Red, Sparkly Sponge Manicure

I must confess a deep and abiding love for 1950's movies.  For instance, last evening Daddy Long Legs was on TCM.  Leslie Caron is nothing short of charmant.  Seriously, I'm just enchanted with her accent and the way she is so terribly graceful yet somehow wonderfully awkward at the same time.  And not just Leslie, there's Jane Russell, Doris Day, Grace Kelly and of course, the incomparable Marilyn.  Oh! and don't forget the Misters; Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck...they just made for lovely films.  Even the campy ones.  I just love 'em!

So, in honor of my love of 50's movies, I thought I'd do a manicure inspired by the movie I watched last night.  It wasn't easy to come up with a plan.  At first, I thought I'd recreate this cute stripe-y number that Leslie wore, before I realized that I was thinking of this one that she wore in An American in Paris...putting an end to that idea.  Instead, I decided to go with the red, sparkly number she wore in the fantasy scene near the end of the movie.  Like so:

After watching the scene,  I decided that the dress isn't really a true red.  It's more of a red overlaid on top of an orange or yellow maybe.  I figured the only way to approach this problem was to do a sponge mani.  I started with one coat of Wet n Wild's Wild Shine French (how a pro pros!) White Creme.  Then I sponged on some Sinful Colors' Hazard and Red Red from Wet n Wild...I just dabbed them on in a random pattern.  Over that, I dabbed on some Sally Hansen's Hard as Diamonds in Mink & Diamonds, again with a sponge and again randomly.  Next coat was L.A. Colors' Art Deco in Ice Breaker for a bit of sparkle on top.  And here's the result!

I think it turned out rather well.  I had originally wanted to include the black from her belt somewhere, but I still can't figure out where I would put it, so here we are.   I'm always amazed at how sponge manicures tend to look like a big old mess before I put my Seche Vite on top.  Magically, it brings everything together and makes it look like I meant to do that the whole time :)

There's a closer shot...again, please ignore my cuticles, I'll get them under control someday!  I really love glitter polishes but they're so hard to remove.  I'll be kicking myself come tomorrow for that.  I know the tricks with tin foil and the one with the little cotton ball pieces soaked in polish remover, but it seems I'm still left scrubbing at a few stubborn pieces of glitter that just want to hang around.  It's still worth it since glitter is so pretty and sparkly!

I think I'll have to do more manicures inspired by movies.  It was challenging to come up with the idea, but I love the way this one turned out.  Plenty of shine and a pretty pop of color...what more can you ask for from your nails?  I hope you all have a great Tuesday and I'll catch up with you soon!