Elf-like!

I ended up spending 7 hours doing various church-related things today, so I'm too tired to be terribly clever. Tomorrow morning I'll do the last two manicures, and I'll be done with the challenge. I'm going to miss having the inspiration and fellowship of my challengers. I hope I can join another challenge group soon!

I google imaged a lot of Christmas elf pictures, and the main cohesive theme I saw was their stripey green and white tights, so I did a base of NOPI Lights Kim-era Action, and striped Kleancolor Green Grass. I have craft scissors that are zig-zagged and so I masked off my tips and painted them red with OPI The Spy Who Loved Me (which I love, and should get a full-size of soon, because it's such an interesting red). The zig-zags don't show well - my craft scissors have a wider zig than I really envisioned, and real pinking shears might have worked better. I used my NYC Matte Me Crazy topcoat, and I really liked the effect.

Still, I had multiple compliments from total strangers, although not one could guess I was aiming for an elf theme. Ah, well.

Go see what my other challengers did!

Matte French

So first, let me apologize for the state of my cuticles -- you can see a lot of residue from my clean-up attempt. It washed off later. Hmph.

I bought a matte topcoat the other day ($1.74!) at Target and wanted to do something with it. I had grand ideas but a simple french manicure seemed like a good idea. So I painted two coats of Sally Hansen's CSM "Haute Chocolate" (I really love the deep brown with red and gold undertones), and let it dry. Then a coat of NYC "Matte Me Crazy" topcoat. I've been using Seche Vite for so long that I really wasn't used to it being tacky as long as it was. I free-handed SV on for shiny tips, and I really liked how it looked. Minus the cuticle mess.

A few hours after my mani was done, I grabbed lunch, and taking a burger out of the bag, I barely touched the side of my thumbnail to the bag and half of the polish slid off.

I think I'll try a coat of SV before the matte topcoat next time I feel like going matte, which will likely be soon. :)