Monday, June 18, 2012

NOTD: MSMD Gilded Mermaid nails

Hello!

I've recently seen several versions of 'Mermaid Nails' that I adore, and wanted to try my own version of them. You can see two of my favorites by clicking here and by clicking here.

I wanted a blue-green base that had texture, so I started with two coats of Orly's Halley's Comet:

Orly's Halley's Comet (well, mostly...the ring finger is actually Essence's Choose Me)

On top of that base, I put a generous layer of Spoiled's Pet My Peacock glitter, trying to get both a random spray of glitter, but making sure there weren't any super obvious holes. Then, I covered all of that with a layer of LA Color's Radiation, a sheer greenish blue, with gave an opalescent look to the glitter and tone down its sparkle just a little bit. I decided that I wanted my version to be a 'Gilded Mermaid', so I stamped my 'scales' with China Glaze's Passion (by far the best gold polish I've found for stamping by the way), using Mash Plate 46. To give a final subtle sparkle of a different kind, I went over all of it with China Glaze's Golden Enchantment.

Then...Ah, then.


Then I decided to put on gold French tips...This was not my finest decision-making moment:

Gilded Mermaid nails...that are maybe a little too gilded.

I don't often do this, but the tips bugged me so much, I removed the whole thing and started over. Here is the look without the tips:

Mermaid nails in the light

Mermaid nails in the shade

And I think I do like that much better. The gold tips just make it a little too...I don't know what the right word is, but just a little too.

Strangely enough, when I was trying to decide if I would still like the gold stamping without the gold tips, of if I should go with another color to stamp the scales, I took this picture, which shows the layers, textures, and colors really well, I think:

Some texture for ya!
At the end of it all, I'm pretty darn proud of them, especially because I've never done a glitter sandwich before. Next time, however, I think I might go for the smaller, typical scale lines, rather than these thicker ones. But I loved the deco sort of look to these!

Thanks for taking a look. And don't forget to check out the other ladies that participated in MSMD Monday, shown below.  :)

M.

10 comments:

  1. Pretty color:) neither look bad though the one without the tips does look better. Maybe it was just too many different things I don't know but I think you chose wisely in going with the scales only still very mermaid and pretty. Nice job.

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    1. Thank you! Yes, my main problem is taking things one step too far, lol. Self-editing is a skill I'm learning very slowly...:)

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  2. These look beautiful. I love mermaid nails. I really like it with the thicker lines.

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    1. Thank you! The more I look at them the more I think I like them too. The Crumpet just did a version with red that I want to try with this stamp...

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  3. I think it's a great take on a mermaid mani! :)

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  4. I like it, especially because that was the 1st I had heard about "mermaid nails". Really interesting! =)

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    1. Thank you...I felt like I was seeing them everywhere and then when I googled them, I didn't find as many as I thought. So I think it's something that just picking up steam now maybe. :)

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  5. This is completely unrelated but I was wondering if you follow Adventures in Acetone And if you do, are you having trouble accessing it? When I go to the website it comes up as a debt/credit score website. I have no clue what happened... Please tell me if you know anything.

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    1. It's working for me, maybe you had a typo in the address?

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