POTTERthon! Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This is not my favorite Harry Potter book. If I *had* to pick a least favorite one, it would be this one (and granted, it is very hard to choose a 'least' favorite when they are all SO good!). I'm not sure why this is my least favorite, especially because so many great moments happen in this book/movie and most of my favorite characters are introduced in this story line... But the first time I read this book I was really unimpressed with the plot twist involving Sirius Black. I guess I really love this movie, but dislike this book. Oh well! Two magical objects that truly fascinated me from this book/movie are the Maruder's Map and the time-turner, so I tried to re-create Hermione's time-turner on my nails!

The base color is Cult Nails Vicious, a really beautiful purple creme (although I am sad to find out that my boyfriend thinks this purple is an "old lady color"). Love this color and application was a breeze, as typical with Cult polishes, but I was surprised and disappointed to see it look patchy in photographs when it doesn't look that way in person. The gold details were done with Catrice Goldfinger. I dotted some of China Glaze Electrify in as 'sand', too. I had this one planned out before all the other manis because I knew this was exactly what I needed to do for this book!

Don't forget to check out the other ladies doing this *~magical~* challenge with me!

Bee at Bee Polished 

Debbie at The Crumpet 

Sam at Legiolinde 

Emma (meee! *waves*) right here at Manicurity 

Julie at Of Knit and Nails 

Kerrie at Pish Posh and Polish 

Abby at Scarlet Nail Diaries

Now, here's today's fun stuff :p Have you heard of the 'Scumbag Dumbledore' meme?

6. If you went to Hogwarts would you rather have an owl, a cat, or a rat?

An owl! I am allergic to cats, and an owl would be so useful

7. What do you think of the movie Half-Blood Prince?

This series is really lighting a fire inside of me to re-read and re-watch ALL the Harry Potters! I like the sixth book/movie, Half-Blood Prince, because you get more backstory on Tom Riddle's life and transition into becoming "the most dangerous dark wizard of all time"

8. What do you think of the Deathly Hallows being split in two?

It seemed like a good move for people that haven't read the books but are interested in the movie. My boyfriend seemed impressed with it being split into two because the first one had such a great cliffhanger ending. But honestly..the camping for hours? Eh

9. Have you read the Tales of Beedle the Bard?

I think so? i have a feeling my Mom would be awesome enough to have gotten this for me at some point. I know for sure I have read 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' and 'Quidditch Through the Ages' a thousand times

10. When did you first become a Potter fan?

When I read the first book; I think I was 11 or 12? I was so sad when I turned 12 and knew I was never going to get a letter about going to Hogwarts :'(

POTTERthon! Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - enemies of the heir...beware

Ah, the Chamber of Secrets! Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book/movie in the series. I really like this book and movie; to be honest, I had no idea that is wasn't as popular as the others. This story line revolves around a series of incredibly mysterious events around the castle that have been turning students, ghosts, and cats to stone. There's also a new celebrity Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who makes things interesting. This book/movie introduces even more new magical things - house elves, flying cars, giant spiders, mandrakes, an enchanted diary that wrote back when written in, a slug-vomiting spell gone wrong, parseltounge, and Polyjuice potion (just to name a few).

For this book, I chose to do the end of the movie. I did the statue of Salazar Slytherin on my first two fingers, and an abstracted interpreation of the basilisk's mouth. My pinkie is Fawkes the phoenix, and my thumb is part of the message written in blood on the castle wall - "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened - enemies of the heir...beware". While I used to be super creeped out by snakes, I was never that afraid of the basilisk in this movie because I think it just looks ridiculous.

ridiculous basilisk

Salazar Slytherine's likeness

Don't forget to check out the other ladies doing this *~magical~* challenge with me!

