Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Coraline is one with bumblebees and monarchs

Hello ladies,

Today my friend Sarada and I took a walk at Silver Lake Nature Center. Since she loves yellow nail polish, I thought I would oblige with Zoya Pippa, a neon from the La Di Da collection. The face of Coraline was added in Konad special polish gold black. Coraline with a button eye is from plate C01. In the first picture, she is set before a cluster of black eyed Susans. 



Isn't the view lovely? There was a walking path built over the water. A profusion of wildflowers and sunbeams were welcoming. All three pictures can be enlarged. Please excuse the condensation on a couple of my nails. I was carrying a bottle of water. Perhaps Coraline needed some refreshment as well. 

This is the first occasion I have used a character stamp from either of the Coraline sets. These seem to be the most popular of the designs offered based on what I have seen pictured on other blogs. Partial to the insects, flowers and flourishes, I decided to give Coraline's disembodied head a whirl. I wanted to show her in a dark color so the details would be crisp. I was hoping the gold shimmer would be more prevalent, but the neon reflection overpowered the sparkle. It came out starker than I had intended, but Coraline kept company with the bees and monarch butterflies.   

The application of Zoya Pippa was ghastly. I decided to add a new category, horrors, for such moments. I used Zoya Get Even ridge filler over Creative Nail Design Stickey base coat and applied three coats of Pippa. If Zoya ever decides to expand their health based product line and add swiss style yogurt, they have the perfect consistency with Pippa. It managed to be both unbearably thick and streaky simultaneously. Imagine trying to paint your nails with the back of a spoon dipped in La Yogurt and you will have a mirror of my experience. 

I had a couple creepy instances with Pippa. The first involved rolling the Konad stamper across my pointer finger on my left hand. Wet polish shot out from beneath the sealed top coat. It exited at the side of my cuticle. When I pressed against the top of my nail, the edge smoothed out and fused in place. I didn't have to redo the stamp or the polish. I can't decide if I should be thankful or terrified. The second oddity was exhibited after I washed my face before bed, hours after finishing the manicure. The polish on my right hand wrinkled at the tips. I was so disturbed after wrestling with Pippa! I went to sleep lamenting my ruined manicure and awakened to find the wrinkles had smoothed out overnight. This process was repeated for Sarada at the movie theater with a thorough hand washing. She saw the polish crease and iron itself out when dry. Are you afraid? I am.

Pippa is the first nail polish that has actually given me nightmares. I dreamt it turned purple on my nails and the polish cracked to reveal striations of opal. This was exquisite until Coraline's face starting melting down my nails. I awoke feeling assured that my nails were still yellow. Then I realized all the odd wrinkling had self corrected in my sleep! A strong cup of coffee from the French press helped me reconnect. The black eyed Susans and the good company returned the cheer to my manicure. 

I hope you enjoyed sharing my adventure. Happy painting!


11 comments:

  1. Wow, wrinkling and smoothing out itself? That's crazy, I would be freaked out! What kind of polish does that? The manicure is super cute though!

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  2. How very odd for the polish to behave like that! I blame Coraline! The movie itself was quite disturbing and although Coraline's a tale, Coraline is all together a little too evil for my liking! :) However, I love the mani and wouldn't stop myself from picking up the Coraline Konad Plate if I had the chance! :)

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  3. Now that I think about it, Coraline's expression looks a little concerned, as if to say, "You're not going to use me over Pippa, are you? That one's weird."

    I am glad you got home safe and sound! My bare nails are whispering "Gunmetal..." at me for tomorrow.

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  4. hehe - great story. Thankfully I've not had any nail polish nightmares - yet...!

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  5. Yellows are always nightmares for me! It's a cute design though and yes, very strange about the self-correcting polish!

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  6. Wow- that is odd about the polish. Although as I mentioned the other day, I had a similar thing happen with the Sally Hansen Salon polish. It bubbled after I put the topcoat on. When I woke up the next morning, the bubbles had flattened themselves out! I blame the heat and humidity. Bring on the fall!
    -Lisa

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  7. That is a bizarre story. I guess it ties in with the Coraline movie. I wonder why yellow is so difficult to apply. There has been complaints about every brand that makes yellow. No one has been able to correct the application problems. Very strange. Pretty pictures. I do love the shade of yellow. I to would have been freaked out seeing the polish squeeze out on the side.

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  8. That shade of yellow is really cool - but oh, my GOODNESS! That's bizarre! Self correcting nail polish? Polish squishing out the sides of a sealed top coat? Oh my. The application alone would have given me nightmares, not to mention the rest of it. Little wonder you added a new tag to this one!
    However, your outing sounds lovely - as is the picture!

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  9. gildedangel: I am glad you liked it despite the strange hazards!

    Danielle: I'm happy you liked the finished result. If future manicures featuring Coraline's head show similar signs of possession, I can't say you didn't warn me. :)

    artbysarada: I will be careful in the future of how Coraline looks at me. Have I ever tried my Sally Hansen gunmetal? Oh dear! That one will need to come out of hiding.

    Cali369: I wish you only happy mani dreams.

    Mary: I'm not too much of a yellow wearer. I've only used Sally Hansen Lite over a base and it was wholly workable. A little fussy, but not too bad. This was madness! I'm glad the stamping worked out favorably. Whew!

    Lisa: If it didn't apply like yogurt, I could blame it on the weather. I'm dubious, but I may break out Pippa in December to test your theory. Maybe I can do some Santa in sunglasses nail art. ;)

    Deez: I am glad I got you laughing. :)

    Lucy: I have never seen anything like it! I know yellows have the reputation for being fussy, but Pippa took it to a new level. I have to appreciate that it self corrected all it's own problems!

    Nicole: It is wild, isn't it? I have some wonderful pictures of mushrooms to share too! I love going out in nature.

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  10. I think you can safely say that when you've reached the point where you start dreaming about nail polish you are officially obsessed!

    And yes, I dream about nail polish a lot!

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