Vitagel

Gelish has had a new product out for a few months now called Vitagel.  There are two kinds - Strength and Recovery.

I tried the Strength version.  These are my bare nails before application.  I had heard mixed reviews leaning towards the 'bad' side about this product.  I bought it on sale because I was curious and I have a few Clients who need some help growing their nails.

This is one coat of Vitagel Strength.  It doesn't require a base coat and is cured for 2 minutes under UV light.  It's slightly thicker than a normal Gel Polish. It doesn't have quite the same satin smooth finish as Gelish Top Coat.  Next time I may try it with 2 coats.  It doesn't require a top coat either.

So I decided to try out a new regular polish I picked up from the same company who makes Gelish.  This is 2 coats of Morgan Taylor Water Baby.  I painted 3 coats of Billie Electric Coral on the accent nail and I love the satin finish on it.

This is with topcoat and the best photo I could take that shows the amazing blue/purple shimmer in the Billie polish.  As for the Morgan Taylor polish, the formula was just okay.  I did not like the brush at all.  It's a very big brush much like OPI's but not near as refined as OPI's.  They do have a fabulous selection of colours and some pretty awesome glitters but not enough to make me add another brand to my huge collection of OPI's, China Glaze's, Essie's and Orly's.  Not to mention the Vinylux's I recently added.

I stamped it up with Sally Hansen Inst-Dri in Presto Pink.  4 days in and the Vitagel has cracked a bit under the polish.  That's pretty typical for me with Gel Polish.  My nails are very thin and flexible so cracking is not that unusual.  It's rarely noticeable unless I wear lighter colours like this blue.  And honestly it's my own fault because I don't use my cuticle oil as often as I'm supposed to.

The plan is to try and wear the Vitagel for 2 weeks while switching up my regular polish on top to see how it holds out.  Since I only used one coat of the Vitagel it doesn't quite have the strength of a regular Gel Polish manicure but definitely better than regular polish alone.

Later
P

Wedding nails

Last night I did a Client's nails for her wedding on Saturday.  I asked her what she wanted several times and her response was 'whatever you think'.  Wait what?  How many brides do you ever run into that don't have their exact style and colour picked out???!!!  She told me her wedding dress was 75% black with white flowers.  She is definitely an outside-of-the-box kind of bride and I think that's awesome.  She decided not to go with extensions and I showed her a black and white design that I really liked.  She immediately said 'yes do it'

So we did 2 coats of Shellac Cream Puff and one coat of OPI Kyoto Pearl because we decided the Cream Puff on it's own was a bit like white out.  Kyoto Pearl added just the right amount of shimmer.  Then I stamped some flowers down the side of each nail and I added a tiny little blue pearl on her accent nails to match the blue flower she's going to wear in her hair.  She promised to send me a photo of everything put together.  She was very happy with them when she left and it's pretty cool that she let me choose her nails for the most important day of her life.  She was a very sweet 'dream' Client and I hope she'll be back.

Just a quick note also on some exciting news in the soak off gel polish world.  I'm often annoyed by the lack of (or incorrect) info on gel polishes and there are very few blogs that posts swatches and manicures with soak off gels.  Well that's about to change because China Glaze is coming out with a soak off gel polish line called Gelaze and I believe it's going to be available at Sally's in the fall.  I'm sure this is exactly what nail bloggers/DIYers have been waiting for...a familiar brand name, easilly accessible gel polish.  Can't wait to see all the swatch posts.

Later
P

Copycat

So a couple of weeks back I was sporting a loud mismatched manicure I would classify as 'Jersey-style' and my teenaged Client came back and said 'I want what you were wearing last time I was here'

And so I did it but added a little upgrade to it.  She has done such a good job taking care of her nails and it's showing.  This is 2 coats of Gelish Sweet Morning Dew with iridescent glitter scrubbed into the ring nail, holographic gold glitter scrubbed on the thumbs over gold Gelish Danny's Little Helper and then a simple zebra stripe black Konad on her middle fingers.

