Busy with gel polishes

Just a few random gel polish manicures I did while I took a break from blogging:

This is Gelish Magneto in Drawn Together (purple) with the star magnet.  Oops forgot the cuticle oil before I took the photo.

This is Gelish Big City Siren with a little holographic star on the accent nail only.  Shitty camera doesn't show how awesomely sparkly this is.

OPI Gelcolor Lincoln Park After Dark with some paint powder scrubbed in.  Stamped with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes on the accent nail.  LPAD is probably my most used gel polish, there's so much you can do with it.  Something I've noticed in using the powders on gel polish - they don't last as long.  They tend to sort of 'rub off' the edges.  The effect is totally worth it though.

This is Shellac Lilac Longing (2 coats) with some Gelish Night Reflection sponged on the tips and a coat of Gelish Vegas Nights on top.  Forgot the darn cuticle oil again!  The fade effect is much more difficult to achieve with gel polish.

Something that's a bit of a controversy in the nail world is mixing your systems.  Not all gel polishes are alike and I would never mix brands together, however I've found that layering them has been fine.  Some companies go to extremes saying you can only use their brand of lamp etc.  I'm not going to buy 5 different lamps for each of my brands.  Other companies say you can use their top/base with any gel product. I've used several different combinations with success.  For me personally I love the Shellac Base Coat for it's easy removal.  The Top Coat is another story which is why I prefer the Gelish Top Coat for it's shine and durability.  I've also used OPI Top Coat and Gelish Top Coat over nail extensions for their high shine.  I'm a firm believer that the colour coats are all interchangeable however you should be aware that knock off brands can cause all sorts of problems including allergic reactions and near-impossible removal.  I myself purchased a chinese knock-off brand over a year ago that was extremely difficult to remove and I threw them all away.

  My colour selections has grown immensely and I ran out of colour sticks after my last haul.  Shellac is still my number one, followed closely by OPI Gelcolor and then Gelish.  The only drugstore brand I have is Red Carpet Manicure but I don't offer it to clients (even though it's supposedly re-bottled Gelish).  I have a couple of one-offs - IBD, EzFlow and LeChat but only because the colours weren't available in the other brands.  The old cheap knock-offs I bought when I didn't know any better have been tossed out.  My local nail supply carries Entity One as well which has a huge colour selection and I may try out a couple next time I pop in.  I still think gel polish is the greatest thing since the internet! :)

Later
P