Inspired by a Box

Despite how much I do not like French manicures, they really do help with clipping nails evenly.  Just keep that in mind.

So in Chinese/Taiwanese culture, we have these interesting little snacks called "pineapple cakes".  The outside is like a soft shortbread cookie, and the inside is like compacted pineapple jam.  The cakes themselves are about the size of a normal thing of correcting tape.  It's a very odd snack.  I don't go crazy over them.  If I was at a party and all they had were pineapple cakes, I wouldn't really eat them unless if I was actually hungry.

But anyways, I was at a Bible study recently and someone brought some, which was cool, but oh my gosh the box it came with was so beautiful!  Here is a picture of the box (taken by my boyfriend on his phone):

And here is a picture of my nail art inspired by this very box!

Yeah :D more on the manicure after the jump!



Obviously I didn't capture all of the beautiful glory that is the box holding the pineapple cakes.  But the box of pineapple cakes was so beautiful.  I don't think it's possible to capture its glory in its entirety.

For this manicure:

I started with a coat of Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat by Sally Hansen.  When that was dry, I applied three coats of Nadia by Julep to my thumb and ring finger, and two coats of Nellie by Julep to my other fingers.  Then I stamped the floral pattern from the SH 203 plate by Shany onto my pointer and middle fingers, and on the pinky finger I stamped the flower from the SH 212 plate by Shany.  I added a touch of green to the florals using Happy Ending by Sinful Colors, and added silver dots with a dotting tool dipped in Tribeca Silver by NYC.  When everything was dry, I finished with a coat of Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat by Sally Hansen.

I've never used these magenta and gold polishes before.  I'm not sure when I got them.  The magenta polish is also a bit purple in real life, which of course, cameras have a hard time capturing.  I thought I would try adjusting the lighting settings on my camera and this is the closest I got:

That does look more purple, right?  Overall, I'm very pleased with this manicure because it was almost perfect, and I didn't have to do any clean up around my nails!  No dehydrating acetone for this mani :)

Oh, and recently I got my shipment of 10 nail art wheels, and it has been so exhilarating every time I try out a new design!  I'll post a picture of my first finished nail art wheel once I finish it :) and on another side note, I'm also waiting on a shipment from BornPrettyStore, and so we'll see when it gets here.  It will be so exciting! :D