Sorry this is a bit late! I've been really ill with a horrible cold so I've been in bed feeling sorry for myself this week =( sympathy please! But I'm here now. Also I always seem to be apologising for something lol I know you guys don't really mind!
Anyway. I love reading and I love books. The feel of them, the smell of them. There is an old book shop in Winchester that I loved to visit when I was at Uni, there's something so romantic about book shops don't you think? I have a small collection of books myself, mostly classics, historical fictions and fantasy.
It wasn't too hard to choose a particular book as I've been wanting to feature this series on my blog for a while now. I also wanted to avoid the obvious choices such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
Here are my nails this week:
They are based on a series of books by C. J. Sansom called The Matthew Shardlake Series, which comprises of 5 murder mysteries set in Tudor England. Now, I love a good murder mystery and these are the cream of the crop. Not only are the plots thick with intrigue and suspense but the characters are so well written that you can identify and empathise with them. This makes the plot twists even more shocking and enjoyable. I whole heartily recommend these books. Make sure you read them in order.
The colours I used for this are as follows:
No7 - Snowflake (horrible to work with, don't bother buying this one)
China Glaze - Red Satin (for the splatter)
Rio Nail Art Pens (for the rose)
Barry M - Gold Foil (for the crown)
No7 - Gold Glitter (for the centre of the rose and on the crown)
The Tudor Rose is an amalgamation of the White rose of York and the Red rose of Lancaster. After the Wars of the Roses (another fascinating period to study) the two were combined to unite the houses. The victor, Henry VII was a Tudor on his father's side and a Lancastrian on his Mothers (Margaret Beaufort). He married Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Edward IV) to end the Wars and to legitimise his claim to the crown. So the Tudor rose is both a symbol of unity and of dominion; the red rose is large and the white rose is smaller and encased within it.
The blood splatter is rather obvious, it represents the murders within the series. I used a straw dipped in the polish bottle to create the splatters, there are loads of tutorials online so if you want to have a go then have a google!
The crown relates directly to Henry VIII who features heavily within the books. The third book, Sovereign, is about the progress to York (1541) where Henry takes his entire household on a trip to the north of the country to get the local lords and barons to submit to him in an attempt to quell the rebellions that were taking place there. He was married to Katherine Howard at the time.... and we all know what happens to her in the end. Eek.
I love Tudor history. It's so rich and full! There is also extensive documentation of the period which helps historians work out what really happened. At the same time though there are still lots of mysteries, for example did Anne Boleyn really have an affair? Did she deserve to be beheaded or was it a fix by Henry VIII so that he could remarry? I guess there are some things we'll never know but there are loads of speculations and the history of the time is fascinating to read about. I love that the Shardlake series contain so many real events in them, it gives them a depth that otherwise they may not have had.
Gemx also picked a murder-based book! Ah they're so good!
"Again this week was really difficult to choose a book out of so many, but very fun to do!
The book I choose is The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss. It's a series of spy novels featuring the very dandy Lucifer Box and it is full of murder, intrigue and debauchery. I tried to base my nails this week on the book cover. So I have the a gun, the boutonnière flowers and a cigarette.
I used OPI DS Classic as the base and then used Andrea Fulerton nail art colours in black and silver and a bit of Models Own Golden Peach and Revlon Cherries in the Snow for colouring in the flowers.
If you like Victorian era spy novels that are a little bit funny and cheeky you will love this book!"
These nails are so cool! I think Gem has done a fab job, especially with the gun; it looks super! I need to pick this book up for sure, even the cover looks good (I'm a sucker for good cover art!) I like that Gem used neutral colours like the book cover, I didn't think to do that with mine!
So there we have it. Do please give these books a read. I'll be doing a better review of the Shardlake series very soon. I would suggest you go and see Alli's nails but for some reason her blog appears to have been removed.. I don't know why.. I'm sure there'll be an explanation =)
-Leisha
EDIT: I added Gem's picture and text =) apparently the email didn't send properly last week because I never got it =( sorry Gem, they're up now!
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