Teflon Tuff French White Tip

This is my first entry in one of The Crumpet‘s nail challenges! This one’s called Golden Oldies Thursdays and the theme for this week is STRIPES. For my manicure I used some very old polishes to stick true to the rules. In fact, I really went for the gusto and used one verrrrry old polish!

My white tips were painted with Sally Hansen Teflon Tuff polish called French White Tips. I don’t know how old it is, but I would guess about 20 yrs old? Wow, right? My magenta stripes were made with a Stripe Rite striper that I bought at Sally’s when I first started dabbling in nail art. So I’d say that it’s probably 4 yrs old. Funny thing…. I never use my stripers anymore! Why, I have no idea! Then I outlined the stripes with a black nail art pen and stamped a little floral konad design on my accent nails. This M4 KONAD plate was the verrrry first stamping plate that I bought a few yrs ago, so it’s perfect to use for this Golden Oldies challenge! 🙂

I’m not excited about my nail art pen lines looking so sloppy though! I think the pen sticks and drags on the surface of my polish and it always looks funny- like a kindergartener did them. Oh well! It is what it is. The sloppiness gives it some panache, right?

If you’re wondering why my nailbeds look so pink, so am I! I started using Duri Rejuvacote and I am halfway through my ten day trial! Not sure why my nails are turning pink with it! I will post all the results when my ten days is up. I love before and after pics!!!

view the other girls’ GOT Stripes here:

Today’s nails were inspired by my inner child! When I was a little girl (back in the 80’s) I just loved rainbows! Rainbow stickers, rainbow spiral notebooks, rainbow earrings… pretty much anything that had a rainbow on it caught my attention. Too bad it took me 30+ years to discover this rainbow gradient technique! Well, this mani is dedicated to you, little Jacqui from the 80’s! I know you would’ve loved these nails. 🙂

My first attempts at gradients were total fails- until I came up with this very effective way of using makeup sponges. Here’s a pic of how I use my sponge for a gradient:

I start out with a standard cosmetic application wedge and use sharp scissors to cut it into 4 or 5 long skinny pieces. I take one of the pieces, fold it in half, and dab it into a drop of nail polish on my work surface. Then I sponge it onto my nail to create the gradient effect. I think these folded over sponge strips work well since their surface is slightly curved, yet small-so you can dab, dab, dab away to get the paint just where you want it. I use a different sliver of sponge for each color. The small surface area of the sponge worked great to get the skinny lines of color for today’s rainbow gradient… but it also works well for a larger-scale gradient (like this leopard design where I only sponged on one color). I think this technique is less messy and it’s fool-proof!! I haven’t screwed up one gradient yet since I started doing it this way !