Recent NOTD: Catrice Sir! Yes, Sir!

Last week, my nails were adorned in an exotic beauty I got in a swap with ritterbraten (I'm not sure if she uses her real name online, so I'll keep it to myself) of Das Experiment: Catrice Sir! Yes, Sir! This is an army green creme, one of those lovely muddy colors I've grown to really like. In some lights, it leans a bit toward brown, but the green never gets lost entirely.









I used two coats of the Catrice with my usual treatment, base, and top coat; it wore six days with only one chip (on my thumbnail, which someday maybe I will finally stop using to scrape off price tags). On that sixth day, I couldn't resist experimenting with it, so grabbed Zoya Yasmeen and OPI My Kind of Brown to do some patchwork. (Of course I referred to Chloe's excellent tutorial on the subject, since it'd been quite a while since I last tried this.)







My lines weren't quite as sharp as I would like, but they weren't too horrible. I just need to practice more, but I get so distracted by other ideas I don't focus on any one technique long enough to perfect it. Maybe when I'm retired I'll have time!

Recent NOTD: Essence Fairy Berry, Tipped

I chose the light purple metallic shimmer, Fairy Berry, as my first one to try from the Essence Fairytale collection I picked up at Ulta some weeks back. I used two coats over base coat and under top coat.





It wore pretty well considering the finish (foils/metallics never seem to hold up quite as well for me) but by day five I had some distracting tipwear and a couple areas near the sides of my nails where the polish had flaked off, so I got out my cellophane tape and added diagonal tips in Sally Hansen Salon The Deepest of Violets, an almost black purple creme. A few of my lines ended up a little wonky but I ignored them and focused on the ones that turned out nice and straight and clean.





Since the line on my left thumb turned out nicely and that nail is in pretty good shape for a change (I have yet to break myself of the habit of using my thumbnails as tools, so they're often shorter and more raggedy than my others), it got to be in a picture, too:



And look, here's my mysterious right hand, which is usually behind the camera:



Taped manis are one of the many things I wish I could make more time to play around with.

Recent NOTD: Orly Candy Cane Lane Patchwork

Post-Thanksgiving, it was time to break out the Christmas collection polish. I started with Orly Candy Cane Lane, admittedly not the most Christmas-y choice since it's really just a classic red creme with a holiday themed name. I am a bit chagrined to admit I bought this a few weeks ago since I do have so many red cremes already, but I just needed this one and Glitz & Glamour to complete my 'Tis the Season set, and I had a Sally's coupon, and it's Orly, one of my favorite brands, so I caved and got it. At least I wore it almost right away, unlike some of my purchases.





After wearing it on its own for a couple days, I decided to plus it by trying a patchwork mani for the first time. I'm a quilter; it was inevitable that I try patchwork nails at some point. To complement Candy Cane Lane, I chose Milani My Network, a gold foil, and Finger Paints Evergreen Dream, a dark green shimmer.



I used Chloe's tutorial as my guide and found it very easy to follow. I will need more practice before my patchwork is as neat as hers, but for my first effort I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.





I used some really old tape, thinking it would be less sticky than new tape and so less likely to pull off polish, but it turned out to be not sticky enough. I got some seepage underneath the tape, which I tried to clean up with my trusty paint brush but was only partly successful. Next time, new tape. I also had some trouble with My Network, as it didn't quite cover the red in one coat and I ended up messing up my lines when I was trying to touch it up afterward. (It was also annoying to clean up; I gave up on getting all the bits of gold off and just let them wear off my skin.) Next time, I'll consider testing on a nail wheel first. And there will be a next time, for sure; it was fun to do and interesting to look at. Just when I'll find the time, I'm not so sure.

*****

Reminder: there's still time to enter my holiday giveaway.