When I did this manicure on myself, I had broken my thumb nail and removed the Gelish so I used just regular polish in China Glaze's Blonde Bombshell.  The holographic gold glitter I used here on her nails is insanely sparkly.  When she left I could see her just staring at nails while walking down the street :)

Here's a little something I did on my favorite Client.  I removed most of her gel extensions but she does have an overlay on some nails.  I gave her 2 coats of Gelish Seafoam and faded in some purple pearl powder.  Rexall was clearing out all their pearl and glitter powder eyeshadows for $1.50 and I picked up about 20 of them.  They're perfect for nails.

I'm excited for my Client tonight who's getting married on the weekend.  This will be my first official set of wedding nails and I'm pumped to see what she has in mind for her black and white wedding dress!

Later
P

Just for me

So ever since I've been doing nails professionally you may have noticed that my own nails have sported some loud, flashy and 'totally not me' colours and designs.  People notice when you have crazy shit on your nails and it's a form of advertising for me.  But I haven't really enjoyed my own nails lately and so I decided to do a manicure just for me.  And all I can say about this is 'aaaahhhhh much better'

This is 2 coats of Gelish You're Such A Sweet-Tart with an accent of some random silver gel with holographic glitter scrubbed in (aka Rockstar).  This polish has a subtle shimmer and the colour in real life is more lime like the top photo than pea green.  This was another very streaky Gelish and I'm little annoyed that their creamier polishes all seem to be like this.

I also decided to round off my square nails but honestly I'm not loving the shape.  I also had to shorten them quite a bit.  It's difficult to do Clients when my nails are so long.

Later
P

Tsk Tsk

Every once in awhile I do a google image search on random photos I've posted here on my blog.  I've never bothered with watermarking because I don't really care all that much.  My photos aren't great quality and my designs aren't usually one of a kind.

I hate posting without photos so here's one for ya - the groovy girl birthday cake I made for my niece's 3rd birthday....

Anyways, while browsing my popular searches I pulled a couple of my blog photos and did an image search on them.  I'm not posting which ones because it really doesn't matter...other than the fact that the photos are of Gel manicures from my DIY days (this is important).

So no big surprise...I found several photos that were being used on other websites.  There was one photo on some foreign site that looked like one of those blogs where they steal other people's posts and photos...eh whatever.  There was another on some foreign ebay type site that was clearly selling Gel Polish...certainly not the brand that was displayed in my photo but...eh whatever.

Then I got a bit bothered by one I saw that was clearly a Craigslist/Kijiji type site in the UK for a mobile Nail Tech.  The photo she used was one of my Shellac French Manicures from before I became a pro and it clearly shows.  On one hand I was a bit bothered by the fact she's advertising my photo as her own work and trying to get Clients from it.  On the other hand, if my amateur photo is better than her own work...um ya we'll see how long she makes it as a Nail Tech.

The next one I found actually displayed the same photo but it was for a professional nail salon in the US!!!  It was nowhere near an acceptable clean french manicure you would expect at an actual salon!

The one that bothered me most though was a photo of my very first Shellac Rockstar manicure.  This one was posted by a Nail Tech on her own Facebook Business page and claimed it was her own and people actually commented on it!  The kicker?  This Nail Tech is from Ontario...just a few hours away from me!  Again it's a photo I posted long before I became a pro. Also she posted that it was Shellac when I'm clearly holding a bottle of Gelish in the photo...um yeah.

So that leads me to my next little rant....what happens when the Client walks in and says 'Can you do the same as that photo'?  Because of course it's not going to look the same without the exact glitters and polishes used.  Good luck with that dumbass!  Unless of course you're actually one of my blog readers so you ran out and bought the glitter and polishes to go with that photo in which case I'd like to take a moment to say...

Fuck you.

I feel sorry for anyone who pays you good money to do their nails...shame on you!

