Gelish Mani Sunday | A Little Halloween

So many exciting things are happening in the world of Gelish!!! They're coming out with a new matte Top It Off AND it looks like they're introducing their new Trends collection in October, too! Seriously, on October 1st I will be calling Sally's to see if they have the new awesomeness in stock. I WAAAANT that matte top coat SO BAD.

The matte TIO REALLY would've come in handy this past weekend, too. I did a Gelish manicure on my work colleague and I wanted to try a criss-cross matte/shiny look with the Orly Matte top coat I have, like this:

By neglelakkmani.com
I put on the regular Gelish TIO, laid down some striping tape, then put two coats of Orly Matte top coat on, letting each coat dry. What I found once I started pulling the tape off was that the matte top coat gunked up along the tape and left these thick, gunky lines all over the nail. The only way to get it to work right was to take the striping tape off BEFORE the top coat dries. The whole time I was thinking, "If this was 3 days later I'd have my Gelish matte top coat, grumble grumble".
In the end I think her mani did turn out pretty cute! I got to do a bunch of different elements: matte, stamping, gradient, and nail art! I bought some new nail art brushes so I could paint the Dia De Los Muertos skull on her thumb. Man, I need a carpal tunnel wrist brace for painting detail. I was shaking all over the place!!
Also, I should add... painting Gelish on acrylics? WONDERFUL. I spent hours on Saturday night looking up acrylics, tips, and sculpting with hard gel. Man, that is REALLY cool stuff. I don't think I'd want acrylics or hard gel on my own nails, but they really look like a LOT of fun. I kinda sorta want to look into online classes, get some knowledge, maybe see if I'd want to invest the time and money in taking "real" classes. I'm kinda fascinated by all this!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Pinky Nail:

1. 3 coats Oocha Coocha Bing Bang Bam Alakazy Alakazam, cured all coats
2. Dabbed Foundation and pressed the studs in, cured
3. 1 coat TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. 2 coats of Black Shadow, cured all coats
2. 1 coat TIO, cure
3. Laid down striping tape
4. 1 coat Orly Matte top coat, immediately remove striping tape BEFORE top coat dries

Middle Nail:

1. 3 coats Sheek White, cured all coats
2. Wiped tacky layer with Cleanser
3. 2 coats of Black Shadow off-set along the side of the nail, cured all coats
4. 1 coat TIO, cure
5. Wiped tacky layer with Cleanser
6. Using Konad Black stamping polish, stamp Konad cheetah print into nail
7. Let dry, then dabbed Showstopping into the centers of the cheetah print, cure
8. Dabbed Foundation and pressed the studs in, cured
9. 1 coat TIO, cure

Index Nail:

1. 3 coats Showstopping, cured all coats
2. Applied Oocha Coocha to the top half of the nail and, before curing, applied more Showstopping toward the bottom, brushing the wet colors together to make a gradient, cure
3. Repeat step 2 as needed to achieve gradient
4. 1 coat TIO, cure

Thumb Nail:

1. 3 coats Sheek White, cured all coats
2. Wiped tacky layer with Cleanser
3. Painting details using Ooocha Coocha, Black Shadow, Showstopping, and Gella by ENP in "Lily", curing as needed
4. Dabbed Foundation and pressed the studs in, cured
5. 1 coat TIO, cure

Read More

Mini Nail Party

Awesomesauce tutorial requests aside, I've gotten a few requests to do nails! The owner of the gym I go to is determined to come over and have me to her nails and one of my coworkers is coming over on Saturday to get her nails did. In addition, my BFF is in town! We've been spending the past couple of weekends going out, visiting, and having a good time. I offered to give her a Gelish manicure before she leaves, so we decided she'd come over and we'd have a little nail party. However there was one small problem... I don't really HAVE anywhere to DO nails. Honestly, I just sit cross-legged on the floor at my coffee table and do my nails while watching TV.
I decided to remedy this.

I repurposed an L-shaped desk we weren't using into a handy little nail station. It's PERFECT! Neither my BFF or my roomie had to sit on the floor! ;)

First up, my BFF's nails!
So, I was really inspired by a set of japanese nails I saw on Pinterest:

Originally found on ameblo.jp
I loved the colors, the fade, the jewels, and decided to recreate it using My Favorite Accessory, Plum & Done, and Make A Difference. I like how it turned out! However, I really need to figure out the best way to do a fade with Gelish. It's kinda hard and time-consuming. I think I need to practice more on my swatch wheel and figure out the best method.
For my roomie I tried dreamcatcher nails, using Sheek White, Lust At First Sight, and Black Shadow for the nail art. I love the way these nails look! Although it's apparent I need better nail art detail brushes - the more I look at the dreamcatcher the more critical I am of it. I actually JUST ordered what I hope are better nail art brushes, so I hope if I try something like this again I can get better detail with the Gelish polish. Also, I didn't flash cure the polish on a piece of foil before using it for nail art, so that could've resulted in some messy detail as well.

