Flip Flop February-Day 28

Aw, it's the last day of this challenge!
I'm going to miss it!
It has been loads of fun, trying new things, meeting new people.

So for our last day, Jilltastic Nail Design gave us another very open option-Recreate your Favorite Day.
So for me, that was Day 8-Color Blocking, when I tried the interlocking color blocks.
Some of the others also did that mani for that day, but took it a step further and added more dots behind the interlocking, so today, I took that cue from them.

I used a base color of Darling Diva Polish's Seriously Serious, from her Holiday 2012 release.
It is an incredibly shiny, glittery combination of a deep dark purple and bright sparking green, and I don't know if the red that pops through is from what I had on under or if it was from this polish, too.
I was so excited when I got it the other day that I just tossed it on over what I had on (another purple, surprise surprise, that one with multichrome, so the red might just be from the previous mani.)
When DDP had their quickie sale last week, I jumped right on that.
There had been a good few polishes on my wish list from them, so I sprang for this one, and then their offer was a random other polish from their current stock for free.
They were so good as to give me the one that I mentioned in my note to seller-at least that way I saved them the effort of looking up my history, because they went through each and every sale that day and looked up the sales history and made sure that the free bottle was not one the customer had already bought!
Isn't that amazing customer service?
Yes, yes it is!
And that isn't the end of it!
I placed my order at around 10:30 that morning.
It shipped by 12:45 that afternoon!
And because they are only one state over from me, it arrived in two days!
Holy fast shipping, Batman!
So, I have to say, Buy Darling Diva Polishes!
They are amazing!

Oh, yeah, this is about the challenge, isn't it.

So I used cellophane tape, de-stickified, to tape off half of my nail, then painted over that with China Glaze Starboard, then dotted away!

This was my favorite nail.

I topped it off with a coat of OPI Start-To-Finish.
Next time I do this, and there WILL be a next time, I need to use Gelous instead, because my nails are all bumpy from the dots.
(Oh, yeah, I forgot, I used a dot of CG VIII as unders for the Seriously Serious to better color match the rest of the nail, but only on the first row of dots. The rest were straight on to the green.)

Last day of this challenge.
We made it, woohoo!
Thank you, Jilltastic Nail Designs , for setting this up and running it!

Take a look at what the others really liked, through the Inlinks links below.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 27

Almost through the 28 Day Challenge!
Today, Jilltastic Nail Designs set us the challenge to Recreate Someone Else's challenge manicure.
That led to much enjoyable net-surfing, but I finally decided to recreate Tezzie's Day 8, Color Blocking manicure.
I don't have any of the polishes she used, but I have similar ones, so I started with a base color of Wet & Wild's I Need A Refresh-mint.
Then I taped off one side, or rather, I put some striping tape down the middle of the nail (post Seche Vite and some drying time.)

Then on one side (whichever side looked the patchiest, because INAR is only ALMOST a one coater) I put down Zoya Trixie-I love Trixie!

And then, rip!, off came the tape before the polish dried too much.
Next, I put a strip of tape horizontally across my nail, and then realized that I needed that original line back in, so that one got put back on.

Then I filled one quadrant with Zoya Storm (yummy!) and another with Wet & Wild Saved By The Blue.
And then again, quickly ripped off the tapes.

Then I grabbed my severely underused black striper and went to town, making the color blocks more defined.
And then I used more Seche Vite.
That was my mistake.
I smeared the striping black on my middle finger, ugh.

Oh, well, good enough for real life.
Here is another picture of the finished product, more in the style that Tezzilicious showed hers.

This was a lot of fun to recreate!
I tell you, I could do another month's worth of manis with all the choices we all put up to copy!

Only one more day!
Wow!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 26

Whew!
This challenge is almost complete!
It has been so fun, and I will miss taking a look at everyone's manis every day.

Today we are offered an opportunity to do a Theme that we Missed or to use our favorite polish.
I did a Gradient, since I did a Skittle on Day 1.

This is a glitter gradient with Orly Rose Radiance (previously untried) and Butter London Rosie Lee.
It was really simple to do, just brushing on glitter over the base color starting from the cuticle edge and dragging outward, repeating, stopping a little earlier to get some build up.

I wonder what the others are revisiting, or what their favorite polishes are.
I know I have a hard time deciding nowadays-always used to be Zoya Isla, but now?
Too many choices.

Adios!
Lizajane~~
 

Flip Flop February-Day 25

The choices that Jill gave us today were extremely flexible.
We could use tape to create a manicure.
Or we could venture on to YouTube and find a tutorial to follow.
That's what I did.
Robin Moses does loads of YouTube tutorials and the one that I chose was Animal Print Nails (2 designs in 1).
You may remember that I am not an animal print person, so just considering this for my nails is a huge stretch for me!

