31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 24, Inspired by a Book

purchased by me

When I saw the prompt for Day 24, I mentally ran around screaming, "Inspired by a book?  One book?  How can I pick one book?  Then I sucked it up and decided to go with the book I'm currently re-reading, All the Stars in the Sky by Sarah Lyons Fleming.  There is a scene in the book where the main character watches the Northern Lights, something I've always wanted to see.  I used Zoya Dream, Essie White Page, OPI Primarily Yellow and OPI Landscape Artist.

Espionage Cosmetics Nailed It! Kickstarter

press release

Please feel free to join me in contributing!

Geeky nail wraps?  Yes please, especially since they include tentacles and the backdrop for Mira Grant's Newsflesh series!

Literary Lacquer: Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster

purchased by me

A long time ago, my father discovered a BBC radio series called "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and he bought four long-playing records which included every episode of the series.  He shared them with his kids, and then when PBS showed a BBC-TV adaptation of the series, Dad, my brothers and I all watched every episode (Mom doesn't quite have the same sense of humor as the rest of us, probably because Dad had no influence over her in her formative years).  The special effects were truly 1970s cheesy-awful, but the wit and the humor were there, the actors were great, and all of us were sad when it was over.  Then Dad brought home the first book in the series!  And we were off and running, although I think I was the only one who read all of the books, even the later and not so great ones.

All of the above means that I have a very high standard of what is right and fitting in regard to one of the icons of my young adulthood.  Fortunately,  meets my standards.  It's a dark turquoise linear holographic polish with some extra sparkly bits, smooth and flowing, opaque in two coats, non-staining and absolutely lovely.  Behold, I give you the polish which gives you the visual equivalent of "having your brains smashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped round with a large gold brick".

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

In the sun:

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster and other gorgeous polishes can be found at the Literary Lacquer Etsy store for $10 each + shipping.

Nayll Custom Polish: Rose Marshall

purchased by me

My final custom polish from Nayll is the only one NOT inspired by my dog.  Rose Marshall is the hero of Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire, a book I love by an author I love.

Here's the book description:

Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.
It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running.
They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner. The Phantom Prom Date. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Mostly she just goes by “Rose,” a hitchhiking ghost girl with her thumb out and her eyes fixed on the horizon, trying to outrace a man who never sleeps, never stops, and never gives up on the idea of claiming what’s his. She’s the angel of the overpass, she’s the darling of the truck stops, and she’s going to figure out a way to win her freedom. After all, it’s not like it can kill her.
You can’t kill what’s already dead.

On the night she died, Rose was dressed for prom in an emerald-green gown, with blond streaks in her hair from a summer of lemon juice and sun.  I chose Nayll's Tulip Green Jelly, and added gold holo hexes, matte green dots, shiny emerald dots and matte green flakies.  It looks as if it's bumpy, but with one coat of Seche Vite, the polish was smooth to the touch.  I used two coats of Rose Marshall, and I really love how it turned out!

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

In the sun:

The cost of polishes varies depending on what you add to them.  Mine averaged $9.40 each and shipping was $3.50.  I can't say enough good things about Nayll, especially their super-helpful FAQ and How-To sections.  Sara, the owner of Nayll has very generously offered my readers 20% off and with code BAUBLES and it's good until June 30th at midnight.

Night Circus nail art

A while back, I read and reviewed an amazing book called The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.  Recently, I joined a Goodreads group for lovers of Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs perfumes, and we're reading The Night Circus as a group.  So I decided to brush up my sadly neglected stamping skills and do some Night Circus nail are in black and white stripes.  I used China Glaze White on White and Rimmel Black Satin for my bases and stamped with Fauxnad plate M65 and added some little red nail decals I had hanging around.  I apologize in advance to Ms. Morgenstern.

BPAL & a book review!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Even before reading it, I knew I was going to like this book because it was inspired by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and the amazing scents Beth Barrial creates.

Within three pages, I was sucked into the world of the book, and it's a place I wanted to stay. The novel is full of well-drawn characters, intriguing alternate history, sights and sounds and tastes and textures, a captivating plot and a really marvelous circus I want to visit!

Ms. Barrial does an incredible job of translating words into scents and Ms. Morgenstern performs the same magic in reverse. While I would like more in this particular universe from Ms. Morganstern, I'll be happy with being able to read anything else from her in the (hopefully very near) future!

View all my reviews.

CRS Syndrome

I was yakking with Mallie, looking at macros on I Has a Hotdog and playing "Duelling Banjos" on Bigfoot's side, which I do whenever he comes and leans on me. I thought of something I should write about here, opened up the "Create New Post" window, and promptly forgot whatever it was. Yup, I'm getting old.

So instead of whatever it was I was going to write about, I'm reduced to sharing snippets.

I thought of Scott when I got a Spam e-mail titled "The quicker pecker-upper" (a play on a paper towel tagline).

I'm currently reading "The Perfect Scent" by Chandler Burr and enjoying the heck out of it. I just finished "21 Dog Years", and I'm wondering when the subtitle changed from "Doing Time @ Amazon.com" to "A Cube-Dweller's Tale."

Lush's Olive Branch is the perfect smoky orange scent and I wish they made everything in this--I would buy it and walk around smelling like this all day.

Today I had my annual OB/Gyn checkup, and Hot Doctor was cute and funny and charming as always. One funny moment--as I was checking in and going over insurance stuff, the UPS guy arrived, and when asked for the name on the package, looked at it very quickly and said "Dr. Bits." *snerk*

My MS Walk sponsorships are up to six, even if none of you blog readers has offered. :P

Oh, and I am loving the new Lowe's commercial with the bear.

And I still can't remember what I was going to post when I opened up the window.