With Easter around the corner I knew I wanted to do a themed nail but hadn't quite decided what. I've seen a lot of super cute stuff in the past month and have really felt the pressure! Well with the arrival of my brushes I was anxious to give them a test drive just that much more... but the question still remained test drive them with WHAT?
It came to me in a flash... of middle finger waving angrily in my direction on Southside Blvd in Jacksonville (FL).
Yup... it was like a lightning bolt made of soft creme colors and easter grass sparkle! I wanted to have 3D grass on my nails, eggs hidden in the grass and of COURSE an Easter Bunny! Yup! So simple... yet how exactly to achieve this and with which polish and in what order. Oh the logistics lol.
I formulated my plan while moving along in the hell that is traffic on that particular road for my 40+ minute drive home and got nowhere. Really and truly nowhere. I just couldn't see it yet. It was like I was mentally constipated or something. I had the idea and I knew I had the colors but the rest was just... stuck.
I went the rest of the day like that and let me tell you it was just as uncomfortable as the real thing! I can't stand being creatively stuck it sucks sour eggs!
The end of the day bled into the end of the night and while on Skype with Dom I just started picking out colors... before I even really realized what I was picking out colors for lol. The next thing I knew I had a base coat and my background of Julep - Leah on and drying!
Dom of course was asking me what I was doing because i looked so intent. I wanted it to be a surprise so I told her nothing and beat around the bush for a bit. The next part were the eggs. Now I knew I was going to do the grass so I needed to put the eggs about mid nail, so I had to sort of imagine the grass already there when picking out space for the different eggs on the other 4 nails. Next up, the bunny!
I learned a VERY important lesson that night... White nail polish (aka Sally Hansen - White On) is just like some paints... the white will pull the color behind it! So what ends up happening (in my case) was I had a verrrrrrrry light LIME GREEN EASTER BUNNY!!! ACK! So, what do I do? I put down another coat of white. And another. And another. And another. AND ANOTHER COAT OF WHITE POLISH! Yes people, SIX COATS of white polish to get a WHITE Easter Bunny lol. Seriously I had so much polish on my middle fingernail, the pile-o-polish was this little white mound as though I had some acrylic on my nail!
Moving on... the next step was the background for grass. For that I mixed a little pile of China Glaze - Holly-Day with Sinful Colors - Happy Ending to get this darkish green shimmer color. It was actually very pretty, but a little bit darker than Julep - Leah to give some depth and what not (or some such artistic blah blah)
Once that was done I very politely asked my husband to go to Wally's and get me some green glitter. Yup, 2am my loving husband said "I will... if you REALLY want me to..." my response? "yup, thanks! Love you!" LOL He chuckled and said he'd be back. A while later I get texts with pictures where he's asking me if I want fine glitter or regular or some such caddy thing. I love that man, he cracks me up.
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| Pre-Glitter Grass |
While Dom and I wait for the delivery of glitter goodness I decorate the little eggs. I should back up and tell you the egg colors lol. NYC - Spring Street, Essie - Play Date, Essie - Turquoise & Caicos, Loreal - Tweet Me, Revlon - Indigo Night, China Glaze - Shower Together. I decorated each egg with glitter since they were so small I wasn't sure that an actual design would be visible, but glitter is! I used the small holos from OPI - Servin' Up Sparkle, Jordana - Blue Bash, Jordana - Celebration and of course, last but certainly not least my new Dollish Polish - I'll have what she's having. I saved that beautious pink confection of sparkle for the most important feature on a bunny- the pink hears and nose! I did try to do the Bunny's face in proportion but the whiskers came out bigger and thicker than I thought they were going to be so that part was poop, but I like his little blue eyes and cutesy ears! I do know in the pictures it won't look as though all these colors are represented but I promise they're there lol. Some got covered up with overzealous glitter glass application lol.
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L to R: OPI - Servin' Up Sparkle, Jordana - Blue Bash, Dollish Polish - I'll have what she's having, Jordana - Celebration, NYC - Spring Street, Essie - Play Date, Essie - Turquoise & Caicos, Wet n' Wild - Tickled Pink, L'Oreal - Tweet Me, Revlon - Indigo Night, China Glaze - Liquid Leather, China Glaze - Shower Together, China Glaze - Holly-Day, Sinful Colors, Happy Ending, Julep - Helena, Julep - Leah *not pictured Sally Hansen - White On
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Alright... the piece de resistance! My glitter-grass! A coat of OPI - Top Coat was applied where I wanted my grass to stick and then copious amounts of fine green glitter applied.
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| Finished! |
TA DA!!
I hope you enjoyed my first attempt at free-hand nail art. It was a lot of fun and while my painting skills are rusty, they're in there... just have to blow the dust off and work out the kinks!
Side note: I wanted to mention that all my photos are done inside and with my iPhone. Unfortunately my camera has been in the shop getting repaired. Hopefully I will have it back soon!
