I have to say, that I was not thrilled about the choice. That's the thing about a book club though, you are not always going to agree with the book, but that's okay because it expands our reading options. I had read the summary on Goodreads and was not drawn to it, and the first chapter was pretty confusing for me because I had no idea what was going on. The first chapter was people giving their testimony on the final event, which I will not reveal (you have to read the book silly, lol). The rest of the book pretty much explained what happened some months before, which all leads to the final event. Anyways, I was pretty much lost until I read the ending of the first chapter. It wasn't until the second chapter that I got interested, and ended up loving the book. I'm very glad that this book was chosen, and that's the reason I wanted to join the book club, to read outside my comfort zone. We are going to be reading books I normally wouldn't pick, and I honestly can't wait. I very much enjoyed this book.
My mani was inspired by the cozy and popular cafe from the book called Blue Blues. It's described as a small beachside cafe next to Pirriwee Beach. The inside of the cafe has blue walls and shelves full of secondhand books. Here's a quote from the book: "'It was completely charming,' as her mother would have said. The bright blue uneven walls were lined with rickety shelves filled with secondhand books. The timber floorboards shone gold in the morning light, and Jane breathed in a heady mix of coffee, baking, the sea and old books. The front of the cafe was all open glass, and the seating was arranged so that wherever you sat you faced the beach, as if you were there to watch the sea perform a show." (Moriarty, Chapter 4) I don't know the exact page it is on because I read it on my OverDrive app, but it is in the beginning of the chapter.
Okay, so first I painted on a coat of white on every nail. I then sponged on khaki acrylic paint on my index, middle and pinky; and added a matte top coat. Afterwards, on all the nails I decided to do the newspaper/alcohol technique. Well in this case, I used pieces of the Pennysaver haha, I didn't have anything else. I cut up some pieces of the page and dunk my finger into rubbing alcohol, then dunk the piece of paper in the alcohol, and put it upside down on my nail. The words have to be facing down so it'll transfer properly, and you hold it down for maybe 20 seconds. I pressed down with my finger and also used a cotton swab to push it down. When I removed the paper, the words had transferred onto my nail. I wish they were darker though, but it was my first time trying out this method, so it's ok. So once dry, I added another layer of matte top coat to seal the words in and not risk messing them up when using the acrylic paint. I took some brown paint and watered it down. On my middle finger and pinky, I added blobs of the watered down paint with a brush, and then absorbed the excess paint with a dry brush. That left me with a sort of stain look, like spilled coffee on a book page. I left my middle finger with that simple look, and added some coffee beans on my pinky. On my index finger I decided to paint a coffee cup and added the actual word 'coffee' under the cup. For my ring finger, I wanted to do something different, sort of like an accent nail. Since the cafe faces the sea, I wanted to include a small beach scene. So, I brushed on Stardust Polish "Kinda Jazzy" 3/4 of the nail down, I did 2 coats. Once again, I used the khaki paint and sponged it on the last 1/4 of the nail. Where the blue and khaki meet, I sponged on white paint to represent sea foam. To make the wave lines, I used a thin brush and white paint. The sand seemed too plain, so I picked up tiny amounts of brown paint and lightly dabbed it on with a brush. Also, I added a little starfish on the sand with a nail dotter and brush. To finish off, I added a matte top coat on my index, middle, pinky, and on the "sand" part of the ring finger. I only added glossy top coat on the "water" part of the ring finger.
Close-ups:
I actually really liked the way my mani turned out. That little cafe from the story really stuck with me because it sounded so cozy, the kind of place I'd like to visit. Books and coffee just sound like the perfect combination. Well, I hope you all enjoyed this first post of The Polished Bookworms. Stay tuned for next month's book inspired mani which will be based on "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner. You can also check out some of the manis by other members of the group down below. Thanks for stopping by, until next time. Bye.
The Polished Bookworms: Facebook Group, Facebook Fan Page, Instagram
Polishes Used:
Wet N Wild "Clear Nail Protector"
Wet N Wild "Matte Top Coat"
Wet N Wild "French White Creme"
Stardust Polish "Kinda Jazzy"
Acrylic Paints Used:
Apple Barrel White
Apple Barrel Black
Apple Barrel Melted Chocolate
Craftsmart Coral Reef
Craftsmart Khaki
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