Tag Archives: Challenges

The Lazy 15: Dessert Nails

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Hullo again. And I’m a wee bit late this Lazy 15 post but still, better late than never. Monday’s theme was dessert nails. And I should add – please forgive the quality of the pics as I managed to flatten the batteries on our camera having only just replaced them (argh) so I had to take these shots using the iPad.

This post is going to be the perfect example of my imagination outstripping my nail art skills. I had envisaged macarons as my dessert nails. And what better polish to represent macarons than the delightful Les Desserts d’Antoinette collection by Lime Crime. So starting with a base colour of Lavendairy I daubed five of the six other colours of the collection in vague, wee macaron-like shapes on each nail. From left to right, the colours are Pastelchio, Peaches Cream, Crema di Limon, Once in a Blue Mousse and Milky Ways.

Macaron Nails

Macaron Nails

Macaron Nails

As you can see I outlined each ‘macaron’ with black stripping polish and then a strip of white stripping polish to represent the mascarpone filling.

Of course as soon as I first thought of what to do I knew my nail art skills, or lack there of, would be an issue so, like a good Lacquerhead, I had a back up-plan. I give you my Fairy Bread Mani.

Fairy Bread Nails

Yes that really is Hundreds and Thousands stuck onto my ring finger. I have a horrible suspicion that Fairy Bread may not be something that translates outside of Australia but here it’s a standard food at children’s parties. Not unlike my mani, Fairy Bread really is just slices of the softest, most nutritiously-lacking-in-substance sliced bread you can find, slapped with margarine or butter and then sprinkled with Hundreds and Thousands. Simple tooth decay in seconds:)

And in totally unrelated news I take delivery of a Thermomix tonight so this weekend I am actually going to try and make Macarons for the first time ever. It could and quite possibly will be a completdisaster. Stay tuned:)

Have you been tempted by Lime Crime polishes? Have they had previous collections beyond the Les Desserts d’Antoinette collection?

Please check out the posts of the other lovely lacquerheads taking part in The Lazy 15.

xx

The Lazy 15: Feminine Nails

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Hullo again and I’m back for another instalment of The Lazy 15 Challenge.

Today’s theme is Feminine Nails. Now I decided against soft, fluffy pink nails which would probably be your archetypal feminine mani right? In part because I wanted to go for something a bit different but also because we got carried away watching two more episodes of The Wire tonight so I ran out of time to change my base colour.

During the week my first stamping plates arrived from Ninja Polish and I was keen to give them a try having never stamped anything before in my life. I started on my right hand, just trying out a few different colours and oh my, it’s brilliant!!! Why didn’t someone tell me sooner that stamping was so much fun. It’s like nail art for talentless people (aka me!!!). I absolutely loved it. And after only ten fingernails I think I’ve got the hang of it. Of course I can’t guarantee that the pattern is going in the same direction on each nail but hey, it’s early days:)

Essie Raspberry & Jade Magia Negra

Essie Raspberry & Jade Magia Negra

This is Jade Magia Negra stamped over Essie Raspberry. I didn’t the stamped polish too dark otherwise I feared it would look like bordello corsetry! In fact I tried one finger on my right hand with Chemistry (Ozotic) 526 and believe me, it DOES look like bordello corsetry:)

Initially I had also tried Enchanted Polish Cranberry Cosmo which I thought looked wonderful but the ‘other half’ thought it was too subtle, given its similar colouring to Essie Raspberry. So hence the compromise of Magia Negra.

I apologise for my horrendous cuticles too. Unfortunately they’re not getting enough time to recover between bouts of nail art attempts at the moment. We’re away on a drive with my partner’s Jaguar car club this weekend (mind you, not in a Jaguar ourselves since it’s in a state of disrepair in the garage) so I ought to have plenty of time in the car to show my cuticles some love.

