Tri-Polish Challenge: Sunset Beach

I know I'm still in the middle of the ABC challenge, but I ran into another, simply brilliant one in FB and I just had to join it.

The challenge is run by Debbie at The Crumpet, and it's called the Tri-Polish Challenge.
The idea is to pick three polishes of the colours given in each month's challenge, and post four manicures using those polishes on the last two tuesdays and thursdays of each month. In addition to the chosen polishes, we're allowed free use of white, black, gold and silver (which really is a blessing!!)

 The colours of April are orange, turquoise and pink. I let out a little yay, because I've really been needing some brights in my life. So my polish picks are China Glaze Papaya Punch, China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and Sinful Colors Cream Pink. Guess how many naughty words I had to use when I noticed all of these polishes were extremy hard to photograph on the nail...

And when I say hard to photograph, this is what I mean:

Kaboom!!! For the rest of the pics I had to grab my battery charger to get some white in the pic. It helped my poor camera a little..

Anyways, for this first day I made a base with Papaya Punch, and then proceeded to wet sponge gradient with all the three colours.

 The palm trees are stamped with Konad Black special polish and BM-315. I freehanded the lovers using black polish and a toothpick, and then stamped the hearts from m59. Lastly, I filled out some of the hearts with a toothpick and CP. A coat of Seche Vite set it all perfectly.

Now, let's see what all the other talented participants have been up to:

Wrap Up Your Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! So typical of me, that I get to do my first proper Christmas manicure on the Christmas day... But I did it!!

This wrapping paper design isn't mine. I saw it in a blog a few days ago, and I have a vague memory about the blogger writing she saw the design on Pinterest. Anyhow, I'm loving it!
Edit: I think the blog was the always inspiring Smashley Sparkles, and the design there is her own. And I'm loving it, too!

The base is China Glaze Ruby Pumps (which I wore on its own on the Christmas eve). The gift wrap designs are all from BM322, stamped with Konad black special polish. The bows from m59 were stamped with Barry M gold foil, and the ribbons hand painted with the same polish.

I'm hoping you are all still at peace with both your family and your stomach on the second day of the festivities. I surely am! We've had a wonderful weather here (ooo I had some hard times trying to take these pics in the evening sun..), and the dinner we cooked together with my hubby was just perfect. After all the Christmas delices, we're going to dine in the Chinese restaurant today...

PS. What can you give to a girl with more than 200 bottles of nail polish? More nail polish!!!!! Thank you, J&J!!! <3

Red, Silver and Studs

This is one of my short lived manicures (from the archives). I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't want to wear this, really. Is it the mani, or is it just me?

The base colours here were Revlon's Revlon Red (a great basic red - my favourite!) and Essence Nail Art Twins Romeo.

The decorations were made using:
China Glaze Love Marilyn in the ring finger half moon
Stamping, dots& lines with Gosh Silver
Plate BM203 (pinky) and m59 (bows)
Silver studs from eBay.

 In retrospect, the only thing that appeals to me in these pics is Love Marilyn on the red base. I'll have to give that another chance.

 And here are the polishes.

 Please don't unfollow me for these! I debated with myself if I should post these at all, but I myself like to see manis that are a bit on the failing side one way or another. You can learn from the mistakes of others, too. And besides, I've got some pretty decent water marbling coming up next...

The Last Snowflakes

Today's mani has the last snowflakes of the season:

 I came across a Flormar shoppe inside a shopping centre in Madrid, and succumbed to a slight haul.. ahem.

For this mani - to get to try these as soon as I could, I decided to combine Flormar U34, which is burgundy glass flecks in a coffee- brown base - slight duochorme to red/gold and Flormar U33, which has blue/multichrome glass flecks in black base.

 (The names on these somehow sound like war submarines..) The duochrome is stronger in the 33, you get an array of colours from cobalt blue through green to purple.

To blend the colours together more, I sponged each tip with the other colour. The result was pretty awesome, especially with the blue sponged on the burgundy!

My husband suggested snowflakes on these. I know this is propably not the most original way to snowflakify your nails, but I was lazy and stamped on some from m59 with Gosh Silver. I also painted on some smaller snowflakes with a size 0 nail art brush, and added some dots, too.

The mani was still missing some glitter, so I grabbed China Glaze Snowglobe. I first tried to paint it directly on the nail, but it was too dense and the result had more likeness to snow storm than peacefully floating snowflakes. So for the rest of my nails I just dabbed on some Snowglobe here and there with a dotting tool.

It's a simple design, but I'm quite happy with it, mainly because of the base colours. This is also the last "winter" mani this winter season, so enjoy it while it lasts. And then, let's move forward to spring brights and pastels! Say bye for now to these polishes!

Pink Polka

This is again a mani made by my wonderful nail artist J, when I had my gel infills done.

The polish is Alessandro Candy Floss Pink from the He Loves Me -collection. It was almost opaque with one layer, but we decided to paint two justi in case. This is one of the first collections, I believe, where Alessandro polishes have names. Me likes! The formula and the brush were great as always, as well as the colour - a real candy floss creme pink, neither pastel nor too bright.  J dotted the polka dot design with a dotting tool and Konad Pearl White special polish and stamped the bows from m59.

 This is my favourite design, the right pinky. It was also the nail done first. :) This is also my favourite cardboard lunchbox, a retro design I use as my handbag from time to time - but only on dry weather.

I'm not completely happy with the performance of the Konad Pearl White polish in stamping. As you can see, the dots are much more opaque than the bow design. OK, the dots have a much thicker coat, I think, but still I'm longing for a more pigmented white stamping polish. I've seen at various e-tailers loads of stamping polishes other than Konad. I'd be glad to hear if you have any experiences with them!