Something About Me nail art

Better late than never, I whisper to myself as I try to finish the "Something About Me" nail art.
At first I was a bit puzzled, because as much as I genuinely wished to participate, I kept thinking about the many things I liked. Hot tea? Postapocalyptic fiction? Sci-fi? History?
I went with history, and specifically, with Empress Theodora.

I've chosen her for many reasons:

• She's one of my favourite historical figures. I recommend you to read more a bit about her on wiki. She rose from the humble ranks of actress until she became empress- a femme fatale and an intelligent, pious woman at the same time.
• A painting depicting her is also my avatar! I tried to stay with the similar, warm color scheme of the painting for the whole blog. She isn't the subject of the painting in the banner, but I think it fits with the atmosphere. She devoted a lot of her time to her beauty too, and I like to think as my blog as my small beauty corner where I can take care of myself after a long day.
• I wanted to do something more elaborate compared to my latest nail arts, and some of my latest polish acquisitions just fit the theme (Catrice Bronze-Deco mostly).
• The last time I went to see this mosaic I was with a group of friends, and it had been a really great day, so i can commemorate it!

Each nail represents a detail (her cup, headdress...). And since I did it in the evening of the 23, sadly I don't have the time to take sunlight photos.

I've seen the mosaic in Ravenna more than once and let me tell you, it's a must see.


The polishes involved in the process were: China Glaze Charmed, I'm Sure, Catrice Bronze-Deco, Kiko 629, 328, 294 and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Ancient Greece nail art

... or fail art, as I should say. The idea is great, the result not so much. I am starting to think this nail art is cursed: yesterday evening, in applying the black base I did a mistake and, trying to correct it with a cotton pad I messed up all the other nails because that cotton pad, of a brand I never tried, was horrible, it had a lot of, how do you say, loose cotton hair? Anyway the cotton got caught up in the other nails. Oh, and I dropped some black nail polish on my pajama trousers and, in an attempt to clean it I created even larger stains because, despite my care, my newly painted nails touched the fabric, thus ruining both things at once!

And honestly, I don't know what to blame for this stamping fail:  I already suspected that the Kiko 629 polish was not as good at the other of this series, and essence stamping plates are of a lower quality, but come on... I had to redo each single nail countless times, and I lost my patience at the snake nail, essence stamp me black was proving itself really bad so I gave up and used Pupa 209, my black base.

I don't know for how much I will keep this on my nails, but I still wanted to show it to you, if only as a source of inspiration.. plus, you can learn by my mistakes: never paint your nails when you're too tired, never use Quandoé cotton pads (this is for the Italians maily, you'd find it at Acqua e Sapone).

Side note: I really dislike the brushes on Pupa polishes. They're too small for me, and may work well for detailed nail art but when it comes to applying polish on the whole nail, they never work right for me. I definitely prefer the big essence brushes that everyone seems to hate: one stroke and you're done!