Gelish Mani Sunday | MoYou Mauvey-Grey

After our extended vacation and months of using the holidays as an excuse to eat EVERYTHING IN SIGHT, it's time to get back on track with eating right, counting my calories, and exercise. I stepped on the scale at the beginning of the week and, after spending a few moments cursing Past Me for shoving 4 metric tons of pizza, cookies, and stuffing in my face (Past Me, why do you punish Current Me and Future Me so much!?), I locked in my determination. We scheduled our engagement pics for March 9th, so that gives me enough time to lose 8lbs. Oh, it's on.
Srsly, though. Right now my life is like, "My jeans don't fit, but DAMN my nails look good!"

Speaking of my nails!! I'm in love with them. Namely, I'm in love with 2 things about them: my MoYou stamp (from Suki Collection 01) and my squaletto/monroe/coffin shape.
These MoYou plates are giving me so many ideas! There are so many options!! And this squaletto nail shape? I've spent months trying to find The Shape for me, and I think this is it. There are 2 downsides to the shape, one being they take a little longer to get back in to shape when it's time to change polishes (although seeing as my last Gelish manicure lasted 20 days, it might not always take quite as long to file them down as it did this time around).

The other downside is they're decidedly weaker. Over the 20 days my last manicure lasted there were a NUMBER of times I felt a nail bend all the way forward, like at a 90° angle. But it's a testament to Gelish that even though my nails bent, the polish didn't pop off and the nail didn't break. For this week's mani I included the AcryGel method I previously mentioned and added a layer of Structure on top of that. They already feel stronger :D

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 2 coats Mauvy-Mauve, cure all coats
2. • Add dots of Structure and place studs, cure
3. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Index Nail:

1. • 2 coats Fashion Week Chic, cure all coats
2. • 2 coats Concrete Couture, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Middle Nail:

1. • 2 coats Mauvy-Mauve, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Hand paint design with 2 coats of Fashion Week Chic, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • 2 coats Fashion Week Chic, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Stamp image using Konad Silver polish
4. • Let dry. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Pinky Nail:

1. • 2 coats Mauvy-Mauve, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Daub on 2 coats of Sweet 16 in a half-moon shape, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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Pink Punk Stars

Woah, it feels like forever since I posted (ok, only a week, but still!). I've been super busy with holiday-type stuff. Is anyone else counting the days until Xmas? Just this past Saturday I spent, literally, 12 hours straight baking cookies. It's worth it, and I love handing out plates of Xmas cookies, but MAN that's a long time to bake!
This week begins the Week of the Christmas Manicures. My coworker is coming over tomorrow, my roommate wants some simple red and gold nails, and then my fiancée and I will get our holiday nails on this weekend. I better just keep the red and green polishes out. ;)

In the meantime here's a NON-Christmas mani for your enjoyment :)
This mani is using Black Shadow with some Concrete Couture glitter accents and Brights Have More Fun with some Sweet 16 glitter accents. I used silver Folk Art acrylic paint to paint the silver accents.

I should also note that I'm late on posting this mani - I actually did it on my fiancée 3 weeks ago and am just now blogging it (my Instagram is always my most current place for manis). But Kim over at Ten Little Canvasses just posted a gorgeous shooting star mani a couple days ago. It's a weird coincidence, but I thought it was worth noting :)

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Black & Purple & Bling

Oh man I LOVE the way this one turned out!!

My coworker had originally been throwing around the idea of having some Thanksgiving nails. Then she cut her hair. She got this super cute, super short rocker hair cut and I was like, "OMG SHE NEEDS NAILS TO MATCH!!" She let me go wild on her nails and I. love. them.
This mani is using Black Shadow, You Glare, I Glow (which I bought JUST for this), Little Miss Sparkle (the silvery color. I needed 3 coats for opacity), Concrete Couture (accented over some of the black), and Feel Me On Your Fingertips (accented over some of the purple). I loaded her middle fingers up with studs, used silver Folk Art acrylic paint to hand paint the star, and stamped her ring fingers with Konad black polish and plate M60. Whew! My fiancée and roommate BOTH want this mani ;) I think I'm going to do a variation of it on my fiancée - with black and neon pink. I'm so excited.

BLING!

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Gelish Matte Top It Off And Trends Polish Take 2

I picked up more Gelish Trends polishes and have swatched them up! I had REALLY wanted to pick up the new Gelish Foil Nail Art kit, but I called 4 different Sally's in the area and NONE of them had it. Once I get my hands on one I plan on writing up a full review with pics. :)

Additionally, my lady requested a black matte manicure inspired (alright, straight up copied!) by one she saw on Pinterest.

By Sun Dancer at SolensDanserinde.blogspot.com I was able to use the new Gelish Matte Top It Off. I love it, so, so much. Her manicure is just 2 coats of Black Shadow and one coat of Matte Top It Off.
The Gelish Trends colors I picked up are Pinch of Pepper, Concrete Couture, and Feel Me On Your Fingertips (check out my Life of the Party swatch here!) A Pinch Of Pepper is AWESOME. Look at it on the black - it just turns into white polka-dots (and I'm sure it looks like black polka dots on white polish). It isn't glitter, really. It's more like confetti, I guess. It kind of reminds me of an eggshell or Robin's egg.

1. (2 coats) Pinch of Pepper, (1 coat) Top It Off 2. (3 coats) Black Shadow, (2 coats) Pinch of Pepper, (1 coat) Top It Off 3. (3 coats) Medieval Madness , (2 coats) Pinch of Pepper, (1 coat) Top It Off 4. (3 coats) Seafoam, (2 coats) Pinch of Pepper, (1 coat) Top It Off

Concrete Couture is a lot darker than I thought it would be. It's loaded with a very, very dark silver/grey glitter. It reminded me a bit of Showstopping, hence the comparison swatch.

5. (3 coats) Concrete Couture, (1 coat) Top It Off 6. (3 coats) The Naughty List, (1 coat) Top It Off 7. (3 coats) Showstopping, (1 coat) Top It Off 8. (3 coats) Black Shadow, (2 coats) Concrete Couture,  (1 coat) Top It Off

Lastly is Feel Me On Your Fingertips, a goooorrrgeous glitter purple. I wish I owned Princess Tiara, because I think it'd look AWESOME over that color! In retrospect, I bet it'd look pretty good over Cocktail Party Drama... should've swatched it over that one!

9. (3 coats) Feel Me On Your Fingertips, (1 coat) Top It Off 10. (3 coats) Plum & Done, (2 coats) Feel Me On Your Fingertips, (1 coat) Top It Off 11. (3 coats) Don't Be Such A Sourpuss, (2 coats) Feel Me On Your Fingertips, (1 coat) Top It Off 12. (3 coats) Black Shadow, (2 coats) Feel Me On Your Fingertips, (1 coat) Top It Off

Check out more Trends and Matte Top It Off swatches over here!

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