So so grateful for folks that come over to help me burn through all the untested polishes!  That probably sounds obnoxious but I really derailed my own polish train with this recent surge in acrylic paint confidence so I’m not testing new stuff with the frequency I’d been used to for months.  Favorite non-problem problem in the world.  :)

But first, a question about production: say you had a challenge to whip out like 10 manicure designs for a single event… and because you know the designs are all going to be fairly involved/need solid drying time between sessions etc. there really isn’t a way (unless you lock a bunch of people in a house for a weekend and buy massive coffee stock) to do all of the nails at once.  HOW do you get those designs done, and still not look sloppy/awful (crucial!!!)?

I’m trying to come up with something that would let me really do 90% of the design and painting in advance so that all I’d really need to do is a get like a base color down and find a way to transfer the designs, but I’m sort of stumped.  I know a lot of people do their designs on falsie nails: not an option on this one.  Too bulky (between the thickness of the false nail and the subsequent coats it’d be unattractively thick) and too many ways for the fit to go wrong, especially if I don’t know the size/shape of the ladies’ nails beforehand… these really would have to look good, like top-shelf max-zoom holy-balls-awesome good.  I was thinking about the dry marble technique where you paint everything first on a plastic baggie and then peel/transfer that onto your nail, but the huge problem I have there is the stretching/warping that can happen when you peel the polish off of the plastic (again, these would have to be pixel-perfect to use nerd speak)… I feel like that technique is sort of on the right track (since you get all the time in the world to paint and it can transfer to the nail without looking like you’ve stacked a quarter inch of crap on top of your nail), but not sure how to tweak that setup for mini-mass-production.  ALL ideas are welcome and wonderful!!!!

And now, on to the colors!

OPI Chop-sticking To My Story

OPI In My Back Pocket (ONE coat, how ya doin’ gorgeous?!)

Essie Risky Business on a base of Sephora Caliente Coral (the Essie isn’t a cream and needed a solid base for a good color cover)

Essie Nutmeg (with Zoya Glimmer on the tips)