piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 - Celebrating the Year Of The Blogger

I'm pretty darn excited to be a part of the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013! If you haven't heard of it before, the Blog Fest is where Australian polish makers piCture pOlish collaborate with a whole load of bloggers to create a big day of celebration of all things piCture pOlish. Sometimes they launch new shades during this Fest, but this year they've decided to get bloggers to use their mad manicure skills to celebrate their already impressive lineup.

As a participant in the Blog Fest, piCture pOlish sent me three shades of polish, with the request that I let my imagination run wild in creating a manicure that would show off all three colours.

If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It - Loki's Lacquer review and nail art

I'm excited to have something super fun to show you today! As you might have noticed from my previous reviews, Loki's Lacquer LOVE doing tie in polishes with movies, tv shows, and anything generally nerdy. I was scrolling through the Etsy store a little while ago when I came across a glow in the dark polish called, "If It Bleeds, Kill It", and I knew that it must be mine.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Welcome dear friends to what happens to be my 100th post!

Just like on my actual birthday, I don't want to get too serious - instead, let's have some fun looking at some nail art I did last night that I am unbelievably proud of.

I got a little bottle of blue holo stars from the discount store down the road weeks ago, swearing I was going to do something nail related with them, despite not actually having used rhinestones or studs or any of that sort of thing before. They were just too freaking cute to leave there!

Ariadne and The Minotaur Nail Art

A little while ago Shades of Phoenix announced they were having a nail art challenge on Instagram. I don't usually take part in nail art challenges because the competition is CRAZY, but since this one had the theme of Greek mythology, I couldn't possibly resist.

Mythology is my jam

I decided to attempt to portray the story of Theseus and the Minotaur - particularly the part where Ariadne saves Theseus from certain death, and gets little to no credit for it. If you haven't heard the story before, here's a quick and dirty version.

Aussie Nails Monday - Galaxy

I've been pretty slack with these lately, and this only just qualifies, but what the hell. The theme for Aussie Nails Monday this week was "galaxy", a really neat type of nail art where people use sponging and sparkles to create the impression of outer space on their nails. When done well, it looks absolutely breathtaking, so be sure to check out the other bloggers contributions to this theme - there are some talented artists in this challenge!
I however, am not nearly so talented and have also been rather busy, so my contribution is instead two polishes that remind me of galaxy nails.
First up is an absolutely adorable polish from indie maker Pieta's Polish, called Shooting Stars. While it is admittedly quite tricky to use (the stars need to be placed pretty carefully) , I was so delighted with the results I declare it totally worth the effort. Unfortunately, my photos don't capture the delightful little holo specks in the base, or the blue to purple shimmery colour shift. These photos are all one and a bit coats over Bourjois 1 Seconde Blue.

 

New Nails Related Project

Because I'm always looking for more people silly enough to publish my ramblings, I have put my hand up to join a group of Australian ladies looking to compile a repository of everything a budding nail polish addict needs to know.

If you've previously looked at getting into the whole nail polish "thing", and wondered where the hell to start, THIS is where you start. The ladies I'm working with know everything there is to know about nails, and well, I'm kind of good at writing and funny and stuff, so come along and check out what we're up to!

Hurting the eyes, and stirring the heart

 

It's time for another Aussie Nails Monday, and given that this week's theme is "Skittles" (a manicure made up of different designs on every nail) I thought I would take this opportunity to pay tribute to one of my favourite photographers - David LaChapelle.

When I say the name, people always look at me blankly, but I would be shocked if anyone truly didn't recognise ANY of his photos from the last couple of decades. He's shot some of the most iconic images of people like Britney Spears and Angeline Jolie, and has such a distinctive visual style Rhianna blatantly ripped him off for her S'n'M filmclip (and consequently got sued). 

LaChapelle has the world's biggest hard-on for Barbie pink, but the thing I really love about his work is the way he uses photography to examine the grey, nebulous area between sexy and grotesque. The idea of "sexy" is often portrayed as so solid, and straightfoward, and easy to quantify, and the way he pushes the boundaries of sexy to ridiculous and uncomfortable places shows just how mushy an idea it really is.I find artists who play with this idea endlessly fascinating, and to the best of my knowledge Lachapelle was the first to go quite so far in terms of exploring how celebrity, sexy, and the grotesque all work together.

