Fourth of July stripes and flowers

Happy 4th!! It is that red-white-and-blue time of year again. Last year I did a skittlette mani. After a year of practice and learning I feel a bit more creative and ambitious so did stripes and blue flower "stars". The mani definitely looks better from a far. The macro settings just makes the stripes look all wobbly!

The base is the gelicious French White gel polish that I wrote about in the last post. Since this is basically dry and finished after curing I started with the tape mani for the stripes. Two pieces of tape on each nail. The tips were then painted in Color Club Ruby Slippers, tape removed immediately. The great thing about the gel base is that I could go in with non-acetoner remover and clean up the stripes if a smudge went over the tape, or the tape line was not super clean. They still look wobbly, though. Ruby Slippers is a glitter based red, so the flecks of glitter get in the way sometimes.

Using acrylics and the one-stroke method I painted dark-light-blue flowers randomly on the lower part of my nails. I added some random Ruby Slipper dots in the middle of the flowers. I applied OPI Which is Witch? in the white stripe and also dabbed some glitter in the flowers.

Out the Door sealed the deal. Any acrylic work really pops after top coating. I did wait awhile, though, as didn't want to smear the stripes. So this is what I will be wearing at the market this Saturday and into next week. This afternoon I have a Glammy Mani birthday party for seven wee seven year old girls - how fun! They have asked for a rainbow colour selection, the birthday girl's fav colour is "magenta". How cool is that? Probably can't even spell it, but she knows what she likes!

right hand

Now that this is totally dry I have added a cured gelicious top coat to the mani. I did not file or scuff up the surface. I just totally cleaned my nails with alcohol - another tip: when you do this also press back the cuticle so that your cuticle line is freed up with a smidgen of space. That gives the gel some place to grip.
My reasons for this is that at the bday party I will be using polish remover on the wee girls and if I go to the market tomorrow (giant rain forecast, boo!), the same applies. This way I can use non acetone remover and have no worries that my nails will still look great!

PANZ Challenge: Dressed Up Nudes

So exciting - a challenge. I like the idea of a challenge as it makes me think outside my usual pattern. I have been a bit lax on the ol' Crumpet challenges (bad llama) and want to get back into that. But, the super fun NZ polish group PANZ (polish addicts new zealand) are starting challenges off their cool new blog (new panz blog).

As you can see (and read) this challenge had to do with nudes and jazzing them up a bit. You could also bling them, but I'm not that into bling. You had to use your own designs, your own nails, have done it yourself, no archive manis allowed, one polish manis not allowed (love this one! no non-art manis!). I decided to do a tape mani with hand drawn flowers. I was on the fence a bit in doing a skittlette, so incorporated a bit of skittlette in the mani.

I started with a sheer nude base. Only one coat and you can see VNL shimmering through the stripes. That part is intentional! Then I taped and applied OPI Barefoot in Barcelona, a fab nude for me. Very close to my skin tone, or put it this way: warm like my skin tone. Just one coat as the polish is rather thick and the sheer base gave it something to latch on to. I let that dry, but no top coat. I did four fingers on my left hand and the thumb of my right. I manicured the rest of my nails in two coats of Barcelona.

Using a mix of brown and white acrylics I one stroked flowers on to the striped nails and to the tips of the "plain" nails. The first level of flowers was more white, the second level more brown. Then I added some light gold glitter in the middle of the flowers (OPI Spark de Triomphe). Top coat sealed the deal.

The whole mani looks very subtle, easy on the eye, but not boring. Thx PANZ for the idea, think it's great. I am looking forward to more challenge ideas in the future!

right hand

right thumb

Summer stripes with You Oughta Know

Although my dots were still in pretty good shape, I felt like something new last night. I wanted to use one of my new Nostalgic Lacquer glitters, and then had an awning stripe idea - oh so Tuscan!

I started with two coats of Butter London Cheeky Chops - a good bright but a tad muted yellow. Then I used my white striper and drew three lines on each nail. Pretty simple. Worried about cuticles lines later for clean up!

Then I grabbed Nostalgic Lacquer's You Oughta Know - a black-white based multi-glitter with bright flecks of red-orange and yellow and tiny turquoise spots. Even though I had the bottle upside down, I had to fish around for the glitter. Not that big of a deal, but still worth mentioning. Probably two layers of glitter. One layer of top coat.

