Gelish Mani Sunday | Fashion-Inspired Watercolor Nails

So, a couple weeks ago, my nail broke. And not the chip-on-the-corner or rip-that-you-can-mend broke. I'm talking full-on ripped-off-nearly-to-the-quick broke.
I couldn't get over how... different my finger looked with the short, stubby nail. My nails have been relatively long for maybe a good six months, so it was like looking at a stranger's hand. I honestly can't remember what my nails looked like or what condition they were in before I started doing Gelish.

It was also frustrating as HELL because my nails are so long! There was no way I was gonna cut them all off just because one nail broke! So, I decided it was time to visit Sallys and I picked up an IBD Hard Gel kit. *gasp!* Not Gelish, I know! But it was an emergency situation! I couldn't wait for Gelish hard gel to be shipped to me - I had to deal with this weird alien finger that was now attached to my hand! I also picked up nail forms - idek, building a nail seems so much more elegant than gluing on a tip. Plus the tips seem to require so much more prep! Fitting the tip, filing the tip down, gluing it on, blending it to the nail bed... nah.

I went with the white builder gel because I figured it'd make it easier to differentiate between nail pate, gel overlay, and gel polish when I go to file off my gel polish. I was actually surprised at how easy the white builder gel was to apply. It's much thicker than the structure... the consistency kinda reminded me of tacky craft glue. I don't think I built the apex well, but all and all I was happy with how the nail turned out!
Upon doing my research and deciding on this gel, I had decided it was okay that it wasn't a soak-off gel; my plan was to build the fake nail and let the hard gel grow out while doing my fills with Structure, that way I woudn't have to worry about filing off the hard gel and potentially damaging my nail plate like the noob I am. Well, I'm writing this after 2 weeks of wear and... I have lifting near the cuticle. I'm just gonna go in there nail files a-blazin' and see if I can salvage the gel overlay.

For my actual mani this week, I went with fashion inspiration! I tried on a dress (that I didn't end up buying, cuz money) that I really loved, and it kinda got in my head that it'd serve as great nailspiration.
I actually took a picture of the top in the store - the online image really washed out the colors. Here's what I came up with:
I went with a dark grey rather than black just because I thought it'd look nicer. Creating the "watercolor" flowers was super easy with gel polish. Since the polish isn't too opaque it was easy to get the look! I definitely need more practice painting, but I think I'm getting somewhere!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb, Index, and Pinky Nails:

1. • 2 coats Jet Set, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat Matte TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint half moons using 1 coat of regular TIO, cure

Middle Nail:

1. • 3 coats Arctic Freeze, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint flowers using Go Girl and 'Lily' in ENP Gella, flash curing as needed. Add leaf and branch accents with Jet Set. Cure for full time when complete.
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • 3 coats Arctic Freeze, allowing for negative space half moon. cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Using a nail art brush, paint flowers using Go Girl and 'Lily' in ENP Gella, flash curing as needed. Add leaf, branch, and half moon border accents with Jet Set. Cure for full time when complete.
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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Queen of Hearts Nails

This one is actually a straggler from Valentine's Day - I completely forgot to post it! My coworker wanted a Valentine's Day mani and showed me a picture with some polka dots and some hearts, so I took that and ran!
For the colors, I used Queen of Hearts for the red. I love, love, love that color!! The gold glitter accents are made of one layer of loose gold glitter, a layer of Water Field, and a layer of All That Glitters Is Gold. And I used Arctic Freeze for the white middle nail.

I also focused on doing some hand-painting this time around! I hand-painted the lips with Queen of Hearts - it's a nice, thick polish that handles well. I only used one coat of it on the lips and I think it turned out perfectly, despite not being AS dark as 2 coats would've been. On the thumb I laid down 2 coats of Queen of Hearts and painted on the heart with 2 coats of Arctic Freeze. I then used Black Shadow to paint the Zebra stripes.

About my Black Shadow... I have a full-sized bottle of Black Shadow and, no matter how often I clean it up, polish leaks out from under the cap and pools around the base of the bottle neck. I've actually found that the little pool of polish thickens over time as it's exposed to air... and becomes really nice to work with for painting! It's very stringy and viscous, but once on the nail it's absolutely opaque in 1 coat!

To finish up, I found a set of 3 MASH nail art stud wheels on Amazon - which included some cute little heart rhinestones - and I popped those on her nails. I've since found those studs don't want to stay on for some reason, so if you use little heart studs like this, make sure to double top coat.

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Poindexter Valentine's Nails

Last weekend we hit up the 50% off clearance sale going on at Sallys and I found they were clearancing their Christmas Cina nail stud wheels. I picked up quite a few (I'm ready for next year!) and they included these super cute bowtie studs. When my fiancée saw them she knew she HAD to use them in her manicure.
I'm happy to say she designed virtually all these nails! I came home form work and she had drawn up a whole bunch of Valentine's Day nail designs on paper and I thought they were brilliant!!! I picked 5 and went to town. The poindexter nail was the one she really wanted, and the new bowtie studs were perfect! I also used this opportunity to practice making stripes by hand. I REALLY need to practice that. I don't want to rely on nail tape for stripes. I didn't do too bad on the ring finger!

I used Go Girl for the pink, Arctic Freeze for the white, and Queen of Hearts for the red. I think Queen of Hearts is my new favorite red. Perfect coverage in 2 coats and it's just a beautiful, rich frost polish. LOVE it. On the thumb we stamped from the MoYou Pro 07 plate using Konad white polish. The only one I'm unhappy with is the heart on the index finger. I did the white outline as an afterthought and it looks a bit messy. If I had thought about it I would've made the white heart first, then filled it in with the pink heart to get cleaner lines.

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Moonlight Densetsu! Sailormoon Nails

So, I'm a pretty big Sailormoon fan.
In middle school (which was around the time of the original broadcast, so I think I can be a hipster about liking it before it was cool ;) I remember secretly asking my mom if she could tape Sailormoon for me. Then I remember talking my mom into changing our cable subscription when I found out new episodes of Sailormoon would be airing on some then-unknown channel called Cartoon Network. Once I started driving I was at the comic book store and collected the english monthly comics that they started releasing (anyone remember MixxZine??).

Now that the rights have been renewed it's Sailormoon fever! Merchandise is everywhere, which is fine, but I'm MOST excited about the upcoming Sailormoon TV series reboot (now pushed back to summer)!!! I recently read that the reason there were so many "filler" episodes in the original series was because they were producing it AS Naoko Takeuchi was writing the manga, so they actually didn't know what the story was going to be! I'm hopeful for an improved, slightly more adult storyline with knock-out gorgeous animation. Also, Haruka and Michiru (so help me if English dubbers translate them as "cousins" again... someone gonna get hurt).

So I was really excited when my roommate requested Sailormoon nails!
I went with Sailromoon-inspired rather than literal. I needed 3 coats of Arctic Freeze for opacity and free-handed the thumb, index, and middle fingers with gold and silver acrylic paint. The pinky is just a bit of craft store glitter. On her ring finger I used Konad gold stamping polish and MoYou Pro Collection 07 plate. I've decided I don't like the Konad gold and need a new gold polish that's a bit more opaque and vibrant. Any good suggestions?

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