Bruuuuce! Springsteen Nails for The River Tour 2016

Sorry for the lack of blog posts recently - I've been off and about jumping up and down at Springsteen concerts. It's been far too long since I got the chance! 

This tour is based around the 35th anniversary River boxset that Bruce released last year, and the album sleeve of the original River album is what I used as (very loose) inspiration for my nails. 

I decided to use the colour scheme, and my favourite MoYou London stamping plate (Rockstar 01). I started with a base of OPI 4 In the Morning, and then stamped using the guitar designs and Konad White.   I then painted over the white with OPI Turquoise Aesthetic, from the Color Paints collection, to get the teal-blue colour. I then freehanded the plaid thumbnail using a base of Barry M Coconut and Chai, and OPI 4 In the Morning. 

The plaid came out a bit rough round the edges, but somehow that seems appropriate for Bruce...

I wouldn't normally take blog photos in the evening sunlight like this, but again, it seemed appropriate for Bruce. There's something about that evening light around sunset that just goes perfectly with a Bruce show...

You can see my previous Springsteen nails here. 

Sunset Gradient with Stamping

For a while now, I've been wanting to do a sunset gradient. But unlike most of the sunsets out there that I've seen, I wasn't interested in doing palm trees in silhouette against the sunset. I'm not a beachy person, and sunsets with palm trees don't say 'summer' to me! So what does? ELECTRIC GUITARS of course, haha!

Not that I've been able to do it for the last couple of summers, but there is NO better way to spend a summer evening in my opinion than at an E-Street Band show. Those of you who know what I mean will understand!

Anyway, on to the gradient! I did this using OPI Play Til Midnight, Barry M Pink Punch, and Barry M Full Throttle. I then stamped using MoYou London Rockstar 01 and Laqa & Co Black Gloss. 

I love how these came out! The clean up was a bit of a nightmare, but I think it was worth it!

BPS Guitar Ring & Stars + Stripes Stamping

Since I became a Springsteen fan a few years back, I've become kind of obsessed with stuff with guitars on, and when I saw this ring on the Born Pretty Store website, I had to have it!

I mean - look at it! It's fun and silly and sparkly, what more do you want?

This is a cheap, adjustable, two-finger ring. It's not precious metals or gemstones or anything fancy, it's just a bit of fun. It cost me under $2, which is even better value than the fun kind of jewellery that I seem to keep buying from Claire's Accessories, even though I am 41 and not 14... 

The red is Barry M Blood Orange, and the blue is Barry M Blue Grape. I stamped over them with Konad white and MoYou London plates Pro 01 (the stripes) and Pro 09 (the stars) and then over that with Konad black using MoYou plate Rockstar 01 (the guitars). I'm a bit disappointed that the large guitar over my thumb and index finger doesn't show more clearly, but oh well!

I love the ring though! It's not the sort of thing I'd wear every day, or to work, but it is fun, and if and when there are any more Bruce shows to go to, I will have something to wear. 

I bought this from the Born Pretty Website with my own money. I can't find it on the website today - I think it may be out of stock. But they do have loads of cool, fun rings (click here to see!), all of which you can get 10% off using my discount code. They still have my cool Doctor Who ring (see post here)!

 

An InLinkz Link-up

E Street Nails!

I've just seen...

The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking, love-making, LEGENDARY... E! STREET! BAND!



While I was away last week I was lucky enough to be able to make it to two more Springsteen shows (Wembley and Coventry) which were as always, completely and utterly fabulous. Today I have done E Street Band nails for my favourite band. Towards the end of the show, Bruce often runs through the heart-stopping... legendary E Street Band thing, which is accompanied by big cartoon-y, pop-art style graphics, which I have attempted to copy here.

For these I used:

Nail Envy as my usual base, Essie Blanc on my thumb, topped with Barry M Yellow, then Barry M Cyan and Rimmel Heart on Fire. The explosion graphic and the writing was done freehand using Barry M Nail Art Pens in black and white. I've then topped everything with Seche Vite.

I'm a little disappointed that the black pen has bled slightly, but this is only really visible in the macro shots.  Cuticle clean-up was really difficult too - the black nail art pen got everywhere, and was really awkward to remove from my skin.


They ain't a beauty, but hey... they're alright!

Argh!

This was my lovely mani for most of yesterday:

I am ashamed! This started out as Deborah Lippmann Forget You, which looked lovely and black and sparkly and rocky, with a matching Forget You ring. After a few hours queueing in the torrential rain, and a few hours bouncing around waving my hands in the air, somehow most of my polish had peeled off, I'd lost the big cabochon on my ring, I was covered in ink and the wrinkles in my fingers were totally prune-worthy due to the soaking.

It was totally worth it though!