Flakies on Gelish

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  It looked good at first.

One coat of Nfu Oh 51 over my Gelish Bella's Vampire manicure.

And a bonus shot of awesome flakiness :)

And a cute little stamp with BM01 and a random old gold polish with the label peeled off.

But then came the removal:

I scrubbed them to death with my acetone free remover and could not get all the flakies out :(  But on the plus side, look at that friggen shine!  And that's right after I scrubbed them with remover.  Not bad eh?  So anyways, lesson learned.  No flakies on Gelish.

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Layering with Gelish

I'm still loving my Gelish manicure.  There are so many awesome things about this.  One of the best things is that I can paint regular polish right on top without ruining it.  So since I was wearing a nice dark vampy colour I figured why not try some layering out?

So one coat on top of Gelish Bella's Vampire from L-R:
Pure Ice Mint Dream
Sally Hansen HD DVD
Revlon Pineapple Fizz
Sally Hansen Prisms White Turquoise

I wasn't satisfied with any of those combos so I removed them with non-acetone remover and my Gelish was still good as new underneath!

So then I picked out 4 more layering polishes from L-R:
Sally Hansen Opal Truth
Sally Hansen HD Byte
Pure Ice Busted
Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor

And the winner was....

Pure Ice Busted with a subtle stamp in Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lively Lilac and image plate BM01.  This mani flashes a bit of gold and green in it as well.  I wasn't really able to capture it well but I love it.  It's amazing to me that I can paint whatever I like over top of the Gelish and it doesn't even dull the shine when I remove it.  I'm so glad I made the investment.

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I love this crap!

So as I mentioned in my other posts I got an awesome deal on a used Shellac set.  It came with 5 colours, base coat and top coat, scrub fresh cleanser and a CND Shellac UV Lamp for $100.  I also picked up a couple of Gelish polishes since the ones that came with the set were mostly pink.

And here is my very first manicure with the set.  I used the Shellac base and top coat and I used Gelish in Bella's Vampire for the colour.  I had some trouble with it at first as I think I applied my base coat too thickly.  The first colour coat did not apply very well and even though I capped my tips it didn't want to stay on.  I did this on friday night and I do have a chip on my index finger already.  I have a few ideas why that happened but I'm learning so it's all good.

I seriously cannot get over the freakin shine on this!  It's amazing.  I've polished over it with regular polish and then removed it with non acetone remover and it still looks as shiny as when it was first applied!

So of course Mom and the Princess of Poo came over Saturday morning for their very own Shellac manicures.

The Princess chose Tutti Frutti for her mani which is a hot pink with purple shimmer.  This colour is just WOW.  Too bad I don't like pink but it looks great on her.  I found the Shellac colour was much easier to work with than the Gelish which is too bad because the Shellac is not readily available to me.  The Princess sent me a text yesterday telling me how much she loves her manicure :)

I did my Moms nails in a sheer pink and her nails are bitten down to the bone so there was no way I was going to take a photo of them.  I'm crossing my fingers that this will help her grow them out.

So I know it's only 4 days in but I think I love this stuff!  My nails feel stronger and it's great that I can polish and konad right on top of it.  I'm also hoping to buff the yellow out of my nails and apply a clear shellac manicure to protect them from now on.  The best part about this though is that I'll never have to walk around with chipped nails again :)

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Bling bling

This is 2 coats of Kleancolor in Midnight Queen.  There's a barely visible pink sparkle in this one.

And when I stopped by Zellers last week look what I found:

I had my Mom look for these when she was in the US last week and she couldn't find them so I was shocked to see them here.  They were in a display along with the pink glitter and Carbonite!  L-R: Facets of Fuschia, Blue Mosaic and the OPI is not from Zellers, I found it in a salon at the same mall for $5 - it's Skull and Glossbones.

So I slapped Blue Mosaic on right away:

Just one coat over Midnight Queen.  I didn't expect it to be that glitter-packed.  I was also surprised at the large green hex glitter in it.  It doesn't come through very well in the photos.

So it's not that I didn't like this mani, but I ended up taking it off the same night because I picked up the Shellac set that I purchased off Kijiji.  I was so excited to use it and I'll show you the results in tomorrow's post but here are the colours that came with it:

L-R: Romantique, Tutti Frutti, Cream Puff, Negligee and Red Baroness.  My plan is to use these as a base to strengthen my nails and also help my Mom and Sister to grow theirs out.  I totally plan on polishing over them so no worries about me disappearing here :)

Anyways, I was so excited I made a pit stop at Sally's on the way home to pick up a colour more suited to me haha.

