Good Gourd!

Hello! I’m back with another mani for the #clairestelle8challenge and today’s theme is petrifying pumpkins. I’ve have a rough day with Baby ACD and am both stressed and exhausted, so let’s dive right into it without more yapping on this end.

On my middle to pinky fingers, I’m wearing two coats of the gorgeous Tonic Polish Toxic from the Halloween 2016 collection (an oldie, but definite goodie!). I stamped the image on the middle finger from a Maniology plate (BM-S243) and filled it in with Born Pretty orange stamping polish. The image on my ring finger, also reverse-stamped, is from Creative Shop plate-149 and was filled in using the same orange polish, two green polishes (BP-ML01 and Sally Hansen Irish Luck) and for the pine cones, BP-U01, a bronze metallic stamping polish that shifts to blue. On the pinky finger, I stamped an image from Born Pretty plate BP-L057 using the same Sally Hansen green polish. I then made some spots over it using a small dotting tool.

My index finger and thumb were a disappointment. I wanted some texture and was going to use one of my Zoya pixie dust texture polishes, but at the last minute, I opted for an orange texture polish by China Glaze called Toe-tally Textured. I am very, very disappointed in this polish. The texture was barely visible, appearing more as a blotchy application than true bumps. Eventually, I ended up smoothing it out entirely with a layer of top coat, but wished I had gone with my bright orange pixie dust instead so I would have had some sparkle as well as real texture. I then used an old nail vinyl by Maniology and AEngland Natasha’s Dance to make the Jack-o’-lantern on my index finger. I like these colours together, but I put so much effort into this mani, I felt very let down by the CG polish.

Another big disappointment came in the application of top coat. I decided to be extra-careful and to prevent any of the stamping being smudged, I used a no-smudge water-based top coat from Born Pretty. I guess I didn’t let it dry long enough before topping it with my Tonic top coat, but as I started application, it started pulling up the no-smudge top coat and made it cloudy in places. Overall, it was a day of expectations falling short but I do love where I was going with this mani.

I don’t know if/when I’ll be able to do the last two prompts of this challenge, but attempts will be made. It feels like one obstacle after another with Baby – sleep regressions, behavioral challenges, sickness, you name it. I feel like we haven’t had three goods days back to back in these two years. But, difficult as all this is, I keep reminding myself that it must be so much more difficult for baby, who is actually going through the teething pains, the steep learning curve in life, the language explosion and subsequent overstimulation, and all the other problems of being a tiny human in a big, big world. Send some good vibes our way and we’ll see you on the other side of this current regression!

I have a magnetic mani for the #magneticmagicnails collaboration coming up next, in a day or two. Until then, keep spooky and I’ll leave you with a shot of our front lawn.