Before & After: Coffee Rescue 911

Hello!

Yeep, I accidentally put this in the wrong place on my 'publish' queue...sorry!

So, for today's Before & After, I was inspired by a polish I bought a while back to do a coffee manicure, because the polish reminds me of what my coffee looks like when some of the grounds escape into the pot! This happens more than I care to admit...>.>

And, I should tell you...this is a story of failure and redemption. I cried, I shook my fist at the sky, and ultimately, I smiled.

I started with a base of Neener Neener Nails Oh Natural, a light brown jelly with copper and brown hex glitters of various sizes. This is a building polish, and took 4 coats to get to where I wanted it:

Let me say first that I love this polish, and I will wear it again, but very rarely. Once I got it on, it looked beautiful in all lights, and was a great blend of jelly and glitter. However, it was a bit challenging to work with for me. Maybe it was my body chemistry, but the layers didn't seem to want to dry very quickly, and when you need four coats of polish, that's a problem. What I finally did that seemed to work well was two layers and then a layer of Seche Vite, then two more layers and another coat of Seche Vite. Even with the Seche Vite, I had to be careful for a  couple of hours after each set of layers. And at the end of the day, I think the look of the polish was worth it, when the occasion is right.

Because it reminded me of coffee in a cup, I decided to turn it into a latte, and decorate it with mugs of coffee (Red Angel plate 216, stamped with Sally Hansen White On). I sponged Sally Hansen White On onto the tips, and then a touch of Revlon Amber Ablaze to look like cinnamon on the top:

Umm...Yeah. Not sure that's quite how I wanted it to look...maybe if I add a little more cinnamon on top...So I added some Ulta My Two Cents, a copper glitter:

Nope, it still looks like a steaming pile of...bad cocoa. Actually, I think it's worse.

But you see...I'd worked so hard to get the base polish on, I really really REALLY did not want to have to start over. So, I decided to abandon the initial concept, and do a glitter gradient.

I used a q-tip soaked in acetone to remove the white polish from the tips--I worked carefully with fast strokes. This is the benefit of putting a coat of topcoat underneath nail art (although I skip this step far too often!).

Then, I added a full-on gradient of Ulta My Two Cents, which also reminds me a bit of coffee grounds when applied this way:

Ahh, much better. In fact, I like that gradient so much, I almost wish I'd removed the stamped coffee mugs too...but I do think they add a little whimsy. :) What do you think? Which version do you like, or do you think they all suck foamed milk?

Thanks for stopping by--hugs and love. :)
M.

Before & After: Happy Anniversary, Nail Challenge Collaborative!!

Hello!!

As you know, I joined the Nail Challenge Collaborative group recently, and have been participating in their challenges. We're starting a new one that works a little bit differently. Instead of a set of themes that are pre-determined for each week, we have one theme per month, and create 4 manicures during that month on that theme.

This month's theme is 'pastels' in honor of the very first theme that NCC did, and while our posting dates are normally flexible, just this once we are all posting today in honor of that first challenge date's anniversary. :)

For my first and most important pastel manicure, I started with a base of Orly's Coachella Dweller, a soft, minty-avocado green polish from their new Hope And Freedom Fest collection. I fell in love with this the moment I saw it, rushed to buy it, and was so excited for this excuse to use it, hee hee hee:

Orly Coachella Dweller in direct sunlight

Orly Coachella Dweller in indirect light

I've been on a skittle manicure kick lately, particularly the sort where there are two nails that are alike and two that are different, so I went that way here. First, I put a layer of pastel glitter, Neener Neener Nails's Sweet Tart; it has matte hexes, diamonds and shards in a spray of pastel shades. Finally, I stamped on the middle two nails using Sally Hansen Lightning, and Bundle Monster plate BM11:

Ugh, it annoys me that I got a small roll fold when I stamped the middle nail...but other than that, I'm happy with it. It's a soft springy look without being annoyingly pastel (as you know I'm more of a jewel-tone type of gal).

Thanks for taking a look, and don't forget to check out the other pastel anniversary manicures linked below. :)

Hugs,
M.