I started out with a base of OPI's Designer De Better on all my nails.

Then I pick up a little bit of Maybelline's Onyx Rush on a brush and went to it.
I started on my ring finger so that if I hated it, I could stop there.
But it wasn't so bad, so I kept on.

I decided it still was OK, so I tried to do my off hand.

Not as good, but still not bad.

Then I waited a bit and added a coat of Seche Vite.

Designer De Better is so shiny, you can see a reflection of my red shopping basket in my index finger!
This was more fun that expected and stretched my boundaries.
Take a look at what the others have done today!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 24

I loved today's challenge!
Tissue Paper or Rainbow!
I decided to do the Tissue Paper, but as usual, things took a 90 degree turn when I actually sat down to DO the manicure.
I intended to use this lovely white with silver tracings tissue paper, but apparently we used it all for Christmas gifts!
Well, that is what it was purchased for, so I guess I can't complain.

Now what?
Skittle!

I was talking in  an online forum about the new Pixie Dust polishes from Zoya, about how I felt that London was what I was expecting from NerdLacquer's Don't Blink.
So this has Don't Blink, Zoya Purity with a tissue paper TARDIS, London with top coat and London without topcoat.
And my hubby's Sonic Screwdriver (that I bought him.)

Doing this mani, I SO was wishing for an Exacto Knife.
The TARDIS would have been so much better.

You can see the differences in the two London finishes better in this photo.

Did you snag any Nerd Lacquers when they were re-released this month?

Be sure to see the other manicures, everyone does such nice work!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 23

I am scheduling this post because today I will be very busy, it is my daughter's baby shower today!

Back in the nail world, today's options that Jilltastic Nail Designs offered us are Lightning and Bows.
I really wanted to do Lightning, but I also wanted to use another design from a Vivid Lacquer stamping plate.
I put down a base color coat of Julep Amber alternating with Maybelline Onyx Rush, and then stamped the bow image with the opposite color.

This happens so often, I don't know why I don't just start it this way, but I liked my accent nail loads more than the rest of the manicure.
I think the Maybelline did not stamp as well as I was hoping, but I was experimenting to find another black to stamp with.

Take a bit of time to check out what the others have done for today.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 22

Day 22-Plaid or Mustache.
Heeee! I had to choose the Mustache!
I think they are so fun, although the uber-popularity is something that is at least a generation away from me.

Such a simple little mani!
(Such horribly dry cuticles, sorry!)

Because I AM of a different generation, I decided to do a variety of 'staches, or should I say, facial hair?

We've got Handlebar, Fu Manchu, Pornstache, and Amish Beard.

Another one that I had loads of fun with!
Thanks, Jill!

Be sure to see what the other artists did today!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 21

I have SO been looking forward to today's challenge-I have never tried Flames!
Unfortunately, I ended up not doing them, but only because I saw a gorgeous Dot mani that I wanted to copy!
I feel certain that I Pinned it, but "ain't nobody got time for that".
So, I present to you-

My Dot manicure!
I think I was thinking of this for Day 7-Pattern, because the color order is the same on all the nails, outside the accent nail which got a row of purple also, but I then did my chevron stamping and saved this for today!

Loads of colors went into this.
Base color coat of Zoya Purity (previously untried) and Revlon Snow Bunny, and then dots of Essie Geranium (red), Sally Girl Amped (orange), Julep Courtney (green), Madison (neon pink) and Hayden (peach), and the accent purple is OPI The One To Watch.

Love this mani!
Definitely going to be a repeat!

Have you had a mani that you just LOVED recently?

Please take a few minutes and look at the other nail fiends who are doing this 28 Day Challenge that Jilltastic Nail Design put together.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 20

I can fool myself the rest of the month that I chose my manicure design because it was new to me, but today, I chose easy.
Yes, it is new to me, but the V Gap is definitely easier than flowers.

That being said, I really enjoyed this mani.

As you might have noticed, I have a bit of a Fly By The Seat Of My Pants attitude, added to an "Directions Are More Of A Guide" mindset.
So this mani started out like in the picture above, with Rimmel Black Satin, Orly Androgynie and Butter London Knees Up.
And that is a perfectly fine mani.
But it didn't really fit the bill.
So I changed it up, making the "V" deeper.

There we go!
As you can see, I reversed the colors on my thumb.
This is a very different from my normal style manicure, but I liked it a lot!

And today, I saw a star with this style on her nails!
Vanessa Hudgens! (Image ganked from tomandlorenzo.com, check them out, they are fun despite their horribly out of touch attitude about manicures.)

