Twinsie Tuesday: Ruffian

Twinsie Tuesday, so good to me.  In case you didn’t click on that link, you’re supposed to sing that line to the tune of Monday, Monday by The Mamas & The Papas.  I have no idea why that popped in to my head.  It’s a bit before my time.  Anyway, this week we are doing Ruffians.

Sometimes I just open up my drawers of polish and pick a color, then start building a manicure around that polish. My first pick was Color Club Fashion Addict and I decided to pair it up with Sinful Colors Amethyst. Both beautiful purples. Fashion Addict is a great holo to add to your collection if you can track it down.

Of course I can’t leave well enough alone and had to add a little viney florish in purple acrylic. I like that since it’s tone on tone, it blends in a bit and you just get a little peek of it here and there.

Be sure the check out all the other manis today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Brandi of The Beaulieu Review
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Cordia of Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth of Did My Nails
Jamie of Polish, Please!
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Tara of Polishy of Truth

Coconut Ruffian

Mmmm… coconut.  I love coconut anything.  Yummy!  I was in my bathroom today and my Coconut Lime Verbena lotion from Bath and Body Works caught my eye.  I instantly thought of doing a coconut ruffian.

As I sat down to do this mani, I though, “This is going to be quick and easy.”  NOT!  I knew it would take a couple coats to get my white opaque over a brown, but didn’t anticipate that my brown would be so splotchy and require three coats.  My brown is Essie Chocolate Cakes and is pretty much the exact color of a Devil’s Food cake.  Another yum.  In general I find Essie polishes to be a little thin for my liking.  I don’t like needing multiple coats and I don’t like having my cuticles flooded.  I encountered both of these with this polish.  Beautiful, warm, rich brown, but not my favorite formula.  My white is Julep Brigitte, a good bright white.

I topped this one off with Cult Nails Wicked Fast.  What do you think of my coconuts? 😉

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is on each and every morning at my house.  The little one loves it!  My good buddy Kyrsten is headed to Disneyland soon and asked what I would wear on my nails.  Definitely Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

This is a bit abstract, yes, but all five main characters are there.  Just in case you’re as well versed in Disney Junior shows as I, let me tell you what you’re looking at.  Feel free to google images of these characters for reference. 😉  On my index finger we have Daisy Duck with her purple shirt and matching bow.  I used OPI Do You Lilac It and sponged on some China Glaze White on White.  The darker detail work on the bow is Milani Rad Purple.  I like how the gradient is a little rough.  It reminds me of her feathers.  On my middle finger, as if it’s not obvious, is Mickey himself.  Mickey wears red pants with yellow shoes, then of course I added his silhouettes.  The yellow is Sinful Colors Pull Over, the red is Color Club Reddy or Not and the black is China Glaze Liquid Leather.  My ring finger is Minnie with her pink dress and bow with white polka dots.  This fading polka dot design came from Chalkboard Nails.  The pink is OPI Pink Friday and the white is China Glaze White on White.  My pinkie is Donald Duck who wears a blue sailor’s top with yellow trim and a red bow tie.  The blue is Jordana Smooth Blue, the yellow is Sinful Colors Pull Over and the red is Color Club Reddy or Not.

On my thumb, we have a very abstract Goofy.  Goofy wears an orange shirt with a brown vest and a green hat.  I had a hard time deciding what to do with this one.  I actually did one thing, hated it and started over.  I went with a orange and brown ruffian then added a portion of his green hat.  My orange is Julep Parker, the brown is Finger Paints Sketchy Character, the light green is Orly Green Apple and the darker green is China Glaze Starboard.  Everything is finished off with Poshé.

I love it.  It’s a very happy mani and makes me want to go to Disneyland again.  I haven’t been for about five years.  It’s time to go again.  What do you think?  Is it too abstract or can you tell what it is?

Ruffian: OPI DS Radiance + NYX Ink

Ever have one of those manicures that just gets worse and worse and worse as you keep working on it? Yep, I had one of those today. I got a couple fingers in and gave up. I took it off. It was a disaster. I’ll try again someday. Oh well.

I’ve been low on inspiration this week. I’ve been pretty busy, so maybe that’s why. I have had OPI DS Radiance for a while, but hadn’t actually polished my nails with it. It’s the only silver foil I have, so I can’t compare it to anything else, but I thought it was beautiful. Application was fantastic, but I did feel like I needed three coats to cover all the bald spots.

I paired it with NYX Ink, a cobalt blue jelly. NYX Ink seems a little thick to me, but it’s a gorgeous polish. I love how it looks like I dipped my nails in blue glass. So pretty.

Ruffians are hard for me. It’s difficult to make that line pretty. Of course it looks nice in the pictures and I’m sure anyone that saw my hand would think they looked wonderful.

Sideways Ruffian

I don’t know what to call this other than a sideways Ruffian.  By the way, can anyone tell me why a ruffian is called such?  Is it named after someone?

I don’t think this is a true Ruffian being that it’s multiple layers, multiple colors.  Can we talk about the colors?  I’m loving this combination!

This is another design that can be done with just the brushes in your polish.  I started by painting each finger a different of the five colors I chose.  Then layered a color at a time taking care to make sure that each nail was different.  This was an easy design, but definitely took some dry time.  I used Jordana Quick Dry top coat in between layers and worked on this design throughout the day to try to avoid drying issues.

The colors I used for this manicure are as follows:
brown- Sinful Colors Nirvana
blue- Sinful Colors Mint Apple
white- China Glaze White on White
orange- Cloud 9
purple- Jordana Purple Bright

All topped off with Seche Vite.