Gelish Mani Sunday | A Game of Nails

My roommate is a big fan of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, and for the newest season of Game of Thrones she request nails inspired by her favorite house, House Martell. Now that I've seen a few episodes of the new season, I can see why she likes them!

#Badass.

I knew nothing about the Martells and she told me "sand and sunspear", so I went with that.
I finally tried something I've been wanting to try: gel polish sugar nails. I drool every time I see Zoya Pixie Dust pop up on my Instagram feed, and I've really wanted to try to replicate that effect with Gelish. First I tried decorative sand from the craft store, but the grains were way too big, then I tried salt - better, but still large. I stuck with the salt, but I might try actual sugar next time ;)

To do it I mixed a tiny bit of salt with a few drops of polish, then scooped it up with a wide nail art brush and patted it onto the nail. After curing it I got a slightly darker polish color and stippled it across the nail to give it some dimension. Another cure, then I stippled a tiny bit of brown glitter across the nail and finished with a light coat of Top It Off. The technique definitely needs some refining, but at least it kinda worked!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 1 coat Allure, 1 coat Danny's Little Helpers, and 1 more coat Allure, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Hand-painted the red sun with Hot Rod Red, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Hand-painted the spear with yellow and black Folk Art acrylic paint. Let paint dry completely.
4. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Index Nail:

1. • 3 coats Lust at First Sight, 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

Middle Nail:

1. • 1 coat Lust at First Sight, cure
2. • 1 coat All That Glitters Is Gold, cure
3. • 1 coat Lust at First Sight, cure
4. • 1 coat of TIO, cure
5. • Wipe tacky layer. Stamp image using Konad White and MoYou Pro 06 plate. Let dry completely.
6. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Ring Nail:

1. • Mix Lust At First Sight with salt and pat onto nail, cure
2. • Stipple A Little Cream Please with nail art brush, cure
3. • Press a small amount of brown glitter into tacky layer
4. • Finished with 1 thin coat of TIO, cure

Pinky Nail:

1. • 2 coats Lust At First sight, 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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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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MoYou Punk Spring Nails

A simple one today! My coworker came in to get her nails done and told me, "I want spring-y nails!" However, with her style and attitude I could NOT shake myself of my tendancy to use black on her. So I went with a slightly punk-ish variation on a spring nail.
I used Black Shadow, Go Girl, and Garden Teal Party. I had been really wanting to try using MoYou stamping as a kind of... negative-space accent, which I tried out on her thumb with Pro plate 06 (also used this plate on her pinky). I really like that look!

I hand-painted the flower on her ring finger and loaded studs on to her middle finger.

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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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Gelish Chinese New Year Mani | Red, Gold, and Dragons

The first month of this year has started off a bit rough. I have friends and family facing health and financial problems, so I felt like I was in need of some good luck to kick off the year. I decided to go with some reds and golds and stamping for Chinese New Year (is that PC? Is Lunar New Year better?).
I gave the gold Konad stamping polish another shot, and I was again disappointed. It's just not very visible, which is a shame because the images from MoYou Suki 01 and 07 plates are gooorgeous. The middle finger stamp is a Japanese fan and on the thumb is the face of a Chinese dragon. I should also mention I had a HELL of a time getting the fan image to transfer with the Konad gold polish. I got my left hand stamped in a couple of tries, but even after 20 minutes I could NOT get the fan image to transfer onto my Konad stamper again so I could stamp the right hand. I even tried using a different polish to see if it was the stamper or the plate... the other polish was fine, it was just that Konad gold that wouldn't transfer. I ended up stamping a bamboo image on my right hand just to be done with it.

On the ring finger I used Kim from Ten Little Canvasses' tutorial on making gems with Gelish structure. I put a little gold glitter in the circle frame, but I wish I had used gold polish instead. I think it would've had a nicer effect. The index finger is a layer of Allure, All That Glitters Is Gold, some loose gold glitter, then another layer of All That Glitters.

I used 2 coats of Hot Rod Red for the red nails - really feels like the PEFECT red for Chinese New Year. I know Gelish came out with a Year of the Snake set last year and a Year of the Horse set this year, and while I still really want Meet The King, I think I'll skip on the other colors (at least until the collector's bug bites me). ;)

On the pinky and ring finger I used 2 coats of Allure over one coat of Arctic Freeze. I had thought that, since Allure was a bit sheer, I should lay down a layer of white. I did this on my left hand but on my right hand I did 3 coats of Allure with no white base coat. I really feel like the 3 coats of Allure looks much better than 2 coats over white. I also used Hot Rod Red to paint (what the internet tells me is) the year of the horse symbol.

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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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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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Gelish Mani Sunday | A Little Parisian

For Christmas this year, I was SUPER stoked to find my soon-to-be sister-in-law got me MoYou London stamping plates!! As a result I spent a decent amount of time drawing out mani ideas, using the plates as inspiration. A couple of the images on the Pro Collection 07 plate really caught my eye and made me think of my finacée and her love of Paris.
Her poor cuticles took a beating in the cold, dry air while we were on vacation. I really want to buy some CND Solar Oil and have her try daily applications to see if that'll help them out. I definitely need more practice with stamping, and I think I need a larger stamper, but I feel like this was a good start. I want to try to incorporate a stamp or two in my manis over the next couple of months. There are just so many possibilities! I found I like curing a coat of Top IT Off over the polish before attempting stamping. I messed up the first few stamps, and with some non-acetone polish remover it was a breeze to take off the stamp and try again. I used my new striping tape technique for the tape I laid down on the pinky. So far, so good! Also, I got to use one of my new colors, Need A Tan - needed 3 coats for opacity, but I'm really happy with that color!

For the above manicure I did the following:

Thumb Nail:

1. • 3 coats Need A Tan, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Stamp image using Konad Black polish
4. • Let dry. Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

Index Nail:

1. • 3 coats Need A Tan, cured all coats
2. • Create the half-moon smile line with Black Shadow, apply 2 coats, cure all coats
3. • Finished with 2 coats of Matte TIO, cure all coats

Middle Nail:

1. • 3 coats Need A Tan, cured all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Hand paint cat design with 2 coats of Black Shadow, cure all coats
3. • Add dots of Structure and place studs, cure
4. • Finished with 2 coats of TIO, cure all coats

Ring Nail:

1. • 3 coats Need A Tan, cure all coats
2. • 1 coat TIO, cure
3. • Wipe tacky layer. Stamp image using Konad Black polish
4. • Let dry. Finished with 1 coat of Matte TIO, cure

Pinky Nail:

1. • 3 coats Need A Tan, cure all coats
2. • Wipe tacky layer. Lay down striping tape and press firmly into nail
3. • Apply one coat of Structure across entire nail, cure
4. • Finished with 1 coat of TIO, cure

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