Thought no1: I really feel like doing something pink. How odd...
Thought no2: Why haven't I used my Stargazer Chromes as a base colour yet?
Thought no3: I really like this design, but the lines always come out too thick. Maybe if I tried stamping with a matte polish?
And here's the results! I did the swap in colours on the middle finger to show you how thick the lines on the design come out with a normal polish. I didn't use top coat over the matte stamping and the whole thing lasted flawlessly for the better part of the week. I think this is one of my favourite manis so far. I was looking at my nails so much when I had it on!
How do I begin this post without getting distracted by Kang Dong Won and the Duelist's beautiful soundtrack for another hour? By sharing a song with you my dear reader!
'The Duelist' is a fictional period Korean film with stunning visuals, a beautiful, sad love story and two of my favourite Korean actors, Kang Dong Won and Ha Ji Won. If you like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of the Flying Daggers", then definitely watch this; the budget may not be as enormous as it was for those two films, but it is truly wonderfully shot, the script is good and the actors great.
When I first started nail stamping last year, one of the patterns I wanted to recreate was from the protagonist's costume. Sad Eyes wore mostly black textured clothes and this idea of black on black simply stuck with me as I am fascinated by black. I tried many times to create something similar back then, but the results were not good enough.
He's so gorgeous!
Beautiful fabrics and a beautiful man. Ah! My heart!
Enough with the Kang Dong Won spam, back on topic. A few days ago Nathalie (jellynat) had this post up which reminded me of my quest for the black on black mani I wanted to do. Then this scandalously pretty picture of JaeJoong appeared yesterday from the upcoming 'Time Slip Dr.Jin' Korean drama who reminded me of 'Sad Eyes'.
He is a real person, not a CG character.
The final blow was delivered by my friend Orion who reminded me of all the above, so I did it. This time I picked a pattern that would allow for the different textures to be more apparent, as my previous choice (the multiple squares from the konad m63 plate) was too dense and it ended up looking muddled instead of textured. My only complaint this time is that I should have used a thicker black glossy polish to stamp. The one I usually stamp with was ruined when I decided to 'experiment' with it a few weeks ago. The search for the perfect black on black mani continues, though I think that first I'll have to do a red on black like JaeJoong's costume.
basecoat: SpaRitual - Body
Stamping polish: Bourjois - 39 Noir de Chine
stamping plate: Konad m64
PS- Should I have a 'gorgeous Korean men with swords' tag now? haha...
As I said before, Nubar - Toasted Marshmallow has become a favourite not so much because it's a great colour on its own, but because I have been looking for this colour for designs I want to do. Here is the first one in a style that is full of late 70s nostalgia, a time where this sort of yellow along with brown and warm red was very fashionable - or at least that is the impression we are left with. Of course I added a Carpenters song to match the mood!
The breakdown
Base colour: Nubar - Toasted Marshmallow (2 coats)
Stamping polish: Le Chat Cm - 04 Brown Nail Art Polish
Plate: Konad m65
No topcoat.
I decided not to use a topcoat with this but instead take advantage of the matte finish that this brown polish has and add some texture to the mani even if it meant it wouldn't be as long lasting.
...surely it can't be bad! After wearing Mavala - Platinum Marble for a couple of days I had had enough of the pearl shine; shimmer tires me quickly I'm afraid. I filed my nails and since the polish was still in a good shape I decided to give it another chance. Out come my two trustees, Manglaze - Matte is Murder (matte black) and Fuggen Ugly (matte gorgeousness), and taraaa! Beautifully chaotic mani! I loved the feel of it, especially on the second day when it became smoother, but was still matte. It looked amazing! Excuse the dry hands. The weather is so cold at the minute, it's almost impossible to keep them hydrated no matter what I use.
I have been looking for a polish that would look opalescent, which in my mind means that it should be
sheer, but buildable
not too peachy, not too pink, not too yellow
leaning towards white, but not too stark/contrasting to my skin colour
and after a lot of disappointments I finally found what I was looking for in Color Club - Oh my Versailles! and how I adore it! I was drawn to it cause of the name since the Palace of Versailles is one of my favourite places to be, and I was so happy it was exactly what I was hoping it would be.
This is four layers of it with the flaky beauty of Nubar - 2010 on top.
Natural light
Fluorescent light
Along came my darling Manglaze - Matte-Astrophe to make everything perfect!!
And here's a couple of pictures from my visit in Versailles. One from behind the Belvedere and the statue of Eros in the garden near the Trianon.
Halloween is on Monday and it's fnally time to use the Halloween-themed designs on the Bundle Monster plates. I also decided to attempt a gradient nail using a sponge. I think it's ok for a first try!
The colour I used as a base was a jelly orange I made (or frankened as people tend to call these polishes) last year that I was craving for a jelly orange to match my favourite lip-gloss. It also saved me from buying O.P.I.'s Texas collection's jellies that came out a little bit later.
For sponging I used
1 layer of Oil of Olay - 680 Shimmering Sable (dark brown base with a bronze shimmer)
2 layers of Nubar - Dark Castle (darkest grey with a metallic sheen) and
1 layer of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
This is a picture I took with only the brown polish sponged on.
After everything was nice and dry I used StarGazer Chrome 232 (silver) for stamping.
A few days earlier I had attempted to do another similar mani over ManGlaze's Matte is Murder, but the StarGazer Chrome 237 (gold) wasn't bright enough over black. Oh well.. It's still fantastic over other colours!
