#NAGGDay12 - Camouflage

When I saw today's prompt, I went to a camouflage coniseur....My husband.  The man has more camo than a hunter....and he doesn't hunt.  I tease him that he is a closet redneck!  This is how our conversation went:

"I have to do camouflage nail art.  Will you help me?"
"What do you mean, help you?"  He eyes the nail brushes suspiciously.
"I don't know...colors...pattern, whatever."
"Well, what do you want?"
"Um, camouflage."
"Hunting camo, Military camo, desert camo, German camo, winter camo, rainforest camo, traditional, digital, Kryptec, ADS?"  (I told you he was a coniseur!)
"Forget it, I'll figure it out myself."
"I can show you some examples."
"Good idea!  I knew you could help me!"

 
He proceeded to pull out no less than eight examples of different camouflage.  I finally settled on this, which he told me is Navy Working Uniform, which the soilders call "Blueberries", and which is based on the Marine Corps MARPAT digital design.  Bet you didn't expect a camouflage lesson...well neither did I (tee hee).

These camos are worn on the Navy ships, and apparently the sailors joke that if they ever fell overboard, this is not the right camo to be wearing.

What I liked about it, of course, was that it isn't your typical camouflage colors.  I figured there would be several green/brown camos, and maybe even a pink, but we will see if there is any other "blueberries" done.

One of the things I loved about doing this mani was choosing the colors.  There is just something about searching through my polishciles to find the perfect color match.  The only one I felt I didn't nail was the dark grey.  I ended up using black, because I couldn't find one in my stash that would stamp.

With Flash

Artificial Light

I started with two coats of Julep Daria.  Daria was an add on for the September Maven box and fully worth the $4!  Although I used two coats, it could easily be a one coater.  She is a blue leaning dark gray with an excellent formula.  When first applying it, I thought it was going to be a mess.  It is so highly pigmented that it is just a little thick and was showing brush marks, but as soon as I was done with the next nail, everything had leveled out to a perfect finish.  Plus it is one of those "I will stay where you put me" polishes.  I have to admit that I have a soft spot for grey on my tips, so this one is sure to grace them again soon!

 

I knew that I would never be able to freehand nice little squres, so I found this image from PUEEN48 and thought that by using different portions of it and filling in some of the open squares, I could achieve a look similar to the camo.

Here is the first layer of stamping using FingerPaints Black Expressionism.  I fully intended on taking pics of every step but, as usual, I got a bit caught up in the process and forgot!

I next stamped with Julep Michelle, one of my top dark blues of 2013.

Finally I stamped with Zoya Kristen.  I love Kristen and should use her as a base soon.  She is too purdy to just use as an accent.  Plus, looook, she stamps!

 















I ended up really loving this look.  Being the perfectionist that I am, I felt I could have done a better job of representing the pattern, but I really love the look of this funky blue mani!  Let's see if there are anymore Blueberries from the other girls!