Color, Pattern & Toys

As much as its possible to love an inanimate object, that's how much I love Zoya's Yara, a creamy olive green with a shimmer of gold microglitter.  It goes on like a dream, with near-opacity on the first thin coat.  Two coats?  Perfection.

Oh. My. God.  That green is magnificent.  Catch those glintings of gold?  Stunning stuff.

I'm in awe for a day.  Then the manicure grows old.

Before long, I'm lookin' to tweak yesterday's still-fresh mani.  Happens all the time.

Take last Friday, for instance. I got the itch to check out nail stamping, and began ordering supplies.

By Monday, a Konad stamper and scraper arrived with the afternoon mail.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, my patient wait for one portly postman to slowly wind his way up the lane, was rewarded with a 5x7 yellow padded envelope, weighing little more than a deck of cards, and postmarked "Honolulu, Hawaii."

Exotic.

Within were the twenty-five aluminum discs ordered I ordered from Bundle Monster, each covered in a protective blue film.

I was in freaking heaven.

I wasted no time in trying some of the patterns out....

I noticed that the stamped image peels off easily, and needs to be carefully pressed down, to make certain it adheres properly to the enamel.  FYI, I used China Glaze's Fast Track, from their Hunger Games Collection for the stamp effect.

Were this a "real" manicure (as opposed to a messing around/playing with ideas session), I'd layer a coat of Seche Vite or some other good top coat over the stamped images.

Who knew...

...that twenty minutes playing arts and crafts with hands, fingers, colors and patterns, all with a mind toward eventually removing all traces of color, in preparation for a new week's manicure...

Who knew that it would be this relaxing, and so much fun?

Not I.

(Polishes used:  Zoya's Yara and Cynthia (dark blue/green teal), China Glaze's Fast Track from the Hunger Games Collection, Revlon Dreamer (light blue), and Pure Ice's In the Mood)