Monday, October 21, 2013

Gelish Black Matte and Gold Glitter French Well, this was an interesting weekend!

My coworker wanted to come back over for another Gelish manicure and her cousin was interested in coming over and getting hers done as well... And they offered to pay me! Like, actual money! So I figured... why not!? On top of that I also did my roommate and bff's nail. Meanwhile, my own thumbnail started lifting because I used nail polish remover without using any gloves >.< My own fault.

After doing the nails I actually got paid for, my coworker posted them on Instagram and started getting people asking how much I charge, if they can came over, ect. One of her friends asked if she could come over next weekend and instead of getting freaked out (like I normally do), I took a deep breath and said YES and started to wonder if I should, y'know, like really DO this. I've been trying to think of ways to earn extra money, because weddings aren't cheap. Then my roommate said the most brilliant thing ever: offer my "services" under the pretense that I'm trying to help pay for my wedding. Like a bake sale, only for nails! This sounded brilliant to me, because it has an "end date" in case I want or need to stop and it kinda solidifies the fact that, well, I'm not a pro by any means!

So, for now, I think I'll be doing nails on Saturday mornings!

Now, on to the manicures!

The first is my coworker. She showed me a pic and asked me to duplicate it.

From the Nordstrom Instagram account

I used Black Shadow with Matte Top It Off, and for the gold I layered Skinny Vanilla Latte, Danny's Little Helpers, loose gold glitter, and a coat of Twinkle. Moral of the story: I need Meet The King. I initially tried free-handing the french "tip". That lasted about 45 seconds before I broke out the striping tape.
Gelish Black Matte and Gold Glitter French
The second one is my coworker's cousin. She brought in a picture and I pretty much just created a dupe (in retrospect, I need to work on being more original than just copying someone else's idea. It makes me feel icky.)

By HandJobsByAllison

I used Black Shadow and Sweet Morning Dew, and for the Index finger I used a Konad M60 plate and Konad black polish.
Gelish Paisley and Studs
My BFF was a bridesmaid in a wedding this weekend, and lilac purple was the color of their dresses and the accent color for the wedding, so I mixed Cocktail Party Drama with Sheek White to get a light purple (I don't have Princess Tiara AND I've read that it's a fader anyway. Thought I might have more luck mixing.) I added some Feel Me On Your Fingertips on her Ring finger and used Cocktail Party Drama, Sheek White, and Gella "Lily" for the flowers on her middle finger.
Gelish Lilac Flowers and Feel Me On Your Fingertips
Lastly, my roommate wanted Dia De Los Muertos nails. I used one coat Black Shadow, one coat Life of the Party, and one more coat of Black Shadow to create a kind of subdued glitter effect. I love the way it turned out! One coat of black shadow is great for layering effects! For the actual skull and flowers, I used Gella "Lily", Up In the Blue, and Red-y And Waiting.
Gelish Day of the Dead Nails and Life Of The Party

4 comments:

  1. I've been thinking about doing gelish polish (not manicures) as a fundraiser to raise money for the American Lung Association for the Fight for Air Climb. Do you have experience as a cosmetologist or have any formal training? Would you mind sharing how much people are paying you so I have an idea of how much to ask for a donation? I have no formal training and am not a cosmetologist or anything. Just looking for insight! If you don't feel like publicly disclosing how much people are paying you, I'd realllly appreciate if you could email an approximate to me! Courtney.rose.09.90@gmail.com
    Thank you! I loooove your blog and check it daily anymore! Love having other inspirations for nails!

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    1. Hi Courtney! Thanks for checking out my blog!!! I'm actually not professionally trained in anyway - I've just read a lot of blogs and watched a lot of YouTube vids and practiced on friends. I really WANT to take a couple classes but it's like - either you go to full-on beauty school to get licensed or there's NOTHING. So annoying! Since I know I can get 7-14 days out of a Gelish manicure from applications on myself and friends, I'm telling people $15-$20 for a set, and so far everyone I've done/am doing is a friend or a friend-of-a-friend. I'm not trying to compete with salon prices, I just don't want to charge people a "professional" price when I'm anything but a professional.

      Doing Gelish manis as a fundraiser sounds like a great idea! Good luck! - See more at: http://gelishgeekery.blogspot.com/2013/10/open-for-business.html?showComment=1382723367553#c3142811622498488507

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  2. Thank you so much for getting back to me! I appreciate it! I agree! I'd love to get some training but it really is all or nothing! Ugh. Oh well. Maybe someday! And there really is no point in competing with the professional salons. Though I do the gelish/gel polish far better than most "professional" salons in the area. But that doesn't take much when they do nails terribly! Which was my main reason for wanting to do them to begin with!

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    1. Right?? As I've been doing more nails, I'm like, "oh sorry! I got a little on your skin. Let me clean that up." and everyone has been like, "gurl, compared to the nail salons these are perfect. They get product and polish all over the place!" So I think not knowing any better is causing me to overcompensate and not get sloppy - which is probably a good thing!

      The first (and only) time I got my nails done at a salon, she cut my cuticles, caused them to bleed, then pained a french gel manicure OVER the blood, so I had a gross, visible scab under my mani the entire time the gels were on. If I knew then what I knew now, that woudl've been unacceptable. Who wants a bloody manicure!?!? I just thought it was "normal" at the time.

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