If I were a "normal" person I would have applied at least another layer of top coat. But I know I will not be wearing this for long (GOT day and Waitangi Day on the horizon). The large black hexs have an ever so slight taco effect. And some of the thin bar glitter sticks up (and you annoyingly pull it off!).

All in all the mani looks good - the awning style of the yellow and white stripes reminds me of Disneyland! In fact, the whole mani does. I feel a pendant coming on....... ha!

yes - you can buy!! :) here

full sun

right hand

GOT: stripes – hand drawn fronds over stripes of copper and blue

I am enjoying the GOT challenge. Makes you take a long look at your stash, see what's old and try to find away around the prompt. Sorry I am a bit late in posting this - well, in my part of the world it is Friday. But things mounted up yesterday and I couldn't get it done. There was film night last – great, great Norwegian film (Headhunters) – and I had to get ready for that. Then before that, I had Ripponburn day with the little ladies. It just all piled up, felt behind all day.

So this is my take on stripes. The base is (yicks, another mini bottle) Orly Chocolate Martini. This is as old the OPI from the last GOT mani. I must have thought that mini bottles was the way to go four or five years ago. I was not that glam back then and probably thought this will be fine for those days when I felt like painted nails. My, how times have changed! I applied two coats and top coat before continuing. I waited a while.

Then I used one coat of Zoya Wednesday for the accent stripe. This was one of the first polishes I bought back in Oct 2012 when I re-started being glam. I still love it and have many similars (CG For Audrey, NOPI Alex by the Books). I lightly top coated the stripe area before continuing.

harvey getting in on the action!

I drew black outlines for frond like leaf-flowers. Carefully I filled them in with OPI Greenwich Village (bought at the Viet shop Nov 2012 in the States) and Zoya Sooki (got at my local NW in a buy-a-box-of-Kellogg's-and-get-a-free-bottle-of-polish-special also in Nov 2012). I use Sooki A LOT! It is a fantastic shade of tomato red. The red and green complement the copper and teal really well. Who'd of thought? And, I have gotten a lot of compliments on this mani - people really noticed it. In fact, I have started a similar based pendant (oh! sold two pendants this morning at the café!!!!).

right hand

Today is very windy in Central. And now a coldness is blowing through. Not that nice when the Antarctic winds swept the plains. Especially in summer. Even though I am late to the GOT party today, I am going to take time and check out all the other lassies and their creations!

I did end up making a pendant after all! more here: etsy shop.

TPTjan1: red with orange and yellow stripes

Right off, don't know if I will be doing four TPT a month. I am also interested in GOT, but won't be doing that weekly, either. That just leaves no time for anything else in the nail art department. I think I will do two of each in alternating weeks. I love Crumpie's challenge ideas and want to take part as much as I feel like it - how's that for commitment!!!

TPT = tri polish Tuesdays (and... GOT = golden oldie Thursday). Each month has three (tri) selected colours and you are to do different manis with the colours through the month. January is red, orange and yellow. At least one of the manis has to include all three colours (rules are a bit nicer this year!), I decided to start with the three today as I may only do one more of this particular tpt.

I started with one and half coats of China Glaze Sunshine Pop (the half was on the top half of the nail) and a coat of Orly Holla. I don't like Sunshine Pop much. It has that 70s shimmer to it and looks cheap on me. Must have too much blue tones or something. My (mini) bottle of Holla got a nice big squirt of Seche Restore. Imagine that, new polish! I really don't like it but it is a great orange and the only other ones I have are either very pastel or neon. I top coated this before moving on.

baby george and the tri polish

Used nail tape to section off a stripe in both the yellow and orange areas. This was covered with one generous coat of Zoya Sooki. I only used one coat but did have to make sure it covered the yellow thoroughly. I did two nails at a time but let them sit a bit before top coating. I like Sooki, it is a nice tomato red. A good summer red. The true colour is somewhere between pic one and two way above. Late afternoon lighting, sun had just come out after the rain.

right hand

I like the colours of this mani but don't enjoy the mani. This is usually true with any tape manis. I just feel that my nails are so heavy with polish. You know how sometimes you paint your nails and they feel light yet sturdy. Today, my nails now feel heavy with polish.

Above my super bonus Georgie shot. George is our new kitten, he is just shy of seven weeks. Very cute, very loud, very lethal (in regard to arm scratches). He started out as all black but I notice a bit of white creeping in! Big brother Harvey cat is still pretty unimpressed, though he does occasionally say hi.
I am not alone in my TPT challenge days, so check out the girls below, too!