I picked up Gelish Ooca Coocha Bing Bang Bam - Alakazy Alakazam (yeah uh that's the actual name of it, ugh) which is a teal layering glitter and the other is Bella's Vampire, a vampy wine colour.  These polishes are mini at 0.3ml and they sell for $18.95 with a Sally's card!!!  OUCH!  But the awesome chick at Sally's gave me a coupon for $15 off my purchase plus she gave me another one to use for later!  I could seriously kiss her!

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DS Mystery and some new Joe's

I'm back from lunch and I found some goodies at the grocery store again.

I think the first two are brand new colours as I've never seen them before.  First is Teal which is super greyed out with a shimmer.  I don't know offhand what this would be comparable to but I'll check when I get home.  In the middle is Khaki, which is the first one I spotted and it looks like a dupe for Essie's Sew Psyched.  I will have to swatch a comp on that one.  And last is not a brand new polish, it's Oyster, which looks to be a much lighter/silvery version of Grey's Anatomy/Not like the Movies etc.   It flashes way more pink than green.

So this is 2 coats of DS Mystery.  This polish looks amazing in the sunshine.  Under artificial light it just looks black and glittery but under sunlight you can really tell it's purple and the shimmer is super bronze/golden.  I was honestly shocked how easy removal was and had no staining whatsoever.

I added a little accent nail stamp in Kleancolor Metallic Yellow and plate BM13.  I also added a little gold gem to the middle of the cross.  My nails are taking forever to grow this time!

I am super excited to tell you that I found another amazing deal on Kijiji and I'm supposed to pick it up tomorrow so cross your fingers that everything goes well and I will be the proud new owner of a CND Shellac set!  The lamp alone retails for $150US and she's letting it go for $100 with 7 polishes and accessories!  I'd been thinking about getting one of these for awhile so I can do my mom and my sisters nails with it in hopes that it will help them grow out stronger.  It's going to be so much fun experimenting!

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Golden Rose 108

This is 2 coats of Golden Rose Holographic 108 - Grey.  This was the darkest of the 4 silver holos that I ordered.  I have to say this didn't thrill me in the least.  The holo was barely there.

I stamped it with Kleancolor Metallic Navy and plate BM01.  I had a really rough time with this image as the stamp wasn't picking it all up.  I didn't even keep this mani on for very long either.

And here's a little haul I had at Walmart last week since they had all their Revlons on for $3:

From L-R: Pineapple Fizz, Plum Night, Grape, Punk and Princess.  Punk (light green) and Princess (light blue) were part of a new metallic collection which I plan on using for stamping.  The sale is still on but most of the Walmarts around are bare.  I'm going to check out one more before the sale is over :)

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Color Blast by Orly

So I found this new line at a local drugstore and was curious about it.  And I still am.  There is really no information on this line out there that I can find.  What's even stranger to me is the fact that Orly has a brand new line at Shoppers as well called Quo.  Lots of info available on the Quo line though, so what the hell is up with this?  As I mentioned before there seems to be a lot of repackaged colours from Orly's core line.  I only bought one out of curiosity.  This is 2 coats of Firecracker.  I had some uneven brush issues in this bottle but other than that, nothing else significant.  Pretty colour but obviously not unique.  The bottle is 1ml smaller than a regular Orly and carries a $10 price tag!

I've been wanting to try the two-colour stamping method for awhile.  I used a random black and a white polish with BM221.  I liked it better where I had smudged it a little too much so I may try smudging the whole design next time rather than just down where the 2 polishes meet.  It's definitely interesting anyways.

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Short post, short nails

This is 2 coats of China Glaze's Westside Warrior.  Awesome is all I have to say about this.

Then I added a single coat of Kleancolor's Chunky Copper.  Love it to pieces, but what I don't love is my short nails...ugh.  Short nails do not inspire me to do nail art.  Hurry up and grow again dammit!

One of my girlfriends said 'that nail polish is sooo YOU'.  Yes, yes it is.  It would only be more 'me' if I'd added a matte topcoat.  Damn, why didn't I think of that before I took it off?

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He's a keeper

So as not to scare you with the state of my nails right off the top, let's start with a recent haul.

I know I already posted about the Orly but it's in this photo for comparison to the Orly beside it.  Yep that's an Orly Color Blast that I found at my local drugstore.  Price was $10 but I had a coupon for $3 off.  They had around 30 colours to choose from and most of them looked like recycled colours from their core line.  I really have no idea what's the deal with these.  There's no information that I can find online about them.  The bottles are 1ml smaller than the regular Orly's. This colour is called Firecracker and it obviously looks like a dupe for a polish we all know and love very well - China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

So here is the comp with Orly on the left and CG on the right.  Not dupes but very similar.

