Flip Flop February-Day 12

Day 12 of Jilltastic Nail Design's Flip/Flop February 28 Day Challenge gives us our choice of either doing a Drip manicure or a Matte manicure.
I chose to do matte, but I fancied it up a bit with a shiny French!

I applied two coats of Zoya Fei Fei, a coat of Seche Vite (for wearability), then matted it with NYC Matte Me Crazy top coat, and as a final touch, I added a funky french with Wet and Wild Toxic Apple.
Toxic Apple is from Halloween 2012, and people say that it is a dupe for OPI Russian Navy (or is it Ink? I'm not sure.)
This may be a simple manicure, but it, like Day 8's Color Blocking, was one of the first cool manicures I fell in love with when I first started doing my nails constantly.
And like Day 8, this is the first time I actually accomplished it!
What was I waiting for?!?!?!?
I love this look!
I tried stamping with matte over shiny for Talk Like A Pirate Day last September, but it ended up being too subtle, apparently shiny over matte works better!

Take a minute and look at the other participants-Jill gave us such great prompts, everyone is getting so creative!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 11

Day 11 had two choices for us, as do almost all the days in this challenge.
I hadn't ever done a splatter mani, but I hadn't even HEARD of Cocktail Nails, so that was what I chose to try!

First I had to find out what it was, so I followed the link that Jilltastic Nail Design provided and I thought it was quite intriguing!
The idea was that the three fingers you use to hold a cocktail glass have a different color polish than the other two.
Very "classy", reminds me of Roaring 20's mystery theatre.*

 I used China Glaze VIII on the ring and pinkie fingers, and a base of China Glaze Spontaneous topped with Zoya Aurora on the "cocktail" fingers.
My prop? An antique martini glass of my hubby's.
Such fun.
No wonder I thought of the Roaring Twenties!

Can't wait to see what the others have come up with, they are all so creative!

Adios!
Lizajane
*I have never actually been to a mystery theatre dinner, but this fits my idea of it.

Flip Flop February-Day 10

Day ten!
And the choices are...Fishtail Braid and Half Moons.

I have done several Fishtail Braids, and I like the technique, but I always struggle with Half Moons.
So, since this is a CHALLENGE, I did the Half Moon manicure.

I put down a base of Zoya Avril, which is a wonderfully soft pink, and put on a coat of Seche Vite.
After letting that set for a bit, I used paper hole reinforcements to mask out the moons, but first I pressed them against the back of my hand, removing some of the tackiness.
This is where I always run into problems.
I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I have never been happy with the placement of the  reinforcements.
So this time, I experimented a bit, and bent/folded the reinforcements, and then used that fold to line up with the center of the nail.
Yay! It worked!
I then painted the distal ends of my nails with China Glaze Immortal, from Halloween 2012, a lovely medium grey with flashes of pink and purple.
Before it dried too much, I peeled up the reinforcements, leaving a nice line.

You know how some manicures make you feel special? Prettier than normal?
This one does that for me!
I just loved it!
I know that many people like a funkier color pairing, but this one really did it for me.

Jilltastic Nail Design has helped me feel really ladylike! Thanks!
Take a look at the other bloggers and their creativity, following the links below.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 9

Today is Day 9, and our choices are Abstract and Plastic Wrap.
I chose to do the Plastic Wrap manicure because I had been wanting to try it, and my personality likes more concrete things, so abstract is not for me.
Of course, when the other Challengers post their manicures, I will have ideas to follow, but to come up the initial idea is beyond me.
That is why we read blogs, right?
For ideas.
And swatches.
But mainly ideas.
And cats.
But no cats here, sorry.

I put down a base coat of Cover Girl Outlast #115 Forever Frosted, then used plastic wrap to dab on three different colors-the blue is Revlon Coastal Surf, the pink in Sinful Colors Thimbleberry, and the yellow is Sally Hanson Quick Canary.

(I had previously tried the removal method-where you put a dot of the color on the nail and then use the plastic wrap to lift off some of the color-but that didn't work for me.)

I liked this method a lot. 

Probably 8 years ago, I wouldn't have, but that is because this is the same technique I used on my kitchen walls, and I really hated it by the time I was done with 1.5 walls, and I still had 2.5 to go.

Enough time has passed that I can look on it with pleasure again.

And it is super speedy! 

If you need a quick update to a worn manicure, I can highly recommend this technique.

If you have a little time, check out the other participants.
They are so creative!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 8

Hey! It's Day 8 already!

Today's options are Color Blocking and Black and White.

I chose to do one of the first "fancy" manicures I saw last year when I got into nails.

(Obviously, this is NOT Black and White, the colors are China Glaze VIII and Spontaneous, 

deep purple and light purple cremes.)

First I painted a base of one coat-ONE COAT-of VIII, then I painted over half with Spontaneous.

Next, I used my dotting tool to make these puzzly shapes.

Even though they are not perfect, I love them!
I can't wait to do this again!

I also can't wait to see the other manicures-I love black and white, but wanted to try this one.
Who knows, B & W might be what I do on Day 28!

Once again, I think Jilltastic Nail Designs has come up with a great challenge.
I love having two options.
Thank you!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 7

Happier today, nothing has changed with the car other than my attitude, but this is a perfect example of "Attitude Is Everything."

Today our options are Sugar Spun and Pattern.
I tried Sugar Spun three times and failed.
See?

This was before I followed the link Jilltastic Nail Designs provided, so I didn't know that it was done with semi-dried polish.
I just tried dripping it over the edges of my nails, I used Sally Hanson InstaDris here.

And see?

Here I tried again, knowing that the deadline was coming up soon and I had time to play.
Time, I had.
Patience, I had not.
I never did get it goopy enough to drag thinly across the nail, and the white?
That's Nivea cream, I don't have any Vaseline or Chapstick in the house to protect the skin around what promised to be a messy mani.

So I gave up.
And I am very happy with what I ended up with!
I applied Essie Blue Rhapsody to all but the ring finger which got my new A. England Tristam-yay, it avoided the fires of the Royal Post!-and then stamped with the opposite color using Vivid Lacquer's VL006 plate.
I had originally gone to her plates for the stockinette stitch (double entendre "pattern"), but I really liked the chevrons today.

Here, have another.

You can tell that Anni is a knitter, she has a much better stamp than the other, holey knit stamps!
I love how large the images are, too!

 You can buy Vivid Lacquer polish and plates on Etsy.

I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for today's challenge.
Did anyone have enough patience to do the Sugar Spun?
I hope so, and I hope they give out tips!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 6

In a pretty bad mood right now, I think I need to buy a car and that is NOT exciting.
That would pretty much eliminate any fun money, and a voluntary low/no buy is OK, but a needed one? No.

So what were our options today?
Fan Brush and Glitterbomb!
I don't own a Fan Brush (although I think I will buy one before the Day 25 challenge, I have found a cool You Tube Tutorial that requires one) so I obviously chose Glitterbomb!

This was so much fun, but I have to confess, it was made more fun by the fact that it was removed before it had time to set up.
Yep, just scraped it all off with an orange stick.
No way I wanted to deal with the acetone bath, my VD skipped a workout that day.

This is Butter London's Rosie Lee!
Super duper sparky!
I got Rosie Lee in a three pack that also included Fairy Cake and The Black Knight-which was my number one lemming!
I am very happy with the wear on the BLs (that I have worn longer than it took to take a picture), the only problems I have had are where I have a weakness in my nail-such as my right forefinger.
I have been using Nailtique Formula 2, and that has improved the nail but not eliminated the problem altogether.

Anyway! Sparkly Pink Goodness!
Wonder what the others have put on?

Adios!
Lizajane~~