BHB Mani Swap - August 2014

Oh, let's see how pictures work on this thing!  (I just realized I'm going to have to start taking more pics during my mani process!  Eep!  I need to go buy a bigger memory card for my phone!)

Hmm... There we go!  Is this thing on?  Can you see this pic??  If you can, the left ones are the originals, right are recreations, and mine are the top left and bottom right.

Anyway, this was a mani swap I just did last night.  My lovely partner had so many gorgeous manis to choose from, so it was hard to narrow it down to one.  But I did it!  Self-five!

Gifs here too!?!?  Whoop whoop!


Okay, here's my book about this mani. Grab your cup of coffee and a comfy seat, you'll be here awhile. ;-) (are there emojis here too? If so, that would complete my life. Well, maybe not "complete" per se...)

First, colors:  Main - Butter London Pimms, Essie I'm Addicted.  Roses - Zoya Dawn, CC Wicker Park, Essie Blanc, FP Sketch N Etch, and Essie Vices Versa.

Now, my journey.  I already had two coats of OPI Nail Envy on, so I put a third coat on.  I had already planned out the mani and how I would go at it, but I could not find my striping tape (I swear, the fairies were out last night and stole all the striping tape!!!) so I figured I'd improvise and use my striping brush.  This intimidated me bc I don't trust myself with straight lines and anything hand drawn, lol.  I'm certainly no artist.  

I picked up the first polish and painted my pinky; realized right away I did the wrong finger.  Had to remove it with acetone, recoat with my Nail Envy base (I said screw it and only did one coat).  Painted my base, two coats of each.  Great!  I'll topcoat before designs just to be safe.  Grab my trusty HK Girl G&G Topcoat.  It basically came out in a freaking lump!  It was so thick and goopy and stringy and awful.  Nails were already wet, so I couldn't exactly go digging for my thinner either.  Whatever, I muddled through that, hoping beyond hope that they would actually dry at some point bc it was so thick I feared for their safety.

I waited a few minutes, decided I used up all my patience on my birthday boy (he just turned 2 yesterday!!) for the day, so I started on the stripes.  Painstakingly slow process, mind you.  But went much better than I thought it would.  My lines were straight!  Next up, dots.  Easy peasy.  I love polka dots.  They are simple!  Take little effort!  Score!  At this point I'm staring down the barrel of the rose gun.  Like I said, I'm no artist and this was my first go.  Sweating bullets by this point.

So, blobs.  Okay, nbd.  Now, light accent.  Sh*t, these lines are too damn thick and my blobs were still kinda wet.  Whatever, it'll add to the effect.  White accent, okay, wipe a little more polish off the brush and that'll help the thick lines.  Leaves.  Damnit.  They aren't showing up, the color isn't dark enough against the blue and yellow!  And now I'm dragging blue from the stripes.  Bah, swirl it into the green, bc duh, blue and yellow make green!  Highlight the leaves.  Okay, screw you G&G, Seche Vite, you're up!

My only thought getting into bed was, damn you mani, you better withstand being laid against my sheets for the night, bc so help me if I wake up with sheet marks...

All in all, I'd call it a success! Lol. And only spent about an hour and a half on them. Thanks for sticking with that book, could it BE any longer???