Category: Purple Nails

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Essence Gel-look top coat: the good, the bad, and the bumpy.

So because I ran out of my Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat, I figured there was no time like the present to test out a new top coat. I picked up Essence brand Gel-look top coat from Shoppers the other night, along with Essence brand Express Dry Drops (which I’ll review at another time) and was curious to see how it was.

I’ve read some seriously mixed reviews on this top coat. Of course, I didn’t read them until after I had bought it. Never the less, it was only $2.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart, so the price was definitely right. Because I paint my nails so often, I go through a lot of top coat so it can get pricey. A cheaper, but good quality, top coat would be much appreciated, and Essence does make some lovely polishes.

Everyone complains about how long the dry time on this top coat is, so I made sure to paint my nails a little while before bed, and to fall asleep with my hands outside the blankets (just in case). It felt dry to the light touch so I figured I would be fine.

Yeah, not so much.

geltopcoat geltopcoat2

Sheet marks. Lots of sheet marks. You can see how lovely the shine is on a couple of my nails–the ones that didn’t get dinged, but the majority of them were left textured because they were not quite dry before I fell asleep apparently. It was kind of disappointed, because I almost always paint my nails before bed so I need a top coat that isn’t going to take forever to dry. =( However, I do have those Express Dry Drops to try out, and I’m interested to see how the two will work together.

However, I did fix up my manicure with a very thin layer of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash from the bottle of a bottle I forgot I had. It definitely smoothed them out so I could show off the lovely sparkle of my moon manicure.

geltopcoat3

Just in case you’re interested, I used Sinful Colors in Forget Now as my base, and LA Girl in Groupie for the purple. They just go so perfectly together.

 

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Crazy for Dots.

My brand new dotting tool set I ordered last month finally arrived last week, and I couldn’t be more excited. I already had a single dotting tool that I bought at Shoppers last year (Essence brand) but it’s had better days. Plus, I only had the one size so it restricted my dot options to two sizes.

dottingtool

I scored these beauties on Amazon.ca for $1.96. (I also scored some new small detail brushes as well, which haven’t arrived yet.)

It took a while for them to arrive, but once they did I couldn’t wait to try they out! I just needed to figure out what was the first design I wanted to do! It was getting a little late when I started these, so I figure I a funky dotticure was the perfect solution.

dots

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Cherimoya nail polish in Dulce de Leche (from the “Make You Melt” Petite collection.) — base color.
  • Essie in The Lace is On — Dark purple dots.
  • Garage brand nail polish — the light pink dots. (No name on this one.)
  • LA Girl Quick Dry Top Coat.

Even though it’s a simple mani, I really like how it turned out on the nail. I really am crazy for dots.

The only disappointment was a I banged my finger in the morning getting ready for the gym, and broke the nail on my pointer finger so I had to file down the rest of my nails so they were all the same length (and go through work with a slight chip to the polish all day). Then I ended up hitting my hand at work, breaking the edge of my thumb nail! So my nails are super short again. I’m a sad girl.

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 20: Water Marble.

Okay, so I can’t water marble.

I can’t do it. I don’t know how people can create such beautiful water marble manicures, but I am not one of them. However, I didn’t want to not have anything to show for day 20–except a whole bunch of failure–so I looked up “water marble without water” in google, and what did it lead me to? A dry “water marble” technique. Score! So it’s not your typical water marbled nails, but it was something I could actually accomplish so I figured that was better than nothing!

(If you’re interested, I used this youtube tutorial by cutepolish.)

drywatermarble

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Revlon polish in Minted–mint green polish.
  • China Glaze in What a Pansy!–purple polish.
  • OPI in My Boyfriend Scales Walls–white polish.
  • ACO by Ardene in Sea of Beauty–baby blue polish.
  • ACO by Ardene in Kiss from a Rose–pink polish.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.

Even though I couldn’t do a proper water marble, I LOVE these. They spring color combination pops on the nail, and I just love the swirls. Even though I only did it on two accent nails for this manicure, I think it would love amazing all on my nails, and I will definitely be trying it again so I can play with it more (and with more color combinations).

 

 

 

Also, I’ve been thinking about this challenge, and I have to admit I’ve started to feel a little confined by it. I started it so I would have inspiration, but lately I feel like it’s restricting the manicures I want to do. There is SO much inspiration out there, and so many manicures I really want to try! I still want to finish the challenge, and not be a quitter, but I think I will be spreading it out with some other manicure ideas. Especially as my brand new dotting tool set just arrived, and I’ve yet to be able to really play with it, and it’s begging me to do some awesome floral nail art!

 

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The 31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 18: Half Moons.

So I didn’t go exactly with the prompt for Day 18 of the challenge. After a long day at work, I kind ran out of time to do a traditional half moon manicure, so I kind of went the reverse, and revisited the ruffian manicure (which I’ve also seen referred to as a reverse moon manicure).

I’ve done a lot of typical moon manicures in my day — it was one of the first nail art techniques I tried, aside from polka dots. But I’ve yet to perfect the technique for the ruffian manicure, so that was another reason why I wanted to give it another try. Even though I’ve watched all the tutorials, I still can’t comprehend how people can get their lines so perfect!

reversemoonmanicure

reversemoonmanicure2

For this manicure, the polishes that I used were:

  • Essence Color & G0 in That’s What I Mint!
  • China Glaze in Flying Dragon
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat
  • LA Girl Quick Dry Top Coat.

For a second attempt, these aren’t bad. As you can see, I missed a spot on my pinky finger when I was going through with Flying Dragon, which I didn’t notice until I took pictures. I still haven’t perfected the technique, but with practice it’s getting a little easier.

I really do love how the ruffian manicure looks–it’s a little something different from your typical moon manicure. And it’s a great way to play with different color combinations–you can color block, or choose complimentary colors. I really love the contrast of Flying Dragon and That’s What I Mint!

 

=)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 16: Tribal Print.

Aztec and Tribal prints were a big trend last summer in nail art. I seriously dig anything Tribal print. I bought the sweetest aztec print pants that I have a feeling I will be wearing A LOT this summer. So when it came to Day 16, I was super excited to come up with something tribal on my nails. There was no reason to this manicure–I really just started drawing lines and outlines and dots, and came up with this:

tribalprint2

tribalprint

The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • Sinful Colors in Be Happy
  • Essence Color & GO in Let’s get Lost
  • Color Club Art Club in Paisley Paradise.
  • Stripe Rite Striping polish in Black.
  • Stripe Rite Striping Polish in White.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

God I love tribal print. I also love the blues and purples used in this manicure. I really like how it turned out, even though I had no plan going into this. Sometimes the most random manicures turn out to be my favorite!

Also check out this adorable mug that the boyfriend gave me for Easter. My first thought? I totally have to do this as nail art!