31 Day Nail Polish Challenge: Day 25 - Fashion!

Eh, I'm not the most 'fashionable' of people. My wardrobe consists of various kinds of biker boots, high shoes that I wear once and then immediately despise, bootcut and flared jeans, leather jackets, woolly cardigans, long-sleeved tops, scarves, and a feckload of jewellery. That's about the height of it. Oh, and one dress. And 99% of it's all black. I'm not joking.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I tried to think of designers or trends that caught my eye recently - and I could only think of one. Actually, it was my Penneys pyjama bottoms that made me remember this beauty - the now infamous McQ Tartan Puffball dress.

[Source] Net-a-Porter.com

Gorgeous, isn't it? This first caught my eye when Rihanna wore it on the X-Factor a few weeks back (mainly because it was the first time in about four years I'd seen her performing in more than her underwear), and since then, I've seen it everywhere. Check out http://www.m-c-q.com/ for more pictures and info.

Here are the polishes I used - just out of shot are my trusty skewers, which I'm still using to draw lines - please forgive my wobbliness, I am practising and I think my lines are getting better?

L-R: Barry M [Raspberry], GOSH [Gold], Essence [Red-y To Go] and Essence [Black is Back].

Here's the look:

And outside (in the dark, sorry!):

Here's a pic of it in daylight, this morning - apparently I was picking at my ring finger in my sleep (happens regularly, I'm a picker), so excuse that. This is purely to show the colours in daylight:

All in all, I'm happy with the design, and I will definitely try this one again when my nail art pens arrive (thanks, eBay!) - for me, this challenge is all about learning, and I consider this one step further in the search for the perfect straight line :)

S xx

31 Day Nail Polish Challenge: Day 23

Hey! Happy December! Plans changed for today, so I'm a day ahead of myself with this challenge after I posted two yesterday. Today is movie day! This wrecked my head. Much like the song challenge, I had so many movies to choose from - I definitely knew I wanted to stick to something that had the same base colour on all 5 nails, just because I am lazy. In the end, I settled on one of my favourite movies from the 80's - Desperately Seeking Susan.

[Source] Wikipedia

If you haven't seen this movie, then please track it down and watch it, it's fantastic. The fashion in it is unbelievable, so if you've an interest in 80s fashion trends, it's worth a look for that alone. Along with Madonna, it stars Aidan Quinn (adorable) and Rosanna Arquette - it's brilliant. So - on to the nails. For a base colour, I used Sally Hansen [Midnight in NY] on all 5 nails - that polish has become my favourite during the course of this challenge. I can't sing the praises of Sally Hansen enough - their brushes are perfect and the consistency of the polish is spot on. I will definitely, definitely be purchasing more from the Complete Salon Manicure line, well done Sally! Here's the look:

Here's a breakdown:

Little Finger: Inspired by the lapel on Susan's jacket.

No, your eyes do not decive you - that's A WATER MARBLED NAIL!! I was trying to think of any way I could get a pattern remotely like the one on the jacket without marbling, but I just thought, feck it, I'm not going to let it get the better of me. After the disaster the other day, I'm delighted with how this turned out. I used Essence [Sundancer] and Chanel [Graphite] for the marbling.

Ring Finger: Inspired by Susan's boots.

I wanted these boots so badly when I first saw this movie. I still wouldn't say no - at first glance, I thought they were studded with standard run-of-the-mill studs, but then I realised that they're studded with crystals. Now, even though I'm a nail polish hound, my lack of accessories is shocking. I put the thinking cap on, and remembered a dress I got a few years ago. It had tiny sequins all over the front of it, but they kept falling off. I went on a hunt for said dress, picked a few off, and whacked them on my nail with the blunt end of a skewer while the polish was still wet. I love this nail! You can use rhinestones, diamonte stickers - whatever you have to hand (or buy a sequinned/studded t-shirt in a charity shop and get picking).

Middle Finger: Inspired by Susan's Suitcase.

This is another item that I lusted after as a kid - going so far as to rob a suitcase off Mammy and painting it black and white. It looked nothing like that one, unfortunately. Anyway - for this one, I didn't go into any great detail, just blobbed on three drops of Essence [White Hype] and drew on the faces with the Sally Hansen [Midnight in NY].

Index Finger: Inspired by Roberta's "Susan" outfit.

I just liked the idea of mixing some pink in with all those dark colours. There are lots of bright neons in this movie - even if it's just a neon green sock, or a bright orange t-shirt. This is the outfit Roberta wears to try to be more like Susan, and I love the two different shades of pink. So, I just whacked on (literally, just slopped it on the nail - as if you can't tell haha) a blob of Essence [Love of Pink] and W7 [Baby Pink].

Thumb: Inspired by the back of Susan's jacket.

I swear it doesn't look as bad in real life!! The jacket is probably the most iconic thing about this movie, it's the first search term that appears when you type the name of the movie into google. For this, I just drew a dodgy-looking pyramid in Chanel [Graphite], added a few drops of GOSH [Gold] and outlined in Essence [Red-Y To Go].

So, there you have it - had so much fun doing this, bring on tomorrow (Inspired by a book, I think).

What do you think?

S xx