Bee at Bee Polished 

Debbie at The Crumpet 

Sam at Legiolinde 

Emma (meee! *waves*) right here at Manicurity 

Julie at Of Knit and Nails 

Kerrie at Pish Posh and Polish 

Abby at Scarlet Nail Diaries

Finally, I have two sort of fun things to share with you. One is a Harry Potter + Mean Girls meme and the other is a snippet from a survey about Harry Potter that I thought I would answer a little at a time. (PS. Tom Riddle is the bad guy in this book and perhaps related to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named)

1. If you went to Hogwarts which house would you be sorted in?

I think Gryffindor, but I haven't been sorted on Pottermore yet so I'm not sure (ha ha)

2. Have you ever been to the HP midnight release?

I went to a pre-midnight release for one of the Dark Hallows movies through my school; was pretty cool to be leaving the movie while people were lining up for the midnight movie! No midnight book release parties, tho :(

3. What did you think of the Deathly Hallows?

The object? The book? The movie? I have no idea what this question intends, but I have mixed feelings about the end of the last book (I said it!)

4. How many times have you reread the books?

Quite a few times; I would re-read all the previous books to prepare for a new one to come out, so I've read the first one at least 8 times

5. Whose death was the saddest? ***spoilers***

I think Fred's death is by far the most upsetting to me, especially because J.K. Rowling has been quoted as saying that George never really recovers after it (who says that?!?!). But i was also (obviously) upset when Sirius, Hedwig, Tonks and Remus, and Dobby died

POTTERthon! Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Welcome to Potterthon! Potterthon is seven different days, featuring a manicure for the 7 Harry Potter books/movies by 7 different ladies. This is my manicure for the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I choose to do one scene across my four main finger bits. I really liked the manis during the LOSTathon that were all across, so I'm planning to try and challenge myself to do them as much as possible in this series. It's hard for me to explain my undying love for Harry Potter; it was such an important part of my literary life growing up, and the subject of many important papers in middle school (like debating the good and evil of the book for my religious junior high). My favorite book is the fourth one and my least favorite is maybe the third? But I'll try and talk about them more as I go instead of unloading all my Harry Potter feelings on you now! It's especially funny to note that America is the only country that uses the title 'Sorcerer's Stone', and every other country in the world uses 'Philosopher's Stone' for the first book/movie.

This is my interpretation of the scene in Olivander's Wand Shop when Harry finds the wand that picks him. My pointer and pinkie are boxes of wands on the shelves (here's a visual if you're curious), and my middle and ring are 'magic' and the wand (ps. it is *sooooper* hard to do a wand that doesn't look phallic...). I picked this scene because it really stood out to me in the book and in the movie, and because the wands seem to be such an important theme throughout the stories. The first book is obviously the introduction to the 'wizarding world', both for the audience and Harry Potter, and there are so many wonderful details included in the first book (owl post, Diagon Alley, wizard's chess, chocolate frogs, Quidditch, giants, trolls, the list goes on and on). Harry's life is turned upside down when he receives many mysterious, magical letters and a curiously large visitor that explain to him that he is a wizard, a vast departure from his boring, dreadful life with his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin Dudley as a 'normal' boy in England. Even in the first book at the ripe age of 11, Harry and his two best friends face down the very evil He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!

Don't miss the other ladies participating in Potterthon! Some of them might be familiar from the LOSTathon series, but there are three newcomers

Bee at Bee Polished 

Debbie at The Crumpet 

Sam at Legiolinde 

Emma (meee! *waves*) right here at Manicurity 

Julie at Of Knit and Nails 

Kerrie at Pish Posh and Polish 

Abby at Scarlet Nail Diaries

Technical Details by finger

pointer and pinkie: base color is Essie Case Study, mint is Wet n Wild Refresh-mint, lavender is Catrice Hey, Dirty-Lilah with China Glaze Dress Me Up for the pink label details

middle and ring: Pure Ice French Kiss, N.Y.C. Skin Tight Denim, Color Club Sky High, with white and black details

District Six: Transportation featuring China Glaze Fast Track

This is the sixth stop on the annual Hunger Games tribute tour. If you are somehow unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, please read this post to prepare for the 74th Hunger Games. You are a citizen of Panem, but if you need a reminder, you can read about our beautiful nation and its' districts here. Districts 7 - 13 will be presented starting June 4th.

Welcome to District Six!

District Six's industry is transportation - they produce the nation's hovercrafts, high speed trains (like the ones that transport the tributes to the Capitol), and cargo trains. While this district produces ways to move throughout the nation, the citizens do not particularly like to travel. Not much else is known about District Six; in other books you find out that there is a district-wide struggle with painkiller addiction (Morphling).

