I’m not usually a big fan of nude colors, but this one took me by surprise.  I’m still working through a batch of untested polishes sitting on my piano and picked out OPI Don’t Pretzel My Buttons this morning (just wasn’t feeling like a red or blue today, and that seems like all that’s left).  I dig it.  And maybe it’s because it matches my pale winter skin so nicely, but the color and the formula were workin’ for me today.  Of course, I have no idea how to play around with nude colors — they sort of seem to beg for something dainty and precious vs. all the color-blasted stuff I usually do — so I pulled inspiration from one of my recent projects.  I’ve been making some glue-on Mardi Gras masks in my “free time” (read: when a normal person would sleep) that are just a mess of filigree patterning (if you’re not local/able to go visit the Fleurty Girl shops, you can check out and buy them online here) so it was an easy go-to pattern now that my hand has the motion memorized.  I used a black Migi pen to go in and doodle the curls on a couple of the nails; it’s not as precise of an effect as I’d normally get using acrylic paints since the Migi polishes like to bleed, making for imprecise line weight and blown out edges if you really zoom into it, but I still think it works.

And yep, we’re full-tilt into Mardi Gras, don’t let the Super Bowl fool ya.  I swear I get more parenthetical the less sleep I get, but it’s all totally worth it.  Count on posts dropping precipitously over the next two weeks… I’ll be coming back atcha full force mid-February with a lot of happy under my belt.  :)