Nail Art Challenge #3 - Fashion Week

I'm not gonna lie, I really wish I had been able to put this challenge off until a bit later in this week as I really have not been terribly keen on the collections I've seen so far.  Luckily something about this particular look by Custo Dalmau caught my attention just in time.

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/F2014RTW-CUSTOBARC/#7

Overall it's a bit much but the base lines are pretty cool. I have done a vertical fuchsia and nude look before and really enjoyed it so I thought it'd be cool to revisit and tweak.

Also I want those purple aviators something fierce.

Like seriously. Reflective purple aviators. Now.

I translated that look into a curvy vertical neon and nude (almost a putty, really) with black triangular accents.

I resisted the urge to tape it off in favor of free-handing and in retrospect I'm regretting that. I had texture issues with all the coloured polishes and that made it very difficult to clean up my lines. In the bottle and in the pic the fuchsia is perfect, but in real life it is noticeably more purple. Still a great colour for me, but not exactly what I was aiming for. The coverage on the Ulta nude is outstanding and it leveled beautifully, but the thickness made it difficult to manipulate the line.

I was originally planning to go much larger on those triangles and add a bit of purple at the base if possible, but no battle plan survives contact with the enemy (Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder 1800-1891). I keep planning out designs and then realizing that even when my nails are on the longer side I have very little space to execute them.

Okay, I just checked and the nails on the swatching wheels I have are nearly the size of my thumbnail! No wonder I am having problems with my design scaling.

What? I'm a child of the 80s.

I do really like the use of transparency in fashion lately and was originally thinking of doing something in a sheer and black windowpane like this gown from Christian Siriano (one of the few pieces so far that's really stuck with me this season) but just couldn't figure out how to do it justice without the giant pile striping tape that is currently on order and certainlytakingitssweettimetogethere.

*ahem*

I also really liked the tone on tone marbled look on some of Siriano's other dresses and it gives me some ideas for experiments in water marbling.

In all I'm not terribly thrilled with this particular look, but I learned a few things and have some ideas for the future so I'm calling it a positive learning experience.