Untried Polish Challenge-Prettiest

Skipping around again, but that's OK, Jonochi said so! Thanks, Jo! That freedom makes this so much more enjoyable of a challenge.

This was a bit of a challenge, choosing which polish was to be classified as "Prettiest". I was thisclose to calling my "Most Expensive" polish my prettiest, but ...then I wouldn't have something for that category! I am glad that I decided to do this one, though. It truly is a very pretty polish.

Not that it shows in this picture! I wanted to have a pic that I would (for once) do some color adjusting on, because I knew this Periwinkle blue would not show up decently. And I was testing my idea for nail art, which, BTW, I passed on, and I came up with a much prettier alternative! With another untried! Win-win!

Anyway, this still looks more purple than I want it to, but it is a gorgeous periwinkle in person.

What polish, you ask? Salon Perfect Pure Azure. This is OPI Matte Nail Envy, two coats of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!,  1 x Seche Vite, and then two coats of Pure Azure. There was also a stamping attempt in there, but I decided that it didn't work.

Then what? I decided to put a dot line with Zoya Song at the edge of the Periwinkle French and then a dot line of Julep Isla inside that.

Rough and ready.

That worked for the Frenched fingers (thumb and pinkie on left, other three on right). So what to do on the other nails?

More stamping, anyone? I used the Vivid Lacquer scribble heart image from VL001 and the whole nail full of scribble hearts from VL009. Stamping polishes were Song and Isla.

I think that Isla is a new favorite, surprisingly. She looks like such an old lady in the bottle, a pearly white, but she does such an excellent job as a subtle stamper, that I think she is another "Prettiest" untried polish!

Xs and Os from VL001

So happy with the way this turned out! Now I have a great mani to wear to my uncle's wedding on Saturday! And I can't stop turning my hands this way and that to see the sparkle in Song!

By the way, this was inspired by Pkbmum's post here. Inspired by, not "a copy of".

Check out the rest of the UPC Bloggers' manicures for today. Only two more prompts left? 

Jo at Just Add Polish 

Masha at Lost In Lacquer

Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art 

 Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone Files
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish

Alison at UKNailRunner 

Adios!
~~Lizajane

PS-What do you use for your blog photos? Instagram is becoming more "social" and I don't like clogging that up with manicure pics.

Tri-Polish Challenge-May #4

Fourth issue of the May 2013 Tri-Polish Challenge presented by Crumpet's Nail Tarts!
If you are unfamiliar with the TPC, each month we are told three colors, and then we have to select a polish to represent each color. We then do four manicures with those colors-at least one has to have all three colors, up to three can have only two of the month's colors. We also are allowed to use black, white, silver, gold, and glitter top coat.

May's colors are Red, Blue, and Gray.

My selections!

For my fourth mani, I decided to do more stamping. I used the Butterfly wing image from Vivid Lacquer. She has both a larger and a smaller wing design (on two different plates) and I used the smaller, because nubbins.

First I put down a coat of a white, and then sponged over it with Elisa and Song.

I stamped using Zoya Raven, and I was disappointed by the coverage. I had hoped that this would be my Holy Grail of black stamping polishes, but it was not. (I bought yesterday Wet & Wild Fast Dry "Ebony Hates Chris" which has been highly recommended.) Because the coverage wasn't sufficient, I took my cut down nail art brush and went over the lines with more Raven.

I love how this turned out! The plate's etching is great, and the artwork has more graceful lines than certain other plates I have seen, plus I didn't have to try to do it by hand!

Check out the other Tart's May Wrap Up manicures by following the links below.

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Tri-Polish Challenge-May #3

Happy Tuesday!
Yesterday was Memorial Day in the USA, so I did a mani in honor of that. The color choices worked out great for it.

I put down a base color of Zoya Elisa (my red choice of the month) and then tried out a stamping image for half moons. I have had this Vivid Lacquer plate for quite a while and hadn't tried the half moons-there are two on plate VL005, as well as a solid one on VL002. I stamped with Zoya Song (my blue choice of the month.)

If you look closely, you can see there are stars in that moon!

After stamping, I outlined the half moon with my silver striper and then put lines out, like a shield.
I really like the way this turned out, more than the alternative which I tried on my thumb, reversing the two colors.

The red didn't show up as well on the blue. Well, probably it fell down when I tried to use the silver striper to fill in the stars. Live and learn, that is why we experiment, right?

Thank you to all who have served their countries, in any capacity. Personally, few of my relatives have been to war. Both grandfathers served stateside in WWII, Dad was stateside Army, hubby Coast Guard, cousin Coast Guard currently. I guess we have just been lucky.

Take a look at what the other Tarts have come up with using their Gray, Red, and Blue polish choices.

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Cheapest

My cheapest untried? How about a Sally Girl, on clearance? Yep, that is what it is.
This was a color that I just couldn't justify paying even the cheap price of 99 cents. So when it went on clearance, I grabbed it at 59 cents!

This is Sally Girl 812161, three coats, which I put on over a coat of China Glaze White On White-needed some unders with the Blaze Orange!

