Another month, another theme for The Nail Challenge Collaborative. This month the theme is "tea party". Once again, I kinda love this prompt. I never was a tea party girl when I was little. I didn't dress up or play with Barbies, either. My spare time as a little girl was spent reading everything I could get my hands on, including the insert in my mom's tampon box. Explains why I was terrified of tampons :) I had a tea set though, pastel and girly, it basically collected dust. This is based on what I remember it looked like.
I started with three coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff.
I added Julep Hayden at the tips and cuticle.
I stamped over Hayden with NOPI Selena and moYou Frenchy-01. Tiny dots crowded close together. Perfect!
Then I screwed it all up...well a bit. I should have just freehanded (is that a word?) some roses, but instead I made stamping decals with Messy Mansion MM07.
I then added a border with Cult Nails New Day.
Although It is sloppy, it reminds me of that cheap plastic tea set I had, poorly made, poorly recreated :). Thanks for looking and commenting. Don't forget to check out the other tea party nail art!
I know it is late, but the Easter mani I did for Bria ended up too cute to not show you. I originally was going to post this for Adventures in Stamping, but life got in the way. Better late than never, as they say.
I know that there were lots of similar manis floating around last week, but I knew Bria would love it, so originality was set aside to make my girl happy.
I started with two coats of Julep Emerson on index, ring and pinkie. There are a lot of black spotted crellies out there, but I happen to love this one! The spots are small and plentiful and the crelly is a beautiful blue tinged grey. So purdy!
The ring is two coats of NOPI Ladies in the Limelight and thumb is two coats of Cult Nails Tempest. I added some more Emerson to the tips.
Stamping was done on all but the thumb with Cult Nails Tempest and Winstonia W212. Thumb was done with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and MoYou UK N14 as we celebrate the christian Easter and wanted to emphasize the true meaning of Easter for us.
Bria wanted to pose with some of her Easter candy. Isn't she sweet!
Ever have one of these Lindt chocolate carrots? They have hazelnut flavoring and are delicious! It is a good thing they are only out at Easter....just like Robins Eggs!
Thanks for looking and commenting! See you tomorrow!
Tina
So I know I was going to do Fashion Fridays this month, but today is the one year anniversary of The Nail Challenge Collaborative. I really love this group. It is smaller than other groups I am in and they have monthly challenges that are not daily. The theme for April is pastels, which is definately going to get me out of my dark vampy comfort zone. Can't wait to show you all the pretty candy colors. I decided to do a birthday theme on top of the polish I wore most all of Easter weekend, from Thursday night to Monday night.
This is two coats of Candeo Jelly Bean. Is this not the best Easter polish? It reminds me a bit of the Robins Egg candy that only comes out at Easter and that I cannot get enough of. If you find any more left on the shelves, send some my way!
Jelly Bean is a lovely pale yellow cream filled with tiny multicolor glitters and larger matte pastel hexes. This applied like a dream with no need for manipulation of glitters. This polish is currently out of stock at Candeo's store but still available at Lllarowe HERE. I know it is a little late for this Easter, but it would also make a nice summery base for some stamping. Besides, who says it's to early to start planning next year's Easter mani (tee hee).
After wearing this for so many days, I had some chipping on my middle nail, so I decided that this would make a great cupcake base. I added stripes of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away along the bottom half sides of the nails, then added Orly Chocoholic (appropriately) down the middle. Next I added more Jelly Bean with a dotting tool to give the impression of frosting. I didn't add topcoat because I didn't want to ruin the bumpiness of the "frosting".
So happy birthday NCC! Check all the other manis celebrating this birthday.
Today sees the first day of the Tri Polish Challenge. It is a challenge organized by The Crumpet's Nail Tarts that will be ongoing indefinitely. Here's how it works. Each month Crumpet's Nail Tarts will set 3 colors for the challenge. I then pick 1 polish for for each color and must use those exact three polishes throughout the challenge. You have to create 4 looks with the exact same polishes, which are posted the 3rd and 4th Tuesday and Thursday of the month. Confused? Check out Debbie's post about the challenge HERE.
The colors for this month are coral, green and purple. What a lovely combo. Since I don't have a huge selection of corals in my stash, I started there. Once the coral was picked, I looked for a coordinating purple. Then, because my first two choices were Zoyas', I chose another Zoya for the purple, making it a Zoya month! Here are the colors I chose. You can find all of these gorgeous colors at Zoya's website HERE
Zoya Willow
The Zoya website describes Willow this way:
"Soft pale coral orange with a subtle hint of tan and delicate silver frost. A light shade that borders on nude and flatters summer skin." Such a lovely color! This image appears more pink than IRL, which you will see throughout the rest of the month.
Zoya Lotus
The Zoya website describes Lotus this way:
"A
very soft, dusty blue-toned amethyst purple with colorful shimmer that reflects pink, red and gold. A dreamy smoky shade for purple lovers that looks both soft and luminous." Perfect description!
Zoya Gemma
The Zoya website describes Lotus this way:
"Light muted olive green with an overlay of blue and violet duochrome shimmer. Unique, hip and cutting-edge yet subtle enough to suit any wardrobe." Does it look familiar? It should, it has graced my tips previously HERE and HERE. I have a deep abiding love for this work appropriate green!
Today's mani was inspired by Color Happy Nails HERE. Go send her some love and check out her other great manicures!
These are Bria's lovely nails, and these looked so Eastery, so I had her grip one of those plastic Easter eggs (tee hee). And look how nice her cuticles look! She has been taking very good care of them!
I started with two coats of Zoya Willow and Seche Vite top coat. I have heard people complain of Seche Vite shrinkage, but until this polish, I never had any problems. This shrunk like a wool sweater in hot water! Going to conduct an experiment in the next few days to see if I can figure out what caused this. I'll let you know how it goes.
Next, I taped off triangles in the middle of the nails and dotted with Gemma, Lotus and Ozotic Shattered 910. Not as gorgeous and the inspiration, but lovely none the less. Check out the colors the other tri polishers chose.
