Tri-Polish Challenge-July #2

 

Happy Thursday!

The Crumpet set July's colors as Blue, Blue, and Green.

I selected Nicole by OPI's Blueberry Sweet on Me, Zoya Ivanka, and Maybelline Navy Narcissist.

Oh, the mani-manity!

This is such a fail nail, but I wanted a palate cleanser (Zoya Kimber is  doing that nicely) that I didn't re-do it.

It had such potential!

Just a nice funky french to start, but that was only one of the colors, and we are supposed to use at least two in each mani, so I added a line of Navy Narcissist, cleaned that up and then added dots of Blueberry....

Not great, but not really a fail nail.
Then I grabbed the Fairy Dust, because...Fairy Dust helps everything. Right?

Yeah, maybe not. At least not if you accidentally grab China Glaze Glistening Snow instead.

Glistening Snow is like Fairy Dust on steroids. And it completely obliterated any remaining beauty in this mani.

Better luck next time, Liza. Put on your thinking cap and hope you don't get called in this weekend so you can put some pretty on your nails.

Cleanse YOUR palate by looking at the other Tarts' manis.

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Most Expensive

Second to the last post for this challenge. It has been fun, and I wonder if I might do it again. I certainly haven't stopped buying polishes!
Strap On Your Moonboots by China Glaze in their Holographic collection.
Forgot my 15% off coupon, so I paid full price $9.99. The other two I got from this collection I remembered the coupon.

One coater. Stamped well over two coats of China Glaze White on White.

I was so excited when I bought this that I tossed a coat over what ever mani I had on, right there in the store. It didn't look like much inside, but when I headed to my car, the sunshine just made the rainbows appear, BOOM!

You can see why it was in the running for Prettiest, too!

So what are the others serving up for us today? Take a look:

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-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

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 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 15

Welcome to the second half of Jilltastic Nail Design's Flip/Flop February 28 Day Challenge!

Top of the second column!
Today's options are Stamping and Jelly Sandwich.
I chose to do Jelly Sandwich because I do quite a bit of stamping (there is some coming up in a few days!) but I also love to explore the combinations you can get with Jelly Sandwiches.
In case you don't know, a Jelly Sandwich manicure is when you put down a semi-opaque nail polish (known as a Jelly) base, then a coat or more of a glitter, and then top that off with more Jelly.
This gives it a nice squishy look!
I know that mine doesn't exactly match that description, because I put a solid color down first-my preferred method-and then followed the Jelly Sandwich "recipe".
Not as squishy, but I like it fine!

This is a base of China Glaze Starboard, a nice medium green with just a hint of grey, then the glitter is OPI Pirouette My Whistle, one of the most versatile glitters I have seen with medium and very fine silver glitters, and then I topped it off with the Jelly, Zoya's Frida, another green.
Frida is part of an all jelly trio that Zoya put out last summer. I picked up Frida and Katherine right away, and finally got Paloma with their New Year's promotion.
Zoya has LOADS of promotions, they are very generous!

I really like this manicure-very squishy and it also moved two polishes from my untried column to my tried column in my spreadsheet!

Be sure to check out what the other participants are doing for today's challenge prompt!

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Flip Flop February-Day 13

Hey, today's Wednesday!
That's usually my day off, but I picked up some hours and will be going in to work at 9.
Change of pace.
Something different.
And that is what I did on my nails today, something different.
I had never tried the Watercolor manicure until today's mani, and I don't think you could say that this one is successful, either.

The tutorials I looked at said to apply other colors to the base coat and then use a brush dipped in acetone to soften the look.
I tried this twice, but the first one looked too acid wash/goth for me.

This uses China Glaze Immortal, Rimmel Black Satin, Revlon Snow Bunny and Sinful Colors Thimbleberry.
I think it might have been more successful without the Snow Bunny.

So I tried again.
This time I used softer, more springlike colors.
I don't even remember what the base color that I put down is.
(I'll tell you  a secret, I have almost all of these already done, but for Days 25, 27, and 28, and they were almost all done before February started, although I did last Thursday's on last Wednesday-but that was another failure that I want to put behind me.)
So looking at my picture today, looking at my notes, I don't see what I used as a base.
It might be Zoya Farah.
The colors I DO know are Sally Hansen Quick Canary and Green with Envy, Revlon Coastal Surf, and Thimbleberry again.

This time, the colors work better, but the watercolor effect just isn't there.
Smudged, yes, but not diffuse enough to be called watercolor, at least not to my hypercritical eyes.

But at least I tried.
Maybe I should have tried the alternative, Sponging.
A nice gradient would have been better than these.
But this is about challenging oneself, and learning.
And I have learned from each of these failnails.

Clear your palate by looking at what the other participants have to show you!

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 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 Five

Flip/Flop February 28 Day Challenge-Day 5!
Jilltastic Nail Design gave us two fun options today.
I hadn't done either one, but I have seen so many cool manicures with the studs, I just HAD to try that one!
I hope that no one is disappointed that I didn't do any acrylic 3-D roses or duck feet or anything.
This is about as three dimensional as I can handle.
 It certainly was fun to wear at my husband's party.

This was two coats China Glaze VIII, Cina Nail Art Rhinestones (I chose the squares, there were also marquise or circle and raindrop shapes) which were placed on my nails, then topped with Seche Vite, which adheres the rhinestones to the nails.

No one at the party said anything about my nails, thoroughly disappointing me, although I choose to believe that they were just dazzled by them.

Take a look at what the others in this challenge are doing for today, it always surprises me how creative people get!

Adios!
Lizajane~~