Read More

NailPro Gelish Nail Art Tutorial

So, this has been an interesting couple of weeks!

I did a new fall-inspired mani on myself last weekend and posted it to Instagram with the intent of doing one of my usual write-ups on it. However, before I got the chance to write up a post I received a comment on my Instagram account from NailPro, asking me to do a tutorial on those nail!

Uh, OKAY.
So this past weekend I worked on a photo tutorial for the nails and sent it in... and they decided to use it!!! Check this shiz out!!

NailPro.com: Gelish Fall Nail Tutorial >>

They've also asked me to write up a general tutorial on how to use Gelish which I plan on submitting this weekend. Files this under Super Exciting Stuff!

Read More

Gelish Mani Sunday | Star Trek Nails

We've been watching a lot of Star Trek: Voyager lately.

A LOT.

I was a HUGE fan in High School when it originally aired, but I've just now gotten my GF into it. She LOVES 7 of 9 (and not for the obvious reasons).
Watching it now makes me appreciate it on so many more levels. You don't realize how poorly women are written in television/movies until you watch a show that writes strong, independent, respected women -- and does it RIGHT. I'm a little sad we've already started season 7.

So, since my GF is all Trek, all the time right now, she requested Star Trek nails! These were a LOT of fun and marked a lot of firsts for me:

• First time trying Gelish Galaxy Nails
• First time trying a non-Gelish gel polish
• First time painting nail art before applying Top It Off
• First time layering "regular" polish with Gelish polish

Whew! This is gonna be a long post.

So, IMO, Gelish's yellow selection... sucks. Unless you want neon yellow (Coco Cabana Banana) or greyish yellow (Don't Be Such A Sourpuss) you're out of luck. Unfortunately for my GF yellow is her favorite color. So, while we were out at a nail salon supply store she decided to pick up a bright, beautiful canary yellow from a gel brand I've never used or heard of. We grabbed Gella by ENP in "Lily".
The gal at the shop actually told us the brand wasn't that great, but didn't say why. I told her we really just wanted a bright, canary yellow, and our options are limited with gel polish. The polish itself was a bit watery and it took me 3 coats to get full opacity. I put it over a layer of Sheek White in the hopes that it might minimize whatever problems the polish might have (hopefully it isn't fading) but so far I have no complaints. It seemed to work well with the Gelish polish, Top It Off, and the 18G lamp.

As for the galaxy nails... I've been DYING to do these for, like, a year, but I've been SO intimidated by it. I don't know why, but I've just felt like I was doomed to fail.
However, I have to say... it was easy! On the second nail I really got the hang of how it should look to make it look more like a nebula and less like a multi-colored marble ;)

I also decided to try something new: rather than apply Top It Off before begining painting details, I wiped off the tacky layer off the cured polished and then began painting with Gelish polish. I'm happy to report that I did NOT expirence the color "bleed" once I began painting! I'm going to keep expiramenting with this method - saves me Top It Off and time under the lamp :)
For the above manicure I did the following:

Index, Middle, and Pinky Nails:

1. Index: 2 coats Backstage Beauty
   Middle: 1 coat Sheek White, 3 coats Gella "Lily"
   Pinky: 2 coats My Favorite Accessory
   cured all coats
2. 1 coat TIO, cure
3. Applied striping tape to create triangle shapes
4. 2 coats of Black Shadow, cured all coats
5. 1 coat TIO, cure (in retrospect, I probably could've skipped this step and wiped the cured, tacky polish layer instead)
6. Dabbed Foundation onto the TIO and pressed the studs in, cured
7. Painted on the comm badge using Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear "Golden-I" and Konad Silver polish, let air dry
8. Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cured all coats

Thumb Nail:

1. 2 coats of Is It An Illusion, cured all coats
2. 1 coat Little Miss Sparkle, cure
3. Wipe off tacky layer with Cleanser
4. Paint a small blue circle with Up In The Blue, cure
5. Paint over the blue circle with Twinkle, cure
6. Wipe off tacky layer with Cleanser
7. Paint the gold accents with Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear "Golden-I", let air dry
8. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Ring Nail:

