Matte Valentine Stripes

So I decided to join, for the first time ever, a daily nail art challenge for Valentines’ Day! It’s hosted by The Lacquered Landlubber (who has the cutest blog style ever and you just have to love that name!). We’ll see how this goes! One thing I figured out from doing this first manicure, however, is that I will just have to paint my right hand a solid color for the week and leave them. There is no way I can do a full manicure daily, but I might be able to pull off only painting my left hand.

The theme of the first day is “matte,” which I can definitely handle. Matte polish makes me think of two things: how cool glitters and metallics look when mattified and of vintage. This time I decided to go more vintage. Originally I was going to mattify a glitter gradient, but I wanted to use white for the base coat, and despite the fact that I own at least 3, if not more white polishes, I seem to always lose them. So vintage stripes it was!

I also knew I wanted to throw some studs on top, partially to further the Valentines’ Day theme, but also because I thought the shiny studs would look awesome in contrast to the matte. Well, what I learned from that, is that bigger studs do NOT like to stay on without a topcoat. By the time I finished taking the photos, I had already lost a stud on my right hand, and as I type this this morning, I have lost 6 in total (about 12 hours later).

The base coat is not actually white, it is a very very pale pink. I’m slowly learning how to paint pale colored polishes well on my nails. I get frustrated with their lack of opacity and tend to paint really thick coats that never dry. This time, I tried very hard to paint thinner coats, which in the end, probably takes less time, even though you have to do more coats. I should time it sometime! Experiments are great! #science

However, this manicure turned out delightfully! The pink is brighter in person; I tried to color correct in a photo editor, but I have no idea what I am doing. I also tried shooting in manual mode for the first time and I also have no idea what I am doing, but at least I know the basics! I’ve been reading a DIY blog and she actually sums up the main photography terms you need to know very well. She also uses pretty good mnemonics to help you remember what they mean, and I highly recommend checking it out. I think my camera lets me be in a couple of different automatic modes where I am allowed to set SOME of the qualities manually (like ISO), so I will probably try it next.The photo below is the closest I got to the true colors. It’s still not quite right, but it’s definitely closer.

I did manage to capture the texture in the silver studs. They’re not just silver, but a holographic silver, with lines scratched out for texture. They’re really cool, but subtle. You can see the rainbow holo, as well as the texture in this picture.

I’m excited to participate in a challenge, and hopefully I can manage to do all 6 days! The last challenge I did was about once every 4 days, and I still only did about half of them. I’m hoping to try to join a few nail art competitions too, but that might be a bit ambitious as well. I just love holiday nails, and that love makes me feel like I can achieve anything!