Flip Flop February-Day 14

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today's choices are Valentine's Day manicures and French Tips.
I chose Valentine's Day, because you can have French Tips any time of the year, but you can only go over the top Valentine's today!

When I think of Valentine's day, and what I would like for V-Day, I thought of a box of chocolates.
The fancy ones, velvet box and fanciness on the outside, and delicious mixed chocolates on the inside.
I painted the base coat of Pure Ice Black Velour, a soft matte polish.
Next, I showed my hubby a few stamping plates and had him choose what represented the box of chocolates best to him (see how I can be subtle, hinting like that?)
He though the lace was the best, so I stamped using Butter London Knees Up.

Yeah, kinda hard to see.
The lace design was a bit too delicate for this combination of polishes, so I went with another plate and stamped the roses.

 By the way, I have found matte polishes to be extraordinarily fragile.
Anyway, the rose is on the top here and the lace on the bottom.

I thought that perhaps it might be better with topcoat, so I gave that a try.

I also tried a latticework stamp and its reverse, with topcoat.

I really had fun with this manicure, and I brought in some "audience participation".
Hubby likes it when I ask his advice.
I have learned through our 29 years of marriage, 32 years together, that I have to flatter him once in a while by asking.

Hope you have a good Valentine's Day, whether you are with someone or not.
Remember, it's hard to love someone else until you love yourself!

And maybe you will find other manicures to love amongst the other participants in Jilltastic Nail Design's 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 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~~