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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Swap with Maria Leads to Nail Art

Maria, the creative woman behind Maria's Nail Art and Polish Blog, noticed me pouting about not being able to give Catrice my money because they don't sell their polishes here. She kindly offered to do some shopping for me when her travels took her to places which do have the brand, and of course I took her up on that and we arranged a swap. Before too long, I got a box full of Catrices (plus a surprise from Essence); she even had to cut some flaps off the box to keep it under the weight limit.

The first one on my nails was the vibrant purple shimmer, Heavy Metallilac. I swatched two coats, no topcoat.





My eyes loved this one; my camera, not so much. I tried all sorts of settings and lighting conditions and angles but never managed to get as close to reality as I'd hoped. The purple is warmer than it's showing here, and the shimmer is quite pink. Aly over had Mai Senza Smalto had more success; go peek at her photos to get a better idea what this really looks like.



Because the polishes came from Maria, I really had to try some nail art with them, so I grabbed Catrice Pool Party at Night from the package as well as a couple things from my stash, LA Colors Art Deco White and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Canary.



I thought I'd do a version of a mani Maria had done that had diagonal color blocks in blue and purple with little white flowers on the border between them. Her original is here. Now behold my interpretation:



Yeah, my flowers are not nearly as delicate, nor are their petals as well formed as hers. A couple of my blossoms look more like fried eggs to me than flowers. Considering I'm really inexperienced at freehand art and was working with a long and floppy striper brush instead of something more suitable for the task, it's not too hideous, I suppose.





In addition to my wonky petals, you may have noticed some bumpiness in the blue sections, even though I put topcoat over the design. This is because instead of painting on the blue, I sponged it on. Why? Because Maria had sponged on her second color. That worked fine for her, since she was using a shimmer. Why I thought sponging a creme would be a good idea, I can't say. There's no shimmer to disguise the texture. Here's what it looked like before topcoat—not so pretty.



Despite my brain freeze with the sponging and the not so charming shapes of most of my flowers, I did have fun doing this, enough that I'm thinking the next time I get a Sally Beauty coupon I'll buy that nail art brush set I've noticed they carry so I can make better petals and other stuff.

Thanks to Maria for the swap and the continuing inspiration!

22 comments:

  1. It looks like although I would have used a shimmer blue instead of a creme one. I resisted Heavy Metallilac so far but who knows!

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  2. I absolutely love Heavy Metalilac! It's gorgeous.
    Psst! I find Maria inspiring too! ;)

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  3. Heavy Metallilac is AWESOME!!!! Omg so pretty. I love Catrice. I love your nail art! I didn't even notice the bumpyness OR the fried egg flowers I think it came out really cute!

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  4. Another awesome nail art mani! I never would have noticed the bumps if you hadn't have pointed it out! Great swap....it seems you both were able to slay some lemmings for each other!

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  5. I love Catrice, if you got them where you're from, try out the lipsticks! Can't wait to see the rest of the swatches! Loved the simple nail art <3

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  6. Such a pretty purple!!! Your flowers don't look like eggs :) I purchased the nail art brush set from Sally's about a year ago (don't know if it would still be the same) but I love it!

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  7. What a pretty shade of purple. I love your flowers

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  8. Very pretty! I just received Heavy Metallilac in a swap, as well. I love it!

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  9. Heavy Metallilic looks gorgeous, and your flowers are cute : ) Love them : )

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  10. That purple is a fantastic color and I just love how you painted the little daisies on top.

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  11. Such a great idea. I love the flowers covering up the dividing line. :) Definitely going to have to try something like that.

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  12. I think your nail art is lovely! Fried eggs? lol! I think your flowers turned out so cute!

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  13. Hahaha fried eggs, no way, they are flowers :)
    I'm happy you like your Catrices and I think you did really well - and considering you did them with a striper brush I think you did really, really well, way to go Karen!

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  14. Heavy Metallilac is a very gorgeous colour! And despite the sponging onto the blue section may not be completely precise..I do really love your final result! It is so lovely!!! You made me wanna try it myself XD

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  15. To say you used a striper those flowers look pretty good :) I'm happy that you are going to try some more nail art, it's great fun :D

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  16. So cute! I do like Heavy Metallilac on its own too. Thanks for sharing.

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  17. I didn't think about fried eggs before I read the text :). But I think you draw beautiful flowers!

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  18. That is some really cute nail art!

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  19. OMG KarenD doing nail art! WOOHOO! I can't even do flowers-I just succeeded in dots today! This is really great!

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  20. Gorgeous polishes, and lovely nail art! Every time I see Maria's incredible nail art talents I'm impressed, and I think you did an admirable job here of replicating her art.

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