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Friday 3 September 2010

Robyn's rockin' Retro #5: Nails!

Obviously I had to do some nail art for this little series of mine. They're all modern designs based on retro or pin up stuff - your average fashionable 40's or 50's chick, from what I can discern, had pretty pointy nails, which I can't deal with even thinking about trying to attain, and there weren't many nail colours available back in the day.

Anywoo...



I tried my hand at the ol' half-moon mani, which the lovely Dita quite often sports. However, having seen a picture of the equally lovely Patricia Day wearing black nails with white tips, I decided to do a black and white one. Not the best, but for my first attempt I wasn't disgusted with my own incompetence. I just did them freehand (here's an Illamasqua tutorial!) and cleaned up with a Q-tip. I thought this looked punky and cool.



Conversely, this is the worst mani I've done ever. Raggedy cuticles, pooey Konad and my hair dye stained the white base pink! Fail. Oh well. You get the idea, cherries, pin up, yadda yadda.



A quick sailor mani - the colours and placement were my boyfriends idea. I think he did a good job, no? Sorry for the one crappy picture. Bad light that day!



Polka dots ftw! This was my sisters idea. I had no idea what to do for pin-up nails and she said do a pair like a spotty pair of knickers! I wish I'd had time to put little fimo bows on, but I didn't. Still, it was super easy and I got more compliments on this manicure than I've ever gotten for one before. Thanks Bones :D (That's my sister, fyi!)








I'm in two minds about this one. I love swallows, I love their use in tattoos (I have one myself) and seeing how - probably because of the tattoo thang - they're pretty synonymous with pin-up culture, I had to do a swallow mani. I chose red and blue on flesh-coloured nails to mimic early tattooing. I think I did an ok job - I used acrylic paints but I can't find my nail brushes so I had to do these with an orange stick.





Poodle skirt mani! Yeah, I know the lead doesn't really join up, but whatever. The bottom poodle looks a bit butch, which is odd because he was on my left hand, but I really liked the other one. I decided butch poodle takes care of cutesy poodle. I loved this mani even though I lost one of my nails - ouchy!


Sorry for my lack of posts with actual content. I do have another hair post to come, but I've only done half of it, and I have some more pyschobilly looks but I need to do one or two more to flesh out a post a bit. Also I need to do my 20s look! Gah!


Snogs xxx

14 comments:

  1. So pretty!!! I love the anchors and especially the poodles! :)

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  2. i luv the poodles and the black with white tips!!

    http://icosmeticrn.blogspot.com

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  3. I gots a cheater cheater idea for the first look with the half moon manicure!
    Get a box of those reinforcement stickers. They are the perfect size and just plop them up high and paint over and VIOLA! Well, the voila comes after you peel it off and see how fantastically awesome it looks :D When my momma goes home Monday I'll try to remember to do a post with the result. Now to find the durn thingys....

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  4. I know, I know, I saw those but I cannot find them ANYWHERE! I went to like, five stationary stores!

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  5. The poodle is amazing! I've already finished my Emily the Strange look but don't worry, I plan to show the eylid paintings at first (not the sloppy full face look), so you have lotsa time for your fun look. ;-)

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  6. lol Yeah for something that seems easy to come by they are tricky to find, maybe dollar stores? I got lucky working in a place that sold office supplies, 3 loops for the page, 30 for me, 3 for another page, 30 for me hehehehe

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  7. Love these!

    When I've done a half-moon mani, I've just used the stickers for aiding French tips, and put them over my moons. (But reinforcement stickers are probably cheaper.)

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  8. The little poodle is so cute! Awesome idea :)

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  9. That little poodle is amazing! I'm kind of obsessed with it actually..

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  10. hi!
    i just found your blog and i like it!
    please pass by my blog if you have time and follow me!

    thanks!
    http://konadnails.blogspot.com

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  11. yay my idea looks cute bobs .. totally just brightend up my boring sangria and bingo filled holiday
    Bones
    xxx

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  12. the last one is so cute :D x

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