Cupcake Nails With A Cherry On Top

Cupcake nails have kinda been on my bucket list of "Nail Trends To Try".  It's such a cute and easy design idea I thought it'd work great with gel polish.
I used Go Girl, Gossip Girl, Arctic Freeze, and Lots of Dots on the cupcake. The index nail is Garden Teal Party and the middle finger is a mix of Are You Feeling It? and Too Tough To Be Sweet. I've really been enjoying the trend of almost-nude nails, where you can see a lot of the natural nail but there's a tiny bit of decoration, so I went with that on the cherry nail. I really enjoyed this mani and had no problems with the pinks fading!

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Gelish Mani Monday | Mermaid Spring Nails

It's spring! And I've been craving some gorgeous spring colors on my nails, but I haven't really been inspired to wear "spring" nails - like flowers and bunnies and all that jazz. I knew I wanted to use Seafoam and Sweet Morning Dew, then I decided I wanted to use my seashell studs, and from there mermaid nails were born.
I'm in love with these nails. IN LOVE. I don't even have them on anymore and I'm still in love with them. If my nails hadn't been freakishly long (for my tastes) I would've kept them on for a third week. I loved the colors and the studs (gurl, I went STUD CRAZY) and OMG THE FOIL NAIL. Right now I'm like:
No joke. I also used the Gelish VitaGel Nourishing as the base coat for this mani. I've been hesitant to pick up a VitaGel because I read horrible reviews when they first came out. But my nails are just... guys, they're tore up. Not even gonna lie. It's because I use too many coats of Top It Off combined with Structure and studs and... it makes removal really, really hard on my nails.

But I'm happy to report I'm writing this up a day after removal with the VitaGel basecoat and... removal was fantastic!! I thought it'd be a particularly hard removal sesh, as the studs + the Structure make it difficult for the acetone to break down the polish, but the Vitagel came off super smooth and in solid pieces. I used it exactly as I would've used regular Foundation, dry brush and all, and I had absolutely no problems with wear. No peeling or lifting, removal was great, and my nails looked substantially less tore up once I got the polish off. I think I might switch exclusively over to VitaGel for my manis here on out!

Oh, and I'm stoopid for not taking before/after pics for the VitaGel. Lots of fail right there.

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 2 coats Sweet Morning Dew, cure all coats
2. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
3. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Index Nail:

1. • 3 coats Seafoam, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat Candy Shop, cure
3. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
4. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Middle Nail:

1. • 1 coat Oocha Coocha, cure
2. • 1 coat Are You Feeling It?, cure
3. • 1 coat Oocha Coocha, cure
4. • 1 coat of TIO, cure
5. • Wipe tacky layer. Stamp image using Konad White and MoYou Suki 01 plate. Let dry completely.
6. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • 2 coats Sweet Morning Dew, cure all coats
2. • Dabbed Gelish Structure onto the polish and pressed the studs in, cure
3. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Pinky Nail:

1. • 3 coats Seafoam, cure all coats
2. • Press gold foil into the tacky layer until desired look is achieved
3. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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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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