Koi!

I received my plate order from Messy Mansion this week and I couldn't wait to use one of them (the other is a Christmas plate, so I can wait with that one.) Messy Mansion is an Australian company and one of their things is that they donate part of their profit to woman-centric charities. This month it went to Hamlin Fistula Hospital. Scroll down here to see what they have to say about the hospital.

I started out with my usual base coat of OPI Nail Envy Matte, then put down two coats of L'Oreal Mango Mamma. I Seche-d my ring fingers, and then stamped using the Koi images and Wet & Wild Ebony Hates Chris. People were right when they recommended that polish, so far it is my best black stamper, thanks! Reading up on this plate, someone recommended double scraping to get a bit more polish out, because the images are deeply engraved, so I did that and I am very happy with how they transferred.

I used my dotting tool and Zoya Ziv to give the Koi a few gold scales, and then topped it off with another coat of Mango Mamma (hate that spelling, btw. In my head I pronounce it like "Ma'am Ah.)

One more coat of the orange on the rest of the nails, some Seche Vite, and we were good to go (to bed).

I did these nails Tuesday night. Wednesday I worked at the desk, so clerical all day. Thursday I did my normal patient care job, Friday afternoon I said that I was very happy with how it was wearing. An hour later, I had a chip in it. Doncha just hate it when that happens?

I am very happy with both the polish and the plate.
I am excited to try out the other images on the plate-particularly the architecture one, I see Oz in its spires!
And the formula on this polish was very nice, stayed right where I put it. Very happy with this collection, and I think I have to go back and pick up the blue one-I skipped it because I have Revlon Royal, but this is a lighter blue and it doesn't become opaque in two coats like I find Royal does.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
Adios!
~~Lizajane

Darling Diva Chandelle and L'Oreal Creme de Mint

I had fun coming up with this manicure!

Chandelle had been calling to me the past few days, but I didn't know what to pair it with. I knew I wanted to use the new L'Oreals but Julep Amber was looking very nice with it, too.
So I asked my hubby.
Super helpful guy that he is, he deferred at first saying that it would be like him asking me whether he should use 7 1/2 or 8 size shot in his reloads. Boy was he surprised when I came up with an answer with a real reason behind it! So he thought about it a few seconds  and said that since I don't much like gold, I should do the green. That's my guy! Even if I don't think he pays attention, after almost 30 years, some things have sunk in!

I put down two coats of Creme de Mint, then one of Chandelle. Then on all but the ring finger, I added one more of Creme de Mint-jelly sandwich!

The shrinkage tells you, even if I didn't, that I topped it all off with Seche Vite. Even on the accent fingers, that was enough to pretty much make it smooth.

In the indirect sunlight here, you can really tell the difference that last coat of Creme de Mint made. It toned everything down, almost hiding those tiny golden flecks.

Everything applied very nicely. I can't wait to play more with the L'Oreals. Such a fun collection-I picked up all but the pink and blue at Walgreens when they had a buy one-get one half off sale a few weeks ago. The red and orange are SO CLEAR and jelly like, the rest are just a bit milky or cloudy.

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Untried Polish Challenge-Glitter

Awww, it's the last installment of this challenge. This has been so much fun, and has gotten so many Untrieds into the Tried column.

I chose to use one of the new Hard Candy line, Sweet Tooth.

This is one coat over just my regular base of OPI Matte Nail Envy. It is a few colors of glitter, both matte and shiny, in a pale blue base.

The rest of my fingers, I put down two coats of OPI I Think In Pink before my one coat of Sweet Tooth. This really pulled out the pink glitter. I liked it better than the plain.

So, I put one coat of I Think In Pink over Sweet Tooth. The milky pink really worked well over this, like half a jelly sandwich.

You can tell the difference between the two layering methods in this picture.

The texture of the glitter didn't bother me, so I decided to forgo topcoat. 

Yeah, that was a mistake. I don't recall what I did, but three fingers on each hand got crunched up within an hour, and I didn't notice them, so they had dried enough that I couldn't flatten them, so off it came. Sad. (But I replaced it with Zoya Blaze, so not so sad after all!)

So, thank you Jo for inspiring us, leading us through this challenge. It has been fun to do and more importantly, fun to read what the others have been doing!

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

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~~