Throwback Thursday- 4th of July 2016

Last year I spent a long 4 day weekend out at Woodsmoke relaxing- it was so great. I was only a couple weeks into nail school at the time, and since I was missing a day to stay an extra day on my mini vacation I brought all my nail stuff to do as many nails as I could still. Plus I wanted to do some fancy 4th of July themed nails on myself.

On the thumb and pinky I used loose dry glitter to create a somewhat ombre glitter look. The stripes on the flag were done by starting with a layer of white gel polish, then removing the tacky layer and using stickers to achieve the perfect lines. When using stickers, you have to use regular polish with them otherwise the gel polish will just bleed all over when you remove the stickers. So do as thin of a coat of regular polish as you can over the stickers, remove and let dry 100%, then cover with a gel polish top coat for max shine and instantly dry nails.

Little girls love lots of glitter

I also did one of the neigbor’s little girls nails all ready for the 4th. She was inspired by my nails, and of course wanted as much glitter as I could get on her tiny nails. I only used regular polish- remember no chips aren’t good for young girls nails!

Throwback Thursday: St. Patrick’s Day 2016

For the holiday, let’s take a look at some festive nails I did last year!

My mom loves having sheer sparkly nails, so I did two coats of ASP “Shimmer Top Coat” as a base. I then removed the tacky layer and added some shamrock stickers, and a couple kitties she really liked. These stickers are nice and thin so you couldn’t even really tell they were there under the topcoat.

I went a little bit more bold with my nails:

Used the same stickers over LeChat Mood Changing “Limelight”. I am obsessed with these gel polishes because they change color depending on how hot or cold your fingers are. This color turns a dark green, and I love the subtle gold shimmer.

Gel Polish Used:

LeChat “Limelight”
ASP “Shimmer Top Coat”

A couple pedicures

Since I’ve learned pedicures in school, I might as well practice them even if they’re not my reeeally favorite thing to do…

At least once you’re done the feet look much better. This polish is Orly “Wonder Woman” from their Wonder Woman collection that was at Walgreens briefly. It is a clear base with a ton of red micro glitters with some blue hexes and yellow stars perfectly representing her costume. I did two coats of China Glaze “Poinsettia” topped with one coat of “Wonder Woman”.

Above is two coats of China Glaze “Poinsettia” by itself. It’s a lovely glassy red that applied super smoothly. I use this when I need a plain red all the time.

Above are the pedicures I’ve done at school, the top two on female clients and the bottoms ones on my classmate Rick!

Heart’s Desire

Another throwback to July, here’s another one of LeChat’s Mood Changing gel polish line. I definitely need to get more colors of these!

 

Perfect Cute, Short Nails

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Nailpolis you’ll remember these nails from a few months ago. They’re done using LeChat Mood Changing gel polish, which I’ve posted about before. I love using these mood changing polishes, I swear they’re endlessly amusing.

This mani is done on my friend Katie, who already had beautiful, clean cuticles I barely had to do anything to. Only two coats of this polish gives great coverage, and it applies thinly without running.

ASP “Rendezvous in Red”

A simple summer no chip done with ASP “Rendezvous in Red”. This gel polish is super smooth to apply and doesn’t run easily despite feeling thin. It’s great because it doesn’t make the nails look thick, but even though it feels thin it is very pigmented and only requires two coats.

Finger Paints “Main Art-Traction”

Practicing my no chips while I was on a mini vacation to Woodsmoke-

Here we’ve got Finger Paints gel polish in “Main Art-Traction”. It’s a nice neon fuschia/purple that’s very creamy and completely opaque in two coats. My client wanted an accent nail of ASP “Studio 54” and some bling, and told me to do whatever I want which I always love hearing!

 

Lechat “Dream Chaser”

Another one of the the LeChat Mood Changing gel polishes- this one is “Dream Chaser”. I never had any problems with the other colors that I’ve tried from this brand, but this color was really thick and hard to keep from running. It also turned out really thick looking like I had done three or more coats when I one did two.

I also don’t pass up pretty much any opportunity to do an accent of Color Club Halo Hues “Harp On It” which is that gorgeous holographic silver on my ring finger.

Gel Polishes Used:

Color Club “Harp On It”
LeChat “Dream Chaser”

Hello again team iPhone!

I had the Samsung Note 4 for years, but it was time to move on. For many reasons, I decided to go back to having an iPhone again. I’m pretty glad I did, and one of the main reasons is that camera is so, SO much better than the Note’s was!

Can you tell how much nicer this photo is from the ones in my last post? The old photos look so much more yellow, and this one also looks crisper. Super happy about this. Here I’ve got another no chip french manicure, using OPI “Alpine Snow” but switching it up for the pink and using “Bubblebath” instead of “Passion”. There’s only a tiny difference between the two, but “Bubblebath” is much more pink where as “Passion” is more of a peachy toned pink. Both are very transparent. The smile line is completely hand painted, and I didn’t even use any brushes to clean them up.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember what the names of these gel polishes were, but they were both from Essie. How gorgeous is this color combo though??

Now OPI’s “Are We There Yet?” is a borderline nude color, which if I haven’t confessed before I kind of loathe nude nails, but this color is peachy enough that I like it. It also has the most subtle goldish shimmer to it which takes it from kind of boring to classy.

 Seeing as I follow a billion nail artists on Instagram I’ve noticed this mirror effect chrome powder trend going around. How could I pass this up?! I almost immediately ordered some to try out. I talked about it at school and all my teachers were just as excited to see how it worked so I brought it in for a demonstration once it arrived. Like it was meant to be, one of my teachers was already wearing a plain white no chip so she was my hand model.

I wasn’t sure if it would work since the mani was a couple days old, so I applied one thin layer of clear top coat, cured, and wiped the tacky layer off. Using the eyeshadow brush that came with the chrome powders I buffed the silver onto the nail. I tried to blow off the excess, but beware this stuff is kinda messy! Lots of hand washing involved after but totally worth it. Applied one more layer of clear top coat to seal the chrome in and finished off like any other gel polish mani. Make sure you use a top coat you don’t mind messing up, as it will leave some tiny little silver flakes in the topcoat that will transfer to every other color you use this topcoat on.

But I mean, mirror silver nails. How cool is that? I’ll have a dedicated chrome top coat to have mega-shiny nails!

Sinful Colors “Tempest”

The color quality on this picture isn’t the greatest, but it’s pretty accurate to the color of the polish in real life. It’s a very pretty springy cream lilac.

Don’t mind my cuticles, this was before I was in school and knew how to tame them! Sinful Colors is one of my go to colors since it’s cheap and has a quality formula. They’re always coming out with cute new colors that I can’t resist passing up whenever I’m in Walgreens or somewhere and spot the new collection displays.