Thursday, July 3, 2014

Repin Any Of This and It's Curtains For Ya. Independence Day Manicure #3

*contains press samples

  Hi all!!  All these pretty Independence Day manicures all over the place, featuring, like, art and whatnot, made me want to try some new stuff, leopard print in particular.  THIS POST by Ruby's Nails pushed me over the edge to remove my nearly fresh Magical Pixie Dust manicure (no small feat, if you've ever worn one of those polishes) and give some red, white, and blue spots a try, especially upon reading how easy they are. 

  I looked up a tutorial first (not doing so being a mistake I've made in the past that I wasn't interested in replicating).  Jezebel.com was the first link I clicked on, and indeed, the technique looked simple enough.

terrible Fourth of July leopard print nail art manicure

  My left thumbnail is quickly approaching "waaaay too long" territory.  Anyhoo, I followed the seemingly foolproof steps.  I laid my white base down first (names have been omitted to protect the innocent but if you're really curious, ask me in the comments and I'll probably tell you what I used), then took my chosen red and made little dots all over my nails at reasonably spaced intervals.  So far, so good.  I felt cautiously optimistic, knowing the hard part, drawing the borders, and doing so with an actual nail art brush, was coming.  I picked up my fancy little skinny brush and took to attempting those nice little irregular borders all good leopard print manicures sport and quickly realized that I a) should have chosen a more opaque blue, and b) was becoming rather bored.  So, I admit to half-assing my way through the rest, with the fallback plan of putting a holo glitter topcoat over the whole thing, because that's what all the gals do when they think their art has been a complete and utter fail.

terrible Fourth of July leopard print nail art manicure

  Difference-- mine was a complete and utter fail.  I asked C what he thought I had attempted to do, knowing I'd probably get a response somewhere along the lines of the last time I asked him what my purported "art" resembled.  He did not disappoint.  "Thai fighters?" he said.  Well, actually, he said "tie fighters" which is a lot different than how I was interpreting it.  God bless Star Wars nerds and homonyms.  I showed him my jezebel.com reference point and to my credit, he said he wouldn't have known what hers were, either.  

  Well, that settled it, I was going with the big time holo topcoat as opposed to the subtle, dainty holo topcoat.  And guess what-- it doesn't hide much of anything BUT it does make terrible art sparkly.


  That one spot on my index finger is good, right?  RIGHT!??!?

terrible Fourth of July leopard print nail art manicure

  Does a quasi-fashionable hand pose make the whole thing a little more palatable?  And is it strange that I'm still just a teensy bit proud of myself?  If anyone asks, I'll call them avant-garde leopard spots.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

  Oh, and one more thing-- when cleaning your nail art brushes, make sure you're cleaning the metal and bristle part only, because acetone will eat the paint right off those suckers, too.  Who knew?!  Good grief.

  Thank you for reading, and to my fellow Americans, have a safe and fun Fourth this year ♥♥

*contains press samples

22 comments:

  1. Oh, Liesl...you made me laugh with this post. And the hand pose rocks, btw.

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    1. Lolol, good! And thanks, I've been practicing ;)

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  2. Made me smile during tough week - thank you :)

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    1. ♥♥♥ You're most welcome. I hope this next week is kinder to you :)

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  3. LOLOL...so many chuckles, especially the tie fighters part. :) But think about it: doesn't "Van Gogh Leopard" sound like a trend that could totally take off??

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    1. And so many typos... fixed, lol! They seriously had me waking up last night. I really need to start proofreading. And yes, it totally DOES!! I should stop treating this like a fail, lol ;)

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  4. This post definitely made me laugh!! This is usually how my freehand stuff turns out, too...stamping FTW.

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    1. Oh, gosh. Stamping, where you literally have no excuse for unintelligible work, yet I somehow manage to pull off the improbable... But seriously, the last thing I need is to get myself hooked on those gorgeous MoYou plates.

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  5. You are seriously the cutest! And this is a rockin mani! I hope you had a great 4th!!

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    1. AWWW thanks ♥♥♥ We had a nice Fourth, very mellow, just how we like it :)

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  6. Impressionistic? Surreal, perhaps? Can't tell you how many awful manis I've covered (very loosely speaking) with glitter and declared victory. Thanks for a good laugh!

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    1. Surreal, yes, that's more like it. Salvador Dali inspired leopard spots-- man, I could have some fun with that, lol XD

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  7. I am so with Melissa with this mani - and mind you, we all live through this Stage of hairtearing frustration when it comes to starting nailart. The Secret: keep going!!! I couldn't stop chuckling all the way through your post - I still am there more often than not!!! One more tip to easen the process: Skittelettes!!! You only need to manage one or two nails per hand vs ten nails. But back to your nails: I really like the washed out look - very much on trend!!! <3

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    1. I thought about doing a skittles but I really wanted to go all out, lol. The video you shared with me was quite helpful, and since I've always liked leopard print, I will indeed keep going :) Yes, I suppose washed out is trending right now, which of course means I nailed one aspect of this, lol. ♥

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  8. Haha you never cease to make me smile and laugh with your quirky words. :P I looked through your pics first, and before reading your post and knowing that they are suppose to be leopard spots, I thought you had done some abstract dots/swishes and did a pretty good job. :) So not a fail, especially if you don't let anyone know what they are suppose to be. :D

    ~ Yun

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    1. Why thank you, Yun :) :) You make a good point... Next time there is a "fail", (and there will be a next time, lol) I'll just post it and be like, look what I did! WHAT IS IT?!!?! And then folks can ponder it at their discretion. I like it, great idea! ♥ I kind of want to go do something else artsy just so I can make such a post.

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  9. I laughed so hard - tie fighters, thai fighters - OMG! You two are just awesome! For the record I think they look super fun ;) The easiest way to achieve leopard print is with a nail art pen honestly. A lot more control on where the color goes.

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    1. I couldn't get it and I didn't get it. He kept asking if I saw it and I had no clue what he was talking about. None of the Thai fighters were holding anything, lol. The other analogy was Smurfberry sandwiches, which I did get relatively quickly. So a pen, eh? We'll have to chat about that.

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  10. You made me smile! I loved reading this post, I was feeling bad about not even attempting nail art! Props for trying :)

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    1. Aw, thank you!! <3 I try, and then I post about it in macro. I think there might be something wrong with me. 100% of folks who attemp art pull it off better that I do. That is fact. ;)

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