Muddy Pink Pig

I love pigs, I’m slightly obsessed with them. One day I will have a pet pig — maybe a kunekune like I used to play with when I was a rural kid — and will basically exist in a state of perpetual squee. So, I decided to do myself a pig-themed manicure and get some practice in with my dotting tools and free-handing.

Click all to enlarge.

I made the mud splatters with various sizes of dotting tool (US$2.15 with free shipping for a pack of 5 from this ebay seller), the pig with a mix of dotting tools and fine-tipped brushes (US$2.84 pack of 15 mixed, ditto) and added the light blue holo hearts (US$1.49 for wheel of 12 colours, ditto) using an orange stick with a little base coat on it to make it sticky. I love the result!

For the ring fingers of both hands I used 2 coats of OPI Over The Taupe (a milk chocolate with a hint of grey), and on the rest of my nails 3 coats of NYX Girls Girly (a vibrant candy pink that can apply a bit sheer). The pig’s body is NYX Girls Sweetest Pink (a baby pink that builds to opaque) with OPI It’s All Greek to Me ears and nose (a vivid, hot fuchsia shimmer with a reddish tint). I dotted Orly White Out eyes, and Over The Taupe pupils and nose holes (and mud splatters).

On my left (dominant) hand, the pig's back-end.

Happy ’80s Techno Nails

Today isn’t great but my nails are fantastic! I was going for an ’80s laser/dance/album cover in your face kind of look, and I’m happy with the result. They took me ages to do as I’d never done any tape manicure as complicate before (or with as much drying time between steps — I’m hanging out for my Seche Vite fast dry top coat in the mail). But I wasn’t doing anything else useful and later the Mister and I had our friend E around to shoot the breeze with.

The dominant colour is OPI Fly, from the Nicki Minaj collection, and it is gorgeous. I wanted it as soon as I saw it. This is my colour, everything about it I love and it makes me happy to wear it. This is the colour that I thought Butter London Artful Dodger was going to be by how it looked in the bottle. Fly is a smooth, highly pigmented, deep turquoise creme with a teal-green tint. On my nails without extensive taping I only needed two coats of it and it goes on easy. Damn I love this colour!

If you’re a local you might have noticed that Fly retails for between $25-$29. Ahahahahaha, yeah I’m not going to pay that for an OPI polish when Chanel polishes only cost a couple of NZ$ more overseas. I bought Fly from ebay. It cost me (NZ)$11.10 including (quite fast) shipping.

Taken with flash. Shows accurate colours for most lighting conditions.

Also included in this mani are Color Club Jackie Oh! (neon pink), China Glaze Papaya Punch, Orly White Out as a base for the coloured stripes (neons need a white base to show up as their in-bottle colour), and China Glaze Liquid Leather for the details (a really beautiful shiny black). As well as my usual Orly Top 2 Bottom for a base and top coat.

Blurry shot but shows the more teal colour Fly can get in dimmer light.

Thumb of left (dominant) hand.