Tri-Polish Challenge-April 2013-Third Manicure

Welcome, Tarts and Others with Hearts!
Can you believe that this seventh installment of the Tri-Polish Challenge is already here?

For this one I tried my first freehand stripe mani! (Those who know me in real life know that I LOVE new things! Definitely a process knitter!)

I put down a base color coat of the Salon Perfect (I think the name is Light My Fire, but don't quote me on that) and then knowing that Disco Biscuit is a bit sheer, I put down two wider stripes of white (free color!), topping them with the pink.
Next, two stripes of Charla, and then I ended up with the outside stripes in black (another free color!).

I was OK with how it turned out, but I a) have to improve my freehand skills, b) use a smaller brush, c) clean up better, and d) relax! It's art, not science! (And even the science I do at work involves a certain amount of flexibility, chill Liza!)


Now that I have done this once, I can totally see doing it again, but probably in a single color family or on a white background.


Thanks for looking today, and don't forget to check out the other manis shared by Tarts-see the Inlinkz below.



Adios!
~~Lizajane

Another Challenge?

Good evening, lovely readers!
I stumbled across another challenge today, designed by Jonochi at Just Add Polish .

 Nineteen untrieds? Oh, yeah, I could handle that. The only one I might have an issue with is the one that was a gift. I have received only four and just last week used the last untried. Do you think I can borrow one that was a gift to my granddaughter from my Goddaughter?

For today I am using OPI Can't Find My Czechbook for the One Color day.
This went on very nicely, two coats gave good coverage.

I am so glad that the weather and sun cooperated for an outdoor shot. I haven't invested the time nor money in making a light box.
This is a very nice light turquoise, it matched my sweater very nicely today for church. Almost like I had planned it!

I will be back on Tuesday with my third manicure for the Tri-Polish challenge.
Adios!
~~Lizajane

Tri-Polish Challenge-April 2013-Second manicure

Hey there!
Just a super quickie today-my tummy isn't doing well, probably because I have been skimping on sleep this week.

Used just two of the colors for this one, a subtle in real life gradient of the orange and pink.

I liked this one a lot, wore it for two days, maybe three.
Why do I rarely do gradients? I love them.

Oh, yeah. The clean up.

Check out the other manicures, they always are so creative!

Time to head to bed and try to catch up.

Adios!
~~Lizajane

TriPolish Challenge-April 2013

Back for another month of the Tri-Polish Challenge. It is so fun! Thanks, Debbie Crumpet!

April's colors are Pink, Orange and Turquoise (not blue).  We get to choose whatever polish we want to represent those colors, and we use them in four manicures-we must use all three in at least one mani, and can use only two in the others. We also have free use of white, black, gold, silver, and glitter topcoats.

I learned my lesson last month and snapped a pic of my polish choices right away.  Pink is butterLondon Disco Biscuit, turquoise is Zoya Charla, and the orange is Salon Perfect's dupe for ChinaGlaze Riveting.

I finally did a cloud mani! Used all three, so THAT is out of the way!

As I did these manis I was amazed at how different the colors looked layer over each other. That orange looks much more brown layered over the turquoise.

Take a look at the other participants, they always look so good, and the variety of manis with such tight guidelines is amazing!

Adios!
~~Lizajane

Try It On Tuesday-My Only Kleancolor

Just a quickie here today.
I was bored with my current mani-Contrary Polish's Ain't No Sunshine, but I was planning on just taking it off after I was done reading my blogs. Sheila's post at Pointless Cafe caught my eye and I knew what I wanted to do.
I grabbed my Kleancolor Afternoon Picnic and tossed a quick coat on. At least, that was my plan. But the glitters needed a good bit of manipulation, so quick, it wasn't.
But once I got that on, I put on a coat of Gelous, then a coat of Seche Vite, and then finally a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.

I liked it, quite a bit.
But unfortunately it was not meant to be. By the time the last topcoat had turned matte, there was some significant lifting and I knew it had to go. I got it off right away, scraping with an orange stick, and then followed up with some acetone to take care of the residue.

Now, I am sitting with just a coat of Nailtiques 2 and matte Nail Envy, and I think that will be it, I work early tomorrow morning, and my bed is sounding more and more appealing.

Have a great week!
Adios!
~~Lizajane

Tri-Polish Challenge-March 2013 #4

Well, this is the last post of this month's challenge colors, purple, coral and green.

Oh, the plans I had! This was going to be gorgeous and space-y and interesting.
And then the fail happened.
I started off (after my base coat-always remember to use base coat, boys and girls!) putting down a layer of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to enhance the neon appearance of my green and "coral".  I then put stripes of my feature colors horizontally on the nails. SVed that, then taped off a wedge in the middle, yes, it was de-stickified. Put a coat of black on the edges and pulled off the tape.

You can see the black pulled up here.

What a mess. The black bled. And worse, the tape pulled up the stripes! What should have been an easy peasy manicure turned into a superb failure. Oh, it may not look that way in ALL of the pictures, but it was.

But, I decided that honesty needed me to post it anyway.
"Learn from my fail" sort of thing.
So, know what you intend to do before you start-I think the mess started from too much MBSW.
And take your time. I rushed the whole thing, and for no reason.

So learn this and go look at the other challenge manicures, pretty much all of which will be better than mine.

Adios!
Lizajane~~

Tri-Polish Challenge-March #3

This third installment in The Crumpet's Nail Tarts Tri-Polish Challenge is my favorite of this round! As usual, it didn't end up being what I planned for it, but I love it better that if it had.

I started out intending to do a cloud mani-I love the look but hadn't done one, or if I had it was quite a while ago-so I put down the base coat of Julep Hayden. Then I started in on the clouds using Julep Courtney, but something happened and I ended up with this!

I ended up outlining (and on a couple, giving a little pointy hat) with Sally Hansen White On.

Love this! Love this! Love this!

Take a look at what the other Tarts came up with for this challenge-they all do such nice work!

Adios!
Lizajane~~