Hello lovelies!
This month, The Digit-al Dozen focuses on the person behind the nail art, the blogger herself, the individual.. which for this particular little corner of the internet is ME! So the upcoming 5 days, I'll let you get to know me through some manicures and I thought it would be fun to start with my name...

First, let's focus on the incredible polish I used as my base here: Incidental Twin "Married to the Wind", a gorgeous mint crelly with bright gold flakies and a subtle blue shimmer. It dries naturally matte. This is three coats, flawless application and a wonderful effect!
Then I painted the roses, using a dotting tool and a detail brush, with BPS baby pink stamping polish, Essie "Too Taboo", Essence "Wild White Ways" and NYC "High Line Green". I sealed it in with SV.
What does this have to do with my name? Well "Lothwen" is my alias. It's a name I assigned myself when I was 15. I was completely infatuated with The Lord of the Rings and I studied JRR Tolkien's "The Silmarillion", which has a thesaurus in the back. I studied the words and etymologies for ages, I was so intrigued... I wanted to give myself an Elvish name, so I combined the Sindarin word "loth" - flower - with the suffix "-wen", meaning maiden. So "flower maiden". Being a sort of modern hippie at the time, it was very appropriate ;) I was, am and always will be a nerd! Starting this blog, I wanted to use an alias, as I was soon to look for jobs and didn't know whether people would appreciate my hobby, as they googled me. So I used the one I had given myself more than a decade earlier. My last name, "Akira", actually refers to my friend, who convinced me to start blogging and actually ran it with me in the very beginning! It's a mispronunciation of her actual name, invented by one of our idiot professors.
I haven't read Sami's book yet, but it's on my list! And this wonderful polish has bumped it up on the list quite a bit...
And no! I'm not going to give you my actual name! I'm still on a temporary contract at my job, so plausible deniability is everything... Lot's of men in my line of work, you see...
Did you ever give yourself a fictional name?
LOL - all this time I thought that was really your name!! Now I know! :) And I knew it had to do with flowers after your last Digit-al Dozen theme of florals! What a great tidbit to learn about you.
ReplyDeleteThanks ;) :D
DeleteLove that fun fact! Neat way to come up with your online alias! I had a tricky time coming up with mine��
ReplyDeleteThanks! Lol yes, and over time I've gotten quite attached to it!
DeleteAll this time I thought that was your real name...who knew! I love it and wish I had a cool name and story to share, I'm just Krystal...lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Lol but Krystal already means something beautiful and sparkly, so I think you got a good one ;)
DeleteGorgeous polish and roses!!! Loved reading this post - so meaningful! ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you!! :)
DeleteI was kinda sure this wasn't your real name but never really dared asking!
ReplyDeleteMy blog name contains the word light, which actually comes from lightmistress, my online name since I was in my 20s, aka almost 20 years now. I was an online player and nobody felt like writing the whole name in chats so I was "light" and that's part of me by now.
Anyway, you know I loved this mani at first sight on Instagram. I love the colours you used and I think you painted the most adorable flowers!
Thank you so much!
DeleteAnd how cool that I now know where your name comes from too! Yes, isn't it funny how a made-up name can become so much a part of you? Perhaps it's because we made them up ourselves...
This is such a gorgeous manicure! I loved hearing about how you came up with your pseudonym, too :)
ReplyDeleteI wish I could get my flowers to look this nice! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThese nails are so pretty!! Also, I totally Lothwen was your real name too haha. I love the meaning behind it though!
ReplyDeleteI thought your name might be an alias. But I did know what Lothwen means. :-) I'm nerdy/geeky too. Yes, I have an alias, it's CurliLocks! :) I used to use it as my log in for google until recently. I still use it in several places.
ReplyDeleteThat blue is so sparkly and gorgeous. Also, the detail on those little roses are absolutely beautiful! How do you do it? I wish I could be so precise ;)
ReplyDelete