As with my previous two posts, please check out the other lovelies taking part in this challenge by clinking on the links below and then following your noses via their Lazy 15 posts to the inlinkz tabs for The Lazy 15 participants. Here’s a hint – there’s way more than 15 of us:).

http://nails4dummies.blogspot.com.au

http://phoenixnails28.blogspot.com.au

Until next time,

xx


The Lazy 15: Dotted Manicure

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Hullo again. I’m back for another Lazy 15 post. And today we’re doing dotted manicures:)

Dotting tools hey? Simple enough implements in themselves. But in true LacquerCareFactor tradition I found the seemingly simple act of dotting some polish onto a nail actually much harder than you may have first thought.

Now today’s mani is again one that if had I more time on my hands I would probably have scrapped and started again but in the ‘warts and all’ spirit of this challenge I’m putting it out there. And thank you those of you who suggested I’m perhaps a little tough on myself. You’re really sweet and very kind. But learning is a plus so I’m not unhappy with my efforts in that respect.

Here I started with a black bottom of A England’s Camelot. What I had in my mind was glossy black with bright, clear and very defined dots. Sadly my choice of polishes didn’t quite live up to my imagined mani. For the red dots I used A England’s Perceval. A gorgeous polish in its own right. And quite opaque which was what I was after. But the first learning for me was don’t have too much polish on the dotting tool because a couple of the dots were overly full and so spread into each other. But aside from that I was actually reasonably pleased with Percival as a choice. Next I overlaid dots of A England’s Holy Grail (v1) and sadly, as you can see from the pic below, the original formula is not as opaque as Perceval so it just didn’t work as well.

Dotted Mani

I had initially thought to use St George and Lady of the Lake and in hindsight perhaps I should have. But then I quite like my dotted, unintended homage to the German flag:)

Again, any tips anyone has for successful dotting I would love to hear them.

Am also still trying to track down the inlinkz HTML code so I can include links of the other girls and guy participating in this challenge.

Until next time

xx

The Lazy 15 Challenge: Tape Mani

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Just wanted to post to say a) I’m still alive and b) tell you about a new challenge that I’m going to try to do.

I’m appalling I know having not posted for either Polish Us Pink or Holothon lately but work has taken over my life of late plus haven’t been feeling that great. But I am going to tempt fate by committing hot a new nail polish challenge called “The Lazy 15″. Clearly my kind of challenge:).

Now it’s called The Lazy 15 because it’s a challenge for those of us who are completely intimidated by the thought of posting every day for a month like some very talented overachievers in the Lacquerhead world do. I’m actually very excited about it because it will force me to try a number of techniques that I’m fascinated by but terrified of.

Here’s the run down of the manis required as part of the challenge:

 

Now, technically it started on Friday (it’s now Sunday here) so I’m running a bit late but meh. I figure I may not be perfect on timing but the main focus for me is to actually try things that I’ve not tried before.

So with that intent in mind I’m going to post my tape mani now. Now I’ve done a mani with tripping tape previously so for this mani I took a broad interpretation of ‘tape’ and used french manicure tape instead of straight stripping tape. Here’s what I came up with.

 

Butter London Slapper and A England Excalibur

I’d been wanting to try this sort of reverse moon mani for a while. This is Butter London Slapper underneath with a top coat of A England Excalibur. I expect that there are many out there who are skilled enough to free hand the top colour but I’m not, hence using the french manicure tape as a template. Unfortunately the french manicure tape I got was quite wide so the curve wasn’t as curvy as I had in mind.

Butter London Slapper and A England Excalibur

So there you go. Butter London Slapper is the most gorgeous colour by the way. My pics here show it as more blue than it is in person. In person it’s a bit greener. So bright and vibrant. Perfect for summer. And Excalibur made for a lovely one coater although I struggled to reduce the brush marks.

If you would like to join the Lazy 15 Challenge it’s not too late, just hop on board. Below are links to the blogs of the great girls and guy taking part in this challenge.