Seems That All They Ever Wanted Was a Marking

Is there any relation between Foo Fighters and my passion for nail polishes? Apparently there is none, but if you remember their debut album, you may still have memory of a song, This Is a Call. A verse from that song, referring to fingernails, was the source of inspiration for my blog about nail art and polishes.

I deeply admire people who can do extraordinary manicures by themselves, using techniques like water marbling or achieving effects like chevron pattern. I’ve never been to a salon to get my nails done, because there are no nail salons here and getting your nails done at a beautician shop is quite expensive; moreover, painting my nails is a relaxing activity which excites my fantasy and makes me try unusual things. Multicolour manicure is far from being unusual, because it’s the easiest way to play with colours, but there’s beauty in its simplicity: all you need are two or more nail polishes and that’s it. Matching the right colours or experimenting with colour combinations is funny and challenging; for this reason, after the ring finger craze, I’ve turned to this.

I decided to try the multicolour (in this case, the alternating colour) manicure after seeing a picture on Tavi Gevinson’s Instagram: the effect was pretty childish but kind of soothing, relaxing. I immediately grabbed my nail polish basket and picked the colours I needed to re-create that manicure. Sorry for the messy application: I try to be as precise as possible, but mistakes are just around the corner.

I applied one coat of Chanel Black Satin as a base, then two coats of Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers and Across the Universe (aka the most beautiful nail polish ever). I finished the manicure with a top coat: my favourite is Mavala Mavadry, which makes the polish dry quicker, too. I love this colour combo, so I think I’ll surely use it again.

And With This Ring I Play So Dead, But No One’s Asking For the Truth

It may sound weird, but I’ve recently bought a copy of Smashing Pumpkin’s masterpiece – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - 16 years after its release. It may sound weird because I was a huge fan of this band in the 90s. I own all their albums – the last one I bought was Machina/The Machines of God, but I’ve always listened my favourite one on cute tapes a friend of mine did for me back in the day (you know that I’m a nostalgic). After listening to the two cds, many memories from the past came back, especially in relation to Thru the Eyes of Ruby and Stumbleine (that’s where my nickname comes from). The title of this post comes from the first song: though apparently without connections to the main topic (nail polishes!), it’s actually perfect to introduce it. Many have written about one of the latest manicure trends – the ring finger manicure – but this is a short journey into my experimentations.

It all started last September on Instagram, an iPhone/iPod app I love. A picture posted by the lovely Nicolette Mason struck my attention: she sported an awesome pale mint green nail polish and a golden glittering one on the ring finger only. A picture has been enough to spark my imagination and my creativity.

This is my first ring finger manicure. I simply tried to re-create Nicolette’s colour combination, which I still love very much. I used China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint (2 coats) and Mavala Gold Diamond on the ring finger (3 coats). I used China Glaze Fairy Dust as top coat on all the nails, except for the ring finger.