GOT- the yellow wallpaper

Ok I confess this is not the prettiest mani you've ever seen (even by my standards of nail art lol). But, in my defence, it's deliberate.

I kinda wasn't feeling the whole leopard print idea tbh, and i couldn't make the colours work. And then I remembered the short story I just read. The yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman written at the turn of the twentieth century. I don't particularly want to write a full on book review but I liked it a lot (and it's free on Kindle and about twenty pages long so you're not losing a lot lol).

It's a first person narrative (or something like that), with a steam-of-consciousness feel. Written from the point of view of a woman who's physician husband takes her to the country for a 'rest cure' to treat her 'hysterical depression', it explores the treatment of women's mental health at the told and the position of women in general. Gilman has a background of non fiction feminist works and works this, along with her personal experience of post natal depression, into the book.

Having been denounced as a hysterical woman the narrator is removed from all activities considered to be over-stimulating, including working, writing and most social contact. She spends most of her time in a single room where she becomes fixated on the hideous wallpaper, desperate to apply meaning and purpose to it.

And I don't want to write a synopsis either so I'll stop there. Suffice to say it's a good read, simultaneously gripping and thought-provoking. And now you've discovered why I'm not a literature blogger I'll move on to the mani.

I thought I'd try to emulate the wallpaper that was so abhorred by the books narrator. I'm not suggesting either of the polishes used are horrible in fact the base colour, tarastalons sandcastles is a favourite of mine (and another from the first mystery bag way back when). But I don't wear it alone because yellow really doesn't suit me as a colour...It gets featured a lot in rainbow based designs though :).

Check one got hideousness: a full mani of a colour that looks horrible with my skin tone. Next I took tarastalons (www.thetaraemporium.co.uk) lush lemon nail art pen (not that old tbh, is from the Christmas gift box but Meh I don't have many yellows!). It's very very close in colour but not quite the same. Check two: jarring colour combo, not close enough to match not different enough to contrast. Then I drew random patterns with no real plan or design. Check three: pointless unstructured design.

I didn't top coat because I liked the texture of the slightly raised design. In the same way I like the polishes separately, I also quite like the concept. Maybe I'll try it in a different colour scheme sometime. So there you have it my hideous mani :p. X