Thursday, August 11, 2011

Nails...Tiffany & Company

This week I took my inspiration for my nails from Carolinajewel's tablescape.

I was HOT, HUMID and all together MISERABLE!  Her tablescape was so lovely and cool and calming that I decided to use Tiffany Blue and Silver for my nails!

I began with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Inta-Dri Whirlwind White nail polish.  I was always disappointed by the color of those bright polishes in the store.  They look GREAT in the bottle and then are dull on the nails.  After experimenting, I found that a white undercoat really POPS the colors!

I then added 3 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Blizzard Blue which was close to the color of the blue on the Tiffany & Company website--and as an added bonus, it is pearlized!

The final color was Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Fractured Foil.  You can apply the crackle lightly for a delicate crackle or do a heavy coat for a more intense crackle.  I chose the heavy coat.  I like the big crackles!

At this point, the crackle and blue kind of looked alike and I have found that the crackle just looks dull until...

I topped it with 2 coats of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat from Sally's Beauty Supply. 

This pops the colors and makes them shine, bringing out the pearl in the undercoat and the metalic shine of the crackle!  This top coat dries so fast that by the time you are finished with all 10 nails, you are dry and ready for the next coat!    It is also VERY HARD and will wear like iron until the nails have grown to the point that you have to redo the nails (for me about a week to 10 days is the MAX I can go!)

This is what they looked like before.  It had been more than 2 weeks and they were looking mighty ratty before I got inspired by carolinajewel.

Oh yeah--and the toes get to wear it too!  I called them lemonade fruit punch.  The things on the big toes are fruit slices and leaves.  They are so bright that no one misses them!  LOL

PS  My nails ARE real. 

6 comments:

  1. Love it! You took the inspiration and really created your own look!!! Your nails look "cool" and cool! Good idea about the white undercoat - I never thought about that!

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  2. You are really a connoisseur of nail polish! AND you must have a LOT of patience! I like the blue look!

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  3. WhisperingWriter--Thank you!

    Carolinajewel--Your table was so inspiring! And thanks!

    Pat--Well, you know, it is in small bottles that travel well in small spaces. :) And thanks!

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  4. I always laugh when nail polish touts how long it wears...because I can't keep ANY of it on for more than a day before it starts chipping. My "record" for messing it up is twenty minutes, and that was coming out of a nail salon with a professional job :-)

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  5. Kathy G--Were a conspiracy theorist, I could possibly think, based on my experiences with the professional salons, that they use something that chips off quickly so that we will be back quickly. LOL

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