This took me all morning and I’m not happy. I don’t even know.

I originally decided to do cherry blossoms for Spring. I started with butter London’s Hen Party, a delicate sheer cherry blossom pink shimmer, but I hate having my nail tips visible because I get so much stuff under my nails and it drives me nuts to see it. So I tried again with a base of Essie’s Where’s My Chauffeur? – a bright-hued light blue. Too bright. Then China Glaze’s Keep Calm and Paint On, but then it looked like an Arizona iced tea can. So I finally went with OPI’s My Vampire is Buff, with branches in acrylic paint and petals in SquareHue’s Wartime Romance and High School Crush (from February’s Vintage Love collection).

Bleh.

So I took it all off and tried again. This time, I did a base of China Glaze’s Tarty for the Party, with flowers in SquareHue’s Yellow Submarine (reviewed here). The flowers have hearts in Wartime Romance and CG Passion for Petals, and stems of SquareHue’s Flower Power.

Better.

Some of my issues:
My Vampire is Buff is the best white-hued base color I’ve found, with its tinge of pink that keeps it from being stark on my hand. But this formula is terrible. It’s probably just the bottle I have, since other people don’t seem to have the same problem, but the streakiness that’s common in light colors just could not be fixed no matter how I applied it. It just got worse and patchy and a huge pile of polish on my nail that had visible strata at the edges. I’m so sad about it.

I had better luck with the second manicure, but my poor cuticles and fingers are a mess from being exposed to acetone rubs five different times today. I’m just noticing that on my right hand, I have already a chip and streaks from my topcoat. Clearly this was not my day for nail design. *sadface*

Becca’s is a gazillion times better than mine. Go check it out at Fishay Fishay.

Next up: Gradient, which will likely involve having to buy a new bottle of acetone.