Tri-Polish Challenge (May #3) - Tie-Dye Explosion

Hello everyone!

Today is the third TPC post for May! These TPC posts finish so quickly; I can't believe that there is only one more post left for May! And even though May is almost over, Chicago can't seem to get its weather in check. Oh well...

Remember, the colors for May are Red, Grey, and Blue.

For today's post, I decided to use a drag marbling technique. I found an awesome tutorial by Brie from Lacquerheads of Oz. Take a look at how my attempt turned out!

To get this look:

• The tutorial says to use white as a base polish to create the look but I tried to do this several times with a white base polish and even if it was completely dry, I ended up peeling it over when I was dragging the other polishes.
• I worked with one nail at a time and first put a long red blob using Revlon Revlon Red on my nail, followed my a long grey blob using Revlon Midnight Haze, and then ended with putting a small blue blob using Revlon Coast is Clear. I put the blue last because it's a very thin polish and whenever I put it first, the red would end up mixing in with it and would overtake the blue.
• Then I used a toothpick (you can use a needle or any other pointy tool you may have) to drag the polish outwards (from the blue polish blob to the grey polish blob). 
• To get rid of the bumps and ridges, I added my favorite top coat.

It's the not as clean as Brie's tie-dye design but I think with some practice, I'll get used to this. I only got this end result after trying this out about 7 times on one of my nails, and I still ended up having to redo my middle nail three times after the other nails were done.

I think it turned out quite nice for a first attempt, don't you think? Have any of you ever tried the drag marbling technique? There are several other designs you can make with this aside from the tie-dye look.

I also love how the blue gives the whole look a nice pop! The pinky nail, to me, turned out the best, which is odd because usually I am the most disappointed with my pinky nail. Take a look at my pinky in the first picture I posted and the next picture.

Clean up was really hard. I should have used tape around my nails but I thought that it wouldn't get that bad. Clearly, I was so wrong and the nail polish decided to get back at me for not listening to the tutorial! I was also surprised at how hard this was for me considering the drag technique with a single polish blob is not hard at all. I even made a tutorial for that! Practice makes perfect, huh? I'll definitely keep trying!

Anyways, let me know what you think of this! Also, don't forget to check out the other great manicures from today! Check back on Thursday for the last TPC post for May.

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 17: Glitter

Hi guys!

Today, I have for you the next post in the 31 Day Challenge: Glitter manicure! I had a hard time thinking of something to do for this one so I decided to go find some inspiration. Kayla from Nails by Kayla Shevonne is my absolute favorite nail blogger so I went through her blog and found this! The whole manicure looked like so much fun so I knew that I had to try it out! My challenge mani for today is inspired by her Mish Mash Mint Mani.

To get this look:

• After applying a base coat, I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Timbleberry to use as my base polish color on all of my nails. It's such a pretty coral!
• Pointer: I used a dotting tool and Sinful Colors In The Spotlight to apply glitter dots randomly on my nail. I then used a small detail brush to outline the dots with Sinful Colors Black On Black.
• Middle: Using a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black, I made a drippy outline. Then I filled in the drips with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight using my detail brush.
• Ring: I used my detail brush to add a rectangular section of glitter to the side of my nail with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight. Then, using my small detail brush, I added the black outline and random black lines to the non-glitter area.
• Pinky: With Sinful Colors Black On Black and a small detail brush, I painted a triangle and the triangular lines. Then I filled in the gaps with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight using a detail brush.
• I smoothed everything out by applying my favorite top coat.

I think my drippy nail would have better if I made the drips using the glitter first and then outlining it. But what's done is done! I also don't like my pinky nail. Oh well. Out of all the nails, I think the pointer finger nail turned out the best with the leopard print!

However, all together, I do like this mani! I think it's fun and it's definitely something that would be fun to wear over the summer. What do you think?

I think the glitter went well with the coral polish as well. So that's always a plus!

Let me know what you think of this! I would love to get some feedback/tips form you.

Make sure you check out my friend's 31DC mani at My Life In Turquoise.

