Tri Polish Challenge: Coral, nude and turquoise gradient with stripes

I liked the idea of doing a gradient with the nude and coral polishes but wasn’t sure what I’d use the turquoise for this time. I thought about a plaid or grid-like pattern but thought it might be a bit overwhelming so I decided on very simple sketchy plaid design to one side of the nail. I was also running low on time as I was meant to be packing for my trip to the UK and needed a quick design I could do easily.

I’m quite pleased with the results and like how the sketchy plaid lines have come out. The gradient could have been a little smoother but I like how the colours work together.

My summer in the UK is going to be an extremely busy one so I’m afraid I’ll be scaling back the posts on here – it’s likely to be just one or two a week until September when I’ll be back home and back to my regular routine. I’m also minus my photographer/husband over the summer so forgive me if the pictures aren’t up to their usual standard over the next couple of months.

Anyhow, here’s my Tri polish mani:

Tri Polish Challenge: Turquoise, Nude and Coral Dragonflies

I wanted to do something summery and I started thinking of the beautiful fabrics on Japanese yukatas, which I remember admiring when I lived there. A pattern that I really liked was one with simple dragonfly shapes and I saw in it loads of different colours and styles. I always liked the summer festivals in Japan with all the girls in traditional dress, food stalls and people carrying shrines through the streets.

I decided to try and recreate the dragonfly pattern with this month’s tri polish colours. I stayed by painting my nails in a nude shade and then sponged a coral polish over the top. It came out a bit more sheer than I expected and just kind of changed the nude polish into a pinky orangey one with a hint of a shimmer. Then I painted the very simplified dragonfly shapes in a dark turquoise shade and I think they came out quite well.

I used: Don’t Pretzel My Buttons – OPI, Secret of Love – Anny, Life is a Freeride – Essence

Tri Polish Tuesday: Red, Green and Purple Splats

I’m just not managing to post on time these days, am I? Still, better late than never! I haven’t been all that keen on this month’s colours for the Tri Polish challenge and can’t say I’ll be sad to see them go and have new colours to work with next week.

I decided to try doing colour splats – I’d never tried this design before and thought it looked really fun. I found that it was trickier than it looked to get nice shaped splats and I have a feeling it’s one of those designs where less is more. Unfortunately I went for more and I think my nails look too busy and crowded.

At first I hated it and wanted to take it straight off, but it grew on me and the kids in my classes thought it was fun and crazy (which is high praise from 8 year old Spanish kids!)

If I try this design again I’ll limit the number of splats per nail and practise getting nicer shaped splats on paper before I go crazy on my nails!

I used: My boyfriend Scales Walls – OPI, Are You Jelly? – China Glaze, Knightsbridge Green – Nails Inc, Play Date – Ciaté

Tri Polish Challenge: Red, Green and Purple Sugar Spun Mani

I was a bit stuck for ideas with this new colour combination for Tri Polish Tuesday (yes, I know it’s Wednesday – late again!) and couldn’t think of a design that would look really good in these colours. I decided to use a technique I like instead and have another go at sugar spun nails.

They worked out pretty well but I’ve got to get some ideas going for the next three weeks of these colours!

I used: Pistachio Drage – L’Oreal, Violet Femme – Picture Polish, Red Vamp – Layla, Just Gorgeous – Anny.

Tri Polish Tuesday on a Wednesday

I was doing so well and had got into a good rhythm with my blogging which I just seem to have lost recently and can’t quite get back into just now. Easter holidays and then a couple of really busy days have thrown me.

Anyhow here’s my Pink, Blue and Yellow Tri Polish Tuesday which seems to have become a Wednesday thing. I’ve wanted to try dry marbling for a while and recently saw a tutorial for really simple hearts done with the dry marbling technique. Unfortunatly I can’t find the tutorial again and whatever search terms in put in I just find kind of bright tie dye patterns and nothing like the simple but pretty hearts I saw before.

It wasn’t difficult but equally it wasn’t easy to get a really good result and some of mine look a bit untidy. I definitely think it was a good design to try for a first attempt at this technique though and maybe I’ll try something more difficult next time.

