Strawberry and Cream gradient manicure

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Hi there, ladies! I have a treat for you today. Nailed It is one year old and is hosting a nail art contest to celebrate. Do a manicure using only two polishes with no stamping, decals, rhinestones, loose glitter, etc. Pretty easy, huh? The best part is that it is fun too. I LOVE nail art contests, seeing what inspires other polish enthusiasts, trying to do something pretty and creative myself. So much fun!

Anyway, that is what I am showing you today. This is the manicure that I am submitting for the Nailed it contest. I decided to use Revlon ColorStay Buttercup and Jade Seducao Rosa. I thought that the creamy opaque yellow would work wonderfully with the bold holographic pink. I did a gradient manicure to highlight how well the colors can blend, how the holographic effect is muted, somewhat glittery pink when blended with the creme polish and bursts back into radiance as the creme polish fades away.

I began this manicure by painting my thumb and index fingers with two coats of Buttercup and my ring and pinky fingers with one coat of Seducao Rosa. I then dotted my middle fingers with both polishes and blended them together with a nail art brush. I sponged over the basecoats with the two polishes, melding the colors by rocking the makeup sponge. I did three layers of sponged on colors. Lastly, I added dots of both polishes for pops of the pure color against the gradient.

On these grey days of autumn, having such a bright as sunny manicure does my spirit some good. Here is one last picture, a close up. This last picture is in daylight and shows the polish colors the best. Sorry about my dry cuticles and the little fuzzy on my nail; I forgot to moisturize before taking the picture and I always find little hairs in my pictures while editing. So annoying, but I'm getting off track here.

 So, do any of you plan to enter a manicure in the contest? I hope so. I'd love to see what you come up with!

I have a crazy list of old manicures to show you and one of my best friends gifted me a Birchbox subscription for my birthday (yes, she absolutely rocks!), so I want to show you some of the things from that. I fell in love with an eyeliner and can't wait to show you how amazing it is. But til then, enjoy the weekend.


~Alexis

Illamasqua Load done matte with subtle stamping

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Hello, lovelies. Do my nails look like embossed velvet? Because that was what I was going for. Let me quickly tell you about this manicure. I painted a three layer base of Illamasqua Load followed by Essie Matte about you. It took a very long time to dry (but I do usually use INM Out the Door fast drying topcoat). Load's application felt a little sticky or stringy, but I did end up with even coverage. I dinged up the polish a bit before stamping the image. I used Revlon Buttercup on Bornprettystore's m60. I then painted some of the details on my left ring finger with Sonia Kashuk Golden Ticket, Revlon ColorStay Rich Raspberry and Bare Bones. I didn't use a topcoat over the stamping or it would have eliminated the matte finish on the base polish.

I did not take this polish off after four days, but it was starting to look a little tired. Oils from my hands and lotion had eliminated a lot of the matte finish and I was left with more of a satin finish. I ended up with one chip on my left middle finger that was easily patched. I was actually very impressed with how well Illamasqua Load fared. All fingers had only the tiniest bit of tip wear and they still looked quite presentable, especially surprising with such a light colored polish and after using a matte topcoat instead of a more protective topcoat.

Do you wear matte polish? What kind of wear time do you get out of a matte topcoat?

I tried to liven this manicure up by topping it with Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I'll show you the results next week. I also plan to do a comparison between Julep and INM Out the Door fast drying topcoats. One of these topcoats already has a big lead in terms of shine, but that's a topic for later.

Check out all the manicure fun at The Nail Files-Week 17. Have a good weekend.

~Alexis

Revlon Colorstay Buttercup, Fairies, and Vegetables

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Here is my first, very beat up manicure. On my nails, is Revlon Colorstay nail enamel in Buttercup. It is a lovely creamy yellow. It garnered quite a few compliments. As I mentioned in my previous post, the application was streaky, but smoothed nicely with a topcoat. I am not crazy about the brush either. It is very rounded and the bristles are somewhat uneven, making it difficult to get the color on my entire nail without straying onto the cuticles.

As far as living up to the name "Colorstay," I am a little disappointed. At the end of one day, I had a small chip on my right thumb and middle finger. By the second day, the right index finger had a tiny chip. On the positive side, the chips did not get much bigger until about four days into the manicure.

The photo above is a little blurry (sorry), but it shows some crazing of the polish near the top, left side of my thumb that appeared about three days into the manicure. On such a pale color, this cracking was pretty noticeable.

This was not the most long-lasting manicure, however I did put a lot of wear and tear on my hands this week. I had a very messy cooking day that required tons of hand washing. I also started about a quarter of the seeds for the vegetable garden and two terrarium plantings with my daughter. This will still be a go-to yellow polish for me, because when fresh, it is lovely and it did not stain my nails like other yellow polishes I used in the past.

This is one of the only seedlings that has sprouted so far. This cute little plant will become some delicious kale. We planted jalapeno peppers, orange bell peppers, stevia, cauliflower, swiss chard, and a couple of flowering plants like hollyhocks, lavender, and calendula. I am taking a risk with some of these plants; this will be my third year with a vegetable garden and the past two years my peppers, stevia, and cauliflower have failed to produce. If anyone has some tips for growing these, I welcome the help.

As an early Easter present, we gave our daughter a fairy terrarium. She is four years old, so plants under her care would not survive if they needed water on a regular basis. The terrarium seems perfect because it only needs water about once a month. I was also happy that the seeds germinated so quickly. Seeing such rapid growth really keeps her engaged in the process. She loves the rainbow path the little plastic fairy; I call it a fairy decoy, to attract more fairies to her little garden.

That is all for this week's manicure. Next week, I will be using the Glitter Gradient French Mani Tutorial from The Hungry Asian with festive green sparkles. I've never done a glitter gradient manicure and am really excited to see how it turns out.

Fresh Paint

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Hello, and welcome to "Mangling my Manicure." I plan to post information about my manicure after I have worn it for a week. I will include at least two photos of each manicure, one when it is new and (hopefully) beautiful and another photo once I have worn the polish for the full week or until my nails are chipped to the point that I can't look at them anymore.

Let me begin by telling you about the nail products that I will always be using. I wear one coat of Seche Retain. I am very fortunate to have strong nails, but I have never been able to grow them for a long time without a break. I started using Seche Retain last summer on the nail and under the free edge. My nails have become even stronger. There are so many times that I jam or catch a fingernail, feeling sure that it must have cracked, but most of the time the nail is still in great shape with a little chipped polish. The other great thing about Retain is that it is Big 3 free. As i recall, the other two treatments in that Seche line, Rebuild and Recondition may not be able to make that claim. I follow Retain with one coat of Orly Bonder Rubberized basecoat. I don't know if my nails are super oily, but without this basecoat, my polish will sometimes chip the very first day. Finally, I top my polish with INM Out the Door Fast Drying topcoat.

I'm excited to show you my first manicure. On my nails are 2 coats of Revlon Colorstay in Buttercup. This is my first time using any Colorstay polish, but I have been happy with several other Revlon nail enamels. The application of this polish was a little streaky, but it looked much better than I expected after the addition of a topcoat. I did have to add third coats of Buttercup to my thumbs to combat the streakiness. I really love the look of pale yellow polishes, but found that Sinful Nails Unicorn stained my nails pretty badly. I hope that this polish does not stain. I'll get back to you next week and let you know how well my manicure stood up to seed starting for my vegetable garden and other activities.

Before I sign off, I love A England's Dragon that was posted about on the Swatchaholic. Definite lust going on right now. Her photos show it off spectacularly. What colors are making your mouth water right now?