TPC days 3 and 4: Tequila sunrise (and some truly dodgy stripes)

Hello Butterflies!

What a mare! I haven't been able to get onto blogger for two days which meant that I missed the deadline to post my TPC day 3 mani (I still cheekily uploaded it to The Crumpet's FB group).

So you get two for the price of one. This post may be a bit picture heavy because two manis. You know the rules by now - 4 manis, 3 colours, at least 2 colours per mani.

Here's TPC day 3 (which I hate, by the way, but I ran out of time)

So this is just a base of W7's Mojito, stripes of Sinful Colours Unicorn, Barry M's white nail art pen and Model's Own silver nail art pen. It's all freehand (as you can tell). And it's all hideous - which again it down to my choice of polishes, specifically the green.  I'd chosen the green because it worked for two of my four.

Enough of that - let's get onto my TPC day 4 mani that I actually really like.

This one is using CG's Infra-red and Sinful Colours Unicorn. The stamp is from the MoYou Pro09 plate using Konad black (which I <3).

That's me done for today. See you soon!

N

TPC Day 2 - Red, Gold and Green (Karma Chameleon)

Hi cuties,

It's day two of TPC for August (and I'm just a smidgen late - I figure it's still Thursday, somewhere, right?).

You know the drill. Four manis, three colours, last two Tues and Thurs in the month. I've done another technique that I've never tried before - making my own decals. It turned out way better than I thought and the only tricky part is the application of those suckers. I used a lot of top coat and some judicious application of acetone to get those babies to sit OK.

My image is taken from the Tropical Holiday plate of the Cheeky Jumbo plates stamped with Konad Black polish and coloured in with my three colours. And this is what I got.

I've used Barry M's Matte White for my thumb, middle and ring finger with a green rhinestone as detail.

And here's a close-up of the decal that I'm so incredibly proud of!

See you next Tuesday!

N

TCP Day 1 - It's Written in the Stars (in red, yellow and green)

Hello Sweetpeas

Another month and another bash at the TCP challenge run by The Crumpet.  For those that don't know the rules are, four manicures, three colour polishes in the last two Tuesdays and Thursdays of the month. At least one mani has to have all three colours and all of the manis have to have two.  The Crumpet isn't completely horrible and she also allows the use of black, white, gold, silver and glitter. This month's colours are red, yellow and green.

The polishes I've used are CG's Infra-Red holo polish, W7's Mojito and Sinful Colours Unicorn. I also used the nail art pen from Barry M (OMG <3 them!) My base coats were Duri Rejuvacote and then a a coat of Sally Hansen Acrylic Nail Gel to smooth the lumps and bumps whilst my fakies grow out and top coat Seche Vite.

I've loved the galaxy nails that I've seen about recently and decided to have a bash at them myself with the colour palette available. I quite liked the way they turned out but probably could have used something in the blue area to balance them out.  And I added a couple of stars in with the nail art pen, but again they could have done with being blueish.

See you on Thursday!

N

AIS and TCP challenges: very very late!

Hello peardrops!

As I mentioned in my last post my old camera went the way of the dodo with about five manicures on it. At the weekend I got my new camera and managed to salvage some of my photos. One set is for the tri-colour polish challenge for May and one set is for the Adventure In Stamping challenge for 19th May. So I thought I'd combine them in one post so there's double challenge goodness.

First up is the AIS challenge. It was to stamp over a skittles base. My reading of that was to use two different colours in five different designs and then stamp over them with one stamp design. (I know that differed from many other interpretations where each fingernail was a different colour.) I used OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me and Barry M's Bright Purple as my base colours.  I used Barry M's silver foil for stamping with plate CH50. And then the Model's Own silver art pen for additional details.

And I ended up with the below. The thumb is just freehand argyle print.  The forefinger is a scalloped edge half nail design. I used my trusty dotting tools on my middle finger. Striping tape for my ring finger and finally I freehanded the chevron design on my pinkie finger.

I quite liked this design.  I hadn't really thought I would use that colour green but it worked wonders with the deep pink. Of course, as with every other manicure I have it chipped in a day (sadface) but i did enjoy it whilst it lasted.