I had a lot of different ideas for this one! I thought about doing a map, or doing some stamping that looked like lacy tire tread, or some other transportation-related image. But I ended up with these weird, fun freehand graphics instead! I did my ring finger first and tried (horribly) to emulate a tire tread; in my head I was going to do french-braid styled line work, but instead it looks like a feather? No matter, I love the other line work I did because it all looks like it's in motion! So pretty and perfect for transportation to look so alive!

District 7 will be presenting its' tribute presentation on June 4th (one week from now!); please tune in. 

The Capitol thanks you for your cooperation and invites you to tour the other districts by clicking here.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Lazy Sunday: Copying Crumpet's Great Idea!

My dear friend Debbie over at The Crumpet has just started 'Lazy Sundays' and I love the idea! It's essentially a wrap up of the things you've done that week, things coming up, and other people's awesome work from the week, too.

What did I do this week?
To be honest, not a lot. I worked twice as many hours as I normally do this past week. I am a little disappointed in myself for not making more time for nails/blogging, but I'm not going to dwell! This long weekend gives me an extra day to get a lot of things done, which is important because I'm starting a WONDERFUL nail art series with a lovely group of ladies TOMORROW! I am a huge fan of the subject matter and feel super nervous about doing it well  >.<

I got Districts Four and Five of my Hunger Games nail art series done this week! And the rest of the districts are prepared for a triumphant return starting June 4th (a week from now).

District 4 is Fishing

District 5 is Power

PS. You can view all of the Hunger Games series so far by clicking >here<


Here's some Instagram action!

I got some OHHHHZOTICS! and this is my face :)

I love OPI Care to Danse? !!! I never would have guessed

these seem a little similar....I'm not an "orange" person, so one will go!

I 'liked' these two gorgeous manis on Tumblr! AND found a new blog to follow, Precious Polish, because I had to search for the right credit for the adorable heart frame nails.

delicious painterly nails by Ran Design

'window to my heart' nails by Precious Polish

So, what's on the horizon here at Manicurity?
-> May 28th (like tomorrow!) thru June 3rd is POTTERATHON
-> The Hunger Games series will be back June 4th
-> I'll be dipping in and out of The Summer Challenge from PCFC all summer
-> I have some other series ideas I'm thinking about...

And finally, today is the last day to vote for the Rainbow Honey My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic nail art competition; you can vote for me by clicking like on this picture. I'm in 4th place and if I get just a few more likes, I could get a prize!!!

xx
Emma

Hope your coming week is excellent!

District Five: Power featuring China Glaze Electrify

This is the fifth stop on the annual Hunger Games tribute tour. If you are somehow unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, please read this post to prepare for the 74th Hunger Games. You are a citizen of Panem, but if you need a reminder, you can read about our beautiful nation and its' districts here.

Welcome to District Five.

District Five's industry is power - electric, solar, and nuclear. Although this district is fundamental for providing power for the entire nation, it seems rather unremarkable and average. Not a lot is known about this district. It is suggested that not many children enter their names for the tesserae, meaning that this is not a particularly poor or rich district. Foxface is the most well-known tribute from District Five, and she stays alive by being really creative.

My idea for this one is along the lines of "a current running under it". This was a fairly simple/easy one, but maybe not my most thematic? I did two coats of Riveting, then one of Electrify on all nails, then freehanded some designs with black and a skinny striper brush. My favorite one is by far the v-gap pinkie; I was always afraid that I would mess it up, but it was the easiest! I left the black without a top coat, and I like how it looks like leather with the glittery bits sticking out.

District 6 will be presenting its' tribute presentation soon; please tune in. 

The Capitol thanks you for your cooperation and invites you to tour the other districts by clicking here.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Loving OPI Care to Dance?

via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/LGv2u9O3ee/

District Four: Fishing with China Glaze Hook and Line

This is the fourth stop on the annual Hunger Games tribute tour. If you are somehow unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, please read this post to prepare for the 74th Hunger Games. You are a citizen of Panem, but if you need a reminder, you can read about our beautiful nation and its' districts here.

Welcome to District Four!

