I Love This Place

That title is corny as hell, I know...but I really do.  Earth Science and Natural History are minor obsessions of mine, going back as far as my love of polish.  Sure I loved Care Bears, My Little Pony, He-Man, and all the rest as a kid, but one of my absolute favorite things to watch was a National Geographic special called Born Of Fire.  Even as a preschooler, I was enthralled by the dynamic truth about the ground that seems so solid.  It still fascinates me.  I'm a nerd of the nerdiest kind, I know.  I'm celebrating Earth Day today by watching a somewhat more recent favorite, BBC's Earth Story and by doing this mani...

I'll admit it...I'm thrilled with how this turned out, especially since I haven't done even a little freehand nail art in ages.  The process was a bit complex, but it all came together in the end.  I started yesterday, with reverse stamping to create a decal.  I used Bundle Monster's BM-408 plate for the Earth image, stamped in Sally Hansen In Prompt Blue.  Then I filled in the land parts with I-rush Luck, coated it with clear polish, and left it to dry.  This morning I painted my nails with FingerPaints Black Expressionism as a base, then sponged Sinful Colors Beatnick and OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle randomly around where the Earth would be and on the two nails next to it.  It came out bolder than I wanted, so I toned it down with a thin coat of Nfu Oh JS-01.  It's hard to see now, but I'm ok with that.  I wanted a suggestion of a background haze, not a cloudy nebula.  After applying the decal, I dressed it up with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, Zoya Flynn, Sinful Colors Nude, and more A-Taupe The Space Needle.  I also added a few tiny, flared stars with Whirlwind White.  The final touch was a sparse dabbing of NYX Silver Glitter for more distant stars.  It turned out better than I'd even hoped!  Taking photos of it was the really hard part.

It's too shiny for its own good!  I took around 100 photos trying to get the lighting just right.  Didn't happen.

I'm not complaining....much.  It's just one of those that looks better in person.  I had bubbling issues with the decal, like last time, but the hand painted embellishments hid it completely.  I wanna do more of this!  Have one more photo, because I'm really delighted with it.

Speaking of Earth Day, in case you missed it, Zoya's doing their polish exchange again!  I did some celebratory swatch spam yesterday.  As if that wasn't awesome enough, The Body Shop has an even better deal TODAY ONLY.  My beloved Hemp Hand Protector is 4/$20.  It's two days late because of easter, but Earth Day's still a good time for the sale.  It's an outstanding deal, since most of the Hemp line is usually $20 each.  This is like buy one, get three free.  Hooray!  I ordered myself another year's supply.  One tube lasts for months!