Carnival 2014 Nail Art

It has been far too long since I last did a post; exactly a month, in fact. My sincere apologies. For three weeks I was sick with bronchitis and then Carnival came around and I couldn't think of anything but sweet soca and colourful costumes. Still, even though I haven't been posting, I've been doing my nails weekly, so I've got a lot of manicures stored up for any rainy days ahead!

I'm still really hyped from Carnival, and in a state of what we call tabanca, which is when you miss something a lot, and you just kind of stay living in the memories of happy moments, even though you're sad in the present because you no longer have it. Does that even make sense? Anyway, here are the nails I wore with my beautiful costume.

It's a bit gaudy, I know. It's certainly not my usual style, but it went really well with my costume, so I made the exception. I played with Fantasy Carnival, and the costume I wore was called Pearls of Tangaloa. Here's a photo of it, taken from their website.

You can see the really pale pinks and creams, so I wanted my nails to match the soft, muted look while still capturing the glitz and glam that Carnival is known for.

I used OPI Pussy Galore, a textured, shimmery polish for the base on three fingers. On my other two, I used my go-to nude, Zoya Farah. Once Farah was dry, I used a dotting tool to add circles of Pussy Galore and China Glaze I'm Not Lion. I tried to space out the polka dots. This was so that it wouldn't look too jumbled once I applied a slow-drying topcoat and attached three small Swarovski crystal nail gems to each of my accent nails.

When the sunlight caught the rhinestones and glitter polish, it was beautiful! And the light shimmer of Pussy Galore really helped to tie the look into my costume.

I had been hoping to get little half-pearl studs, since the costume has pearls on it, but work got really hectic in the weeks before Carnival, so I just ended up using whatever I had at home. Nail gems aren't usually my thing, especially in large quantities, but I was really pleased with how this came together, as well as how well the gems stayed on, considering I only used topcoat as an adhesive.

Thanks for sticking around and being so patient with my delayed posts. I really appreciate your readership :)


Have a wonderful week!

Mara