District Four's industry is fishing, which is beneficial for the citizens financially and also provides them with helpful skills. Citizens from District Four have experience using nets and tridents, making fishhooks from scratch, swimming, and identifying edible sea life. This district, along with districts one and two, are 'Career' districts that raise their children to compete in the Hunger Games making them stronger and more likely to win. The tributes from the 74th Games are not very famous, but one of the tributes from this district in the second book is a really important and interesting character (Finnick Odair).

 L-R: China Glaze Hook and Line, Revlon Surf, New York Summer Hot Green, Revlon Royal

L-R: Polished Components Future, Shadow Polish Ariel's Tail, Sally Hansen Glass Slipper

This is one of those miraculous moments where I just kept adding layer after layer until something awesome happened... (which could've just ended up super thick and horrid).

I am so glad I didn't stop until I liked it! Ready to hear about all the layers?

- 2 coats of Hook and Line on my pointer and middle fingers

- 2 coats of Revlon Surf on my ring and pinkie

then

- Future on my pointer and middle + Glass Slipper + Ariel's Tail

- some cute white details on my ring and pinkie

At this point, my first two fingers weren't looking 'fish' or 'water' enough, and my Revlon Surf nails looked cute, but not very nautical. Since Ariel's Tail had a green glitter bleed that made the base a little jelly green, it inspired me to layer jellies over all my finger bits. Then to bring China Glaze's polish for this district back to the surface of this mani, I used a nail striper brush to do nets over my first two fingers and a hook on my ring finger to represent the industry of District Four. So while this started okay, got awful, stayed awful, it ended up really beautiful and squishy and aquatic. Yay!

District 5 will be presenting its' tribute presentation soon; please tune in. 

The Capitol thanks you for your cooperation and invites you to tour the other districts by clicking here.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Instagram'd Nail Mail + Update

*waves* Hello! Since this is a personal blog, you know, with pictures of my hand and all, I thought I'd be a smidgen personal for maybe a minute. I haven't really been online much this weekend and so I've put off painting/writing a lot of posts, so I just wanted to sort of check in. Last week I went back to work, so while I had more posts than I could be patient enough to space out last weekend when I was on vacay, this weekend I've been silent. This is a thing I've struggled with a long time - having grand plans (i.e. all these nail art themed series and too many ideas), and then following them through to finish them. I at least kept up with the LOSTathon, probably only because I felt like people were counting on me. I am sad that my Hunger Games series is getting spread out, so I need to make more time to get it done. Today instead of doing my nails a bunch, I helped my boyfriend shop for a briefcase for an important meeting on Tuesday and yesterday I watched bunnies hop around a pet store [seriously. I want one now. I wish bunnies and guinea pigs were like cousins so they could hang in the same cage].

tl:dr I sometimes struggle with being consistent with creating and posting blog content, and that sort of stresses me out/makes me sad. But I also like hanging out with my boyfriend and NOT being online, so *shrug* C'est la vie!

Here are some Instagram pics of (only part) of my nail mail this week. I have apparently turned into an old lady about technology - I am not on instagram and I made a Facebook fan page for this blog, but I don't 100% know what I'm doing yet lol Bare with me :D

Ooh, ROYAL Mail?! What could it be?

New Barry M's from dearest Debbie!

These are three of the four Gossip Girl NOPI polishes (from 2010!!). Someone in a Facebook group remembered I had posted about my discovery and consequent disappointment in them being an older collection, and alerted me when a different person found them in a discount store. It was so sweet of both of them! So now I have all the colors :D Too Rich for you is already hiding somewhere in my office, but this is L-R: Party in the Penthouse, Scandal, Secrets and Sparkle, and Nicole...Spotted! [These are all dupes for the Ulta exclusive OPI Shimmer into Summer collection from 2011 (more here)]

Here are 3 of the new spring limited edition Haze Glaze colors; I purchased these when I found out I was done with college (along with a Llarowe splurge, my Hungry Asian glitters, a Glitter Daze mini-haul, and a Rainbow Honey Equestria pre-order. Whatever. It's nice to be done with college after forever!). These are my first Haze Glaze polishes, and I'm not totally sure how I feel about them. I used To Serve Man in my Effie Trinket nails. The big big purple squares in this polish were curled when I received it and I contacted the seller on etsy and she was just like "bummer" and that was all. Sort of a unique experience. Flutter looks AWESOME because it has butterfly glitter in it. What's cooler than that?!?! BUTTERFLY GLITTERS! Crocodile Tears I haven't tried at all yet and feel unsure about (sort of too many things in one place), but my boyfriend likes it. He always likes the most unpredictable things!

