Hey there again!
I'm back again, with a post I'm really excited about. Now it's no secret that I despise sponging, it's just so messy. But every now and then a flash of inspiration hits me and I can't resist.
I have a friend on Twitter, Adam McLevey, who's an artist. He's currently mid-way through a series called The Persona Project (link here) where he paints his character Steve in a variety of disguises.
I love seeing the different canvasses come along each day, and of course, me being me, sometimes I think, ooh I could do that on my nails! He recently painted a Persona canvas based on the film Hellboy, and the background of it 'pinged' at me.
So here's what I came up with, and I kinda love it:
Now, it has to be said, this is loads zingier colour-wise in real life. I've tried to correct it, but I just couldn't get it to look exact with my camera.
I've taken a picture on my phone, which is a bit closer to the real colours (but blurrier):
My cuticle clean up isn't brilliant, but I'm not too bothered about that, it will wash off eventually.
And here's a slice of the picture that started it. I wasn't too sure about how much I could show, either for copyright, or without offending the artist, so I played it safe (hopefully) and just used a bit which shows the gradient I'm going on about, from a screenshot of his webpage:
As you see, the 'warm' side is much more orangey than my nailart - if I did this again I would use a different colour, but I'm pleased with how the green and the yellow came out.
Here's the polishes I used:
Collection 2000 Hot Looks in 64 Hidden
Collection 2000 Hot Looks in 45 Lemon Soda
Boots Natural Collection in Antique Coral
OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where?
Elf mini polish in Black (not pictured)
Oh, OK, one last pic of my masterpiece haha:
I think this came out really well, and I'm dying to publish this so you can all see it!
Incidentally, the Persona canvases would make a brilliant gift for the guy (or girl) who's got everything, and most of the Persona's include worldwide shipping, so bear it in mind next time you've got a present to buy for that difficult one. Alot of these canvasses are only £20 - bargain!
He also paints commissions if you've got any art you'd like to have done. Incidentally, I'm not being paid in any way, money or goods for this post, I just think his art is fab. You can visit his Persona shop (here)
So what do you think? Are you a fan of gradients, or do you usually avoid them like me?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hey there everyone,
I hope you're having a great weekend! I normally would have posted by now, but I've had a busy weekend. My page views are waaay down, I'm a bad blogger!
To make up for that, I'll bring out one of my 'posh' polishes. I bought Chanel's Frisson a while back now, but for reasons I'll go into later, I haven't worn it much, so really don't think about it when I'm planning any manicures, which is why you haven't seen it before.
I don't own many designer polishes, in fact the only other one I have is Dior's Waterlily, which I bought because I couldn't find a backup of Collections 2000's Hot Looks Mint Mojo (I know, backward, right?), and as it turned out, it wasn't an exact dupe, but it is still pretty.
So anyway, I was in the mood for spending, and I came across this in the shop, and it looked really pretty, and I took it home. I got it from House of Fraser, and I paid £18 LINK here
When I came to swatch it, I was a bit disappointed, so sheer! Here it is at one coat:
I was expecting it to be more like you see in the bottle. So I kept on applying.
2 coats:
3 coats:
4 coats!!:
And still there's a slight VNL! This is why I don't bother with it, the dry time isn't brilliant, and even if it was, if four coats isn't enough, well.... lifes too short for that shizz.
So to make up for it, the formula must be super awesome, right? Well, no. Don't get me wrong, it's not evil, I haven't done any clean up here, but it feels kind of gloopy and a bit awkward to get the right amount on the brush.
So then, it's a bit of a fail when it's used by itself, so how about layering it?
I had the idea of doing a gradient and using this over it. Because it's got those micro goldie sheen flakies in it, they might look great over a purple gradient, so I made one using OPI Skull and Glossbones as a base, then Orly Lollipop and Barry M Gelly in Blackberry:
It came out kind of OK, as you know I'm not a great fan of sponging because of its messiness, but the things we will do for art. I wasn't too bothered about the dents etc because I knew I would be covering it up.
Here's how it came out:
Yuk. Gloopy bloopy. FAIL
So then, how about Frisson layered over a plain colour? Because I had it out already, I picked OPI Skull and Glossbones. Heres how it came out:
Yes I dented it, it's been one of those days. I left the ring finger plain so you could see how the Frisson changes it. It's kind of OK, but if I'm going to make the effort to do a layer then I want it to be awesome, and this is just alright. Perhaps over a darker colour it might work, but to be honest, I'm losing the will to live....
So here's the bottle shot, in all it's poshness:
You can see the thinness of the brush here. If you've got narrow nail beds, you'll probably like these polishes.
It has to be said, Frisson IS the perfect name for it, those little excited shivers you can get feel exactly how those little gold flakies look.
And silly as it sounds, despite all it's failings, that's enough for me to be glad I own it. Sigh...
Have you got any polishes you like just because of the name? It has to be said, this probably isn't my only one...
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
