California Condor

Hello people! The animal we're gonna look at today is the California Condor. Warning, there's nothing cute about it.

Except for the baby. The baby is kind of cute. 

     The California condor is a gigantic bird that lives in Arizona, Utah, and of course, California. It's a carrion bird, so it pretty much only eats things that are already dead, being particularly partial to the bodies of large mammals like livestock, coyotes, and deer. The California condor is perfectly content to live its life minding its own business and peacefully eating dead things, but it is facing extinction today because of dumb people. Dumb people killing them to put them in museums and dumb people hunting them out of fear that the condors were killing domestic animals. A quick trip to the library would tell you that these animals are lazy and don't even like to hunt. Finally, the condors were dying from other things like lead poisoning, flying into electric wires, and eating meat poisoned by pesticides The government has been trying to bring their numbers up by breeding them in captivity and teaching them to avoid dangerous things, but these birds are still very close to extinction right now, which would be sad because in a way, they're the last of their kind.

 For my California condor nail look, I did this:

This was about as easy as it looks. I did two layers of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Radiate, and then put one thick layer of Zoya Loredana on top, in a v-shape. Lastly, I put a little yellow gem at the bottom of the V. I didn't use any topcoat, because I wanted to keep the flatter texture of the colors. 

This time around, I didn't want to do a literal thing for the bird, but more wanted to represent the colors on the condor in the same proportions that they appear on the actual animal. My index finger came out kind of janky and the lines on the other fingers are not straight (I should have used tape), but all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. In real life, you can't see the imperfections, so it looks a little smoother. I also like the contrast of Radiate's brightness against Loredana's darkness and the flatness.  So I'm a pretty happy camper.

And that's all from me today!

Thanks for reading, and have a great Monday!

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Traffic

   Hi guys! For today, I have Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Traffic. 

Traffic is a bright, school bus yellow creme. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash. 

Sunlight, no flash.

    I'm not sure why, but lately, I've been more and more into yellows, and Traffic is a pretty one. It features a rich and full-bodied shade of yellow and made me want to paint smiley faces on my nails. I also feel like it doesn't look horrible on me, so yay for that.

    However, Traffic had a horrendous formula. And I know that a tough application is par for the yellow course, but Traffic took it to a whole other level. I needed five coats (yes five) to calm the streaks and bald spots, and by then, my nails were so thick and unattractive that I ended up taking this off soon after taking the pictures. So as much as I like the color, I'm going to purge this one. The thought of dealing with it again makes me want to cry. 

And that's all from me today! Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!