Beauty Misanthropic

Steampunk Nail Experiment 9/12/2012.  Sorry about the blurryness, the camera did not like taking these images no matter what I tried.

This is my first try with nail brushes.  Did not turn out too great, I'm not much of an artist, but it was fun to try.  Base was Ulta Salon Formula Chocolate Kiss.  Hand painting was Julep Rachel (which blended in maybe too much) and Konad Special Polish Light Bronze.  Nail decals were a "steampunk" butterfly set off eBay that didn't look anything like what was advertised and is not recommended, and the silver ones are from here and I like them.  Easy to use and looked good.

Close-ups of the nails that turned out better -








 Bonus - Steampunk Nail Experiment #2.  10/07/2012

I'm having trouble remembering exactly what I used here *headdesk*, I'm almost positive the base was Julep Rachel, with accent nail that was silver (not sure which), the silver accent water decals listed above, and a few touches of Serum No. 5 Love Lacquer Forest Lights (find here).  The Forest Lights was quite good on the brown.

I just got a bottle of Color Club Wild at Heart and it was so pretty I just had to try it out right away!  Wild at heart is a cool medium-dark violet purple rough chrome 'scatter holo' with a charcoal grey base -- with magenta duochrome and scatter holo that only shows up under intense light.  The purple kind of rises above the charcoal to make it look more purple and shiny, but if you rub over the polish with acetone, it reveals a flat grey.



I put on 1 coat of Essie Ridge Filling Base Coat, then 2 coats of Wild at Heart.  Wild at Heart was great to apply, good brush and I probably could have just done 1 coat if I wanted to, high opacity.  Love it.  I have to try this polish with a matte top coat sometime for sure.

Then I decided to finally try some konad stamping out.  I got out my m57 plate - the only one I have right now - and the konad stamper and scraper.  I stamped on the lace design on the far top right of the plate.

I let Wild at Heart dry, but did not use a top coat.

On my left hand, I stamped with Wet n Wild Fastdry Buffy the Violet Slayer.  Unfortunately, the colors are too close in color, and it does not show up well at all.  From what I can tell though, it stamped on quite well right from the get go, though, so I will try that polish stamped on something else soon.

So, I decided to try stamping on my right hand with the new Konad Special Polish Light Bronze, which is a charcoal/bronze duochrome.  Despite my best efforts, this one was not picking up well at all.  And it got worse the more I tried.  But I will try it again sometime, maybe with a different design or different plate.  I also have not tried to file my stamper yet. But I suspect the problem lies with the polish.  I can always just use it as a straight-up polish though, it's an interesting color.  Could be good with steampunk outfits.

Anyway, this turned into a messy experiment, but I like Wild at Heart and stamping is surprisingly easy.  Oh dear, now I want to go on plate buying spree...