I have several great ideas for next week's 31DC mani so make sure you tune in next Monday! But before that, I have the 3rd post for you for May's Tri-Polish Challenge tomorrow. There's a cool technique that I saw that I want to try out for it.

That's 17 down and 14 more to go!

Tri-Polish Challenge (May #1) - Ikat Print

Hey guys!

The Crumpet'sTri-Polish Challenge is back for the month of May! I have the first post for that challenge for you today. But first, let me go over the rules again:

Rules:

• Crumpet's Nail Tarts will be choosing three colors each month and you must ONLY use those three colors to create the manicures
• The colors for May are Grey, Red, & Blue
• That being said, you have free use of white, black, silver, gold, and glitter toppers
• You must choose 1 polish to represent each color choice and use the same three polishes throughout the challenge
• The challenge has 4 posts each month: the Tuesday and Thursday of the 3rd and 4th week of each month 
• For May: 21, 23, 28, 30

 The brands/colors that I ended up choosing are:

Revlon Midnight Haze, Revlon Revlon Red, Revlon Coast is Clear

Revlon Midnight Haze is a metallic shimmery grey, Revlon Revlon Red is a bright red creme, and Revlon Coast is Clear is a light shimmery tiffany blue.

Now onto the good stuff! I decided to do ikat print for the first day of the challenge because I really wanted to do it in April but ended up not doing it. I also love how ikat looks and how the manicures for it end up turning out! Take a look at it.

 To get this look:

• I wanted to have a lighter base color so after applying my base coat, I used Revlon Coast is Clear as my base polish color.
• I then used Sinful Colors Snow Me White and a small detail brush to create white triangles on all of my nails.
• After the white had dried, I used Revlon Revlon Red to create a smaller, red triangle within the white triangles.
• Normally, the next step would use black polish, but since this is the first manicure for May's Tri-Polish Challenge, I wanted to use all three polishes. I used Revlon Midnight Haze to imperfectly outline the white triangles and then add a smaller triangle within all of the red triangles.
• I sealed the deal with my favorite top coat.

I absolutely love how it turned out! It's a cleaner version of the ikat because it is really supposed to be a little more rough looking (to compare, take a look at my other ikat print manicure) but I still like it.

What do you all think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!

Take a look at the other great manicures for the first post in the Tri-Polish Challenge!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 16: Tribal Print

Hi guys!

I have the next manicure for the 31 Day Challenge for you. I think it looks fun and well...my brother said that it reminded him of the rugs that were in our hotel in Guatemala because of the print that I used. He's a little...odd? But in reality, they really do resemble them!

Anyways, let's get to the good stuff! This manicure was super fun to create and I now know that I love tribal print!

To get this look:

• I used Revlon Colorstay Bare Bones as the base polish on all of my nails and then decided to create the print over it.
• I used a small detail brush, thinnest striping brush, and dotting tools in various sizes, along with Revlon Lagoon Afternoon, Maybelline Color Show Orange Fix, and Sinful Colors Black On Black to create the various prints that you see.
• I sealed everything with my favorite top coat!

Coincidentally, my manicure ended up matching my outfit because I wore a nude colored dress. I love when things work out like that, don't you?

I hope you all liked my attempt at a tribal print manicure. This was my first real attempt at a tribal manicure (I had doodled on my nails in India and it ended up having a tribal-esque feel to it and my 2nd manicure for April's Tri-Polish Challenge mani had a tribal-esque quality to it). What do you think of it? I know that I need some work to make things a bit more even and cleaner, but I'm still happy considering it is my first attempt.

If you have any tips or suggestions, please let me know in the comments section below!

And as always, check out my friend's mani at My Life In Turquoise.

Now, that's 16 down and 15 more to go!! We're more than half way through this. No turning back now!

A quick word: My thoughts and prayers are with all of the families affected by the tornado in Oklahoma. It's devastating news but the heroic actions of the first response team lessened the blow. Stay strong, Oklahoma!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 15: Delicate Print

Hi guys!!

Today's post might be a bit blah just because I had a hard time with this challenge. I have a stamping plate so I automatically knew that I would be using it to create today's delicate print mani. However, I had never used my stamping plate before! I thought it would be easy, but after trying it out, I realized I need a little practice with it; my print wasn't coming off the stamper cleanly.