This will be something to pull out and do again sometime, unlike certain other techniques (I'm looking at you, Sugar Spun!)

Treat yourself to the art that everyone else has done for today's challenge!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 19

Welcome to my entry for Day 19 of Jilltastic Nail Design's 28 Day Flip/Flop February Challenge.
This didn't start out to be for the challenge, it was just something I was trying, but as it evolved, it ended up being JUST RIGHT for today.

I started out with a color base of Revlon Coastal Surf on most of my nails and then China Glaze White on White for the accent nail.
After giving them a few minutes to set, I added some Darling Diva Snowball.
Gelous, Seche Vite and I was good to go, I thought.

I wore them that way to work and they just didn't feel...right.
The white wasn't working for me.
So I clipped most of the bristles off the brush on the back side of my dotter (something I had been thinking about doing for some months now) and framed the white out with Coastal Surf.
Ah! That hits the spot!

This is my only Darling Diva Polish, so far!
But her service was so incredible that I will be happy to order from her again.

Be sure to check out the other participants in the challenge, and see all the Wings and Outlines.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 18

Yay! I have been waiting for this one!

Today's options are Galaxy or Rhinestones.
I chose to do the Galaxy-I totally love these manis, even though I don't wear them often enough.
I used a TON of polishes in this mani!
Thirteen different polishes and two top coats-that is even more than the last time I did them!
They were Zoya Raven & Charla, Revlon Snow Bunny and Impulsive, Sally Hansen Vibrant and Hard Lemonade, Sinful Colors Cloud 9 and Call You Later, Wet and Wild Kaleidoscope, OPI Ski Teal We Drop (and Start to Finish topcoat), Rimmel Promiscuous, Butter London The Black Knight, NYC Matte Me Crazy.
And last, but not least, Enchanted Polish "Across the Universe"! (See what I did there?)

Okay, but I felt they were missing something.
So I matted them.

See the shiny of the Kaleidoscope?
But it still didn't feel right, so I top coated it.

Almost.
And then I realized what was missing.
Individual stars!

There! That does it!
I love Galaxy Nails-there really isn't a wrong way to do them!

Take a look at the other participants in Jilltastic Nail Design's fantastic 28 Day Challenge!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 17

I was SO looking forward to this day's challenge.
Immediately upon seeing the list, I knew what I wanted to do, but after a bit, I thought I should give the "real" technique a try.
I knew that I wanted to do the Newspaper manicure, so I started with a base of Don't Pretzel My Buttons.

This is the true color of the polish, but in person it looked spookily like manikin hands.
This low light picture show that aspect better-

To do this technique, you apparently soak a piece of a cheap newspaper with alcohol, then press it onto the nail.
I tried, really I did.
I brought home a page of the local rag from work, since I don't take a paper here, selected a likely section, lay it on my nail and then used at least two alcohol wipes to soak it and press down on it.
Totally didn't work.
The polish was dulled a little, at best.

You can ~almost~ see a smudge at the base of the top finger's nail.

So back to Plan A!
Plan A was to stamp using another image from Vivid Lacquer, VL004 this time.

I stamped using China Glaze Call of the Wild from 2012's Safari collection.
It really worked well!

It worked well, but ~I~ didn't, still working on my stamping skills.
Somehow, I wiggle the stamper and end up with curved straight lines.
I wonder if it is the stamper-I have a really soft double sided one, and have heard that the Konad are stiffer.

I topped the stamping with my NYC Matte Me Crazy, that really made it work, looked much more like a newspaper.

This manicure worked out exactly like I had imagined it right away, I love it!

Take a look at the other participants in Jilltastic's 28 Day Challenge-they always are so creative.
I always like seeing how many others did the same part of the challenge as I did and how many chose the other, which today was a delicate print.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 16

Real quick post this time-somehow the time just slipped away from me!

Day 16! Animal Prints or Stripes!

I hates Animal Prints!
We hateses them, Baggins!

So, I did stripes-although, funnily enough, now that I think about it, there IS an animal involved.

I know, I know, it sure doesn't LOOK like there is an animal involved.
BUT! The brown? It is Enchanted Polish's I Am The Walrus! (Link goes to Llarowe.)
I used as a base Sally Hansen InstaDri In A Flash, then used striping tape and painted over it with Walrus, then pulled the tape off to expose the Flash.

Walrus is ah-may-zing!
I was really really lucky and won the full Beatles set from Enchanted Polish on Facebook!
Lovely and generous!

Check out the other stripe manicures, and I suppose, the animal print ones, too.
People get SO creative!

Adios!
Lizajane~~