I paired it with another polish from the Evil League of Evil Collex from Vivid Lacquer-Random Crazy Happenstance.

There were occasional bright orange pieces in RCH that made me think this might work, so pinkie has RCH by itself, and pointer has it over the Sally Girl.

This got the three coats because it dragged a little on the second coat, although I may have been in a rush to get this done.

Another couple of colors that I will have to pull out come fall.

I love how this picture looks like an old-fashioned hand tinted photograph. Positively unnaturally glowy.

59 cents! Pretty darn cheap! That's a whole lotta color for that little price!

Only two more prompts left! Jo, what should we do when this is done? Thanks for organizing this challenge.

Jo at Just Add Polish 

Masha at Lost In Lacquer

Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art 

 Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone Files
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish

Alison at UKNailRunner 

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Creme

 

This particular polish should have been in the running for "prettiest", but I didn't realize it until I had already decided on that category.

For the creme prompt I chose to feature Julep Millie from the May 2013 box. I love Art Nouveau and the pretties in this box hark back to that era. Millie is a lovely deep purple creme.

It applies beautifully-this is one coat. Absolutely lovely.

Of course, I couldn't leave it at that.
As I was painting the swatch sticks, I saw that Millie and Vivid Lacquer's Moonlit Cheshire would work very very nicely together.

Anni packs so many varieties of glitter in her polishes. This one has full coverage in three coats, but I only used one.

I see purple bar glitter, hexes, flakies, black micro glitter, sliver flakies and micro glitters, and holo glitters. So complex and pretty.

What are the others putting out there today?

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art 

 Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone Files
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish

Alison at UKNailRunner 

Adios!

~~Lizajane

Tri-Polish Challenge-May #2

All right! I am ready for this challenge now! I had the day off today and got these prepared! Now I can relax and tell you about them.

For today's challenge, I decided to do a stamping manicure. But what stamp would work with blue, gray and red?

 

Apparently, sharks!

I really expected to never use this stamping image, but today, the sharks were stamped with Zoya Song, and I added drops of (Elisa) blood in the gray water.

I have never before embellished a stamped mani, and it turned out much better than I could have hoped.

Of course, sharks aren't the only things in the ocean.

There are also dolphins!

Let's see what the other Tarts came up with! So much creativity! Thanks for organizing this, Ms. Debbie Crumpet!

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Tri-Polish Challenge-May #1

Hooray, hooray! The first (Tri-Polish Challenge post) of May!

Just happy to be here, I thought I would end up having to skip this month because of vacation.

So, May's three colors that we have to use are Red, Blue and Gray. We choose one polish to represent each color and use them in four manicures, actually we can use only two in three of the manis, but must use all three at least once.

I am using Zoya Song, Contrary Polish Ain't No Sunshine and Zoya Elisa this month.

I used all three in this mani, as well as taking advantage of the "freebie" of a glitter (the other freebies are white, black, gold and silver.)

I put down a base of Ain't No Sunshine x2, then used OPI Save Me on half of the nail. Next up was a stripe of Song next to Save Me, and then I dotted using Elisa.

I think I am learning. I stopped before I had TOO MUCH! Or, perhaps I am adjusting to too much and now it is Just Right. I know that I liked Save Me more now than I did last year-I've had time to adjust to bar glitters.

Even so, taking it off made a horrific mess. What you see as a lack of clean up on the ring finger? ALL OVER the finger. And the other hand. And it was still there after three cotton balls worth of removal effort.

That's OK, it's beautiful anyway.

Check out what the other Tarts are doing with these colors! And as always, thanks Debbie Crumpet for sponsoring this challenge!

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Ugliest

Someone who isn't into polish might ask why one would have a polish one would classify as ugly. They just don't understand.
This was included in a collection, and I liked at least three of the eight, and have regretted not picking up other collections, so this, I bought the whole thing (in minis).

This is a skittle mani, since I didn't know what it would look good over, but I knew from my swatch stick that it would need unders of some sort.

Black, orange, copper, nude, (and white on the thumb).
Now that I have this on, it isn't that bad. It is a warm beige jelly with red, orange, copper and blue glitters in it.

I used three coats over each base color, and Seche Vite to top coat it-I think this collection (Evil League of Evil from Vivid Lacquer) is mostly a rubbery finish, and that is appealing less and less to me.

This is really surprising me, because I thought this would be an "apply and remove immediately" manicure, but I think I will keep it on for work, it mellowed together enough that the skittle isn't bothering me.

Thanks Jo for including this prompt, because I would never have tried this one without it, and now I am looking forward to fall when the colors will be more appropriate.

Take a look at the other bloggers who are doing this challenge, you might find something that you love!

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art 

 Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish

Alison at UKNailRunner 

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Was A Gift

w00t! I figured out one polish that I had that was both untried and that I hadn't bought!

Last year, I won some polishes from Enchanted Polish through Facebook. The fact that it was a giveaway prize means that it was a gift, right? This is the last of the lot, the last of the entire Imagine Collection that I hadn't used yet.

Take a look at Enchanted Polish Mean Mr. Mustard!

I don't think I was successful at getting the duochrome to come out to play, but look what showed up!

