Monday, May 8, 2017

Due To My Boredom... A Dotticure

Well, on the search for a matte top coat (since I couldn't find mine), I found one that was on sale 2/$5... well not wanting to pass up that deal, and not knowing how well the matte top coat was going to work, I decided to choose a color as my second bottle.

This was a new brand for me, and I wasn't sure if I would like it, but the price was good, and I really liked the color...

A number of years ago there was a polish by "China Glaze" that everyone seemed to have, called "For Audrey". I always loved this color, but was unable to buy it (probably because of money, but can't remember now, and I don't know if it is still available). It was a really nice, lite teal / turquoise color, that I just loved. I know there are others, but for some reason that is a color that I just don't seem to have. I have one by "Sinful Colors" that is close in color, but more of a baby blue, but at the same time it is also very sheer and has some fine pink glitter in it, so I don't think it really counts.

Anywhoo, this color just called to me, so I buy them and finally try out this new polish. I will say The color was nice, but I was not a big fan of the application. The formula felt very thick and goopy, and went on streaky. With this I had to do, I think 3 coats before I was happy enough with the look, and then just hoped the top coat would smooth it all out (which it did!). Also the smell is strange, it smells more plasticy (I know these are not real words...) like children's polishes smell, then how we expect nail enamel to smell. Now as this is the only one of their polishes I have tried, I am not wanting to knock it off your list. I could have gotten a bottle that had become to warm at some point, or had something else happen to make the formula weird... but for me this is one of those I got what I payed for (even though there are many cheap polishes that are great!).

I wanted to do something to change up the look, so why not a dotticure, add some Holo polish, and there we have it...



Needless to say, I was not really happy with this mani, so I just took a picture (that I am also not very happy with ) and took that shit off! I think the idea of the dotticure was a good one, and I will probably try it again with some other polishes, but this one I would rather forget.

Colors used:
Base Coat: "Seche Clear" by Seche
Base Color: "Shell Me More" by pop-arazzi
Dot Color: "Get Outta My Space" by China Glaze
Top Coat: "Seche Vive" by Seche

Skittlette!

I have officially done my first skittlette nail design! Woo Hoo!!!

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have been wearing gel polish a lot lately in order to grow out some breaks. Well with that, I have on this gorgeous pink color right now (same as in the last blog photo) and I felt like changing it up a bit. So without having to remove the gel, what do I do? Paint over it! And to tell you the truth I LOVE how it turned out!

Two colors that I think go really well together, are pink and gold. They make an elegant and soft combination. I wanted to do a skittlette, and I decided to use the ABCAB pattern, so I had to think of what to do as my accent nail, and well the pink and gold still screamed spring to me, so why not some flowers??? I didn't want them to stand out to much, but blend in with the other fingers to keep with the elegant look, so just a simple white stamp seemed to work.

I haven't really done a skittlette design yet, not because I don't love how they look, I do, but more because I have a hard time figuring out three things that are different, but yet still go together. Mixing patterns is something that is hard for me, for instance, at I am writing this my middle tiny is having picture day, and he was wearing a subtle plaid shirt, but wanted the camo background... I let him do it, but it was hard for me to accept.

So this skittlette was easy for me to envision, because I used two colors that worked well together, and only one pattern. Now don't get me wrong, I love almost every skittlette that I see others do, I just have a hard time conceptualizing how things will go together. I think I need to either buy, or make one of those mani idea books, so that I can try and work things like this out first, and then apply them to my nails. I feel that I do a lot of starting over, or removing polish from a nail, because the idea is not fully planed out, and is more of a whim... we will see. 



I will say, this picture doesn't look as loose as I would have liked, and have started making them, but the corner of the thumb nail that you would have seen... well the gold was rubbing off, since I took the picture after a day or two of wearing them. So I just covered that up with my finger... hahaha, problem solved! I think this turned out well, and may do something similar in the future, but for now, on to something different!

Colors used:
Base Gel: "Foundation" by Gelish
Base Color Gel: "Pink Chiffon" by Sensational
Top Color Gel: "Pink Champagne" by Sensational
Top Gel: "Top It Off" by Gelish
Gold Color: "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" by O.P.I.
Stamp Color: "French Tip" by Color Club
Stamp Plate: "BP-108" by Born Pretty

Spring Is Here!!!

SPRING IS HERE!!! So it is time for flowers and colors, be them bright, or pastel!

The below mani is one that I had actually done for Easter (it's only a little late), and it just so happened to match my shoes. But they also had a tiny purple flower on them, and that reminded me of the tiny purple Violets that I have growing all over my yard. Sadly I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the violets before they were mowed over, and you can barely see the purple smudges in the background of my picture. But the nails still screamed SPRING!

I have been doing a lot of gel polish lately as I am trying to grow out a break (or more), and all of the peeling sections of my nails, and honestly this is the best and easiest way I have found. It gives me the strength in those spots, as well as holds the peeling spots together. I do still use nail and cuticle oil on my cuticles (I find it harder to remember to do it regularly when I have polish on, but I try). I will also do other manicures over the gel, with a peel off base coat, as well as using non acetone polish remover.

I guess I don't have too much to say about this manicure, just that this picture has become my new favorite mani picture! I love the way it came out, and honestly I love the simple design. I did change it up (I mean with a base color that is gel, you have to get creative with different ways to use the color, or just pain cover them completely) and did another pink mani, that will be in my next post.

 


 I think I am onto a baby pink kick right now, so I may be doing many more. To tell you the truth, at this point I don't have many gel polish colors (they are kind of expensive compared to a regular bottle of polish). But I love how I can do a gel manicure at home (which lasts about a week as I don't buff my nails before application) for a fraction of the cost of getting them done in a salon. I am probably going to go and buy another color or two soon (hopefully Sally's Beauty is having one of their sales) so that I can keep up with the gel for a while, and still be able to change it up a bit.

So I have heard that you are not supposed to mix the different brands of gel polish, but I have to admit that with this mani, the base and top gels are a different brand as the colors, but they seemed to work just fine, and actually I think they work better than when I use just the colors that go with my base and top gel coats. With the two gel colors, I used one coat of each color, for a total of two coats of color. I like how they are light, and subtle.

Colors used:
Base Gel: "Foundation" by Gelish
Base Color Gel: "Pink Chiffon" by Sensational
Top Color Gel: "Pink Champagne" by Sensational
Top Gel: "Top It Off" by Gelish
Flowers: These were stickers, out of a pack found at the drugstore, sorry but I don't remember which brand.