Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Secret revealed~ Concept nailsssssssssssss!!!

Shedded snakeskin nails! How *awesome* is this? Click to make giant!

 









The Tuesday before Christmas, Mandy, one of my servers, gifted me this box of fantastic shedded snakeskins. She found them in a pile under the crawlspace of her house, and thought that I would like to "do something creative" with them.
According to my husband- these are sheds from a very large Pine Snake. While I'm not afraid of snakes per se, I certainly would not like to share my living space with them- even if it's outside and under the house.

Anyway, as soon as I saw these, I knew I'd be putting them on my nails. Looking at them up close- they are very, very cool, iridescent. I knew right away that I would be using a duochrome as the base...something just as cool and as exotic. Rimmel Zeitgeist was the first that came to mind. And although I played around with sampling other polishes like Nfu-Oh flakies and glitters, Zeitgeist won in the end.

So- I have one coat Zeitgeist over my old Love Bites, Purple Haze mani.
One coat Poshe, and while still wet, I applied the shed, pressing down firmly.
Once dry, I trimmed the skin to fit my nail.
3 coat of SV

Call me weird, but I LOVE this look! As I type, the free edges of the skins are coming up a bit (shrinkage?), so I don't think this mani will last very long. I am saving these sheds and will try again using glue to secure them to my nails instead of using a  topcoat. I am also toying around with the idea of removing my current acrylics and having a new set put on with these skins embedded in the tips.

34 comments:

Thess said...

WOW! You are very brave... =-O
Looks very nice!

EvilAngel said...

How gorgeous! I love the idea of having them embedded in the tips of your acryllics!

S said...

whoa, that's so creative and it looks amazing!

L said...

BAD ASS!

Colette said...

LOVE!  I swear I was just thinking I wished Konad had a full-nail scale pattern, but that wouldn't be anywhere near as cool as this!  I bet it would look awesome with other colors too =)

Brooke said...

Very creative!  They turned out awesome!

nihrida said...

OMG! Woman, you kind of scare me...you're as weird as I am! =) It turned out great! The most original manicure of all times!
P.S.: That's one hell of a snake the skin came from.

pwrlftrchick said...

SOOO AWESOME!!!!

i absolutly LOVE this!

DEFINTILY do the arcylic embed and POST PICS!!!!

Trinca-Espinhas said...

That's the most unique mani of all time!

Nicole said...

Girl! Those are KICK ASS. Seriously that has to be the most amazing thing I've ever seen and I LOVE IT!

ainos2 said...

Thank you! I *was* kind of weird and cool at the same time handling them.

ainos2 said...

Thank you Andrea!
Now I have to search for someone who does reverse(?) nail sculpting.

ainos2 said...

Thank you! I had fun doing these.

ainos2 said...

Thanks Colette. I would so buy a full snakeskin image plate

ainos2 said...

Thank you Brooke!

ainos2 said...

Thank you dear!
Everytime I looked down at my nails tonight, I kept thinking about Predator...my favorite movie!
Very odd how these sheds  nails "aged" throughout the evening. The scales are now visibly more pronounced and colorful, and the veins(nets) are whiter.

ainos2 said...

Thank you so much!
Would you happen to know if the type of mani that uses a form instead of an acrylic tip is called a Reverse?

ainos2 said...

Thank you! I had fun doing this mani!

ainos2 said...

Thank you Nicole!

pwrlftrchick said...

Sadly, I can't help there, I have no clue!
I always use tips when i do mine.

Kellie G. said...

this is the most awesome amazing craziest most daring bizarre fantastic manicure i've EVER SEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you deserve an award for this woman! i'm bowing down to you right now!!

ainos2 said...

Oh my! Thank you- *thank you*!
After seeing this (http://www.makeupalley.com/board/n.asp/bid=10/tid=273437) yesterday, I was wondering if I had gone a bit overboard in using a medium and publically posting it . Thankfully, I'm not a sensitive person, so the remarks on the MUA NB didn't ruin my day.
Sometimes, I wonder where manners have gone.

kelsealaurel said...

OMGGGGG AMAZING!  Wow.  I am really impressed with this one!  It turned out absolutely beautifully!  Great polish color choices for underneath too.  I used to have a pet snake, this makes me miss him!!! (I gave him away when I went to college and he got sick and died.)  Keep up the awesome awesome manicures! =D

Anonymous said...

This is so creative, so bad-ass!!! I am so not this bad-ass as I would see snake sheds and run away LOL But I LOVE it on you and totally wish I had the balls to do this myself LOL!!! I love the duo you picked underneath. It looks like top coat evened the surface out - did you have bumps at all?

Anonymous said...

PS - it says I'm "guest" at the top, but this is judy from beautyjudy!

ainos2 said...

Hi BeautyJudy! Thank you so much for seeing and appreciating the "art" in this mani!
I actually only did 4 nails on my left habd, just for photos. As I stated in my op, these are concept nails- not very practical for wearing. I did, however, have this on for a day and a half. Initially, the 3 coats of SV evened out most of the bumps, but over time, as it "aged" the bumps came up. Also, the color of the skins changed/aged as well. The "netting" between scales became more pronounced in a cloudy sort of way.
I am going to try this again with a different application method and different base color. At the end of this manis life, it looked very much like the netting on Predators body. (My fav movie) and inspiration for the next version.

ainos2 said...

Thank you! My husband had a Pine Snake as a pet for a few months. He found it injured, nursed it back to health and released it back into the wild. He said it was the meanest creature he ever saw.

Heather said...

Seriously, you never fail to amaze me! This is stunning yet creepy and I find that wildly attractive. You are brilliant!

ainos2 said...

Thank you Heather!
It was rather strange handling the snake sheds. Although they're not the most likable creature out there, it really is no different than handling feathers, antlers, any fur/leathers, horse hair, egg shells...etc.
It it a pleasure to know that there are at least some people with open minds! For some, the stigma associated with snakes is just too much.

Kellie G. said...

agreed! manners are immensely lacking these days. don't sweat it my dear, if there are haters, you know you're doing something right ;)

ainos2 said...

Honest to goodness, that whole thing bothered me more than I thought. The irony in this is that I am not bothered by the negative comments on the snake mani. I knew that people would either hate them or love them.
I am bothered by the nastiness towards my acrylics! The fact that I have them makes my pictures not worthy of a looksee for art and creativity. They're the object of ridicule. So sad.

It may seem like I am being melodramatic...perhaps I am, and I don't see it.

painted Lady fingers said...

You did a beautiful job with this manicure. I'm out in nature often in warmer weather. I hope I come across some snakeskin. I encounter live snakes all the time. However, the only shedding beastie I have about at the moment is the cat. 

ainos2 said...

Thank you Diana!
For all the years I played outside as a child- I never ran across a snake shed. This was my first time seeing them up close, and I have to say- they are beautiful!

Amabile said...

Wow, so stunning! I absolutely love this manicure, its so creative and different. And simply so beautiful. Snakes leather is one miracle of the nature.