Today's nails are inspired by an image from the MoYou London Cookbook collection that I've always thought was lovely: the artichoke on the vegan plate.
Growing up, my Dad always loved eating boiled artichokes when they came in season in the springtime. While they weren't my favorite food in the world, I enjoyed spending that time with him tearing off the leaves and dipping them in copious amounts of mayonnaise before scraping off the meaty bit at their base. Such a weird food, but kind of fun to eat together!
I started this mani with a couple of coats of the cream JLB polish, except for my middle finger, which got two coats of "Sew Psyched".
So for the big artichoke, I made a decal and colored in the image with two shades of green. This is such a large image, I felt it needed to be given some extra detail with shading. So to do this, I simply started with the dark green by adding it to the base of each artichoke leaf. After that was dry, I took the light green and applied it all over the back of the image with the nail polish brush, then used my trusty toothpick to fill in the edges of the image.
The image on my pointer/pinky fingers is off of this Bundle Monster plate from last year's Blogger Collab collection, by the blogger Tanya Wish. This is one of my all-time favorite plates, and I have used nearly every image on it. They are just so detailed and lovely, and many of them work really well for reverse stamping!
Finally, the image on my middle nail is from another Bundle Monster plate, this time from the "Secret Garden" collection. I wanted some typography on that nail but I wasn't feeling the "vegan" typography image on the MoYou London plate for this mani, so I reached for this one.
Have you ever eaten an artichoke? Are you a fan of the prickly veggies, or do you prefer to stay far away from this unusual food? Let me know how you feel in the comments!
Gorgeous manicure! I'm convinced your some kind of stamping magician! I've been eating so much veg I've but never tried artichoke. I would certainly try it but from what I've seen on TV isn't it a fussy one to prepare? Maybe I shouldn't be so lazy, haha.
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you so much! You are so kind. Artichokes aren't too fussy to cook, you simply boil them. The eating them part is a bit fussy, though- yountear off each individual leaf and scrape the meaty part at the bottom off with your teeth, then discard the rest. At least that's what we always did! Then when you get to the middle there's a bigger piece you can eat.
DeleteSo pretty. You picked the perfect color combo for your decals and I love the text nail! The dark green is like an old chalkboard. 😀
ReplyDeleteAlso you mentioned pizza. So now I not only want pizza with artichoke hearts, but I want to do pizza nails!
Thank you so much! This was one of those times when I liked the finished mani better than I imagined I would. I think the touch of purple really makes it.
DeleteAlso, pizza with artichoke hearts is one of my favorites. So stinking delicious!
I agree about the purple. It was the perfect shade to straddle the yellow and the green.
DeleteGah! Kitties AND pizza with artichoke hearts? What don't we have in common? LOL
So pretty! I would never have thought to put artichoke on my nails but now I have a mighty need to do so after seeing your gorgeous mani! And yes you're right, very strange food indeed! But the few times I've tried it its been very yummy!
ReplyDeleteLove Aysh xoxo
Thank you so much! I love putting food things on my nails- just the right amount of quirky. I mean, if I'm going to do stamping I might as well do crazy things, right?
DeleteEverything ties together so perfectly in this mani! I love the floral image with the purple flowers - looks just like actual artichoke flowers! I have only had artichoke a handful of times (besides on pizza, which is amazing!) and I like it but it is kind of a lot of work haha. I dip them in melted butter! Yum!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I was inspired to use the purple from a mental image of a plant I saw in Pikes Place market years ago, but I'm pretty sure it was flowering kale and not artichoke so I'm glad that's what they really look like! 😂 Ooohh melted butter sounds delicious!
DeleteI absolutely adore this mani! Everything about it is awesome: the theme, the colours, and of course your perfect reverse stamping. I love eating artichokes too, especially the hearts, but I always wait for someone else to prepare them for me! :-D
ReplyDelete