Basic Polish Application Video

Frequently Asked Questions-

"How do you apply nail polish & it look so perfect?"

"What base coat/ topcoat do you use?"

"How do you grow strong nails?"

 It's been a good while since I recorded a video, so I thought this would be the best way to address all of these issues. If you already are confident in how to apply nail polish, and want to skip watching the video, that's fine! Here's the shortcut: I use Duri Rejuvacote as my base coat. I use Seche Vite quick drying top coat faithfully. I buy Seche Vite at my local Sally's Beauty Supply, but I buy Duri Rejuvacote from the girls over at Ninja Polish. (Here for $8) I've heard rumor that  it's going to be available at Walmart soon, so I'm excited to see if that's true or not.

Aaaaaaaaand the video:

 

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OPI Black Spotted Over Neons

By now maybe you've heard there is some clamoring over a new OPI polish. It's called "Black Spotted" and has only been released in French Sephoras. No plans that it will come to the US or anywhere else in Europe. :( If you have a random connection to a relative or friend in France, have them track this down for you! Or you can choke down a steep price on eBay. It's a must have.

It's a twisted type of special effect top coat, almost like Crackle, but not quite. It's like oil and water or something..... Amazing. :) The effect is immediate and the polish is fairly thin. It dries quickly and has a shiny finish. The instruction tag says to apply in a THIN coat. I had to play with it before I got it just right. I got the best results when I had just a little polish on the brush, then I applied it to the middle of my nail and swept over the nail a few times. Where normally I apply my polish with just 3 strokes, this time I would have just a little polish and do at least 5 strokes. The little openings start forming immediately, but with a few extra strokes you can get an even and thin layer on before it dries.

And can I just add that it's a BEAST to get off your cuticles. So be cautious to not be too messy. My angled clean up brush had to scrub a little more than normal.

I started with a base of white polish. Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Random blobs of neon polishes. I just used the brush that comes in the polish.

ChG Pink Voltage, Under the Boardwalk, & Ride the Waves.

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lightening and Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed.

ELF Neon Green.

Then 1 thin layer of Spotted using the method I mentioned above.

When it first arrived in the mail I was wearing GOSH Holographic. So I immediately put it on. I applied it too thick though and didn't get many bubbly formations. :( But you can see it's still pretty awesome!!!

So how do you plan on getting it!? Or do you not like the look at all?

More about → OPI Black Spotted Over Neons

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pink Satin + Nail Art

More than just a swatch today. I've got a look showing it's stamp-ability as well as it's comparison to another polish. I saw this in the store and thought it looked "chrome" enough to stamp well. I'd been wanting a light pink polish to stamp with, so it came home with me.

 This is 2 coats swatched. You can tell it's just a little bit "brush-strokey." Below is compared to China Glaze Emotion. Which is just a shade darker.

 

I accidentally reversed the order of my swatch-sicles....

To take care of the visible brushstrokes, I used my tried and true method for smoothing out the finish. 

Check it out here.

Then to test out it's stamp-ability I used the Bundle Monster zebra print image to do the following.

 I used OPI Skull and Glossbones as a base polish, then stamped with China Glaze Emotion on my ring fingernail. I used Pink Satin on all the other nails.

More about → Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pink Satin + Nail Art

Stash Swatch Sticks

You might have noticed that I've started including swatches on a false nail stick in some of my posts. I recently heard about these Swatch sticks and I love the idea of having everything so organized. Plus if anyone comes over for a mani, they can fan through those to find what they like. And that frees me up to reorganize my stash by brand vs by color or whatever! So I ordered 8 sets of 50 nail sticks from this eBay listing. Then I accidentally ordered an additional 8 sets because I thought my first order didn't go through. :( I'm a goober like that sometimes. Lol. So I have more than enough to swatch my entire collection! It will be nice to use them and try different combinations of polishes, so I will still use them.

You can write with a Sharpie permanent marker on the stick part and to brand and color name. :)

So far I have them grouped by color family. This is my glitter/magnetic/crackle ground. I layered the flakies over black and white to see how the colors pop.

So that's my whole stash! 

I have a group for:

Glitter/Crackle/Magnetic

Blue

Brown/Black/White

Purple

Pink/Coral/Orange/Red

Teal/Green/Yellow

Now if I can ever find someone willing to custom make me a polish rack/bookcase to my specifications.... I plan on organizing my stash by brand!

More about → Stash Swatch Sticks

Revisiting the Candy Hearts

I've received multiple questions about my Candy Heart manicure. I thought I'd re-post the picture and link back to the original post because so many people love these for Valentine's Day.

They were made using the Nail Art Diva "From the Heart 1" stamping image plate. It can be bought online here for $9.99.

In my original post I mention the polishes I used to stamp the hearts with... I didn't give all the boring details, but the heart image transfers very sheer. So I stamped the heart shape, but ended up going back over it with a small paintbrush and more polish to give it the best color. In case you were wondering why your's was acting up. Well, mine did too!

More about → Revisiting the Candy Hearts