GOT Polish? Green!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday is bought to you by the colour green! Zoya Apple was my green of choice, and it's just so, well, appley! If appley isn't a word, it should be. I'm sad my lighting wasn't better for these pics because it has a lovely delicacy in the sun. I'm also sad that green doesn't seem to suit me, which is possibly why I don't wear this polish more. I stamped some retro-looking wibbly squares on top. Groovy baby.

Hx

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Tri-Polish Tuesday - red, orange and yellow #4 - glassy gradient

Hi!

Last TPC of the month, so the last with these colours and to be honest I'm glad! These are not my colours! Yellow is the colour polish I have the least of, and coming up with ideas has been a struggle. I'm looking forward to next months colours, pink, grey and brown, but until then here's my last January effort.

I used completely different polishes this time around - all glass fleck - in a pretty gradient which I then stamped over. I used Color Club Daisy Does It (yellow) as the base, and then sponged Zoya Tanzy (orange) and Barielle Elle's Spell (red) to make the gradient. The stamps are from BM208, and I think it looks like stained glass. I'd love to do this again with different colours from the Color Club Take Wing collection.

I'm excited because I'm getting a hair cut today! It's badly needed after the summer purple ombre I had has gone green and left my hair in poor condition. It's going to be quite a change so if you're interested, look out on my Instagram!

Hx

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Wrap it up...

Hi!

I have been wanting to use the Christmas jumper/fairisle pattern on my Nailscraze NC03 plate since the moment I got it in my grubby little paws, but seeing as that was July I had to wait! And with the release of MoYou's festive plates it seems everyone has gone Christmas jumper mad, so I took a different route in order to use the awesome pattern! (Don't worry, I have a jumper mani planned too ;) ) Instead of jumpers I took my inspiration from wrapping paper and used sparkly Zoya Blaze as the base and stamped with Barry M Silver foil, combining the fairisle image with some Bundle Monster stripes. I smudged it with my topcoat and could have kicked myself, but hey, they still attracted lots of compliments! Now I've got my nails "wrapped" I guess I should get on with the actual wrapping...

Anyone else still not feeling Christmassy yet? I'm not exactly bah humbug but I'm just not feeling festive...

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 20 - based on a pattern in your wardrobe!

Hello!

Today's challenge was to create a mani based on something from your wardrobe, and what I ended up with wasn't what I intended (is it ever?) but it came out so well I had to use it! The base you have seen before, when I used Zoya Storm in between layers of SensatioNail gel in this post. I added some stamping on top of the gel, and sealed it with regular topcoat. This worked really really well, and it meant that I could take off just the stamping (with non-acetone nail polish remover) and change it up if I wanted to! The stamp is from the Pueen Love Elements set, stamped with Barry M Silver Foil.

And here is a mighty fine picture of me looking my absolute best, wearing the top that I based it on. /sarcasm.

I'll go over the process of adding stamping and nail art on top of gel polish in a future post (and how to remove the gel polish), but it really was simple and it's definitely something I will be doing more of in the future.

As for the night out that this outfit/nail ensemble was for. Let's just say it was messy...

Hx

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SensatioNail Gel Polish Starter Kit - How to use with regular nail polish!

Hi!

I'm following up on my review of the SensatioNail Invincible Gel Polish Starter Kit today with a solution to the one of the things that puts many people (myself included) off trying a system like this. I have been 'collecting' (I like to call it that, it makes it sound more acceptable...) nail polish now for almost four years, and in that time have amassed over 800 polishes (851 to be exact. Yes, I have a spreadsheet...) I have cremes, shimmers, glitters, holos, magnetics, foils, textures...there's no way I could replace them all with gel polish. Don't get me wrong, SensatioNail does do a fab range of gel polishes, easy to find at Boots, Tesco and Asda (and I plan on building a stash of those too, shhh don't tell Mr NN) but even if they did duplicate every polish in my collection it wouldn't be financially viable for me to replace it all. So I wondered if I could use my regular nail polish with the SensatioNail Gel base and top coat for a longer lasting manicure, and it turns out you can!

I started off by prepping my nails as you would for a gel manicure. I took off my previous manicure, cleaned and shaped my nails and pushed back my cuticles. It is important to do this as any gel polish you might get on the cuticle will cause the gel to lift and not last as long. Once that was done I lightly buffed my nails with the pink side of the file in the SensatioNail kit, wiped them with the cleanser and a lint free wipe and then applied the primer in a circle around the edge of my nails, all following the instructions in the kit. Next, I applied a thin even coat of the gel base and top coat, making sure to cap the tips of my nails (very important!) and cured for 30 seconds under the lamp. SensatioNail recommends in the instructions that you cure the fingers on each hand separately and the thumbs together for ease. You need to make sure no gel gets on your skin or cuticles too, otherwise it will set rock hard! If you do get any where it shouldn't be, you can just wipe it away before curing.

Now this is where you'd normally apply two coats of your gel colour and cure each coat, but using regular nail polish is different. Usually you'd leave the sticky layer left on your nails after curing until the last coat, but I wiped it off now using a lint free wipe and cleanser. You're left with a smooth surface to apply your polish onto, and I used two coats of Zoya Storm. Make sure the tips are capped again and leave to dry. Unfortunately, you can't cure regular nail polish so you have to wait for it to completely dry before moving on. You can use a quick drying topcoat to speed this process up if you need to (and protect your manicure if you're leaving a longer gap between adding the gel top coat), but I didn't. I would also recommend using gel colour "undies" if the polish you've chosen is sheer or needs more than two coats - chose a gel colour that is close to your regular polish colour, or even a neutral nude and cure it before adding the regular polish. That way you don't need as many coats of polish and you're cutting the dry time a little. I'm going to treat myself to SensatioNail La Creme for this purpose! I left Storm to dry for 45 minutes before moving onto the top coat.

