Another first

Hi everyone!


It's very cold over here... I heard on the radio it's the coldest last week of April since 1991. It feels like winter outside, there even was some hail and snow, and it's going to get worse the next few days*cries* So we've been staying indoors this weekend, all warm and cosy, doing only the chores that REALLY couldn't be postponed and even tried to get out of those ;)

Hubby wanted to invest some time in Dying Light as his gaming time last week was limited and his buddies were starting to get ahead too much, and what is a girl to do if her husband is slaying digital monsters with headphones on and all his attention focused on his monitor? Polish her nails of course!!! I contemplated doing wintery nails with snowflakes but I just couldn't. I want sunshine and warmth and spring and if I can't get it for real at least my nails should look spring-y. And as I felt a bit adventurous I decided to try a tape manicure for the first time. So without further ado I present my striped spring manicure:

indoors, no flash

I started painting my nails yesterday when I was snuggled up on the couch under a blanket, watching a 1970 French movie (fortunately with subtitles) called Donkey Skin, or Peau d'âne in French. Its plot is a fairytale by Charles Perrault who also wrote Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella (and lots more that were read to me when I was a kid and I still love to read them myself now that I'm... ehm... not a kid anymore ;). Here's the link to the movie on IMDb in case you're interested: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066207/.

Anyway, my manicure. On my thumb, index and pinky you see three thin coats of OPI Crawfishin' for a Compliment, a pretty light orange that I really like for spring. My ring finger is painted in two thin coats (and some dabbing) of OPI My Favorite Ornament. I'd forgotten this was a textured polish so I was pleasantly surprised when it dried to the gorgeous glittery-yet-matte finish you see in the picture. Last but not least I painted my middle finger with OPI Angel with a Leadfoot. It took three thin coats to reach full opacity. I added a coat of Seche Vite on all nails, except of course my ring finger, and left that to dry before I went to bed.

This morning I started by making breakfast for my husband as he was tasked with finding the start of the small roll of striping tape that I received as a small gift with a nail polish purchase years ago. Fortunately he is way more patient than me, so he found the right spot after which I cut off four small pieces (and let the end stick to the roll again, so next time I want to do a tape manicure my husband has to help again ;) I also cut four small pieces of scotch tape and I was ready to start fiddling with tweezers. I first stuck a piece of scotch tape over the my nail and cuticle, left a small gap, added a piece of striping tape, left a gap that was slightly bigger, another piece of striping tape, a small gap and finally a piece of scotch tape. After making sure all pieces of tape were firmly pressed on my nail and between my nail and my finger, I put a drop of Crawfishin' for a Compliment on a small glass dish, grabbed a thin brush and filled in the two small gaps. I filled the bigger gap the same way with My Favorite Ornament and carefully peeled away the pieces of tape as soon as I put down the brush. You may have heard the squeal I let out when I saw it actually looked nice ;) I repeated the entire process of sticking tape in the right place and filling in the gaps for my right ring finger (it must have been pretty amusing to hear me mutter unfriendly things about tape sticking in all the wrong places) I think I waited at least half an hour before I added top coat to my nails as I absolutely didn't want to risk smudging them and my very first tape manicure was done :)

The almost obligatory bottle shot:

OPI Crawfishin' for a Compliment, OPI My Favorite Ornament, OPI Angel with a Leadfoot

Also I remembered to check the open challenges for the SBBNailChallenge and yep, Tape Manicure was on the list so I checked off number 41:

I'm so happy with how my nails turned out. I'm not sure why I put off trying a tape manicure for as long as I did, but I'm definitely not going to forget about it again although the really intricate ones might be a little ambitious to try next ;)

What about you? Have you done tape manicures? What do you think of my first attempt? And is it as freezing cold where you live (and if not, can I come over for a stay until spring has really started over here? ;)