</a

I used: My Boyfriend Scales Walls – OPI, I Just Can't Cope-Acabana – OPI, Southwark – Nails Inc, Indian Rose – Rituals

Late again! Tri Polish Tuesday: Pink Blue and Yellow

I’m going to blame being relaxed and on holiday by the beach for my late posting today! As it’s Easter week and I’m not going to see any Easter eggs here in Spain, I thought I’d use the bright, fun colours of this month’s Tri Polish challenge to create Easter egg patterns on my nails.

I didn’t really plan these out in advance, just went with whatever I felt like doing as I painted them! I think they’re fun, bright and great for this time of year and am happy to overlook their little inaccuracies this time!

I used: I Just Can’t Cope-Acabana -OPI, Blue Collar – Orly, Candy Floss – Ciaté

Tri Polish Tuesday: Pink, blue and yellow cherry blossoms

I’ve seen a lot of photos of cherry blossoms on my facebook feed recently from my friends in Japan where it’s probably beautiful and filled with pink blossoms at the moment unlike Spain where it’s already peaking over 30C this week.

I looked for some simple illustrations of sakura but they were anything but easy to paint and mine are pretty wonky. I still quite like the result and don’t think their lack of regularity makes the mani a disaster. I really like the colours I used especially the pink.

I realised I’ve done two flower manis for the two April Tri polish Tuesdays so far. I guess I’m happy that it’s spring! Next week I’ll have to do something non-floral!

I used: Blu – Zoya, Ivory Queen – Ciaté, Notting Hill Carnival – Nails Inc

Tri Polish Tuesday: Green, Purple and Blue Camouflage Print

This is the last of March’s green purple and blue posts for Tri Polish Tuesday. I’ve loved this colour combination and really enjoyed the manis I’ve done this month.

I did a camo print mani a while ago and really loved the look and how easy it was to create. Last time I used traditional camouflage colours but I thought some muted shades of blue, purple and green would work really well with this design.

I really liked the result although I got a bit of streaking when I applied the matte top coat (I always find it tricky to get it on in one swipe as my nails are quite wide) I think the matte finish was a good choice and I’ll definitely be trying camo nails out in other colours too.

I used: Sky – Picture Polish, Faux Pas – Illamasqua, It’s Rambo No.5 – Catrice, Stylenomics – Essie

Tri Polish Tuesday: Green, Purple and Blue Stained Glass Mani

I’ve seen several gorgeous stained glass style manis recently. One of my favourites is this one by Hannah of The Dalai Lama’s Nails. I thought I’d give it a try with some sparkly polishes for this week’s Tri Polish Tuesday.

I originally started with a much paler blue as the base colour and then painted random triangles and shapes in the purple and green. I ended up deciding that the pale blue didn’t balance well so I filled in all the space with a darker blue. Finally I used a striping brush to paint in the black lines. I thought about putting a border round the whole nail, but had a feeling it might end up looking a bit messy, so I left it as it is.

It was fun and easy to do and I liked the bold, bright result. I’ll almost certainly come back to this design and try and improve on it in the future.

The colours didn’t seem to come out well in the photos and we took a whole load of indoor and outdoor shots with different lighting to try and get the colours looking right. They look less vibrant in this pic than in real life but all the colours are about the right tone.

I used: Violet Microglitter – Kiko, Pearly Peacock – Kiko, Azure – Rimmel, Lady in Black – OPI

Tri Polish Tuesday: Green, Purple and Blue Colour Blocks

I made a promise to myself to try and get over my issue with using tape. I’ve never been very good at it, had a couple of disasters and generally don’t like the fiddliness of it. However I also know that taped manis can be absolutely stunning and I’m often wowed by what other people can create with tape, so it’s time for me to learn to love tape.
I thought colour blocks would be a good place to start and found this beautiful mani on Pinterest which I thought I’d try to recreate.
I was patient beyond what I thought I was capable of, as this required taping twice to create the design. My patience meant that the tape didn’t destroy my base colour, however I’m not sure if it was crappy tape or just my technique but I still ended up with far from crisp lines which I ended up fixing with a striping brush. So this turned out to be a mix of free handing and taping to get the effect I wanted.
I still have a long way to go if I’m ever going to love using tape, but plan to try at least one taped mani a week until I master it (or tear my hair out in sheer frustration!!!)
I quite like the result , especially with the matte top coat.

I used: Do You Lilac It? – OPI, Southwark – Nails Inc, Knightsbridge Green – Nails Inc, Lady in Black – OPI