Fishtail Nail Art

Have you ever gone to a spirit/food pairing? It's, uh, pretty great. Andy and I went to one last night at The Winking Lizard, oddly enough. There was kind of this little side room with about 40 people in it at tables at the back of the restaurant. We go there late (of course) and were enthusiastically greeted by Laphroaig Master Ambassador Simon Brooking in all his Scottish-accented glory (swoon for days. Scottish accents are absolutely my favorite accents in all the world) and two delicious Laphroaig 10 Year cocktails as we awkwardly made our way to our seats. It was a four course dinner (Scotch Egg Salad, Maple Glazed Duck Flatbread, Prime Rib with Sweet Potato Frites and Bleu Cheese and Bacon Brussels Sprouts, Hand-made Spicy Chocolate S'more) which were paired with four Laphroaig scotches (10 Year, Triple Wood, 10 year Cask Strength, 18 Year) and it was delicious. I've never been much for scotch (and Laphroaig, by nature, is incredibly smoky and peaty and a little intense to a scotch novice like me) but the event was informative, entertaining and fun. I was definitely a giggly doofus by the end.

Little Bottles of Scotch.

So I saw this fishtail nail art at Vampy Varnish and decided it would be the perfect thing to jazz up my fingies. I hadn't tried the fishtail yet so I was apprehensive at the whole free-handedness of it but it was actually pretty painless, and the result was exactly what I was looking for.

Colors used were:
Literary Lacquer - Some Glad Morning (turquoise)
Colors by Llarowe - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (blue)
Essie - As Good As Gold (gold)

Taken in direct sunlight with my very fancy vintage Hermes Deux Éperons bracelet that I'm waaay too lower-middle class to properly own.

What do you think? I miss my length but I'm happy to be able to somewhat pull of nail art, if only simple designs, still.

Colors by Llarowe - Oops! Bag (round two) + Teal Oops Comparison

Hi everybody! Hi new friends! I just want to take a couple seconds here to thank you guys for reading and following. Without sounding like too much of a giant poop, I don't often feel very accomplished. I'm a stay at home mom (who majored, but didn't earn a degree, in printmaking) and it's difficult for me sometimes to find, like, merit in my life. I know "being a mom is the hardest job in the world" blah blah blah. It has its ups and downs, but the thing I struggle with the most in being a SAHM is that there isn't any sort of universal scale I can use to see if I'm doing a good job, you know? The kids are alive and fed and clothed most of the time, so I'm at least getting passing review. Oh, and loved. Can't forget about that love thing.

Aaaaanyway, that all is to say that it's really awesome to be able to look at my blog stats and see an increase in readership, more comments, things like that. You guys rooting me on. I know it's just one silly nail blog in a sea of thousands of (mostly better) nail blogs, but the support is thrilling. I mean it.

[insert cute 'thank you' GIF here]

Colors by Llarowe had another restock on Oops! Bags so obviously I had to get one. Super pumped to have only received one duplicate (Oopscat, actually, which I'm pretty all right with!) out of the three polishes that are included in the Oops! Bag.

The two new ones I received are:

1. Pink Sprinkles Oops!
This guy was the result of bleeding glitter but actually turned out to be a favorite amongst customers. The base shade of pink is so freaking pretty (and flattering on my skin tone) and the addition of the magenta glitters brings a nice little addition to an already great polish. I've only seen one swatch of OG Pink Sprinkles and I like the Oops! waaaay better.

2. Teal Oops!
I saw a bottle shot of this color after the last Oops! Bag restock and wanted it desperately as I am a TTW (total teal whore, which I just made up, which I am totally going to implement henceforth).

... remind you of anything? Liiiike, maybe a certain Literary Lacquer called Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster? I compared the two, if you wanted to see:

Yeah, they're pretty much identical. The only real difference I noticed was that Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster has the edition of holo micro glitter. Whaddya think about THAT?

I mean, I looooooove P.G.G.B. so whatever whatevs. It was just kind of like 'oh, hey...'. The formula's great on both of them so no complaints.