The Lacquer Legion: Glam

I think "glam" is one of those concepts that means drastically different things to different people. For me, I feel like it generally means something along the lines of "fancy, yet classy," so that's the concept I decided to go with for this month's prompt from The Lacquer Legion.

When I really got going on my brainstorming for this one, I imagined how I'd like my nails to look if I were going to a glamorous cocktail party. I would want something eye-catching, but not too over the top; formal, but still fun; and most importantly, something black. What can I say—black is just my go-to color whenever I want to look nice (and I have to dress up for work, so you can imagine what my closet looks like!).

To get this look, I applied my base coats (Duri Rejuvacote and CND Stickey) and let those dry, then used hole reinforcers and a england Camelot to create the half-moons. After some top coat and more drying time, I used hole reinforcers again (fresh ones) to mark off the same line as before and then stamp the floral design over the black using Zoya Trixie and plate 72 from the Pueen Stamping Buffet collection. Then, to give the whole thing a more finished look, I used a small nail art brush and applied Trixie along the half-moon line.

I wish I'd done a slightly better job with the stamping placement on a couple of these nails—I think my ring finger, in particular, looks a little odd. But in the spirit of my 2014 goal to be more laid back about my stamping efforts, I decided to just roll with it and shoot for improving next time.

Stamping quibbles aside, I really am pleased with how this look turned out and I feel like it accurately represents what I think of as "glam." Also, I have to mention that I was so excited to finally be able to do half-moon nails again: I fell victim to some wicked staining from teal polish a while back (pretty sure it was this manicure), so I've been avoiding bare nails of any sort while that faded/grew out. It's not completely gone, but I'm definitely seeing progress!

Thanks to the ladies of The Lacquer Legion for another great prompt, and thanks for looking!