Laura's Lacquers

Forgive me! Meow?

Anyway, so the trend I chose to draw inspiration from is ombre. Which is French and therefore probably has some fancy pronunciation, but in my head I keep saying "ohm-brrhhhhh" which is kind of a hard sound to express in letters. But I think it's actually "om-bray."

It basically refers to fading. Like so:

From thumb to pinky, I used: OPI I Vant to be A-Lone Star, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away, H&M Deep Sea, Ulta Blue Streak, OPI Roadhouse Blues

lamp 

sun (sorry, this is after tipwear and I tried to patch it up for you guys)

shadyish

sun

sjade

shade

So I think it's kinda cool. Maybe not the most exciting nail art ever, but I'll try to get back into the cooler stuff. Would you believe that a few days ago, I didn't even have time to change my polish! *gasp* Quelle horreur! I was so tired of it after the second day.

Anyway, I want to know: what fashion trend would you have chosen? How would you have done it in mani form?

Today's challenge is probably my favorite thing that I've done so far. It wasn't hard to pick what I was going to do; I looked over my bookshelf and instantly  knew which book would lend itself to greatness: Alice in Wonderland.

I adore this book. It's just so quirky and weird and I love it. I was a little disappointed in the Tim Burton movie. I really wanted it to be amazing, and the graphics and creepiness were definitely spot on but there wasn't a lot of connection with the characters. Oh well. Anyway, this is what I did:

I'll take you through it step-by-step

This is my left hand. From thumb to pinky: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away, American Apparel African Violet, OPI Mermaid's Tears, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White, Wet n Wild Black Creme

And my right hand, which is all Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White

(I did all of this using a small paintbrush)

The thumb was inspired by the hookah-smoking caterpillar.

I started with the mushroom stem in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White

Then I gave it a cap with OPI Cajun Shrimp

I added some polka dots with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White

And I made the caterpillar with Zoya Yara

The index finger was a teacup, in honor of the mad tea party.

I drew the outline of the teacup in Sally Hansen Whirlwind White

I filled in the cup with American Apparel Peacock and the dish with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away

Buuut I decided Peacock was too dark so I did OPI Mermaid's Tears instead

My middle finger was inspired by the Eat Me cookies that Alice encounters.

I couldn't find an old-fashioned drawing of the cookies, so I found a drink me picture instead.

I made little blobby circles with Zoya Minka

Then I wrote Eat Me with a black, fine-tipped Sharpie 

Apparently I forgot to take a picture after I dotted the cookies, but I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for that.

My ring finger features a pocket watch, because of the white rabbit who was late for a very important date.

I did the outline and chain of the watch with Milani Gold Lamé 

And I did the black details with my trusty fine-tipped Sharpie

And then my pinky, which was of course inspired by the disappearing Cheshire cat.

I did his mouth and eyes in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White

And then added in the black parts with Wet n Wild Black Creme 

I just did these the best I could using OPI Cajun Shrimp and Wet n Wild Black Creme. Sorry for the pre-cleanup pic.

Aaand here they are again! This was after a day of wear, sorry! 

As you can see, I added gold dots around the rim of the teacup and for some reason the Sharpie faded to blue.

So there you have it! I am very happy with how this turned out and yes, I actually wore this in public. I wasn't going to waste this on myself! It got tons of compliments. I think I'm finally getting handy with some nail art!

Do you guys like this as much as I do?

Sorry for the lack of postage yesterday, I got home late and was exhausted and I figured no one would miss me too much.

So aaaanywho, the first order of business is nails inspired by a song. I actually have two things to show you for it, and they're both frankens. The first one is a fail, the second one is slightly less of a fail to try to make up for the former.

Anyway, they're both part of my Beatles-inspired franken endeavor, and the first is called Octopus's Garden. 

There's the inspiration, and here is three coats of this lumpy mess.

It actually looks okay in these pics, but it was so lumpy in real life! The base also made the glitter look darker than I'd like. If I can figure out how to make the glitter lay flatter that would be wonderful but I don't know how. :(

The next song-inspired franken is All You Need is Love.

*Sigh* I love the Beatles so much!

As you can see, all the glitter settles at the bottom. Badly.

It was supposed to be a white base with gold shimmer, except the eyeshadow I added for the shimmer didn't really work and some of the red glitter bled a little bit so it's more of an ecru-pink. I think this one would be improved by the addition of some all-over sparkles, I think I might need to add some store-bought stuff to it.

Anyway, day 23 is much better! This is also a franken, one of the first ones I made. It's inspired by a fantastic movie.

click. You will be amazed, seriously.

It's slightly less fantastic in the shade, but still pretty.