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| October: Birthstone - Opal / Birth Flower - Marigold |
It's really not that apparent, yet it's interesting - at least to me - that this post took the longest time from inception to going live of any others I've done. From picking my overall desired look, finding the right polish/stamping design, actually painting the nails, processing the images, to writing this up - spanned more than 6 months!! A little bit here, a little bit there....and finally it's live!
I wanted to capture the soft, ethereal quality of opals and contrastingly the vibrancy of marigold flowers. So, I went with a "jewelry" like effect of using gold with the opal nails. Then I looked for a way to use the influence of India's special relationship with the marigold flowers - an homage to Bollywood per se. (Please forgive my naivete' in the knowledge of such matters - all I see is "Pretty!!".) Hopefully you'll get a clearer perspective after you see the Inspiration Sources at the end of this post. It might be an "a-ha moment".
To create my opal nails, I used two polishes. The first layer is a beautiful pale blue creme polish to give the second layers of a sheer opalescent holographic polish a blue tinge (rather than a flesh colored one). Carolina, the talented blogger and polish maker, known as Colores de Carol, created a perfect polish for my vision called White Opal. This polish looked amazing in any light source (you'll see the differences in my photos - above is in outdoor direct sun.) Carolina is someone I've followed for several years, I love her colorful nail art and was thrilled to finally order some of her great quality polishes (more to come!). I included a link to her store in the Polish Details below so you can take a gander. *Enabling* Finally, I added a little bit of a bronzey/gold accent at the tops of my nails just to give them a little flair and tie in with the sparkle and flash of the dancers' costumes.
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| Shade photo, please ignore my skin color |
For the marigold nails, I went with a more abstract "idea" of the flowers - again trying to evoke the dancers' dress patterns. Also, I've always been intrigued with the tradition of stringing marigold flower blooms as decorations for weddings and ceremonies and I thought this stamp image communicated both ideas. The intense orange base polish I used is no longer available (sorry) - but, I couldn't help using it as it was the perfect match to the bright yellow stamping polish.
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| Just look at that thumb - such a beautiful polish glow! |
I didn't do too badly with my stamp placement, although I could've had better image transfer. Stamping, like many crafts, is really best done frequently to reinforce the right muscle memory...there is no problem with the stamp plate (in fact I got great results on my dominant hand ironically). I was just out of practice.
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| All photos were taken in December (before the snow really started accumulating) and I was able to do a quick pose with a maple leaf. It may be odd to view this now in February, but it does nicely for the October monthly theme, don't you think? |
Well, readers - what are your opinions about this design? Do you like it's unconventionality? I very much enjoyed wearing it...it had a fashionable feel to it. Any October babies honored by these nails?
Design Details
- Picture Polish ~ Sky
- Colores de Carol ~ White Opal
- Color Club/Art Club ~ Bronze (Liner)
- Polish Me To Go ~ Queen of Hearts
- Mundo de Unas ~ Stamping Polish #11 Yellow
- Bundle Monster ~ Stamping Plate BM-312
Inspiration Sources
Photo Credits:
Marigold Movie PosterMarigold Flowers
Opal Ring
Opal Poster
2014 Festival of India & Dance Competition | Fremont
Munni Begam - Qawwali Artist
Oh, how about one more photo....
A late, but sincere, Happy Birthday to all October born folks out there!!
Thanks so much for sticking with me!! And, a hearty welcome to all new followers, too!
Till Next Time,
Kimett