Friday Triad: inspired by Paulina's Passions

Hi everyone,


the last Friday of the month is here so it's time for the monthly Triad manicure with Juanita and Michelle. This month's inspiration was chosen by Juanita and is the first manicure in this article by Paulina from Paulina's Passions: roses on sheer black.

This is my version:

Those of you who know me a bit longer immediately see the main problem with the inspirational manicure: a sheer base! If I have to name one thing I really don't like in a manicure it's VNL (visible nail line; where you can see where the pink meets the white in your nails) and of course sheer polishes do just that... they're not opaque, so I don't have a lot of them in my stash which isn't a good thing if you want to do a manicure inspired by one that features sheer black. Both Michelle and Juanita gave pointers on how to create a DIY sheer polish and I actually tried it, but as I prefer this blog to remain G rated I won't describe the awful mess and accompanying colorful language that resulted from my attempts ;)

Fast forward to yesterday (i.e. Thursday as it's now Friday 0:15AM... yep, I know I'm nuts). I decided to sit down and not get up until I had something remotely presentable. It was King's Day over here, the birthday of our monarch, which means just about everyone had a day off so I had plenty of time to be inspired and experiment with whatever idea popped up. I had kind of decided to create a lighter version to stick with the spring colors I've been using lately, but apart from that... not a clue, no ideas popping up, nothing, zip, nada, no matter how long I stared at Paulina's nails. I finally decided to start on the decals as I own only one plate with roses that could be used for decals so I didn't have to fret long about what image to use.

I stamped the single rose from Born Pretty plate BP-73 on squares of clear polish that I painted on a silicone mat. When that had dried a bit I filled in the leaves with OPI Olive for Green and the flowers with OPI I Manicure for Beads. After some more drying time I peeled the decals from the mat and cut away the excess clear polish so they were ready for use.

After the decals were done I really had no excuse left to not start on my base... so I tried pink jellies, purple jellies, orange, red, even blue and hated each and every try. I used white undies, gray, pink... nope, nope, nope. After covering almost my entire mat with swatches I finally chose a not-completely-opaque base that was made up of a lilac creme, a pink jelly and a nude-pink jelly: Barry M Prickly Pear (1 coat), OPI It's a Girl! (1 coat), a bit of sponging to add just the small glitters from OPI Pirouette My Whistle for a teensy bit of sparkle and OPI In the Spot-light Pink (1 coat).

I started with my middle and ring finger, the two accent nails. When the base had dried enough I put the decals on my nails, didn't like what I saw, pried the decals off my nails again, cut each decal in separate pieces to make my own "rose bouquet", put it on my nails again, liked the result a lot better and covered everything with a coat of Seche Vite to keep it all in place.

On my thumb, index and pinky I used the same base as I used on my middle and ring finger with a little twist. Instead of stamping a geometric image on it like Paulina did I created a jelly sandwich by painting a thin coat of Pirouette My Whistle (and some extra glitters that I picked off the sponge earlier) between It's a Girl! and In the Spot-light Pink. I finished, of course, with a coat of Seche Vite.


The polishes I used, neatly lined up for their mug shot:

Barry M Prickly Pear, OPI It's a Girl!, OPI In the Spot-light Pink, OPI Pirouette My Whistle,
OPI Olive for Green, OPI I Manicure for Beads, Hit the Bottle As Black As Night

It could just be exhaustion speaking (as it's close to 0:30AM now) which makes my brain yell at me to be content with anything at this point, but I'm quite happy with what my nails look like. I'm not sure if anyone would immediately guess what inspired them but there are definitely several elements that I incorporated (one that is not so obvious but that I just had to do: the teensy bit of sparkle in the base ;)

I wonder what Juanita and Michelle did with this inspiration. I'm pretty sure their nails are going to look fabulous. You can check out their manicures by clicking their names in the first paragraph.



Barry M Prickly Pear was bought from Alice&Jo.
Hit the Bottle As Black As Night was bought from Hypnotic Polish.