Saturday, February 16, 2013

A Late 70's Disco Reference, First Stripe Mani

I finally tried some nail art. Now, truth be told, there are those (Another Bottle of Polish?!, Canadian Nail Fanatic come to mind) who make it look like it's in their DNA, and there are those (me) who make "effortless" look like I'm trying to cross the North Col on Mt. Everest - during winter.

Here is my homage to the disco inferno I sprouted my tween self on:




OK, breath. There it is.

The base is a deep chocolate brown creme called Cobblestone Creme by Sally Hansen. It's a Dollar Tree purchase, tall narrow bottle, matching cap (!!). Three coats, very neutral deep brown that almost looks black.

I used the thin nail tape that you can find on eBay for super cheap. I believe that it's supposed to be used in conjunction with acrylics and remain on the nail as a portion of the nail art. I found 30 rolls for about 4 or so dollars. Many gorgeous colors, but my intent wasn't to keep them on. When I master the tape I might do that.

On the top is an old fave: Super Stinky Super Profesional 128.

A few things went wrong: sometimes I didn't put a topcoat on the SH Cobblestone Creme and the tape tried to pull some up. I sometimes couldn't master the art of de-sticking the tape enough to prevent that from happening. I didn't get enough adhesion in some spots so the top coat came up underneath. I didn't slant opposite on each hand so all stripes went in the same direction...except my thumb.

Things that went right were abundant! The color combo looked great! Unless you peered closely at my hands, it was hard to really see the issues. A client who has a nail salon examined my hands closely and pronounced them "amazing" (generous, I hope, or her clients should be mildly alarmed).

I  dowsed it with about 3-4 coats of a top coat, but still had a slight feeling of an uneven texture along the stripes on a couple of nails.

Yet the wear? This photo is after 3 days of wear. And my nails get a workout.

Currently I'm using Sally Hansen Speed Shine 10 Day top coat. It's in a translucent lilac bottle, it's the same Salon bottle (square with rubberized handle) that is now defunct. This stuff RULES MY WORLD! It's fast, it never shrinks, it SHINES, and it is a tough mofo. I feel as though it totally carries its weight in every manicure. I haven't been to a drug store lately, so I don't know if it's still around, but judging by my quick google search to some retailers, it looks like it's a goner. Drat!

I want to do more of these, they are a blast. By the second and 4th or so try on a few nails I realized that factory method worked better than taping/painting/untaping each nail in sequence. Also a tweezers would have been a great tool to have in the mix. The tape remained sticky even after removal, and some nails had to be redone because tape landed on still-wet top coat. Erp!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!



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