I will take what is mine with fire and blood - LNTC-3D

Hey y'all!

If you read my post on Monday for St. Patrick's Day, you know I teased today's post.  Can I just say how excited I am that this manicure is finally seeing the light of day?  Be forewarned, it's HUGELY pic-heavy, and for good reason!

When I read through the prompts for the Llama Nails Challenge and saw 3D, I had to have a good long think about what I would do, since I've used so many 3D elements in manis past.  Then I read that season 4 of Game of Thrones is coming in April, and this look started forming in my little head.  I wanted to pay tribute to Daenerys and her beautiful babies, so I have created a dragon egg manicure for you!  As a bonus, I've put together a little pictorial for how I created this look, so be sure to read through to the end if you want to see it.

Where to start?  Daenerys Targaryen, the Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi, Mhysa.  She is absolutely one of my favorite characters of the series (I haven't read the books yet - sue me).  She's beautiful, powerful, and probably my favorite part, she's got her own frikkin dragons!

In the first season, Dany is presented with three dragon eggs as a wedding gift.  The species was supposed to be extinct, but we'll get to that later.  The three eggs are not widely described in the series, but I pulled a description from the book, which says one is deep green with bronze flecks, one is pale cream streaked with gold, and the third is black as midnight sea with scarlet ripples and swirls.

Obviously, I've created one of each of the eggs, and my thumb and pinky are both glittery white to represent Daenerys herself.

I know it's cheesey, but I thought there would never be a better time to pull out my little purple dragon as a prop than today.  I actually tried to use it when I reviewed the Belle Glamour Harry Potter collection, but it's not exactly easy to pose with it, so I left those out.  Today, I put in the extra work FOR YOU, reader!

Each of the eggs eventually hatches a dragon whose markings resemble the eggs from whence they came.

The green dragon she names Rhaegal, for her deceased brother Rhaegar Targaryen.  The cream one she names Viserion, for her deceased brother Viserys Targaryen.  The largest and most aggressive of the clutch is Drogon, named for her deceased husband Khal Drogo the Dothraki.

I cannot wait to see how big the brothers have grown when season 4 returns!!

Obligatory macros:

So... to create this look, I used the following polishes:

No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.  Or at least break it down by nail (yes, I totally just crossed fandoms with that one).

Daenerys Targaryen

Zoya Luna and OPI Solitaire

Both of my Dany nails began with two coats of Solitaire, followed by one coat of Luna.

Drogon

Sally Hansen Licorice, Maybelline Onyx Black, Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar, Rimmel Ruby Crush

Drogon's scales are painted with Sugar Sugar followed by Onyx Black, and the base of the nail is one coat of Licorice followed by a very thin coat of Ruby Crush.

Rhaegal

Belle Glamour Ron, Revlon Forest, Rimmel Total Eclypse
Not pictured: OPI Honey Ryder

Rhaegal's scales are 2 coats of Ron, topped with one dabbed coat of Forest.  The base nail is Total Eclypse mixed with a drop of Honey Ryder.

Viserion

OPI Honey Ryder, My Vampire is Buff, Solitaire
Not pictured: Belle Glamour Golden Snitch

Viserion's scales are My Vampire is Buff followed by Golden Snitch, followed by My Vampire is Buff again.  The base nail is Honey Ryder mixed with a drop of Solitaire.

Assembling the nail art:

I began several days beforehand by selecting and counting out how many studs I would need to create the scales for my dragon eggs.  Since I didn't have enough heart studs to do all three, I used the biconvex lens shape for the cream and gold egg.  Pictures 1 and 2 show each coat of polish as it was added on, leaving a day between each for good dry time.  On the cream egg, I thought I could get away with not doing a base color, but that was obviously wrong, so I wound up using MVIB on the first coat and Golden Snitch on the second.

The third picture shows where I added the top color for each egg.  I mostly dabbed these on, because I didn't want to completely cover my base colors.  Also, forgive the dog hair.  It happens.

I wanted to create a textured base for the scales to sit on, as that's how I imagine real dragon egg shells would be, so I mixed my textured polishes together to give the right color combos to match my scales.

 Once my bases were dry, applying the scales was a fairly simple matter.  I used fairly thick swipes of SV, one layer at a time, and placed the scales on, staggering them across the rows.

Once all my scales were placed, I sealed the entire mass in with another good coat of SV to make them glossy, while leaving the texture underneath the studs alone, because I wanted that contrast to be visible.

PHEW!  I'm exhausted all over again!  Are you?

I think the pictorial pretty well shows my steps but if you have any questions feel free to leave them down in the comments and I'll answer them as best I can.

I hope you love this look, whether you watch Game of Thrones or not!

Also be sure to check out the other 3D looks being shown today by the Llama ladies!