Talon-tastic Thursday: Sophisticated bling

I took an absolutely ridiculous number of photos of this paint job. Seriously. I'm so embarassed about it that I don't think I can bring myself to actually tell you what the final count wa- oh, go on then, twist my rubber arm.

It was 72.

And this was the only one of them that came close to doing it justice! 

This week's Talon-tastic Thursday offering was inspired in part by Nonie Creme's work for the Yigal Azrouel show at New York Fashion Week (black with jagged gold glitter tips) and in part by Sophie's diversionary mani (a reverse French manicure in greige with perfect gold tips.)

My weapons of choice for this one were Essie Chinchilly, a grey creme with a slight purple undertone, and the gold glitter from Tenerife that seems to get a mention every other time I do a nail post.

What can I say, I heart it.

I applied a base coat of CND Stickey, two thin coats of Chinchilly, and then sparingly applied the gold glitter polish to the tips (I did a little "how to" on this for Beaut.ie; you can find it here.)

You could use loose glitter, of course, but I usually prefer to use a glitter polish where possible. It's far easier, not to mention less messy, especially for someone as graceless as myself who would be quite likely to upend the loose glitter and then have to spend the next 6 months picking bits of it out of the carpet...

A note on the lighting conditions in these photos: The weather in London hates me and wants me to cry. That is all I can conclude from the truly terrible light that it throws my way anytime it sees me getting my camera out. All of these pictures (and the other 68) were taken indoors without a flash, but the one of my nails was taken during a split second of proper bright daylight that was nowhere to be found when I was taking the rest. Bah!