Friday Triad: inspired by @ane_li

Hi everyone!


By now you've probably noticed my presence has been less than usual. I won't bore you with the details but the flu turned out to be something a lot nastier and I'm still recovering. But of course I couldn't let the last Friday of the month pass without an attempt at a manicure, especially since I picked the inspiration for November: a pretty manicure by @ane_li. Here's my version:

I already knew I wanted to use more fall appropriate colors but in the end my nails turned out completely different than my vision. If you want to know what happened, please read on :)

I started this manicure with the gradient that is the base for the water marble. I chose some pretty shades of mauve and plum, from pale to dark: KIKO 510 Mauve Grey, Catrice 117 Mauve to the Beat, Catrice 120 Berry Necessary! and Catrice 121 Plump Around and first painted my ring finger with two coats of KIKO 510. After that had dried a bit I sponged the gradient on top. A coat of Seche Vite helped it dry. I protected my skin with liquid latex and set out to create a bull's eye using OPI Funny Bunny, OPI Angel with a Leadfoot, Funny Bunny, Leadfoot and another drop of Funny Bunny. I used a pin to drag the outsides in and the insides out to create a flower and dunked my finger near the center to hopefully get the design in about the same place as the original.

I loved the outcome but the water marble had changed the colors of the gradient... a lot! You can see the colors in the bottle shot below and as you can see the colors changed to a way cooler, more blue leaning purple. So I went through my stash, searching for a blue leaning purple-gray. I finally picked Catrice ICONails 19 Johnny Deep and painted two thin coats of it on my thumb, index and pinky. My middle finger was done in three thin coats of Angel with a Leadfoot and that was it. All I had to do was cover every nail with a generous coat of Seche Vite and I was done :)


Here are the polishes I used. See how much Funny Bunny changed what they look like?

Catrice 121 Plump Around, Catrice 120 Berry Necessary!, Catrice 117 Mauve to the Beat, KIKO 510 Mauve Grey,
OPI Angel with a Leadfoot, OPI Funny Bunny, Catrice ICONails 19 Johnny Deep

I was really looking forward to doing this manicure as I was so curious how a sheer polish would work in a water marble. And it did not disappoint, although I didn't expect the colors to change as much as they did. Definitely worth revisiting with different colors :) What do you think? Did I do the original a bit of justice?

Of course Michelle and Juanita have done way more water marbles than I have (this is my second attempt to be honest) so their nails are likely to be stunning! If you're as curious as I am, just click their names and you'll be automagically whisked off to their part of the internet :)