Kitteh! (OMD challenge day 22: Animal-themed)

Dear readers,

Everyone knows cats are the recipe for Internet success, even more so if accompanied by humorous phrases in CAPSLOCK. Mine lack the latter but here are a few nail kitties for your consideration and for OMD day 22. 

Wow, day 22 already! I've missed five days so far, which means I've posted 17 manis (plus two extra for the tri-polish challenge), which is a crazy pace for me. It's been a bit stressful at times and I sometimes had to settle for a simpler mani than I would have wanted to because of time constraints, but I've enjoyed it nonetheless and it's made me push myself with, I think, good results.

I didn't mean to miss yesterday's stamping theme, but I failed utterly at it. I've never stamped before but I had bought an essence stamping set earlier this year. But either I'm just hopeless at it or the plate is too shallow - when I scrape the excess polish off, nothing remains in the grooves either. I tried it with different kinds of polishes and scrapers but I just couldn't get anything to transfer to the stamp unless I had so much polish around it that the picture didn't show. I'm inclined to assume an operator error, does anyone have any ideas how to get this to work? I watched lots of tutorials but gave up in the end and painted kitties for today instead.

I'm enjoying my personal challenge of using new and/or indie polishes, at least that way I feel a bit better about the tons of indies I've been buying this summer. I've gone down the rabbit hole and there's no way back up. I keep trying new brands but can I help it if brands I already know come up with ever new collections that hit all my buttons? Anyway, today's is a new to me but quite likely not to you brand: Pahlish. I've heard and seen swatches of the polishes before (and etsy kept suggesting them as "people who purchased... also bought"), and recently I gave in and ordered some.

Today's polish is appropriately named Dirty Paws (I do so like matching my art to the name) and is, I believe, a limited edition that was free with every order for a certain time. I'm on a bit of a grey kick lately, so this really hit the spot. It's a soft, medium-dark grey with tiny glass flecks that shimmer orangey-pink and blue. I used three thin easy-to-spread and quick-drying coats, though you could probably get away with two thicker ones. I adore the subtle sparkle on the nails! The orangey-pink (bronze?) ones dominate and make it look very rich while remaining sophisticated.

 

For the cats I used LynBDesigns' Quoth the Raven (Bro You Cray Cray) (snort) - told you I needed a good black, right? This is deliciously thick and dark like the blood of some monster from Poe's imagination, black like the deepest night and a witch's cat. It's perfect for nail art - not too thick, not too liquid, and probably a one-coater on its own (a theory I shall put to the test soon). My manicure is inspired by this and this. I topped it with essence top coat - this polish preferred being shiny to matte.

Do you like cats? Do I win the Internet? Yeah, didn't think so - I need some CAPSLOCK FUNNEHS for that and I suspect "I'm on ur nailz, makin u smiel" won't cut it...

I can't wait to see what the others have done for animal theme day!

22. Animal Themed :

The nail newbie, definitely a cat person

Note: Any links to external blogs or stores are pure link love - no advertising or affiliate linking going on here. Dirty Paws was a free gift with purchase without expectation of review or anything else, Quoth the Raven I purchased myself.