Polish Together - June birthstone: Pearl

Our original SG girls swatching initiative: SGSwatchfest has now evolved into a more inclusive theme for nail polish 'aficionados' worldwide. Our new tag on Instagram is now PolishTogether and we've also decided to have a regular monthly PolishTogether theme of Birthstones!

The birthstone for June is the classic "pearl".
Here was our Instagram spread-the-word post:

I usually try to bust out some nail art for the PolishTogether events but i couldn't really come up with a good concept, using pearls as a literal theme. So I went with word play on the word "pearl" and decided to create some nail art using characters from one of my favourite comic strips Pearls Before Swine!

These are what the main characters look like.

Notice they all have noses and ears that extend wayyy out, so there's no way I could have drawn them the regular way, right side up, cuticle to tip. Instead, I turned my hand on its side and drew the characters landscape fashion.

If you're not familiar with the comic strip, Larry the crocodile is a dimwitted, reptilian version of Homer Simpson (with a wife that has a beehive to rival Marge Simpson's!) and he is forever trying to devise ways to catch and eat his "zeeba" neighbour, who of course always stays well out of Larry's clutches. Here is basically their story, on my nails.

Please pardon the blotchy base colour. I used Essence's "Hello Marshmallow". It was an absolute nightmare to work with! Formula was gloopy and it kept flooding my cuticles! Grrr! Please try to overlook the uneven edges of the base polish.

What do you think? Personally, I'm REALLY REALLY happy with how they turned out! I think this is my best nail art to date!


Another look at my creation.

Of course improvements can still be made. My lines could be sharper and I could be neater in my painting. I will try to improve on those!

Let me know what you think!

Polish Days - To Boldly Go

Captain's Log:
Stardate 11.06.2013. Our orders for this mission was to create a mani around the theme "To Boldly Go". As I type, that mission is nearing completion, left only with the task of the polish drying and this post to be uploaded. It has been an eventful journey. I faced many mishaps along the way: paint drying too fast, accidental bumps and nicks, my dotting tool failing me. But still I prevailed and I am happy to report, that mission complete.

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Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a HUGE trekkie! Heck, I even attended the Trek Convention in Vegas, so this Polish Days theme is right up my alley! (No, I didn't dress up. Yes, I took pics with some of the actors!)

The theme is "To Boldly Go" and since that is a line in the opening credits uttered by my favourite Star Trek captain Jean-Luc Picard (as well as Captain Kirk in 'The Original Series'), I decided to take the theme literally and create a Star Trek themed mani!

Engage!

If it isn't already apparent to you, these are the uniforms of the four Star Trek captains (the only four I recognise in my books anyway), that followed creator Gene Roddenberry's original vision of the show most closely. All four series followed similar show structures with characters that shared similar moral compasses and beliefs. I have my favourites from each of the series but for this mani, I focused on the different uniforms of each of the captains.

Something's missing though. And I had to put it right.

Aahhh, much better! Really completes the look! What's a Starfleet captain without his comms badge? ;)

For simplicity's sake, I only mixed one batch of skin-toned paint for all four looks. Felt that this provided the best colour contrast to the uniform as well.




      Another view (without flash)

Here are the original photos that served as my inspirations: 

I'm really chuffed I managed to pull this off (with a few mishaps I'll choose to overlook). It's a shame they won't stay on my nails for longer. But I'm confident that I'll be able to recreate them. :D


Perpetualfunk out! 

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