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 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 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 3

OK, moving right along, today is day three of Jilltastic Nail Design's 28 day Challenge, Flip Flop February.
Today our options are Watermarble and Dry Marble.
I have done a Watermarble previously and thought I would try a dry marble, sometimes known as needle marbling.
I put down a base of Orly Ma Cherie on my thumb, pinkie and middle finger, and China Glaze White on White on the other two fingers and then let it dry.
Next I painted stripes of those two colors and Rimmel's Black Satin down the length of the nail.
I took a safety pin that I had made unsafe and scratched back and forth, dragging the polish from one color into the others.
This technique seriously reminded me of marbling a cake, so I figure that is where the name came from.

Not the world's most successful needle marbling, but it was a new technique for me.
When I do this again, I will choose colors that are closer to each other.
I think the contrast was too high for this.
But here, have a close up of the thumb, the most successful attempt.

You can see the black dragged into the white and the white dragged into the black.
Maybe next time I will try going the other direction.
This was fun!

I can't wait to see all the marbling done dry or with water!
Check them all out!

Adios!
Lizajane~~