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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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!

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New Polish & Swatches

A coworker of mine is getting married and was lamenting the fact that her normal nail salon didn't have any neutral colors available for her wedding day. She didn't really want to go with a french manicure and I thought, well, I have a ton of polishes and some nice neutral shades... why don't I swatch some up for her and let her borrow my colors so her nail lady can apply them professionally?

So I stopped by a Sally's I hadn't yet visited to pick up a swatch wheel and - of course - I had to check out their clearanced Gelish... Jackpot!!! I found four more colors I didn't have - 3 at $10.95 and 1 at $8.95. But, when they rang them up, I got one for $8.95, one for $7.95, and 2 for $4.95... MEGA JACKPOT!!!


The colors I picked up completed some of my Gelish collections, too. So double woot!!

Izzy Wizzy, Let's Get Busy

Fashion Week Chic

Angel In Disguise

Garden Teal Party

So I swore up and down this wouldn't be a blog for swatches, but seeing as I did swatch a bunch of neutral Gelish combinations, I thought I'd throw them up for anyone who was curious.

1. (3 coats) Skinny Vanilla Latte 2. (3 coats) Skinny Vanilla Latte, (2 coats) Night Shimmer 3. (3 coats) Skinny Vanilla Latte, (2 coats) June Bride 4. (3 coats) Skinny Vanilla Latte, (2 coats) Twinkle	5. (3 coats) Glamour Queen 6. (3 coats) Glamour Queen, (2 coats) June Bride 7. (3 coats) Glamour Queen, (2 coats) Night Shimmer 8. (3 coats) Glamour Queen, (2 coats) Izzy Wizzy, Let's Get Busy
9. (2 coats) Sheek White, (2 coats) Night Shimmer 10. (2 coats) Sheek White, (2 coats) June Bride 11. (2 coats) Sheek White, (2 coats) Izzy Wizzy, Let's Get Busy 12. (2 coats) Sheek White, (2 coats) Little Miss Sparkle	13. (1 coat) Sheek White, (2 coats) Cashmere Kind Of Gal, (2 coats) Night Shimmer 14. (1 coat) Sheek White, (2 coats) Cashmere Kind Of Gal, (2 coats) Izzy Wizzy, Let's Get Busy 15. (1 coat) Sheek White, (3 coats) Danny's Little Helpers, (2 coats) Twinkle

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