Scarf Inspired Manicure

Hello, everyone!

This past week I was doing ✨SCIENCE✨ on a research vessel. It's exhausting work, but I still managed to find time to do a pretty kickass manicure, if I do say so myself. 

I recently got $20 in rewards (i.e. Free money) from Pier 1, and we got a new scarf in that I fell in love with, so I used my rewards to pick it up. I realized it made great inspiration for a manicure. 

I then built a whole look around this scarf, matching my makeup and nails to it. 

The scarf, $16.95, Pier 1 Imports

Bold lower liner using Urban Decay Electric palette in shades "Chaos", "Fringel, and "Freak"

Scarf inspired colors: Zoya "Ryan", Sally Hansen "Pacific Blue", and Zoya "Bevin"

Entire mani polishes, including Zoya "Cosmo" and OPI "My Vampire is Buff"

I was thrilled to find a bottle of the discontinued "Pacific Blue", it was the perfect color to match the scarf and an essential color in any serious collector's stash, I'm told! 

I had intended for this to be a chevron gradient, but the only chevron vinyls I had left were the fat ones, so it just looks like individual colors with nude in between. I took that opportunity to place an order for more skinny chevron Nail Vinyls ;)

Regardless of the lack of gradient, I really loved the way this turned out and will definitely be doing variations of this mani in the future. 

New Job and Spring Inspiration

As some of you may know, I recently got employed at Pier 1 Imports. I'm really excited about it! It is my first job in sales, but so far I am really loving it. The company seems awesome, and they really support their employees. Anybody who isn't Assosciate or Assistant Manager works part time hours, however, I can still apply for benefits and after 6 months I can pay into a 401(k), which the company matches! 

So far the hardest part has been trying not to spend all my earned money on items in the store. I already found an awesome shag rug that would match our love seat way better than the black one we currently have, and I've already set aside my first Christmas gift for someone. 

The other benefit of working at Pier 1 is that there are colors and patterns galore to be inspired by for nail art use. Our current ad is focusing on rolling out spring colors, and when you walk in, the main focus is grey and yellow 

Our scent of the month is Honeysuckle, at 20% off! (Never stop hustling)

Individually, I'm not a big fan of yellow, and grey is just okay. But together, they are gorgeous. I decided to do a Saran Wrap manicure using this color palette. 

What's a Saran Wrap manicure, you ask?  Simply put, you paint a base color on your nail. I started with the grey...

China Glaze in Pellican Grey

After your base coat dries COMPLETELY, paint another color on top of it. 

Sinful Colors in Unicorn

Then, while the second color is sill wet, take a piece of Saran Wrap, crumple it up a bit, and gently roll it across your nail. The Saran Wrap will pick up some of the top color, allowing the base color to peek through and creating a cool marble effect. 

Like so

You'll want to work one nail at a time so the second color doesn't dry before you saran it. 

I added a coat of China Glaze's "Fairy Dust" for some sparkle and topped it off with Zoya's top coat and quick dry drops. The top coat gently blends the colors together so there aren't any harsh lines like in the above photo. 

Ta-da!

Dry cuticles are still a problem. 

I'm pretty happy with the result. If I did it again, I'd use the yellow as the bottom color so that the grey wouldn't give it a greenish tinge. But I'll definitely be doing this design again with other colors. 

The rest of the March is pretty hectic; I was planning on doing St. Patrick's Day nails, a Color of the Month Manicure, and Birthday nails, but I may only get to 2 out of 3. We will see!