Today's NOTD - shimmery white with a holographic glitter gradient

I was lying awake last night in bed just DYING to do this manicure! So of course the first thing I did when I woke up was break out the polish supplies. This manicure made my nails look like something out of a winter fantasy world.



The white base is four coats of Nicole by OPI It's All About the Glam, a semi-sheer glittery white, and one of my favourite base polishes. It's a soft white, easy to apply, and the subtle shimmer keeps it from being too stark. The main issue is that it's quite sheer, and even with four coats I could see my nail line.

To fix that, I added a glitter gradient using Claire's Night Sky, a fine holographic and navy blue glitter that I absolutely love. If you're near a Claire's or Icing shop (it's sold as Epic Winning there I think?), grab this! It's cheap and beautiful.

The Foil Method: Removing stubborn glitter polish (redux)

Back around Christmas, I posted a brief guide to the Foil Method to remove glitter. I wasn't overly happy with it, so I decided to do re-do it.

The contender:



an incredible glitter bomb from Nicole by OPI: Kendall on the Katwalk. This is a beautiful colour, shimmering with blue, purple, and green bits, dazzling in the sun or any bright light. You just KNOW this is gonna be a huge pain to remove!

The supplies:



Sally Hansen acetone based polish remover, lint free cotton pads, and squares of tin foil.

Do not use pure acetone for this method, it's much too harsh and will make your nailbeds hurt. I choose to use lint-free cotton pads, but any kind of cotton ball or cotton pad should work. Some people even use felt! The tin foil bits don't need to be that large (you can see the size I used here, they're just a bit bigger than the pads), just big enough to wrap the top half of your finger. I picked up a massive roll on sale and now I just keep it in with my polish supplies because I use it so much.

The method:



Saturate the cotton pad with polish remover. Really drench it! Press it firmly onto your nail. I try and wrap it down over my tips as shown in this picture.



Place a square of tin foil over your finger and wrap it up! The goal is to make an airtight enclosure to keep the polish remover from evaporating.



Continue until you have all five fingers wrapped. I don't recommend trying to do both hands at once - it's a pain! I've done it a few times and found it cumbersome to apply and remove the foil, not to mention that you're completely unable to do anything while your fingers sit!



Wait 3 - 4 minutes, then grasp the tinfoil around one of your fingers and pull it off while pressing against your nail bed. It should all come right off! If it doesn't come off easily, slip the foil back on your finger and give it another minute.

You may have some bits stuck under your nail or around the cuticle, especially with heavy glitters. Use an orange stick or nail cleaner to remove this - it's often just leftover glitter and comes off easily.



This process is incredibly drying, so make sure you use cuticle oil or lotion and drench your fingertips! I put on a big dollop of Lush Lemony Flutter and let it soak for a while before moving into my manicure for the day, which is why my fingers are so shiny in this picture!

Deborah Lippmann: The Stripper to Go vs. flakies

Day three of the great Stripper to Go Experiment!

Today's contenders:

One coat of Essie Good to Go base, two coats of Nicole by OPI It's All about the Glam, one coat of Essie Shine of the Times, and one coat of Seche Vite.



I wore this combo to the hockey game last night, and I have to say I really liked it! Subtle, pretty, and shimmery. The dense flakies of Shine of the Times make it an ideal one coater over lighter polishes. I wouldn't try this with say, any of the Picture Polish flakies - it'd take too many coats to see any flakies at all!



I wore this polish for about a day and a half before removal, and here are the results.

Left hand:



Right hand:



The mitt after cleaning:



Overall, this was a pretty big disappointment. There were flakies left all over my nails, even on the first few nails, and by nail 6 I really had to work at it to get anything off at all. This resulted in some bits of lint coming off the mitt and sticking to my nails. As with the creme + glitter experiment, I found that the mitt itself dried out before I got to my right thumb. I did try to use the packaging as a cover for the mitt, but it just didn't work - I couldn't grip the mitt enough to work it over my nails.

New Year's Eve-Eve nails

I'd call this a New Year's Eve manicure, but I know myself well enough to realise that this won't last two full days, and that I'll probably regret doing this at all once I try to take it off!

Two coats of Sally Hansen Celeb City topped with two coats of Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie, and one thick coat of Seche Vite on top of it all.

Celeb City applied beautifully as always, easy to use and fully opaque in two coats. Rainbow in the S-Kylie on the other hand - total pain! Getting enough glitter on the brush, then onto the nail, and getting it to not clump was a bother. Plus it really needs two thick coats of SV to make it completely smooth.

Having said that, it's fun and I like it! I'll keep it for a few hours anyway.


Indoors:




Natural light:

Lessons Learned - less is more

An experiment in polishing.

When I first started doing my nails oh so long ago (hah! A whole two months...) this was what I'd start with on my brush:



I'd also try my best to get every bit of bare nail, from the cuticle to the edges. This was the result. Yuck! No wonder I spent more time on clean up than on actually polishing my nails:



Then I started clueing in to the fact that hey, you don't need to go super close to the nail edges! But I was still loading up my brush. You can see here how thick and uneven the polish is after one (yes one!) coat.



I finally realised that hey, less is more, and I could always go back to the polish bottle if necessary. Here's what my brushes look like now - notice the lack of a big gob of polish hanging off the end!



And the end result of three thin coats of Nicole by OPI Razzle Dazzle.





I still haven't perfected the super clean, super rounded edge that so many experienced polish pros can do, but I'm working on it!

Another lesson I've learned: ditch the cotton balls! I almost always end up with little strings of cotton hanging off my nails, which make a huge mess. I've switched to cotton pads instead. Some people can make cotton balls work, but I just can't seem to do it. You can see a bit of cotton hanging off in the next picture.

The other thing I still tend to do is rush my manicures. I get impatient, and start painting my nails quickly. Of course when I do that, I end up with small smudges around the edges of my nails, not from flooding, but because I bang the brush into them. This is two coats of China Glaze Icicle from the Christmas collection.



I'm getting better at slowing down, but I still screw up, especially on my second (and sometimes third) coat.

Basic steps for success in painting nails:

- take it slow! You'll end up wasting the time later cleaning up messy edges if you don't.
- don't load your brush with too much polish. You can go back for more, but cleaning up the excess is a PAIN.
- keep the brush clear from your cuticles and edges - it'll look cleaner, and reduce clean up time overall.
- replace cotton balls with cotton pads if you have trouble with bits of cotton hanging off your nails, which I always do.

Christmas manicure, take 2

I love, love, LOVE how this turned out! So simple, yet so striking! Again, I used scotch tape to create the tips over a simple sparkly base, then accented with a small nail gem.






Base colours: Bare to be Different and No-el if I Know from the Sephora by OPI Glimmering Wonderland set
Tip: Nicole by OPI Not a Gold Bigger and OPI Wocka Wocka, plus a random nail decoration.
Top coat: seche vite

My first Christmas inspired manicure!

With flash:




And without:


OPI Wocka Wocka, tipped with Nicole by OPI Not a Gold Bigger. I know, horrible name, but oh my what a gorgeous gold polish this is! Opaque on my tips after one coat.

Excuse the mess around my cuticles and edges - I'm still new to polish and learning how to apply neatly! I used scotch tape to create the gold tips here.