nails & whales

There's a lot going on with this set.

It's a bit disjointed and there isn't really a coherent continuity across all four display nails, but I had to do some detail work after a half-year dry spell. If those roses look vaguely familiar to you, you're fantastic and I applaud you – they're largely inspired by this mani I did last fall semester. (Even if the actual brushwork didn't improve, at least the editing did, yeah?)

Those with peculiar dedication to my blog and a peculiarly strong memory will further recall that I also did another big cat mani in January 2015; these are inspired by the same nail tech (nailsbyly), albeit leopard instead of tiger.

It's a good day for nail art when you've done all the intricate nails before.

Okay, maybe I should've manipulated the blue curve a little better in Photoshop. Or just used Lightroom.

I do regret that the color palette for the roses wasn't better integrated into the set, but I'm still fairly happy with how they turned out. An incredibly cathartic twenty-minute break from MATLAB... (Yes, twenty minutes for a singular nail.) Also got to experiment with simplistic negative space for the first time in nearly two years, which was neat!

Aaaand back to monochromatic talons I go, as organic chemistry labs have a tendency to douse everything in acetone. Throwback to that one time I wore Illamasqua's Phallic on my right hand and ended the day with cobalt pigment streaks down my fingers.

Products used (links are swatches):

• Color Club Blue Heaven – baby blue linear holographic (first ever blog post! ew)
• Essie Mint Candy Apple – pastel mint crème
• Zoya Trixie – silver foil
• China Glaze Fairy Lights – clear fine holographic glitter topcoat
• Sally Hansen Hyp-nautical – teal-tinted Mylar/glitter topcoat
• Various acrylic paints + a tiny, tiny #00 paintbrush

As always, thanks for reading :•)