anime – Movies and Manicures

Nail polish can mean so many things to me. It’s how I de-stress when I’ve had a long day, and I’ve even read about the meditative effects of stopping everything in your life and focusing on the one task of polishing your nails perfectly when you need an extra boost of relaxation or creativity. It’s how I get to show off my fun side when I have to dress in pencil skirts more often than I don’t have to dress in pencil skirts. And, lately, it’s how I’ve been connecting to friends and family old and new both through this blog and through my various other nail-polish related social media.

So anyway, about the Mercury Bubbles. Sailor Moon, and more importantly Sailor Mercury, and I have had a long and complicated relationship in the past, and by that I mean I adored the show in the fourth and fifth grades, promptly forgot about it until college, and then remembered its hilarious combination of awfulness and wonderfulness when I used it to bond with my hallmates in my dorm.

In preparation for an ocean-themed party, here is my best friend Bri in the middle as Sailor Moon. I was dressed as Ophelia, because of course the English major dressed as Ophelia.

If you’ve read anything on this blog (and if you have, which means you’re one of my dozen or so readers, I can’t thank you enough!) you’ll know that my favorite color is blue. Additionally, I always found myself relating more to the brainy or nerdy characters in my favorite TV shows, mostly because growing up a geek sort of leads to that inevitable conclusion. So when the hallway-wide Pajamas-and-Sailor-Moon parties began, I immediately declared that my favorite character was Ami Mizuno, better known as Sailor Mercury.

In fact, it even got to the point where my one friend gave me a poorly (sorry, Lynda) photoshopped picture of some of us as the Sailor Scouts for my birthday that year.

And even to this day, Sailor Moon is bringing old and new friends together. I’m still in touch with all the girls in the pictures above, and I’ll be a bridesmaid in Sailor Moon’s wedding this fall (sorry, it’s not Sailor Scout-themed). More importantly, I’ve connected more with my cousin over Facebook and through this blog, and she was kind enough to send me some pretty spectacular nail polish when she figured out my love of Sailor Mercury.

Icy Rhapsody - Sailor Mercury Inspired Indie Nail Polish - 15 ml — Pictured: Not my nails. This is the official image from the Etsy shop.

The color is a Mercury-inspired silvery-blue called “Icy Rhapsody,” probably because of Mercury’s Freeze attack (which I accomplished in elementary school games of dress-up by throwing blue beanbags at my opponents). You can find the color on Etsy at this link. The shop is called Yume Lacquer, and I’m so excited to mention them here as they’re my first official Indie polishes! Yep, I’m a full-blown lacquerista now. Or at least I’ll pretend I am.

Here’s how the color looks on me. I’m absolutely in love with it.

I think it’s a great color both for lying by the pool in August and for making my nails sparkle in January, and I can’t thank my cousin enough (she also got me a Final Fantasy color from Yume Lacquer and some Doctor Who-themed perfumes from Fresh&Geeky, which I’ve been wearing daily because, come on, one of them is called Petrichor). It’s a great way to show my Mercury love, and to represent how Sailor Moon has helped me bond with so many amazing people.

Mercury Power,

Mary

Before we begin, a Public Service Announcement: today at Starbucks, a barista was wearing a Captain America Tiara. I am happier than I’ve got any right to be about the fact that these things exist.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

On today’s episode of “Oh my god, these people are so talented, why the hell do they hang out with me??” I present my friend Melissa, who is the most talented artist I’ve ever met in real life.

She’s posing with a llama, because I saw no reason not to include a picture of her posing with a llama.

Online, you may have heard of her, especially if you’re involved in some video game fandoms. Her handle is LuckyBlackCatXIII, or Lucky for short. She’s actually done Let’s Plays on YouTube and has quite the following on various art sites. Within the next couple of weeks, she’ll be displaying her art at a few Conventions (as we speak, she’s flying on a plane somewhere over the Midwest on her way to a few weeks/Cons in California), and I’d freaking love it if you’d support her.

Want some examples of her art?

I’d really love to see more of the home world trio later on, too bad Lapis is fused with the cheese puff though. Damn it.

Marisa Kirisame mini print! Out of the two main playable characters she’s always been my favorite. I really loved her theme and outfit in Fairy Wars but I think short sleeves fit her personality more than long sleeves.

And that’s the tip of the iceberg. I’ve picked three of her most recent pieces from her website, but she does things in about a million styles and in every type of media, so there are sure to be cool things at her booth in Artists’ Alley at Fanime.

You can check out her art, her wit, and her very liberal use of emoticons at her Tumblr, which can be found at this link. I think this is also the best way to contact her if you’d like to commission something – she’ll definitely talk to you about doing a piece for your very own!

And just to reinforce how awesome she is, here’s a picture of Melissa and her girlfriend Chelsea as Grunts from one of their favorite games, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. These costumes and the characters both terrify me, but that’s kind of the coolest thing ever.

I promise, more mani pictures will appear within the next few days – my new stamping plates finally came in, so I can’t wait to show off the cool stuff I’ve been doing with them!

All the best,

Mary

Tag: anime

MERCURY BUBBLES BLAST!

My Friends Do Cool Stuff: Volume III