ABC Challenge - "K" is for Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam

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Here we all are again - wow, we are almost halfway through the alphabet!  This week is the letter K, and let me just start off with a rant.  I DO NOT like reality TV.  I think it is a major contributor in the dumbing down of Americans.  The stupidity and shallowness that runs rampant on this kind of TV is just...ugh!  Capitalizing on this type of "entertainment" is a family called the Kardashians.  I go out of my way to NOT purchase anything involved with that family, but they are not the only ones.  There are others, but I am getting too far off tangent here.  This is a nail polish blog, for crying out loud!

This is all leading me to the fact that the polish of choice today is from the Kardashian collection put out by Nicole by OPI.  Can I tell you...I hate myself for loving this color.  It was part of my St. Patrick's day exchange gift, so technically I did not buy it, so that makes me feel a little better.  Yea, I am going to run with that.

It is a dark teal, which looks like a dark evergreen in certain lights.  It goes on perfectly, is basically opaque in one coat, and dries to a glass-like shine.  Why, oh why, does it have to be part of the K-collection?  It does have one draw back - it stains like (a) _____ (insert favorite expletive here).  I was trying to be VERY careful with application, but had to do a second clean-up the next day for cuticles, which were a very nice pale shade of green, I must say.  These photos are three days in - constantly washing my hands, cleaning, hand lotions, and cold weather; my hands had a lot of abuse this week.

To add a little something to this color, I decided to do a cheat marbling.  I have not had much time to practice water marbling, and have issues with choosing polishes that will work.  Either they will not spread, or they spread so much that they break the pattern, and I need to clear the water and start over.  I didn't want to be staring at a cup of water all afternoon, so I brought out my trusty sheet protector from the letter "G" manicure, and did some pseudo marbling.  A few drops of polish, a toothpick, and 36 hours later, these are what I got. 

Yes, they look a little alien, but I did not want to drag the toothpick backwards through the polish.  The tentacles were cut off when I was shaping these to put on my nails.  But beware...you had better know exactly how you want this to sit on your nail, because once they touch the polish underneath, even if it FEELS dry to the touch, it WILL suction itself.  It was OK with this manicure, since I had so much base color mixed in the marbling, but if I hadn't, everyone would've noticed the big boo-boo on my thumb, not just me (and no, you can't see it in the photos above).

Didn't think to take a photo of these in, you know, DAYLIGHT, but you can see the shimmer that these polishes have in them.  Pretty impressive for such an inexpensive brand.

Couldn't quite capture the shimmers on the taupe and sage, but you can see a *little* bit of the blue peeking through in the green bottle.  You'll have to take my word on the taupe. 

Colors used are:
Nicole by OPI - Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam (dark teal, used as base color)
Love & Beauty - Coral Glow (has a gold shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Taupe (has a silver shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Sparkling Sage (has a blue shimmer)

I am still working out some kinks with this method, and one of them is that I should NOT have used so much of the base color in the marbling.  With the darker color in the marble, and the dark base under the marble, once I put it on the nail a lot of the lighter coloring got lost.

Over all, I am VERY happy with how this turned out.  As long as I know what colors I want to use when I change things up, this is a very viable option to water marbling, at least until I get good at it.  There is nothing like instant gratification you get from that method, after all.

Sorry everyone...I think I am FINALLY out of breath!  If you made it all the way down to here, congratulations - you deserve a medal!! And thank you!

Take a look at everyone else involved in the challenge, sponsored and brought to you by Kimber from Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  I think "K" will give us a pretty diverse group of manicures.  Looking forward to them as much as you!