Lizard-inspired Manicure - LA Splash Sparkling Beach, Nubar Verde, LA Girl Blackout

Jme and I went to watch The Amazing Spiderman in IMAX on Wednesday, how exciting!! =)

I thought it was done really well, and kept to the spirit of Spidey (the comicbook smartarse). We watched it in 3D at IMAX, and I must say, this really is one film that maximised the giant screen experience! Also, how adorable is Andrew Garfield as Spiderman in it? Aaaaaah~!

So, I thought and thought about what mani I should wear to go to the movies but really, Jme's already done TWO AWESOME SPIDEY MANICURES! So I decided not to even try and instead, go for a villainous manicure instead! So here's my villainous Lizard manicure...

[The Lizard Manicure]

... or really any scaley creature... =p Hey, last time I did a Loki-inspired mani and Jme did the Avengers-inspired one... Hmmm, I'm (spidey-)sensing a trend here...

[Bottle to nail: LA Splash Sparkling Beach (2 coats)]

I started with a base of LA Splash in Sparkling Beach. This is a pretty amazing mossy green with heavy gold shimmer/microglitter. It's hard to describe what it is really! Not quite a glitter, not quite a foil or metallic. It does dry a bit gritty but I think the texture really adds to the look. Very densely pigmented and even application.

[2 coats: LA Splash Sparkling Beach]

I got my bottle from a discount store and I don't think it's listed as a current shade. However, eyeballing swatches and descriptions online, it looks pretty similar to LA Splash Komodo Dragon so perhaps this is the old name for it!

[2 coats: LA Splash Sparkling Beach]

I originally thought the heavy gold shimmer reminded me of Nubar Verde but when I compared the bottles, Verde is much greener whereas Sparkling Beach leans more towards the yellow end of the spectrum. Now, on to the stamping!

[Base: LA Splash Sparkling Beach (2 coats); Stamp: Nubar Verde + LA Girl Blackout]

I stamped with a gradient of darker green to black using Nubar Verde and LA Girl Blackout. You can see here that Nubar Verde is a much greener shade. These two photos are pre-top coat but I thought the matte stamp looked pretty cool too! The plate I used was BM-224.

[Base: LA Splash Sparkling Beach (2 coats); Stamp: Nubar Verde + LA Girl Blackout]

And here it is with topcoat added! This is my first time using two different colours to stamp - it's super easy! I'll have to do this more often...

[Base: LA Splash Sparkling Beach (2 coats); Stamp: Nubar Verde + LA Girl Blackout]

I like how the stamp looks slightly raised. =) I got an interesting comment that it looked like spider webs! I hadn't even mentioned it was Spidey-related! This is because they focused on the lighter gold-green and thought it looked like webs stretched across the nail - how interesting!

Back to the movie, I have to say though, OH MY, the amount of bad science depicted. Noooooooo~ The Lizard was interesting as a villain but perhaps more could've been done with exposition. Although so much was spent on Peter acquiring powers that maybe it was "beyond the scope of this project". Wink wink!

Next movie... The Dark Knight Rises! CAN'T WAIT!