Tales From the Borderlands Nails, Part Two: Fiona

When I posted my first Tales from the Borderlands manicure a couple of months ago, I heard from a few folks that I should also do some nails for the game's other main character, Fiona. Well, I love Fiona a ton, and the only reason I shied away from doing a design for her the first time around was because I knew how much harder it would be, so... I really have no good reason for not doing it the first time around, is what I'm saying here.

It took me a little while to pull together my ideas—and supplies—to execute this look how I'd envisioned, but it turns out my timing is actually pretty good: the fifth and final episode of Tales from the Borderlands was released just a couple of weeks ago, making now a great time to get excited about the game and go check it out. I talked up TftB a bunch in my last post, so I won't repeat myself, but guys, seriously. Go play it. You won't regret it.

Anyway! On to the nails!

When I said doing Fiona nails would be harder, I didn't mean technique-wise: everything here is fairly straightforward. Lots of striping tape, stamping, a tiny bit of freehand work—all foundational in a lot of nail art these days. My main concern was putting together a look that was at least remotely cohesive, given all the different elements I knew I wanted to incorporate. I... am not sure I was completely successful, to be honest? This definitely screams Fiona to me, and I think those familiar with the game will also see it, but as a standalone look, I don't know. People may find it pretty weird. But hey, it's art, right? So those people just gotta deal. :)

Fiona looks fabulously put together, in my opinion, but the individual components of her outfit don't all necessarily match each other in a traditional sense. Thus, my strategy here was to match colors and elements across nails, as much as possible, to tie things together. The gold, for example, appears in little bits almost everywhere in her outfit, so that color features on multiple nails; in addition, I moved the gold buttons from her "vest" nail to the teal nail to bring that one into the fold a bit better. I really struggled with whether to do gold striping on the maroon vest nail as well, but in the end, I'm weak and I loved that hexagon pattern too much to break it up. I also felt like things were hovering at the edge of maybe being too busy? So that was another reason I held off. But looking at these pictures now, I can easily imagine a version with more gold that would also probably work well.

As with my Rhys nails, the thumb design is a bit of an outlier, but I'm okay with that. I like how the pants design translated to the nail (and thumbs are weird anyway).

Here's a closer look at the three middle nails—probably the most cohesive of the bunch. I really love how these turned out and could see pairing these with plain brown thumb and pinky nails for a slightly toned down but still Fiona-eque look.

If you haven't spotted it yet, the teal pinky nail is a nod to Fiona's own teal nail polish that she wears throughout the game. I really love that choice by the designers to give her a bold, contrasting nail color that doesn't necessarily match her own outfit, but does complement other color palettes in the TftB world (like maybe Rhys's colors, ahem?).

The list of polishes and tools for this one is a doozy. I won't get into what I used where unless anyone has a specific request, but here's the list, just for posterity's sake:

Pahlish - Shallow Lands || piCture pOlish - Cyan || piCture pOlish - Vampire

Sephora by OPI - Studs & Stilettos || Kardashian Cabana Collection - Sunrise || Julep - Nan

LVX - Cashmere || Julep - Nadia || Zoya - Spencer || butter London - West End Wonderland

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Peachypolish.com || a England - Her Rose Adagio

MoYou London - Fashionista Plate 14 || Bundle Monster - XL Plate BM-XL04

I think that's everything! I would say that this will be my last manicure inspired by this game, but you never know where or when the need to express fannish feelings may strike. (Nerd life! It's so tough.) I do intend to dive into some holiday looks very soon, however—I'm only human and all the the cute sweater print patterns are calling to me—so if that's primarily what you're here for, hang tight.

But thank you again, Telltale, for an amazing ride with this game. I can honestly say that it's changed me as a gamer and a person, and I'll always be grateful.

Thanks for looking!