Tri-Polish Mardi Gras!

Hello, Fireflies!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Well, color me happy! Color me green, blue, and purple, because those are the March colors for the Crumpet's Tri-Polish challenge!  This is my very first one, and I hope you like it.  Photographs really didn't capture the true, sparkly glory of this mani.

I started with GAP Sparkling Sea, an ocean blue with tiny red glitters.  This was a little patchy in two coats, but beautiful in three.  If I wasn't showing you this step, I would have stopped at 2, though, because the tips get covered up.

The next step was to add a gradient with Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer 2014.  $@#(%#$ camera and its distaste for purples.  This was so gorgeous in Real Life, with the purple shimmering with the blue, and the blue glitters in 2014.

I need a moment. SIGH.

The green on the very tips is Colors by Llarowe Behead The Drama Queen, a deep metallic emerald color.

What's better than a gradient? Flakies! Flakies are better than just about everything.  This is Island Girl Hawaiian Girl.  Yeah, the flakies are mylar shards, and there are some straight-up gold pieces in it, too.  Made me feel a little more Mardi Gras-like.

This nail art is so versatile! If you're reading this on Fat Tuesday, and celebrating Mardi Gras, you might think this is a totally appropriate mani for that!  Or, if you're reading this on another day, or at the beach, you might think this is a great mermaid-y mani. 

Or, you might be covering your face, crying, 'my eyes! my eyes! They burn!' and scrolling down as fast as possible.  I don't know.  There's no accounting for taste, really.

Bottle shot:  GAP Sparkling Sea, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer 2014, Colors by Llarowe Behead The Drama Queen, and Island Girl Hawaiian Girl.

I actually took some of these pix with my regular camera, and some with my iPhone to try and capture the loveliness of this mani.  I *really* wanted to share it with you.  I would stare at it when I was driving in the car.  It was love.  Ever get really frustrated that you just couldn't capture something on camera?

An InLinkz Link-up

Something Different Sunday - Oopsies

Both of today's posts are centered around something very near and dear to my heart - the 'oops'.  For example, almost every video I take with my camera is an accident, and begins with, "Oh, S#@%, I'm taking a video!"

I make a lot of mistakes.  Some turn out okay... some I sweep under the rug.  I have a very lumpy rug.

The first mani is a splatter mani I did for a friend.  It was my first one, and I had a lot of lessons learned. 

The main oops is that I didn't put some kind of balm or vaseline around her nails because some of that polish *stained* and would NOT come off.  So, even after lots and lots of cleaning and acetone, I could not get a clean mani.

I also think that smaller straws would work better.  And I have tried to use better lighting since then, too.  I can't remember all the colors I used, but I know that the blue base on the thumb is Nails Inc Baker Street, the orange is Island Girl Sunset Beach, the yellow is Zoya Pippa, and the splatter blue is Essence Let's Get Lost.

I'm glad that my friend Toni liked her mani, though, which is all that really matters.

The next oops isn't so much the mani.. but I forgot to take pix, so I had to steal this from my friend Jill's Facebook page.  Jill wanted a mani similar to one I had done before, but with some added stamping.  This is Color Club Over the Moon - in my opinion, one of the best blue holos out there - and probably Finger Paints Black Expressionism, my go-to black for stamping.

The last oops is in the art.  I had seen this mani from Raggio di Luna called 'falling black apostrophes on purple' that I loved and wanted to do a version of.  The colors I used were Deborah Lippman Brown-Eyed Girl, Finger Paints Paper Mache, and Pretty Jelly Hera.

Yeah, I did white apostrophies instead of black.  Do you see the problem yet?

Yeah, I unknowingly did a sperm mani.  FAIL. 

LOL.  Embrace the mistakes, because if you're not making any, you're not trying hard enough.

I got leid!

Here in Daytona Beach there is a tourist trap attraction called the Ohana Luau. It is at a local hotel, and they have a dinner buffet and a stage show.  There are musicians and dancers, and they show different dances from different Polynesian islands, and even a fire knife dance.

Hubby and I went there for a (Groupon) date night, and I decided to do a soft coral look and a tropical mani for the occasion!

I used my Milani cosmetics.  I have to say, I love these eyeshadows.  Katrina here is showing you Gold Dust, Tickled Pink, and White Lie Eyeshadows, and Haute Flash Hot Flash lip gloss.  The eyeshadows have great consistency, and you don't need a lot to get great coverage.  They are pigmented enough if you want to go bold, though.

I will say that I haven't had much luck with Milani's baked, blended eyeshadow palettes, though.  I've tried one that was a bold green/turquoise blend and another that was hot pink, and neither transferred much color, and I couldn't figure out how to get the look I wanted.

The Haute Flash lipglosses have a lot of sparkle in them and are BOLD.  In this look, I basically lined my upper lip and spread that with my finger around the rest of my lips.  And, I got a lot of lips.  You don't need much Haute Flash to get a layer of color.

For my tropical mani, I started with Essie Navigate Her, a pistachio creme. 

 Then I did one-stroke(ish) flowers with Island Girl Sunset Beach and Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty.

One-stroke technique involves loading one flat brush with 2 colors (one on each side) and then painting so that each stroke lays down and blends both colors.  This doesn't work as well with polish as it does with paint, but I still like the technique.  I had to go over the flower again in some parts, and all the yellow needed a little extra polish.

Right hand.  I thought I was so clever using Island Girl polish for a luau.  What was cool though is that it glowed in the dark!  I wasn't expecting that.

I used Pure Ice Black Rage for the center of the flowers and the dots, and then decided to add a little sparkle with China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Look, I got leid!