1. 2 coats of Is It An Illusion, cured all coats
2. 1 coat Little Miss Sparkle, cure
3. Wipe off tacky layer with Cleanser
4. Applied a dab of Up In The Blue to the corner of a make-up sponge and sponged the color on where I wanted it, cured
5. Continued to sponge color on with Starburst, Sweet Morning Dew, and Gella "Lily", curing after each color application
6. Dotted small "stars" on the nail with Sheek White
7. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Read More

Gelish Fade Alert | My Nightly Craving Color Fade

Well, I've now seen it myself: My Nightly Craving is a fader.

I have to say, though, I thought I'd get 5 days, maybe a full week out of it, but no: the color faded in LESS THAN 24 HOURS.
So now I have a cafe-colored manicure rather than the pretty feminine pink one I wanted. Poo. Here's how it looks:

Left: Saturday evening. Right: Sunday afternoon.

Read More

Gelish Mani Sunday | Under Her Spell Lacey Look

Yesterday I accomplished a huge goal: I completed a 10K race! Now, I've spent my entire life knowing I was and would never be a "runner". January of last year I couldn't jog for more than 30 seconds without wanting to absolutely die and the furthest I'd ever run non-stop was 1/2 mile. When I was 12. So I started training and eventually ran one mile, then I ran a 5K, then I ran a lot of 5Ks and this summer we decided to train for the Disneyland 10K.

How I think I look.

How I really look.

To be able to say I ran a 10K is, like, beyond my comprehension. Even though I was slow (finished in 1:27. Yeah. Not fast) and tired and hot and sweaty... I crossed that finish line! Next on our bucket list, something I've been wanting to do for about a year... we signed up to run the Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon in January. WHAT ARE WE THINKING!?!? I'm scared and excited and we're just gonna continue on with our training. The best thing about our Saturday morning long runs? The HUGE breakfasts we eat right afterward.
So my reward for myself was... a new Gelish mani!! I've been wanting to use my new Under Her Spell colors, and now that it's September 1st it felt like a good time to get some fall colors on my fingers :)
I really liked the thick consistency of the colors from that collection and I got really good opacity in just 2 coats. Now, I've seen some rumors that My Nightly Craving is a fader, so I think I'm going to take a pic at the end of the week and compare it with the picture I took today. I really hope it doesn't fade - this mauvey pink color is so nice!

I wanted to try to go with a lacey type of theme, but I'm not sure I accomplished it. I have a Konad stamping plate that has a lace design and I had an idea. Now, Gelish does NOT stamp. At all. You can put the polish on the design on the plate and scrape it away, but the minute you press the stamper to the plate to try to pick up the design it just turns into an amorphous streak of color. So I had this idea: what if I apply the Gelish to the plate, scrape it, then flash cure it for 5 seconds under the 18G lamp? Would that give the polish just enough body to transfer? The final verdict is: yes and no. The design actually DID transfer on to the stamper, but it was SO light and faded it wasn't worth putting on the nail. Half the polish transferred onto the stamper while the other half stayed in the design on the plate. It was worth a shot! Maybe next time I can try a slightly longer flash cure and see if that helps.

So because my idea didn't work I had to hand-paint a lace design on my pinky which turned out... ok. I'm really happy with the way the studs look, though!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. 2 coats of My Nightly Craving, cured all coats
2. Dabbed Foundation onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cured
3. Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cured all coats

Index Nail:

1. 2 coats of My Nightly Craving, cured all coats
2. 1 coat TIO, cure
3. 1 coat Inner Vixen. Without curing, used a bamboo stick (I felt it worked better than the dotter) to create swirl designs that revealed the lighter color underneath, cured
4. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Middle Nail:

1. 2 coats of My Nightly Craving, cured all coats
2. Applied Inner Vixen to the top half of the nail, spongine it off until I achieved a garadient look, cured. Did this one more time to achieve opacity, cured.
3. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Ring Nail:

1. 2 coats of Lust At First Sight, cured all coats
2. Dabbed Foundation onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cured
3. Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cured all coats

Pinky Nail:

1. 2 coats of My Nightly Craving, cured all coats
2. 1 coat TIO, cure
3. Put a few drops of Inner Vixen on foil, cured under 18G lamp for 5sec to thicken it up
4. Using a nail art brush, hand painted a lace design with Inner Vixen, cured
5. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cured

Read More