Hello my sweeties. Last week was a rough one at work, so this weekend was a much needed break! I had a date night with the husband and I went to a concert, which definitely lifted my mood! I also decided I needed to add some sparkle to this next mani to keep this mood up.

Julie from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer sent me Terrific Twos for review, and I knew it would give this penguin manicure a little extra something. Julie made it for the 2nd anniversary of her blog. It’s teal, sky blue, aqua, and turquoise microglitter packed densely in a clear base. This is SUCH a gorgeous color glitter! And it’s fully opaque on its own in 2-3 coats. I could have gotten away with 2 coats, but I dabbed on a third to cover a few patchy areas near the tips.

Here’s a closeup of Terrific Twos:

Apparently on the nail I just showed, I didn’t dab enough at the tips. But you can tell the rest of the nail is fully opaque!

And I think Terrific Two goes perfectly with the penguins! So let’s talk about these penguins 🙂 This is my first time doing freehand animals of any type, and I love how they came out! I wanted chubby penguins with cute little wings, and I think they more or less came out that way. I think I should have angled the wings down a bit since they could almost make the whole animal look like a duck with a narrow neck. But I see it as a penguin, and I hope you do as well!

How I did this/ products used:

Index & pinky: BEGL Terrific Twos… SO gorgeous! I used 2 coats of top coat since it is a bit hungry for that.

Middle & ring fingers: Base color: BEGL It’s Almost After Midnight … this is a charcoal grey crelly with a strong blue shimmer. It’s difficult to see its beauty in these pics since it’s covered in nail art, but I swear it’s there! I’ll have to swatch it by itself for you sometime – love! Then I used Rica Whiteout to outline the penguin shape. I made the eyes with Rica Blackout and Whiteout using a dotting tool. I drew the beak and feet with Marc Jacobs Snap! using a small nail art brush. Then I drew on the wings with BEGL It’s Almost After Midnight using that same nail art brush.



So what do you think? Have you done animal nail art? If I didn’t say it was a penguin, would you have recognized it? Also, what’s your way to lift your spirits after a bad week/ day/ month? Here’s hoping for a better week this week! 🙂

Check out the other animal manis from the NCC ladies: