Friday Triad: inspired by Bedizzlenails

Hi everyone!


It's the last Friday of the month again, so it's time for the Friday Triad manicure. This month I got to pick the inspiration and I did... sort of. What happened? Late September I had narrowed down my choice to a few swirly and/or floral designs (to be honest, I can't even remember which ones ;) so I asked my husband which one he liked best. He didn't like any of them as the end of October means Halloween so he figured I should go for dark, ghouly, creepy... and he wouldn't let me pick anything else! And me being the sweet wife that I am (ha, in his dreams!!!) I figured it wasn't a bad idea so I started searching for something that I liked. We finally settled on a cemetery scene by Bedizzlenails. Unfortunately neither blog or instagram of the creator are online so I can only link to the image itself. Here's my version:

I started out by painting all my nails a medium to dark dusty blue color with one coat of Barry M Blue Jade (that was surprisingly opaque so it's on my list to try and stamp with). When that had dried a bit I used Barry M Elderberry, another dusty blue but a lot more pale, and Il était un vernis #ladykiller, a gorgeous scattered night blue holo, to create a messy gradient that hopefully resembles a starry sky over a foggy landscape. To add some more stars I dabbed a little bit of INM Northern Lights close to my cuticles and to finish the base I covered everything with a coat of Seche Vite to make it dry faster so I could continue.

I searched all my plates for images that I could use for Halloween and I decided to use these: Born Pretty BPL-031 (gravestones on my ring finger), MoYou Gothic 04 (gravestones on my pinky), UberChic Halloween 02 (gnarly tree on my thumb, see picture below, and pumpkin on my index), UberChic Lovely Leaves (tree on my index). I used Painted Polish Midnight Mischief to stamp all the images and Colour Alike Orange Sky to color in the eyes and grin of the pumpkin before I stamped it on my index. Midnight Mischief was also used to paint the tips of my nails for the sloping hillside I had in mind. Another coat of Seche Vite and I was done... off to the camera!

thumb

I have to admit I got pretty frustrated trying to capture my nails so the scene wouldn't be hidden by the glare. In the end I gave up, went back to my desk and covered everything with matte top coat. Another round of pictures and fortunately the design showed up a lot better:

matte

Of course I took a picture of all polishes involved (making sure to shake Northern Lights rigorously before putting it down so it doesn't look like a clear polish ;)

INM Northern Lights, Il était un vernis #ladykiller, Barry M Blue Jade, Barry M Elderberry,
Painted Polish Midnight Mischief, Colour Alike Orange Sky

I absolutely love these nails! I'm still wearing them but since I preferred them glossy I added another coat of Seche Vite after taking the matte pictures. I'm really proud of the result as well. It is a Halloween design but in a way that I'm not aching to grab acetone to get rid of it this instant. And I even remembered to stamp my nails 'the wrong way' so the scene would be the right side up in the pictures!

I can't wait to see what Juanita and Michelle made and how much they complain about the inspiration. I'll make sure to convey all comments to the responsible party ;)