Cadbury Caramello Cuties

So, Easter nails. There are a lot about at the moment, and most seem to have some kind of spring theme. That’s understandable for the Northern Hemisphere where Easter comes from, with new growth, the return of the sun, and associated historical fertility rituals and what-have-you. Down here though, it is of course Autumn; we shouldn’t really be having any rebirth type celebration at this time of year at all. So in light of this, but still wanting to jump on some kind of bandwagon, I decided to go with a theme of delicious chocolate. My favourite Easter eggs are Cadbury Caramello Cuties, small chocolate eggs filled with caramel.  Can’t go wrong with chocolate. Unless you’re allergic to it. And that would be a tragedy.

Bright sunlight.

The base polishes I used were: China Glaze Eyes Like Sapphires (sapphire blue with a silver shimmer), OPI Dear Santa (festive red with small red and gold glitter), OPI Rising Star (a bright, coppery metallic gold), a-England Lady of the Lake (medium purple with scattered holo). For the egg wrapper dots I used Kleancolor Pearl Silver (a slightly blackened metallic silver), and for the ‘Cadbury’ text Orly White Out. The chocolate shell of the partially unwrapped egg is China Glaze Foie Gras (a dark purpled brown) and OPI Over The Taupe (a dusty, greyed milk chocolate). Everything was finished up with two coats of Poshe top coat.

Unwrapped egg! Flash photo.

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.