Guest Nails: Lisa Frank Leopard Print

My sister Rachel always tries to con me into doing her nails. I generally don’t mind, but not gonna lie, she works with her hands SO much that they chip like the next day inevitably. I hate seeing my laborious efforts ruined in less than 24 hours (love you, though, Rae!!). Most of the time she just reads through my blog, finds something I’ve done that she likes, digs through my Helmer to find what I used, and recreates what I did. I love that she does that!!

Well, during the aftermath of the hurricane, we had NOTHING to do, so I did her nails. And spent quite a bit of time on ‘em. After flipping through all my Bundle Monster plates, picking colors for a few different designs to try, hating everything we came up with, then prepping for water marbling, then deciding no to water marbling, then choosing a leopard print design (she wanted to mimic these nails), but taking a different approach, then doing several failed attempts at getting the kind of rainbow effect I wanted, we finally got it!! And here it is…







Here’s the pre-stamped version of the rainbows. This was also pre-Poshe so it is not leveled at all:



White Base (intended for water marbling but it stayed) - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On
Pink - Orly Fancy Fuchsia
Orange - China Glaze Peachy Keen
Yellow - China Glaze Lemon Fizz
Green - China Glaze Tree Hugger
Blue - Orly Snowcone
Purple - China Glaze Spontaneous
1 coat Poshe
Bundle Monster plate BM-221 stamped with Sinful Black on Black
1 coat Poshe

I used an ELF angled eyeliner brush I picked up at Target for $1 to do each line of color. I started with Fancy Fuchsia and started the rainbow in all different areas of the nail so they weren’t identical. I then did all the Peachy Keen, then all the Lemon Fizz, etc. I wasn’t too concerned about them being uneven, in fact, I didn’t want them perfect. The Poshe was going to even out the colors, and once stamped, you wouldn’t be able to notice any imperfections. Everything blended together.

I totally had fun doing this for her. As soon as my mom (who is all about my nail obsession and I’m pretty sure I’ve got her hooked, too! HI MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) saw them, she immediately thought of Lisa Frank, so that’s where the title came from. By the way, I was definitely a Lisa Frank lil’ girl. My favorite Lisa Frank “characters” (this was the original Lisa Frank, not the new one with the girls. There were only animals back in the day) were the Kitten Bubbles. Here’s a photo of them:


[Source]
I think I had a folder with them. And probably numerous pens and pencils. And of course I had the white unicorn with the rainbow accents (mane, tail, hooves), the golden retriever/yellow lab puppy, more kitties, oh! the seal and the penguins… and probably others. But those are the ones that first come to mind. Lol.

Lots of CG In The City

In celebration of removing all silk wraps from my left hand, I'm going with a glitter. I avoid glitters when I have a silk wrap on because removal is horrific because I don't use acetone on those nails. But I just picked up the two glitters from the Metro collection the other day, and I don't feel like waiting for the wraps to come off of my right hand.

I had intentions of just getting Skyscraper, but once I saw CG In The City, I just had to have it. So here it is...

1 coat CG In The City over 2 coats China Glaze Spontaneous

Shade

Sunlight


2 coats CG In The City over 2 coats China Glaze Spontaneous

Shade

Sunlight


3 coats CG In The City over 2 coats China Glaze Spontaneous

Shade

Sunlight



I didn't like the way the polish was without a base polish. I felt it looked just... not right. So here's a view on 1, 2, and 3 coats without a base color.

Sunlight

Shade


On its own, it makes me think of someone putting glue on their nails and then rubbing them in sand. It's natural like earthy and raw. Here in New England, we have some beaches that have dark sand (moreso TEENY TINY rock sand) that even looks sparkly because of crushed shells and whatnot. That description makes it sounds way more awesome than it actually is, so don't think you're missing out if you're not from New England lol.

Here's a stock photo that shows exactly what I'm talking about. This photo is apparently from a beach in Portland, ME.

Source

So I'm sure after seeing that, you can understand what I mean. Ironic that it reminds me of sand on a beach when the polish is from a Metro collection and called CG IN THE CITY. Haha.

Let's discuss the color
So China Glaze says this is a "glittering dusty purple, bronze and silver multi-tonal glitter". Well, I'm going to assume China Glaze knows what they're talking about since they made the polish, but I swear I see black glitter. To me, I see light purple, black, bronze, and silver (it's a clear base, by the way). It's such a bizarre mix of glitters. I put it over Spontaneous to try to pull out the purple glitter because the whole thing just confuses me. I might also try it over a bronze (Orly Rage would rock for this!!) and a gunmetal like Zoya Freja. Speaking of which, I have no idea why, but this polish reminds me of the glitter version of Freja. Strange.