Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Skippers and fritillaries, butterflies all

Hello ladies,

I did a manicure today to celebrate the tiny orange and brown butterflies who pose for me so enchantingly at the garden. While these insects are commonly mistaken for moths, they are indeed butterflies. Many of the ones I have shown are types of skippers and fritillaries. Even their classification is darling.  Skippers have wondrous names! Clouded skipper, fiery skipper, little glassywing, and wild indigo duskywing are among my favorites.  

I wore Essie Mink Muffs as the base for the design. The butterfly is from Konad plate M16, stamped in dark orange special polish. The sun seemed to flash right over the design, making it a little more challenging to see, instead of dutifully highlighting it. For photographic purposes, I would have preferred white, but the dark orange flutters quite pleasingly on my fingertips. The pictures can be clicked to view full size for a better sense of the design element.  


Above is the Essie Fall Color Collection: Mink Muffs, Pink Parka, Chinchilly, Bright Tights, Angora Cardi and Midnight Cami. 





I applied the rhinestones to form a crescent. If you follow the top two orange flowers to the golden jewel, it creates an arch. I was thinking about how the flowers on a butterfly bush dip down with the gentle weight of pollinators busy with nectar. 

I really love Essie Mink Muffs. It's slightly darker than many of the mushrooms shades we have been seeing. I am wearing two coats. The application was fairly easy once I readjusted myself to using a standard size brush. 

I will be showing polishes from Essie Fall Color over the next week. I am excited to wear and review the collection. I'm pleased to see Essie experimenting with trend colors and thinking outside the classic boundaries of pinks, reds and nudes. 

Happy painting, ladies!

8 comments:

  1. That is a really cute mani, I can't wait to see the swatches of the other fall colors!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That Essie collection is amazing -- perfect fall colors and very butterfly friendly!! Right now those skippers are positively swarming all over the boneset that is blooming everywhere -- it has a very thick, sweet fragrance and is covered in little autumn-hued friends, as well as bees. I definitely would consider buying all except the pink in this collection! And who knows I might even want the pink. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really like this latest Essie collection. Mink Muffs is a really lovely shade. I love your pretty inspiration manicure. Shame a lovely butterfly couldn't be enticed to land on your finger!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love this collection, a great range of colors. Your manicure is beautiful and I love your photo of the butterfly bush...mine never bloomed this year :/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mink Muffs is beautiful - right up my street!
    And I like the inspiration behind the manicure - very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have a garden full of inspiration :) can´t wait for the swatches of the whole collection.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, gorgeous! The flowers and your mani. I haven't picked up any of these colors yet, but I'm thinking I'm going to go ahead and spring for most of them, I like them quite a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  8. gildedangel: Thanks so much! I will be doing something pretty fun with the Matte About You topcoat as well.

    sarada: I think I need to put 'butterfly friendly' as a standard category for assessing polish quality. I love that! I will try to tempt you with pink neon. :)

    Lucy: Thank you! I went to Hershey Gardens last year and they have a butterfly house where visitors can walk through and interact with thousands of butterflies with varieties from all over the world. Butterflies that matched my dress landed on me. It was so enchanting. I hope to return there again.

    Mary: Thanks so much. I loved seeing all your pictures of Essie Fall Color. You are such a skilled gardener with so many lovely blooms to your credit.

    Helen: Thanks! I thought of you when I was painting on Mink Muffs. I knew it would be one you would choose. :)

    AllYouDesire: So true! The natural world is such an influence on my nail art. I'm really excited about this collection too!

    Nicole: Thanks, love! This is my favorite Essie collection so far. I'm sure you would be happy with the polishes. I will continue to tempt you with them. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for stopping by! I do my best to answer comments. I read every single comment. If you have any questions or links that are unrelated to the post, please e-mail me.

Please be respectful and avoid leaving your blog link in the comments unless requested. Refer to the FAQ if needed.