For someone who's work can be so eyeball burningly over the top, I'm also really fascinated by how subtle LaChapelle can be as well, especially in terms of slipping just a touch of uncomfortability under the viewer's skin. I saw an exhibition of his at the Barbican Gallery in London, and was standing enthralled in front of a huge portrait of Lil' Kim. She was in a typical LaChapelle type bedroom set - bright pink walls, ridiculous over the top bed draped with bright white lace that matched the lingerie she was wearing. The friend I went with came up behind me and started saying something like, "Man, this guy sure likes pink..." but suddebnly let out a strangled little squeak noise and physically jumped back. I turned around wondering what the hell his problem was, and he stammered, "There's blood...on her panties...that's the grossest thing I've ever seen..." before staggering away white faced. I looked back and realised there was in fact the tiniest spot of blood on her panties, right over her crotch, just where it would be if a tampon leaked. *I* thought this was a hilarious, clever subversion of a typical "sexy" stereotype, but my friend didn't think it was very funny at all sadly.

These are the photos I used as direct inspiration for this manicure - they're some of his older work, and a bit more restrained than the pictures he's more famous for. I figured I had to think of a design that was actually capable of fitting on my nails! I took inspiration for the background from his iconic garish pink room sets, and then tried to work in an element from each photo I chose.

A Waitress

Big Consumption

Death By Hamburger, 2001

Hopefully you can at least see what I was trying to get at here.

Get it? I used a camera cause he's a photographer...heh heh

I even did the other hand as well!

This was a really challenging design to do - not so much in terms of actual skill, but it terms of having it on for more than the ten minutes it took to take the photos. I am just not a pink person, at all, so I was weirded out to be putting Barbie pink on my nails at all. But when the one I'd chosen happened to dry to a waxy, plastic finish, I started flailing around the house whimpering about being a damn Barbie doll. My Boy very wisely observed that it would hardly be a fitting tribute to LaChapelle if it didn't make me uncomfortable - which just goes to show he DOES actually listen when I go off on my fangirly rants.

As a long time fan, I'm always fascinated to see the ripples of LaChapelle's work in wider popular culture. Apart from the endless list of celebrities who have benefited from doing an "arty" shoot with LaChapelle, his influence on popular music is very easy to see. Rhianna just straight up ripped him off, Nicki Minaj is undoubtably a fan, and Lady GaGa's career has been built on a similar exploration of the intersection of sexy and grotesque. Whether it was deliberate or not, I think her clip for Telephone was a wonderful homage to his style, and his interest in re-examining standard sexy stereotypes - particularly the opening, where she takes the women's prison exploitation tradition so far that the ridiculousness of this sort of fetishisation becomes impossible to ignore.

Do you have suggestions of other artists you think have been influenced by this awesome photographer?

Don't forget to check out the other members of this awesome weekly challenge!

Members:

Elissa - Lissa’s Polish Addiction Bec - Nail Gun XS Marie - Marie’s Manicure Madhouse Sarah - Shatter Me Claire Chantelle - A Polished Prance Teneil -Shades of Phoenix Nicole - The Epitome of Superficiality Bec - Lacquer Dreams Naomi - NananaisNails Eboni - Enamoured With Enamel
Adelle - Adelle1985 (Instagram) Kelly - Kelly's Kolors Rebecca - Polished Peripherals Rosemarie - Every Little Polish Melissa - Mel My Issta Natalie - Walk In My Eyeshadow Jennifer - JennLojko (Instagram) Erin - Erinzi’s Nails Astrid - Lovessweetas (Instagram) Jasmyn - Jas’ Blingtastic Nails
Kate - Mckfresh (Instagram) Jessica - Maedaynails (instagram) Elizabeth - Lili_Bete (Instagram)
Tammy - Jibber Jabber Julia - Messy Mansion Ann - Nailovelogy Theresa It's All About The Polish
Katie - Pretty Polish Please

BRAIN FREEZE

After yesterday's seriousness, I think it's time for a palette cleanser. I don't know about you, but once summer hits, I become seriously addicted to slushies, or as our local 7-11 like to call them, Slurpees. Whatever you call them, I fucking love these barrels of cold, sugary bliss. I am the exact opposite of a lizard - put me in the cold and I will happily thrive, but if I get even a little too hot I melt into a puddle of uselessness. 

Happily there is a 7-11 just down the road from my house, so I can get my fix without dying of heat exhaustion. While I was on holidays, I decided to be all experimental and shit and fill the cup up with a cornucopia of flavours.

Because I am apparently that sort of person now, I looked at all those clashing colours swirling around, and thought to myself, "That would make a great manicure." And because I was on holidays, I went home and did it.

It's not the classiest, most restrained of designs, but that's kind of what I dig about it. It hurts your eyes, like the sun. Also, more to the point, I had a wacky idea and just went and did it, which is very unusual for me. I'm not normally a spontaneous girl, I'm not normally a colours girl, but there I was with multi-coloured splashes all over my fingersnails, because I'd bought an unusually bright Slurpee that day. I'd blame it on heat madness, but I think it might be...dare I say it...the tiniest, most fragile blooms of confidence!