P

Late to the party

I'm so behind in my posts it's not even funny.  But at the same time, I no longer get a chance to paint my own nails every couple of days and I'm busy painting nails for my Clients.  Problem is that you really don't want to see photo after photo of plain old french manicures.

So here's a fun manicure I did for Canada Day a couple of weeks ago.  She had a gel fill first and we topped it with Gelish Good Gossip with OPI Alpine Snow accent and some water decals.  That was the first time I tried water decals and I like them.

This is Gelish Mint of Spring with an accent nail in Shellac Lilac Longing and dotting in reverse colours.  Usually I do the art in regular polish on top of finished gel but I did the art with the gel polishes this time around.

This is a ruffian I did on a Client in gel polish.  It's one layer of Shellac Tutti Fruitti and 2 layers of Gelish Night Reflection.  She was going out for a girls night so I thought maybe the pink would glow under blacklight and look really cool.  I love the ruffian style with a dark colour on top.

On another note, my Billie French White is slowly dying and I cannot find a replacement at any of my local Dollar Trees!  Man I hope they didn't discontinue it because it's the most awesome white stamping polish ever!

Later
P

Foil Fail

So I started with one coat of OPI Gelcolor in Can't Find My Czechbook.  The intent was to add a coat of Shellac Hotski To Tchotchke and then use my new foils as an accent.  The foil disappeared when I rubbed it in!!!

So I covered up the mess on my accent nail with OPI Gelcolor in Black Onyx.  I had to use 2 coats of Shellac Hotski to Tchotchke on the other nails.

Then I stamped reverse colours with a konad plate.  Got lots of compliments on this one but it's a little busy and just meh to me.

Later
P

Couple of Clients

This is OPI Gelcolor in Are We There Yet?  I scrubbed some gold glitter into her accent nails and stamped a little brown butterfly at the bottom of each nail.  She was a Gel Polish virgin and I'm waiting to hear back if I've converted her or not.

And my favourite Client - my Mom.  She ruined her nails by filing them when she went on vacation for 3 weeks so she's back to Gel Extensions again.  These are Akzentz Classic Gel Extensions with Shellac in Cake Pop on top and then stamped with Konad.  They remind me of pajamas.

So why is my Mom my favourite Client?  Well she never ever complains (unlike my sister), she lets me do whatever I want (the only rule is no black), and best of all she cleans my house in return!

Anyone out there want free nail services for lawncare? lol

Later
P

Gel Polish Swatch Porn

I feel like I'm inviting trouble by using 'porn' in this post title but really what else can I call it?  Maybe 'hi, my name is Pamela and I have a problem...'

Here are my glitters and reds.

The pinks, corals, neutrals, sheers.

Silvers, browns, greys and black.

The purples.  Surprising how many vampy purples I have.

And the best for last - greens and blues.

I've officially had to split these between 2 key rings now.  Having too much choice sometimes makes it hard for my Clients to make a quick decision too.  I don't even want to think about how much this has cost me, ugh.

Later
P

Girl's Night Out

My friend came over one night with her daughter who wanted extensions for her Grad.

Looking at her nails I told her I could help her to grow them, convinced her to try Gel Polish and it would cost much less.  Plus she could still have any design she wanted.  You can see from the picture that she's a cuticle chewer.

Her dress was white with a black swirly pattern and she wanted some glitter on her nails so I did OPI Gelcolor Onyx and Alpine Snow.  I brushed some silver holo glitter on her tips and added a konad stamp to match her dress as an accent.

Since her mom and her friend came with her I painted their nails in regular polish.  Her friend chose China Glaze Hologlam in Cosmic Dust and her mom (my friend) chose China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and I added the same little konad accent in silver so she could match her daughter.  If it had been my choice I wouldn't have used the glitter on her daughters nails.  I would have used the reverse konad (white on black) on the other fingers - I think that would have looked sharp.  But you gotta do what the Client asks for right?

Later
P