Base colour: China Glaze - Breakin' (orange); China Glaze - Shower Together (aqua crème)
Stamp: Konad SP - Black Pearl; China Glaze - Shower Together
Plate - m45 (French); m51 (flowers)
Topcoat: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails w/ Nylon in Nude (no. 95)
As you may know, I am a huge fan of MAC, and last Thursday was the official launch of their Makeup Art Cosmetics collection. Having never had within my possession Firespot (one of the most beautiful orange eye shadows that MAC has ever created), I was extremely excited for the debut of Off The Page, a lovely frosty orange eye shadow with a hint of gold shimmer. The gold undertones are complex enough that in the right light, I'd dare to call it a duochrome, a gorgeous transition colour to move beyond the fun of summer and into the heart of fall...
Anyway... in its honor, I decided to debut another orange that day: Behold Breakin', part of China Glaze's 2009 (summer) Kicks palette. It's also a gorgeous orange with a hint of gold shimmer. Lovely enough with two coats (but I should probably have applied three for truly opaque coverage.) On its own, this colour was stunning; bright and cheerful without being over the top, the way Solar Power (a ChG yellow) can wear on me. Looking back, I probably should have left well enough alone...
But of course, I did not.
I don't quite remember how this accident got started as it was Sunday or Monday when this experiment began. I think I tried Konading something in white, having thought that black and orange was far too Hallowe'en for the end of August. The white inevitably became a hot mess, and none of my usual stamping colours seemed to fit with orange. Gold could have worked but it would have been incredibly subtle and I thought this orange deserved better than that.
So, somehow, we ended up here. An orange shimmer and crème teal french. As if that wasn't bad enough I thought throwing on some fishnets would make things better. Not so! And the flowers? I would have stamped them in DV8, but wouldn't you know it refused to cooperate.
Oh well. I think I've got one more truly outrageous looking manicure to do before classes start up... I'll try to make the most of it. But not before I give MAC's Dry Martini a run for its money.
-mKat
Coming up: Dry Martini: hopefully not the same shade as the mess Canada geese leave behind.
