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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More Gelish Trends Swatches And Tips for Deals At Sallys

Does anyone follow the Sallys Beauty twitter account? If not, you really should be. I recently started following it because I realized they promote their 50% off clearance sales. Instead of hoping you'll wander into a Sallys and find their red tag items at 50% off, just follow their Twitter or Facebook and you'll know. I've purchased the vast majority of my Gelish polish via Sallys 50% off clearance sales. I got the entire Magneto collection for $2 a bottle, my Love In Bloom collection was $5 a bottle. Here's a couple of tips for snagging awesome deals on Gelish at Sallys:

• • Spend $5 on the Beauty Club card. You get the discount member price and when you spend $25 in a single month you'll get a 15% off coupon in the mail.
• • Sign-up for their club online and give them your birthday. They have these magical, magical birthday coupons: $10 off $20 during the entire month of your birthday. I combined that with a 50% off clearance sale and snagged a ton of polish for a super low price.
• • Follow their Twitter or Facebook account. They may post random, 24-48 hour coupons only on their Twitter or Facebook that'll allow you to score major deals on Gelish polish. Just be patient and keep your eye out. Make sure you print out the coupon and the code is visible - the employees at Sallys may not know about these pop-up deals from Sallys, so be prepared for them to be a little skeptical and confused.
• • 50% off Red tag sales tend to happen the first weekend in the month. Follow the Sallys Twitter or Facebook and they'll announce their red tag sales, but they typically happen at the beginning of the month.
• • They typically red-tag last season's Gelish collection at the beginning of the month. For instance, I know the Snow Escape collection is coming out soon, probably in December, so there's a GOOD chance they'll red tag the Under Her Spell collection at the end of November/beginning of December. There's also a good chance they'll run 50% off clearance the first or second weekend of December. So my hopes are that November 29th-December 1st (or Dec 6th-8th) the Under Her Spell Collection will be newly red tagged AND 50% off. Is this a sure-thing? Nope. But it has worked for me in the past.
• • Visit as many Sallys as you can during their 50% off clearance sales. I'm lucky to live in Southern California and there are at least 5 Sallys in a 15 mile radius from my house. When they had their red tag sale in May, I hit up a bunch a Sallys and got 4 out of 6 of the Love In Bloom polishes for $5. And with those colors I pretty much found one color per Sallys. Luck, determination, and too much time to spare really help ;)

With these tips I pretty much NEVER spend retail on my Gelish polish.

So, just last week I saw a deal pop up on the Sally's twitter: a 24 hour Buy-1-Get-1-Free sale on their polishes. Including Gelish.
Did I go to 2 different Sallys to capitalize on the deal? Yes. Yes I did. And of COURSE I got Trends polishes, since they're more expensive. Also, check this: at the first store I went to I got 4 Trends polishes - a $60 transaction. With the BOGO offer it came down to $30, and THEN I had a 15% off coupon (for spending $25+ the month before), bringing the total down to $25. If it had been my birthday month I probably could've slapped a birthday coupon on there and got the whole shebang for $15.

THIS is how I feed my addiction, ladies.

But that means I have more Trends swatches to show you!! I recently purchased big girl swatch sticks and, eventually, my Color List will be all my own swatches. :) MAD PROPS to the ladies who swatch gel polish on their nails. I dunno how you guys have the patience to cure and soak-off all. that. polish. I can't. Just thinking about it exhausts me. You guys are awesome.

On to the swatches! All swatch sticks have 3 coats of polish and the polish generally applies really, really well. I haven't experienced any wrinkling despite putting them on rather thick.
First up, All That Glitters Is Gold. Gooorgeous fully-loaded gold glitter with some holo accent glitters that really make this polish pop. Here's 1 coat of All That Glitters Is Gold paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Backstage Beauty:


Much like A Pinch of Pepper, I would call Lots of Dots a confetti polish more than a glitter polish. There's no shine or sparkle, but it really creates a cute, random polka-dot effect. Here's 1 coat of Lots of Dots paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Caution:


Are You Feeling It? is a gooorgeous loaded teal glitter (I LOVE teal!) - tons of sparkle and I'd love to use it with a mermaid mani. Here's 1 coat of Are You Feeling It? paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Garden Teal Party:


Now this one I picked up out of pure curiosity. Rough Around The Edges has these little mylar flakes, I guess you'd call it. The flakes make it kind of goupy and the swatch stick doesn't do it justice - you really have to see it over color. Here's 1 coat of Rough Around The Edges paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Garden Teal Party:


Unlike the other glitter polishes with their large, hexagonal pieces of glitter, Sweet 16 is full of really small glitter pieces. It comes off as a pink glitter but it has many shades of pink, silver, and even a touch of blue glitter mixed in. Here's 1 coat of Sweet 16 paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and It's A Lily:


Here we go with another non-glittery confetti polish. Candy Shop has blue and green hexagonal pieces and takes a few coats for decent coverage. Not one of my favorites, but cool because it's different. Here's 2 coats of Candy Shop paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Don't Be Such A Sourpuss:


Am I Making You Gelish? is a really dazzling silver glitter polish that has fantastic coverage for a glitter topper. It's loaded with holo glitters as well and has looked really amazing on the winter manicures I've done. Here's 1 coat (just one coat!!) of Am I Making You Gelish? paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Go Girl:


Too Tough To Be Sweet is another really dense glitter polish in a really gorgeous fuschia color. Here's 2 coats of Too Tough To Be Sweet paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and Black Cherry Berry:


Another what I would call "confetti" polish. Let Me Top You Off doesn't have any shiny glitter, but rather matte hexagonal red, blue, and purple pieces in multiple sizes. Here's 2 coats of Let Me Top You Off paired with Black Shadow, Sheek White, and My Favorite Accessory:
I've already covered these next colors, but I'll include them here. I think I'm done buying Trends polishes, so this should be my last post on the matter ;) Click on the images to go to my original post about the color.

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