And finally, the China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters. I got all of them. I'm like two months late on these.This is an awful picture, sorry! Anywayyyy I got a good deal on these from Amazon and it's another thing that my boyfriend thinks is mega awesome which entertains me to no end. I also picked up Konad S6 which I had been eying forever.

Did you get anything fun in the mail lately?? Nail mail is the best. It's like a present to myself!

I'll be continuing the Hunger Games series the rest of the week, probably having to double up each day to get it done because I have another pretty magical group nail art situation happening next week. But it's been really fun so far! I like seeing my sketches and ideas come to life without any issues (yet. *knocks on wood*)

District Three: Technology featuring China Glaze Agro

This is the third stop on the annual Hunger Games tribute tour. If you are somehow unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, please read this post to prepare for the 74th Hunger Games. You are a citizen of Panem, but if you need a reminder, you can read about our beautiful nation and its' districts here.

Welcome to District Three!

District Three's main industry is technology; specifically televisions, computers, and other electronic gadgets. Not a lot is known about this district, but that while they used to be one of the richer districts, now most of the citizens work in factories. Most of them are very intelligent and adept at engineering. The tributes from district 3 for the 74th Hunger Games aren't as well known as the other tributes; but the tributes from this district in the second book are two of my favorite characters from it (Wiress and Beetee). 

Agro is not the 'designated' polish for District Three; in fact Riveting, the awesome orange glassfleck, is the District Three China Glaze polish, while Agro is for District 9. But I really wanted to do some nail art that looked like a circuit board situation, so I used the green one anyway *shrug* I love this color. I really, really love it to the point that I already wonder if I need a back up and/or should get rid of all other olive green-y colors I have. This was a one-coater for me, but the formula was a little runny and didn't make it a very easy one coat. The silver striper I used gave me a lot of glare in these pictures - booo. However, I'm learning how to use my own nail art brushes to do finer lines - hooray! Slowly but surely!

District 4 will be presenting its' tribute presentation soon; please tune in. 

The Capitol thanks you for your cooperation and invites you to tour the other districts by clicking here.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

District Two: Stone Cold

Attn: This post was delayed because of falling rocks in the quarry and ponies on the loose. Sincerest apologies.

This is the second stop on the annual Hunger Games tribute tour. If you are somehow unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, please read this post to prepare for the 74th Hunger Games. You are a citizen of Panem, but if you need a reminder, you can read about our beautiful nation and its' districts here.

Welcome to District Two. Please wear your hard hat at all times while inside the quarry.

District 2 is best known for three things: providing cut stone for the rest of the nation from their quarries, keeping the nation full of newly trained and armed Peacekeepers, and for being the most brutal of all the districts. Geographically nearby to the Capitol, District 2 is incredibly loyal and benefits by being one of the wealthier districts. The tributes from this district are also 'Careers' (children that illegally train all their lives to compete) and often volunteer - known for their strength and viscousness.  You might be familiar with the tributes from this district for the 74th Hunger Games, Cato and Clove.

This matte mani is supposed to look like marble, or hopefully stone in general at the very least?!
I used the China Glaze Hunger Games polish for this district - Stone Cold. After my favorite mani slid off the night after doing it, I wanted to try recreating it so this seemed like a perfect opportunity! The white polish is Mayo by ManGlaze. I used a coffee stirrer (the baby straw type) to splatter and also sort of 'blow' the splatters where I wanted them to go. For manicures like this that would require too much clean-up, I always smear Vaseline all over my finger bits with a paintbrush before and I find that helps me the most. 


My favorite part of this nail art is how the white polish is a smidge sheer, so it looks like a very light grey where the splattery parts are thinner - soo cool! Later I'll try making this glossy to see what it looks  like. 


PS. All of these pictures but the first one were taken with flash, in case you were curious

District 3 will be presenting its' tribute presentation tomorrow; please tune in. 

The Capitol thanks you for your cooperation and invites you to tour the other districts by clicking here.

May the odds be ever in your favor.