I usually plan these challenges out way ahead of time so ideas for my subject can percolate in the back of my brain for a while, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the topic of fashion. Initially I was going to keep it simple with a lace pattern on my right hand so I could focus on my left. But when I was editing the post for my time manicure I realized that I wanted to do more steampunk manicures. Well, steampunk is definitely a fashion movement so that changed my plans. I ended up doing the Beetlejuice manicure on my right hand because it was mostly decals and I wanted to do my best for the steampunk. Some of the most common elements for steampunk are gears, corsets, masks, feathers, and more gears…
- Base Colors: Sinful Color’s Luxe Fragments “Strike a Pose” and “Silver Slivers”
- Stamping Polish: Born Pretty’s black, Sinful Color’s “Casablanca”, Nails Inc’s Magnetic Polish “London Town”, Essie’s “Good as Gold”, Nails Inc’s Magnetic Polish “Spitalfields”, Essie’s “Bell-Bottom Blues”
- Reverse Stamping Polishes: Sinful Color’s “Casablanca”, Nails Inc’s Magnetic Polish “Spitalfields”
- Stamping Plates: ZJ06 (corset), Harunouta L004 (gears), BP-04 (feathers), Heart-08 (masks), hehe 034 (feathers), Bundle Monster’s BM-415 (gears)
The biggest fight with this was to have a lot of detail while still having focal objects on some nails. I stamped my golden gears with “London Town” when I wanted them to blend in the background and “Good as Gold” when I wanted them to stand out. The feathers I rather feel I failed on because they blend in a little too much with the background. I will probably revisit the idea anyway since feathers are a favorite subject of mine. I originally made my corset decal with silver polish, but the fine lines just faded out and you couldn’t tell it was a corset. I ended up making a second decal with black and layered that on top. I mostly managed to line it up with the decal beneath.
My favorite nail is the one with the mask. I originally had the mask centered and dead straight, but I stamped it on too high and had to remove it anyway. Now you can see it’s a little offset and on a slight slant. While it is frequently appropriate to center a stamp in the middle of your nail, knowing when not to do it can make or break your manicure. Especially when it comes to decals that will not fully fit on your nail. Clear jelly stampers can really help with positioning things perfectly. The best kind to get for this are wide and short with a thinner stamping head to cut down on distortion. In addition, since I am an impatient soul and usually try putting on a decal before it is fully dry, I struggle with decals that sag and make it difficult to see where they are going. By putting them on a clear stamper, I can see exactly where they are going and prevent wrinkling at the same time. Win!
Cathy at More Nail Polish set up an inLinkz for the 31 Day Challenge so here are some of 2016’s challenge participants:
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