NOTD: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #5 - Celebrations: Chinese New Year

 Welcome to week 5 of Finger Food Nails' Theme Buffet! The theme for this week was birthdays and / or celebrations. When I first saw the theme for this week, I had no clue what to do. My birthday was a few weeks ago and I didn't get a chance to do my nails then. I didn't want to make a blatantly birthday design for no reason. And what could I be celebrating in the dead of winter?

Then I realized that this week's theme coincided nicely with the Chinese (or Lunar, if you prefer) New Year! Let's celebrate the year of the horse!




No, I'm not Chinese, but I did live in Japan for five years in a city with a large Chinese immigrant population, working with teachers from Asian countries and of Asian backgrounds. There are only a few holdovers of the Chinese traditions in Japanese culture (most notably celebrating the animals associated with each year ), but every year, friends and I would go into Kobe's Chinatown and enjoy the festivities. Before living abroad, I would do the same exact thing in Philly.

So, enough of me rambling! On to the mani!

I did this in the traditional red and gold for the holiday. They are so bright and cheerful, aren't they? You can't help but be happy surrounded by all the bright and holds colors and decorations. Salon Perfect's Salsa Dance is such a vibrant red, and the flecks of red in the gold of Butter London's West End Wonderland worked out perfectly.

The Chinese character written in black, 福 , is the character for good luck / good fortune. Yeah, my kanji/hanzi handwriting is kinda meh...but oh well. I'm somewhat better at writing on paper!

Polishes used in this manicure were:

• Red base: Salon Perfect - Salsa Dance
• Gold accents/ gradient: Butter London - West End Wonderland
• Black writing: Salon Perfect - Oil Slick

Overall, not my best work, but it was something fun, quick and easy <3 It was strange to pain on nails so much shorter than normal. (I suffered a bit of a break this past week and filed my nails down to match.) It's funny how my ring finger's nail will always seem longer than all the others just because the nail bed itself is longer. Between that and my crooked index finger, sometimes my nails drive me crazy in that lack of uniformity!

Come back next week to see the next manicure in the Theme Buffet series. In the meantime, I have a few swatches that I plan to show this week, and I also want to try doing Tri-Polish Tuesdays starting this week.

Don't forget to check out the other amazing manicures by the other ladies participating in the challenge, and don't forget to let me know what you think!