Anyways, here's what that attempt ended up looking like:

"To get this look":

• I started off by applying Revlon Sunshine Sparkle as my base polish.
• I then used Revlon Midnight Haze and my B25 stamping plate to add the flowers, but as you can see, it didn't really work

I would have liked to spend the day practicing stamping, but as you can see from the picture above, the nails match my saree (Indian dress) that I had to wear for a wedding yesterday. I couldn't keep practicing because I had to go to the wedding in the morning and the reception in the evening! I ended up taking this all off and created a different mani.

This was my second, very quick, mani. I totally know that I'm cheating by using nail stickers, but I only had about 15 minutes left to do my nails before I had to start getting ready and leave for the day. It still satisfied the whole delicate print challenge for this day.

"To get this look":

• I used Revlon Silver Screen as my base polish.
• Then, I used some tweezers to put the CINA nail stickers on my nails after the base polish was mostly dry. I finished it all off with a top coat. 

To end result still matched my outfit and that's why I went with the colors and stickers that I used.

I am definitely going to keep practicing using a stamping plate and hopefully you'll be seeing me use them in some manicures in the future!! I love how stamping plates end up looking on manicures so I will be using them soon.

Make sure to check out my friend's post at My Life In Turquoise.

15 down, 16 more to go! We're basically half way done now!! So exciting :) Hopefully next week's challenge goes a lot better for me. 

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print Nails

Hi everyone!!

I'm super excited to show you the challenge mani that I created for today! It's simple and I think that it doesn't have too much going on, which I believe is the case for the most part with animal print manis. I decided on doing french tips with the animal prints overflowing onto my bare nail (on top of the base coat, of course). So check it out below and let me know what you think! Welcome to The Polish Zoo!!

 I used several different polishes so bare with me! And everything was used after applying a base coat.

To get this look: 

• Thumb (zebra print): French tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the zebra print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Pointer (leopard print): French tip was made using Piggy Polish Stand At The Edge. The leopard print was made using Revlon Top Speed Varnished and Sinful Colors Black on Black and a medium sized detail brush and small dotting tool
• Middle (cow print): The french tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the spots were made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Ring (giraffe print):  The french tip was made using Orly Country Club Khaki and the print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Revlon Totally Toffee
• Pinky (tiger print): The french tip was made using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet and the print was made using Sinful Colors Black On Black and my smallest sized striping brush

 

This mani was quite fun to create and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I didn't want an overpowering animal print mani this week so I opted for the french tips instead The entire look was not time consuming either because I just made quick french tips and didn't have to worry about them being super clean since I was going to put the print over it anyways. Also, animal print is never PERFECT. There are always some imperfections so it allowed me to just go with flow in creating the different prints.

My inspirations! 

What did you all think about my mani? I really like love it!! Let me know your thoughts on this one or if you have any suggestions/tips/ideas to help me next time I decide to do an animal print mani.

Make sure to check out my friend's post today at My Life In Turquoise!

13 down, and 18 to go!! Check back next Monday for the flower challenge mani!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 6: Violet Nails

Hi everyone!! I'm so excited to show you all today's challenge mani!

Originally, I had planned a completely different mani for today but it didn't work out so I decided to go with this look instead. I will definitely show you all the other look that I had mine sometime soon because it's a great idea and looks awesome!

Ikat print!! For the base coat, I used Revlon Scented Parfume Grape Icy. It's a very pretty purple and really smells like grapes!! The color is almost like a royal purple but with a softer look to it soI thought it would be perfect for this print to soften it up a bit. For the black and white parts of the print, I used some nail art pens, Nubar White and Nubar Black. The blue/green color that I used in the print is Sinful Colors Mint Apple, which has a nice sparkle to it.

I've been wanting to try this one out for a while and what a better opportunity to do it! It was fun making this mani and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out because I thought I would mess up badly. But I like it!

My friend at My Life In Turquoise also has her challenge mani for all of you so make sure to stop by there.

I can't believe week 6 is already done!! Next week is black and white and I already have something in mind for that. Let's hope that it turns out well.

6 down, 25 more to go!!