Sunday, October 4, 2009

Polishes to use for images

Here is my first ever manicure with a full nail design. This continues the thought from yesterday about nail length - as you can see, my nails were much shorter then, but the design still worked fine. (Click for larger image)





China Glaze Awaken with China Glaze Agent Lavender, Konad M70 China Glaze Awaken with China Glaze Agent Lavender, Konad M70

That was done with China Glaze Awaken and China Glaze Agent Lavender, using konad plate M70. It doesn't look completely terrible, but if I'd known then what I know now, I would have reversed the colors and used Awaken for the image. Agent Lavender simply isn't opaque enough to work for this look.

Some polishes just work better than others for images. The edges are more crisp and the design more professional looking.

Sometimes, though, what you want is a more subtle, less opaque design, as I did with this look (click for larger image):






misa,A Sin Worth Committing,china glaze,Secret Periwinkle,konad,M63

That's Misa A Sin Worth Committing with China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, using plate M63. While generally I wouldn't use Secret Periwinkle for a design, in this case I think it worked. I didn't want to distract from the beauty of the Misa polish, but I had the konad urge, and when that urge hits there's really no denying it.

I had toyed with the idea of using a different polish for the design - as usual, one of the ones from the China Glaze Romantique collection. I even went so far as to swatch it before doing a full manicure:






zoya,dierdre,china glaze,Joy,konad,M70,Misa,A Sin Worth Committing,Awaken,Secret Periwinkle,M63
L-R:
Zoya Dierdre, China Glaze Joy, Konad M70
Misa A Sin Worth Committing, China Glaze Awaken, Konad M63
Misa ASWC, China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, Konad M63


As you can see, the image comes out much better with China Glaze Awaken than with Secret Periwinkle. However, with Secret Periwinkle you pay more attention to how pretty the base color is, and that's what I had wanted that day.

Sasse has put together a lovely list of polishes that work well with image plates. For the most part, though, I just enjoy playing around with what I already have. I'll try it on a finger or two before removing my previous mani, and if I like it I'll try it. Worst comes to worst I'll wind up not liking it and I'll have an excuse to change my mani again. ;0)

Christmas Day

Okay, I know. I'm terrible. I haven't posted in forever. I have a good excuse, though - it's impossible to take pictures of my m...