I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve and are recuperating accordingly! I'm feeling very optimistic about this coming year, so much has transformed in my life and there is so much beauty and joy coming to all of us, I truly believe. :)
With this New Year, I start a new challenge, a 31 Day challenge that runs the length of this month. The first prompt is 'Black & White', and I've been stumped on this one for some time. I started working on this challenge about mid-December, putting together manicures because I've heard from experienced challengers that the way to do these successfully is to get a head start. Well, I've completed about half of them, most toward the beginning of the challenge, but this one was giving me fits and starts. Finally I came up with an idea for it two nights ago as I was falling asleep:
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| You see, it's not about races. Just places, faces. |
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| I've seen the bright get duller... |
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| I'm not going to spend my life being a color. |
I started with a base of two coats of Sally Hansen White On. Over that, I did a gradient with a blend of Sally Hansen White On and Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. I learned quickly that a white/black gradient may be the hardest gradient in the world to do, lol. :)
Over that, I put a coat of China Glaze's Whirled Away; I dabbed for placement a bit so I could get one big white hex on the black part of each nail, and black glitter all over so that it 'disappeared' into the black polish. The original idea was to do this with a smaller more overall glitter (I was thinking Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared), but when I went to get the glitter my eyes landed on this and I just had to use it.
I'm glad I did, because as much as I dreaded this manicure and had a horrid time coming up with a manicure for it, I am IN LOVE with this manicure. I didn't want to take it off, but I had to in order to do my New Year's Eve nails. It just looked so cool on, and I'm going to wear it the next time I wear a black-and-white outfit. And I still want to try the Colorblind Squared version of it too, so hopefully you'll see that soon.
On a final note, as of this posting, I have 299 followers on GFC, and am hoping that I get my 300th on New Year's Day, how cool would that be! Regardless of when it happens, I'll be holding another giveaway, and will be taking my first leap into RaffleCopter. :)
I hope you had a wonderful New Year's, and thanks for looking! And please check out the other black & white manis linked below. :)
Xoxox,
M.
Blogger 1.0 -
Wow, lovely mani, very unique x
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!! :)
DeleteI love this mani!1 And congrats on 300 followers - I was just the 300th :D
ReplyDeleteWoo HoooOOOOO!!! You rock!!! I'm so excited!!!! Thank you! I have to find a way to give you some extra entries in the contest for that, lol!
DeleteGreat mani! And amazing gradient :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
DeleteLooks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThank you thank you! :)
DeleteI love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. :)
Deleteoooo, loving your nails!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! :)
DeleteLove this!!! I love a black and white gradient!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was so scared of it, lol...
DeleteThis turned out really pretty!! I have not been able to find that China Glaze polish where I live. I love the way it looks on your nails. My only worry for me is I struggle with "glitter" placement. :( Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI see from your profile that you're in the US, so try www.transdesign.com or www.headtotoebeauty.com or www.8ty8beauty.com. All of them carry all of the China Glaze collections, along with others as well. Transdesign has the cheapest shipping, but not by much, and for some reason I don't understand they just increased the price of their Color Club polishes to $8, and you can get them from $3-4 on the other sites. :) Hope that helps!
DeleteGreat minds think alike! I love this!
ReplyDelete::runs to look at your mani::
DeleteLove this, the gradient is so well done and Whirled Away looks fab over the top! :-) x
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I really love how Whirled Away looks on it, too--I have a business shirt with bland and white polka dots, I'm wearing this next time I teach in that outfit! :)
DeleteThis is great! I keep going back and forth on getting Whirled Away... it's one of those that I keep staring at but convincing myself I don't *need* it..
ReplyDeleteHmmm...what is this 'need' concept that you mention?!? lol!
DeleteWhat a great idea. Can only imagine how hard it was to do this gradient. I always hate the cleanup of doing one, especially when I use darker colors.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see an impressive one, check out Laurie's if you haven't already (dressed up digits). She used a grey as well, I'm going to try it that way next time. And thanks! :)
DeleteWow!!! This mani is so pretty. Love the design and the colors used. Love it! Great job on this one.
ReplyDeleteThank you thank you!! :)
DeleteI really like it! Looks great!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. :)
DeleteSoon as I saw these nails, it reminded me of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons and early black and white animation. Very classy old vintage theatre, very high fashion. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm blushing! I'm pretty sure I've never been called high fashion before...thank you so much. :) :) :)
DeleteOh Mishka this is so sexy, its classy, its gorgeous. its so WOW!!! Loving it!
ReplyDeleteGosh!
Thank you so much! I think I have to start planning out my manis as I fall asleep more often, lol...:)
DeleteI heard that when you are in that state (Patrick Rothfuss calls this state the Heart of Stone in " A wise mans fear") you pull things out of your core being, its when you can create something that is YOU.
DeleteHmm, I like that. It does make sense that lots of things that might inhibit you would drop away then...
DeleteThis is gorgeous"
ReplyDelete