Manicure Monday (65): Shadow Kin

Hello and thanks for checking out Manicure Monday, a weekly post that showcases my love of reading and nail polish. Each week I’ll show you one of my current reads along with a matching book manicure.

Hi, everyone. I hope that Monday has been treating you well. My manicure today was inspired by Shadow Kin, the first book in the Half-Light series by MJ Scott. I picked this up on a whim at the library last week. My library’s sci-fi/urban fantasy section is pretty sad but this caught my eye. I finished it last night and really liked it. I am definitely going back for the other books in the series.

I started off with a base of 2 coats of American Apparel Manila which, as you may have guessed, is the color of a Manila envelope. Next I wanted to recreate the worn, textured look of the cover background. Using several shades of brown (Zoya Louise, Zoya Flynn), red (Knoll Knoll Red), Manila and a beauty sponge, I dabbed bits of color onto my nail until I achieved the look I wanted.

The cover also has these fun splashes of red (for blood I presume) near the top of the cover. Using a small mixing straw and a orange-y red cream (Knoll Knoll Red) I blew polish onto my nails for a splattered effect. I still need some practice on splattering because I tend to blow big blobs of color all over the place instead of a nice splatter. But I managed to do alright. In hindsight I probably should have done thus after I drew in the spires for a more three dimensional look.

Next, I painted the spires that are along the bottom edge of the cover into my nails. I used American Apparal Pinto for the light brown and Zoya Louise for the dark brown. After everything was fully dry I sealed it all in with top coat and that was it!

I was thinking of incorpirating some of the black leather into the manicure but I got kind of lazy and decided to just do them all the same. I like how this one turned out. It looks like I have a little city on my nails.

Thanks for checking out this week’s manicure!