Black, with a touch of suede and matte

So my nails are painted again this week. I decided to actually make the time on Monday, because I figure I don't know how much longer I can keep painting them. I'm hoping to take a few bottles with me, but even if I can figure out the logistics of transportation, I will be sadly low on variety. As it is I'm still torn between 'absolute favourite colours' and 'a range across the spectrum'. I could do either - the former will mean I will be missing colours like yellow and orange, but the latter means I might not be able to take my very favourite colours. The decision is hard.

Fortunately, as I do have so many things to do right now, I always have a few stock patterns in the back of my head. Fairly simple designs that can look quite striking with the right colour combination. And I often like to have quite different polishes within the patterns - iridescent under something quite plain, without any shimmer. I took this idea again this week, but I went with something I think I must have done before, because it is such a good idea. But I can't remember ever doing it quite like this. Basically, I got my favourite shimmery black - Baby It's Coal Outside - and did 2 coats, with a top coat. And then, with one of my nail art brushes, I painted a design (a very simple design) over it, using La Paz-itively Hot - Matte and OPI Ink - Suede. The reason I did the top coat before I painted on the design is quite simple - if you paint top coat over the suede or matte, it loses the effect and just looks like normal nail polish. And I have been known to do that, because they are both such great colours, regardless of whether they're matte/suede or sparkly. But I didn't want that effect this week; this week I wanted to effect of something sparkly on the bottom with something very flat on the top. And it worked! Though, I don't think it comes across as well in the photos as I would like. It's hard to get the sun to really pick up the shimmer while also showing the matte effect well in a picture. And, we haven't been getting much sun where I am anyway, which made it even harder.

But I did try...