously, oven mitts and tweezers. Second is that the full nail designs, like the ones shown above, are not as wide as regular Konad plates. Fortunately, I have slender nail beds, but even for me, I know the patterns will not be wide enough to cover my thumbs. Still, unless you are very picky about these things, I think the coolness of the patterns outweighs the size deficiencies.

That's all for today! Polish to the People!