So I've been doing a lot of themed nail art lately, and I decided that I felt like going back to my roots, which is, to good old fashioned shiny nail art! I got some rhinestones and striping tape in the mail not too long ago and it would just be a shame to let those shiny little things just sit in their wrappings, would it not?
This started out as a desire to swatch my brand new matte Julep polishes. But then when I got that lovely eggplantish dark concrete polish on my nails, I couldn't resist. I just had to make it look smashing! So I added a few shinies! I love shinies.
It's been a long time since my nails have been so classy (as opposed to "crafty" I guess)! I'm really happy with them, they sparkle so much but at the same time they're kinda sobre because of the dark, matte base. The tips look kind of like icy, wintery frosting.
AND that glitter polish came from the dollar store Wal-Mart! I didn't even know they sold polishes, my mom brought that one back for me. I love it! It's got tiny silver holo glitter and large hex blue and pink glitter. You can't see the pink ones so well but one day I'll try it on a different base and then you'll see! I fell in love with it right away. Looks like birthday balloons on my nails!
This week's 52 week challenge theme was "Black & White"! That's so close to "Black or White", the famous song! ...And well, honestly, I can't pass up an opportunity to pay hommage to my favourite musical artist of all time: Michael Jackson!
I don't think there's a single Michael Jackson song I don't like. And his moves... Ooooo his moves. And the glitter. Glitter everywhere... even on his socks. Which is what inspired today's manicure.
Check it out, Michael Jackson nail art, OW!
Here are the images I took my inspiration from. The first one is his famous dancing feet logo.
The second one is an iconic image of his moonwalk feet with glitter socks... sooooooo glamorous!
The last one shows the reason why I'm wearing a band-aid: MJ often wore tape over his digits. Some say it was purely a fashion statement. Others claim it was because his skin condition, Vitiligo, was making him lose pigmentation on his fingers. Some say this dancing genius did this so that his fast finger movements would be easier to follow with the eyes. And a friend of MJ, Barbara Kauffman, apparently said the following in an article about him:
"The arm band he wore every day on his sleeve was homage to children and he vowed to wear it until there were no more wars on the planet and no more hungry children. His taped fingers were to remind him and us that there were still injured and suffering children in the world.
We'll never know, but it sure looked funky to me!
I hate to take away from the King of Pop's spotlight, but back to my fingers now. ;)
I'm just mega-stoked. I love MJ. Real love. I know it's cheesy but his music will always dig up the happiest part of me.
Here, just take a few minutes to listen to this. It totally features some taped digits in action. How funky!!!
Got a few minutes, and wanna discover a bit more about MJ? He loved to make his music videos into short films. The most famous one is probably Thriller, but everyone has seen that one. Here is a less popular one, but still an awesome claymation creation, featuring Pee Wee Herman and MJ as a giant bunny. This is Speed Demon, probably one of my top 5 favourite MJ songs. It's really just an excerpt from the lengthy film Moonwalker, linked to below. This short film starts right where the music video to Bad ends.
If you get bored of watching MJ running away from voracious fans and frivolous plumed ladies, fast forward to exactly 5:00 min, and listen to this awesome track.
And one last thing. I had this film on VHS as a kid and I think I probably played it until the tape was completely worn out. It was play, rewind, play, rewind, play, rewind, play... you get the idea. This one has it all: the great live clip to Man in the Mirror (I swear it makes me cry), a retrospective of MJ from childhood to adulthood, MJ morphing into a car, the full version of the Smooth Criminal music video right in the middle of everything, then MJ morphing into some giant transformer-type drug dealer fighting robot, and a million other things. It's AWESOME. It is however almost a full-length feature film. Here is part 1, you can follow the youtube link under it and watch the whole thing.
[The full Moonwalker playlist.] The videos look like they're in reverse order though, so watch them from the last to the first.
I did this mani on my mom a few weeks ago to match an outfit of hers. It was so much fun! But little did I know I was going to regret it so much... Every single time I saw her after that, she'd ask me "Am I a superstar yet? Have you put my hands on your blog? I'm selling my business so you better make me famous already!" Hehe... she's persistent. So here I am, finally posting her nails.
It's crazy how much I take my hands from her!!! Seriously, compare her hands and mine! We have the same fingers, it's kinda scary.
I love how this mani looks with her beautiful ring. She chose her colours and her stamp herself. It was a pretty simple design, but I'm still struggling with stamping so it took longer than it should have. I fixed my half-printed stamps with a black striper.
So, please be kind - spare her ego and please beg for an autograph in the comments, won't you? :P
