Pretty in Pink Jelly

Once I created this delicate soft pink jelly sandwich, I knew that if I was going to do my own nails for my wedding I would recreate this manicure. I absolutely love it for a sweet, demure bridal look. It had me thinking that I might do this instead of my scheduled gel French manicure...but I think I will stick to my gel manicure for my wedding because it will last longer.

To create this look, I used two coats of OPI Passion, Essie A Cut Above and OPI Pirouette My Whistle (the glitters), and one coat of OPU Passion to seal it in. 

Another thought: I should really get into the at-home gel manicures. I've been wanting to for a while but I would only see basic reds, pinks, whites, and blues. Now that I have seen a greater variety of colors I'm thinking of saving up for a kit.

This was taken before I added the final coat of OPI Passion and I adore this look to.

Ulta Sun-Sational

I am loving Ulta polishes. Sun-Sational is a bright yellow polish with a smooth consistency. This is two coats and is completely opaque.

Vintage Polka Dots

Here I used Ulta Cream of the Crop as the base and OPI Pedal Faster Suzi! as the polka dots. Then I added Essie A Cut Above for a gradient glitter tip.

HOW TO CHEAT AT NAIL ART LIKE A PRO!

Note: This is an abbreviated version of all the discoveries leading up to this nail art technique. I will update this later when I have more time, but I wanted to show this now because I'm really happy about it.

Simply put, paint a square shape of polish on a plastic bag of sheet protector and let it dry. Gently pull off the nail polish square and put it in the slot of a stationery design paper punch of your choice. Use the little polish shape that pops out on your nail.

I included a picture of my mom's nails to show what the flowers look like.

Rainbow Streaks

To create these Rainbow Streaks, I used Julep Kate as the white base. (I'll post my swatch of that later.)

Pink: Orly Butterflies
Orange: SinfulColors Hazard
Yellow: Ulta Sun-Sational
Green: Ulta Limelght
Blue: Ulta Blue Streak
Purple: Ulta Duty Free Shopping Spree

The bottom two pictures show the finished product with Nicole by OPI Here Kim's the Sun on the tips and Cina rhinestones.

Here are my nails right after I painted all of the Rainbow Streaks. (No top coat.)

From left to right, top to bottom: 1. Paint your base color. 2. Using a small nail art brush, paint your pink streak(s). 3. Paint your orange streak(s). 4. Paint your yellow streak(s). Mine are hard to see in this picture because the yellow is on the side. 5-7. Continue on with streaks of green, blue, and purple. The last picture shows the manicure after I added a glitter coat to the tips and rhinestones on my ring finger.

I love the way the very edge looks.

OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress

I posted a photo of a very old swatch of I'm Not Really a Waitress before on my blog but decided to replace it with this newer one. As always, I'm Not Really a Waitress never fails on delivering smooth application and vibrant color.

Seche Restore Review

I used Restore on an Essie top coat and several nail polishes from several brands. From left to right (these are the oldest ones I was working on): OPI What's With the Cattitude? was thick and clumpy, now it's liquid again. ChinaGlaze Love Marilyn was an un-spreadable glitter and now it's smooth on the brush. Essie Mint Candy Apple was thick and would not evenly coat the brush, here you can see a little drip about to fall because it is once again a glitter. OPI Merry Midnight was a thick, clumpy glitter, and now it spreads smoothly. I have to end up using about 10 drops of Restore for each bottle and I think I need to work on some other ones again later on.

But look at what happened with one of my recent manicures. I used Seche Restore in my older Essie Good to Go and it did bring back the original smooth consistency, but when I used Good to Go, it shrunk my colored nail polish. Seche Vite shrinks my polish as well. So here's my theory: Since Restore "replaces key ingredients which may have evaporated over time," Butli Acetate, Toluene, and or Isopropyl Alcohol must be to blame. I'm using OPI Start to Finish now and it left some weird bubbles on my nail but that may have been because I went to bed right away. More testing is in order.