Up next was my entry for TCP day 2 but I'm so late for that I should probably wait until those colours roll 'round again! But I wanted to show you this one in contrast to my first one. As per the challenge rules I used the same blue (Barry M's Blueberry) and red (Raspberry) as I did for the first one but this time I used them in a gradient with a gold polish OPI's Oy, Another Polish Joke. And look how different they are! (ignore the pink fingers haven't yet figured out the white balance and I took these on the fly)

I only have one more photo of that particular mani but it's a close up and I just fell in love with the shading.  I thought the blue one looked like an opulent lagoon as you could see the shimmer slowly fading away underneath it.

So those are my two challenges that I manage to do but couldn't get uploaded in time.  And now my nails are in such a state I've had to cut them right back and baby them.  Fingers crossed Duri Rejuvacote works!

What have you lovely ladies been up to?

N

May Tri-Colour Challenge

Hello bonbons!

It's the first day of the tri-colour challenge and I had every intention of seeing this one through but disaster has struck and my camera has given up the ghost with pictures from my last five manicures on them (including a mani I did for the AIS weekly challenge this week). I have one set of pictures for the first day of the The Crumpet's tri-colour challenge so I'll crack on with that for now but it may be radio silence for a bit whilst I sort myself out.

As usual the challenge is to do four manicures using three colours selected on a monthly basis. For May the colours were red, blue and grey.  You must use two of the three in every mani. You can use black, white, gold, silver and glitter in your manicures.

Based on my hideous selection last month I deliberated a bit more this month and decided to make my life easier by selecting colours that were similar in depth and opacity.  I've gone for OPI's French Quarter for your Thoughts, Barry M's Blackberry from the Gelly range and Barry M's Raspberry for my colours.

At the same time as preparing for this manicure I received my dotting tools in the nail mail and went a bit dot happy.  The base coat is French Quarter for your thoughts and then I've dotted randomly in different sizes in Raspberry and Blackberry and Barry M's silver foil.

That's it for today! Hopefully I'm not gone too long otherwise you may eventually be subjected to dodgy pictures from my mobile :D

Please check out what the other Crumpet's Nail Tarts got up to for day one of this challenge (links below)

N

Tri-colour challenge: Day 4

Hello sweeties

I have failed the tri-colour challenge miserably as I didn't have mani ready to go for Tuesday on account of my utter ineptitude and also camera failings.  But I thought if I can't have the one I did for day 3 up (which was beautiful and I'm considering recreating it for next month) then I could soldier on with something simple for day 4.  And this is as simple as it gets.

So, as we know: 3 colours in 4 manis posted on the last two Tuesday and Thursdays in the month.  Black, white, gold, silver and glitter can be used. Go wild!

I used Model's Own Pink Sorbet, Barry M's Turquoise and W7s Flaming Orange with Barry M's Gold Foil for the detail.

So, I did this last night and I wasn't wild about it but didn't have time to redo it but it's growing on me now.  Don't get me wrong I'll do something that's a little more 'me' tonight but I don't hate this.

What this challenge has taught me is 1)I don't have enough orange nail polish and 2) pick your colours with care. I think this and one of the other ones I did would have been more successful if the pink had been a deep creme finish instead of an almost sheer shimmer.

N

Tri-Colour Challenge: Day 2

Hello sweetiepies

Day 2 of the Tri-Colour Challenge. Obviously the same nail polishes as last time but this time I've done a spot of stamping which I'm not sure if it's entirely successful.

I used an image from the Prince's set from Gals Cosmetics and I thought it was vaguely mediaeval in appearance but looking at it now it seems a bit tribal.

What do you think?

See below for some truly talented manicures for this challenge.

N

Tri-Colour Challenge

Hello gorgeousnesses!

This is the first challenge I've ever participated in. Quite excited by it all, to be honest.

The three polishes I've used for this challenge are Model's Own Pink Sorbet, Barry M's Turquoise and W7's Flaming Orange.  So here it is.  I was quite please with it for the first bash at doing proper nail art with a pen and everything.

The focus is a bit dodgy on this one but I still think you get the idea.

Got a couple of nifty ideas for the other three manis, just hope I get the time to do them.

N