The Sally Hansen polish from my haul photo above is Midnight Sky and I saw it in a display of new colours.  It immediately reminded me of Revlon Carbonite but darker, and I was right:

The finish is a little shinier than Carbonite.

I love this colour.  I wish I hadn't decided beforehand that I was going to use it as a base.  Remember I mentioned that this guy I'm seeing brought me some duochrome paint powder?  Well looky here:

He labelled the bottle 'blue-green' so I'm not sure if the paint powder has an official name.  I mixed it up with some top coat and got way too excited.

He also brought me a bottle labelled 'violet' which looks pearly white but when you put it over black you get the awesome purple above.

And just because I have this need to ruin all my mani's with Konad, here it is stamped with Kleancolor in Metallic Brown and plate BM205.

I'm thinking we may see a few more of these paint powder polishes pop up on here soon ;)

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Blinding blue

This is 2 coats of Orly's Stone Cold from the new Mineral FX line.  This polish did not need as many coats compared to similar polishes which makes me happy.  These are more expensive than the regular Orly line but I think it's worth it.  These types of polishes are so much easier to remove than glitter and it's definitely just as blingy!

So I stamped it with Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes and plate BM209.  Then I did a crappy job of lining it with a striping brush.  I wish I'd left it alone.  This post makes me miss my nails now that they are short :(  But on the upside, hey it's much easier to type!

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It keeps getting better and better

Well after a long couple months of uninspiring polishes it looks like things are turning around finally.  These last couple weeks I've been picking up some amazing polishes and here is the crown jewel:

This is one coat of LCN Magnetic Polish in Green Temptation.  I picked up this one along with Iron Magic (Black) with the stripe magnet at my local salon.  These things cost me way more than I would normally pay but I just had to have them.  I forgot to take a photo right after I painted them so this is from the next day after I'd done the dishes - hence the chip in my index finger and you also may have noticed the nasty break on my ring finger...so yeah shorties again.  I'm not too worried though since they grow fairly fast.

Anyways, so this guy I just started dating was fascinated with the magnetic polish and he's trying to figure out how we can make our own.  Gotta love a guy who enables your worst addictions right?  I may have to keep him around for awhile because on the weekend he brought me some duochrome paint powder from his dad's body shop!  That will have to be for a later post though sorry.  So does anyone know what they use in magnetic polish?  Metallic dust of some sort?

So of course on Sept.1 I hit up Sally's for the new collections and picked up the following:

L-R: Orly Stone Cold and Rococo A Go-go, China Glaze Skyscraper, Trendsetter, Westside Warrior and Fifth Avenue.  In the front are Nail Bling Stickers which sadly I didn't get a chance to use before I had to cut my nails.  They were in the clearance section.

I had no intention of getting Skyscraper.  It didn't thrill me when I saw the swatches of it but when I picked it up in the store I couldn't put it down.  I swatched it on a nail wheel when I got home and I actually really like the finish so I'm glad I bought it.

I actually bought even more polish last week but I'll save it for later as well.  It's been a very expensive (but awesome) polish week for me!

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A fail and a win

I really like looking at all the photos of Glitter in the Air and all it's dupes and frankens.  I have no idea why I like them so much because I hate multi-coloured glitter and vnl.  So I decided to try and franken my own.  Of course I had to do it my own way - in green and without 5 different coloured glitters.  And well it was quite the fail:

I used silver hex glitter, dark blue glitter and light purple glitter.  I know I didn't use enough hex glitter and I should have added another colour but I still don't think it would have made much of a difference.  I also added way too much of the fine glitter.  Ugh I can't stand looking at it.

But this made me feel better after I took it off:

This is 2 coats of Joe in Orchid.  Perfect plum creme.  I looked through my stash for something similar since my photos are always off and I found one that's pretty close.

On the left is Orchid and on the right is Color Club's Ms. Socialite.  Funny thing, as I'm looking at my nails while typing this, the one on the right actually looks more colour accurate.  Yes I loved this so much I'm still wearing it (until tonight anyways).

I added a coat of Sinful Colors in Pearl Harbor.  This is seriously my new favorite layering polish.  It reminds me of a flakie but more subtle.

Finally I added a coat of Kleancolor in Starry Blue.  Funny that none of the silver holo glitter made it onto my nails.  I love this combo so much!  And I am currently obsessed with these Kleancolor hex glitters...I need more!

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