HOLO! I didn't realize this had HOLO!

Because we were leaving on vacation, I didn't actually do a whole mani of this, I put one coat of Rimmel (Black) over the previous mani (see previous post) and then one coat of Mean Mr. Mustard.

Except on the thumb. I remembered that the others in this collection were one-coaters, so I tried one coat over that glittery black, and here is the result. Success! Now I think these may go in the stamping rotation!

I liked Mean Mr. Mustard a lot more than I expected-as an old fart, these bright greens don't appeal to me, Peridot did nothing for me, and this is along those lines.

Enchanted Polish is available at Llarowe , Harlow & Co., and MeiMei's Signatures, as well as on their own Big Cartel site, I think.

Take a look at what the other bloggers are doing for this challenge-

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish

Alison at UKNailRunner 

As for me, this has been a lovely vacation week of camping, biking, Geocaching, and getting a new granddaughter! A great week!

Adios!

~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Oldest

Quickie post today-I wore this on Sunday, before going camping for vacation.
This is one of two that I got when I was just getting into nail polish last year-not that I didn't wear polish before that, but it was not like it is now. Last year, I was able to bring my entire collection with on vacation (50 polishes). This year, I am taking a break and didn't bring anything except cuticle oil, hand creme, and OPI Matte Nail Envy. I need to get those cuticle back into shape (although I don't see much change yet.)

Anyway, this polish. China Glaze. Tinsel Town. I bought it in a two pack with Champagne Kisses from the Christmas 2011 collection. I really like it but am glad that I waited to wear it. It was massively textured by itself, so I used a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite to topcoat it. Last year, I wouldn't have known what to do with a textured polish.

No topcoat.

Super glittery!

Topcoated, in the sunshine.

I liked how it applied (2 coats), and how it wore, but it was a typical glitter with regard to removal. (PIA, in case you don't know.)

Take a look-see at the other bloggers' manicures for this challenge. And thank you, Jo, for the ideas.

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Jo at Just Add Polish

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Wish me luck with getting online for the next post. Tonight's was iffy, but we are camping, so what do you expect?

Adios!

~~Lizajane 

Untried Polish Challenge-In Season

Ooo, three untrieds in this mani, which of the remaining categories should I classify it into? I guess In Season is the most appropriate.

I started by laying down two coats of OPI I Think In Pink, and then dotted on the flowers using Sally Hansen White On, and then dotted the centers with China Glaze Not In This Galaxy.

I Think In Pink was part of the Pink of Hearts Duo, for 2012's breast cancer awareness campaign along with You Glitter Be Good To Me. It is a milky pink crelly. I think. If it isn't a crelly, it is a jelly. I think this is the only crelly I have, so I am not certain it truly is. Anyway. Two coats gave surprisingly good coverage.

I thought this was so pretty! I was going to keep this, but then I went back to the original plan of  jelly layers-you have probably seen them elsewhere on the internet. So I tossed another coat of ITIP over this, added more dotty flowers, and then topped with another coat of ITIP.

On this last one, I left the one flower without a coat of I Think In Pink on it, just to see the original.


I so apologize for the state of my cuticles. I have been working hard on improving them-more moisturizer, cuticle oil, and water for internal hydration. Not certain it is working yet, but I keep trying.


See what the other participants have this time! Thanks Jo!

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Jo at Just Add Polish

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

I am on vacation now and will be leaving for a distant location Monday, so I don't know that I will get the next few installments done here, but Jo graciously said initially that we could take all the time we want, so I am taking advantage of that. I will be missing this month's Tri-Polish Challenge, or at least posting late.

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-the Early Edition

Supporting World Ovarian Cancer Day.

Most days at work I have patients who have cancer, or who have had cancer in the past, but I don't clearly remember any who have survived Ovarian Cancer. It just isn't that well known. Even being a medical professional (I am NOT a doctor), I learned some things about this disease today. Laurie over at Dressed Up Digits taught me that this is associated with the BRCA 1 and 2 genes, I had thought those were only for breast cancer.

 Teal ribbons for Ovarian cancer. Hand painted by me-you don't see THAT very often.

This is one beautiful cool teal. One coat topped with SV.

Then I used a toothpick to add little veins of gold (Zoya Ziv-another untried!) throughout.

Let that dry a couple minutes and then used my newest stamping plate, VL 009, the ninth plate from Vivid Lacquer. Thanks, Anni, for making such great plates!

Pre-clean up

Look at that! Positive and negative scribble hearts, basketweave, a thumbprint, the spotted overall, and the faux-watermarble overall stamp. She designed those two overall designs so you can get slightly different designs across all your fingers, similar to her dandelion design on VL006.

I finished it off with NYC Matte Me Crazy. I think this was very successful, I was going for a turquoise stone look.

Tomorrow is the scheduled day for the Untried Polish Challenge, but I wanted to get this up for World Ovarian Cancer Day. Hopefully we will someday be able to cure, or better yet prevent, this.

Look at the other bloggers doing the Untried Polish Challenge, although I jumped the gun, they might not have theirs up yet.

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Jo at Just Add Polish

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Adios!

~~Lizajane