Tri-Polish Challenge-June #3

I did some stamping! Glad I thought of it, I love how this manicure turned out.

That is two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls over OPI Nail Envy Matte, topped with a coat of Seche Vite, just in case I would have to remove a stamped image-it preserves the base color.

Then I tried a technique, new to me, but you have probably seen it before. Instead of one color polish being used, you put two colors on the plate and then scrape. I think it worked really well with my purple and pink!

I used another Vivid Lacquer plate, VL008-love the kitty!

This plate has a series of he-loves-me, he-loves-me-not images and then the one in the lower corner I used for most of my fingers. Under my fingers is the reverse image which I used on my accent nails. I love all her plates, and hint, hint, she's working on her next ones, watch for them here.

CritiqueCorner
Gee, since it tends to come up every time, should I actually make it a feature highlighting what I did wrong or what I think looks wrong? Two things this time-in the second photo you can see on my ring finger that I had to double stamp, somehow the original didn't go all the way down to the base of my nail, and in this last photo you can see it is darker along the edge? Well, I learned that you should always topcoat your stamped image before trying to clean up the edges. I took a very obvious wedge out of the image with my clean up tool. I corrected it by scraping up some of the polish that had been scraped off the plate and applying it to fill in the color. I suppose I should have just taken the whole thing off and restamped, but I guess I was just a bit too lazy.

Take a look at what the other Tarts have accomplished with this third manicure of June-how many ways can we all combine purple, pink and red? So many great ideas!

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Tri-Polish Challenge-June #1

Third Tuesday of June, so it is time for the first of this month's Tri-Polish Challenge manicures.
Basic Rules of this challenge:

• Three colors selected by and posted on The Crumpet's Facebook page.
• Select a polish to represent each of those colors.
• Do four manicures, at least one using all three colors, and all of them using at least two of the colors.
• You can also use black, white, silver, gold, and glitter topcoats.
• Post the manis on your blog or straight to the Nail Tarts FB page and link up using Inlinkz.
• Profit. 

OK, maybe not profit.

This month the colors are Red, Purple, and Pink. Here are my polishes:

 That there is Zoya Isla (my tip top favorite red!), Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Orchid Express, and Orly Rose Radiance.

 Full sunlight

Today, I am only using two, the purple and the red, along with my silver striper and tape as a tool. This is so simple and graphic, I love it!

Even fuller sunlight

This mani succumbed to my inability to stop when I am ahead.

I thought it would be cool to make pyramids on either side of the stripe, don't ask me why. But when it got this far, I realized I wouldn't be able to do that.

Inside, indirect sunlight

Oh, well. In other colors, this would have been a cool football or baseball or patchwork manicure.

Take a look at the other Tarts and their manicures-pretty much bound to be better than this. Better luck next time, Lizajane!

 

 

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-Neutral

 

Today I am going out of order, skipping over the Three Colors and jumping to Neutral. My eyes needed a break after the silver crackle.

I tossed on two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure "Commander in Chic" and despite directions contrary, I put a coat of Seche Vite on top. It could have handled a third coat-you can see above that it is a bit sheer in places on both the ring finger and the pinkie.

You can see some tip wear, but most of what you see is the peelies in my nails.

I had some professional education to do today, and wanted subdued.
This is a nice milk chocolate brown, with purple tones. It def. is not grey-the tables today were black and grey and this was far from matching.

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

 So what do the others have up today? Take a look.

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 16

Real quick post this time-somehow the time just slipped away from me!

Day 16! Animal Prints or Stripes!

I hates Animal Prints!
We hateses them, Baggins!

So, I did stripes-although, funnily enough, now that I think about it, there IS an animal involved.

I know, I know, it sure doesn't LOOK like there is an animal involved.
BUT! The brown? It is Enchanted Polish's I Am The Walrus! (Link goes to Llarowe.)
I used as a base Sally Hansen InstaDri In A Flash, then used striping tape and painted over it with Walrus, then pulled the tape off to expose the Flash.

Walrus is ah-may-zing!
I was really really lucky and won the full Beatles set from Enchanted Polish on Facebook!
Lovely and generous!

Check out the other stripe manicures, and I suppose, the animal print ones, too.
People get SO creative!

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 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 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~~