Apply a thin layer of gel top coat on top of your regular nail polish, again making sure the tips are wrapped and no gel gets on your skin. You need to also make sure the polish underneath is covered completely otherwise your gel could lift and not last as long. Cure for 30 seconds, wipe off the sticky layer and you're done!

It's really as easy as a normal manicure, and for very little extra effort you should (hopefully) have a manicure that lasts so much longer. I did this for a weekend away, on the Friday evening before I went and it meant I didn't have to worry about taking any polish/remover etc with me or it chipping before my night out on the Saturday.

*UPDATE* It lasted about a week before it started showing signs of wear. It probably would have lasted a few days longer if I hadn't got bored of it! I'd say if you're careful you could get 8-10 days from it.

Now, the only other thing that put me off switching to gel polish full time is how much I like to change my polish. I've not attempted removing a gel mani yet (the pedi you saw in my first impressions post is still going strong after almost 3 weeks!) but I know its not going to be a case of wiping it with polish remover! Also, I usually change my nails 3-4 times a week for various reasons - chipping being the major one but I also love doing my nails and creating nail art. Also I need stuff to post for you guys on the blog! So, in my next SensatioNail post I'll tackle that issue - removal, nail art and changing it up a bit! I'm looking forward to it already ;)

And great news if you're in the UK - until 5pm on Monday you can get £20 off the SensatioNail Invincible Gel Polish starter kit at Sensationail.co.uk, making it just £49.99. It would make a fab Christmas present (if you're feeling organised!) or just treat yourself :)

Hx

The product featured was a PR sample provided to me for free for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own and 100% honest. Please see my disclaimer in the tab above for further details.

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NOTD - Zoya Apple + Stampedy Stamping

Morning!

I aquired Zoya Apple (a long time lemming) in a lovely swap :) thank you El! I couldn't wait to wear it, it's so pretty. It's a little darker than I expected, and less lime-y, but I adore it. The pics before the stamping show it a little brighter than it is most of the time, as they were taken with flash.

I stamped a leafy pattern from the second Bundle Monster set (go follow them on Facebook for teasers of the third set which is being released really soon!) with Barry M Silver Foil. I think the pattern covers up too much of the base colour, and it didn't come out very crisp, but I love the foil-y finish!

I think Zoya Apple is my favourite green. I don't know if I could choose favourites of other colours...maybe China Glaze Ruby Pumps is my favourite red, but I can't think of any more favourites. Do you have favourites?

Hx

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NOTD – Sinful Colors Cinderella + Zoya Maisie

Howdy!

Continuing with the soft and pretty theme (I don't know what is wrong with me...I'll be back to elephant-clumsy soon I'm sure) I used super pretty Sinful Colors Cinderella for this manicure. I got this polish from one of my birthday club girls, but I think the new Models Own Indian Ocean is close for us UK-ites.I applied three coats, as it's pretty sheer, then two coats of Zoya maise (blue flakies, yum!) over the ring finger and thumb. Subtle and pretty. Two words I don't use very much in association with my nails!

Bit blurry to see the flakies better *drool*

If you were getting married, I think this would be a lovely polish to have as your something blue. What do you think? Would you have blue nails for your wedding day?

Hx

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Boudoir Prive - a catalogue of errors with a happy ending - Zoya Neeka

Hello

I caved in and subscribed to Boudoir Prive, one of the three or so beauty boxes floating around at the moment. Basically, you pay £10 and get sent a box of 5 or 6 high end beauty, health and lifestyle samples every month. You know me, I'm a budget kinda girl and I'll never pay full price for something if I can help it, so I never get anything "high end". Anyway, I opted for Boudoir Prive over the others for no other reason than I had a code to get my first box for half price. I signed up on something like Augus 18th (so way before my no-buy started :p ) and they told me I'd be debited on September 5th for £5 and receive my box sometime mid-September. Fine. Except that a few days after I was meant to be billed I had an email saying my payment hadn't gone though but not to worry they'd try again in a few days. I knew I had enough money in my bank account to cover £5 (I'm broke but it's not that bad yet) so I went to their website to try and check the details they had for me. I couldn't check my card details through the account section on their website so I emailed their support team, and the FAQ's said I would have a reply in 48 hours. I didn't hear anything for about three days, then had an email saying my box had been despatched, so I assumed the payment had gone though. Then, I had another email confirming that it hadn't gone through, and I would need to purchase a one-off and continue my subscription next month. Wut? One person said the box had been despatched, one person said it hadn't. Of course, not wanting to miss out (as I had heard rumours of what was going to be inside) I emailed back asking for clarification, before I bought another box when one was already on the way. before I heard anything back, I came home Friday morning after the school run to find the box on my doorstep (gotta love Royal Mail) and an email later in the day saying my box was free of charge because of the confusion. Phew! I appreciate that the period around the despatch of the boxes is a busy time for the people at Boudoir Prive, and confusion is bound to come about, but they dealt with it well and I will continue my subscription - for another month at least.

Anyway, rant over, let's get to what you're really here for. I had heard on the downlow that there would be a nail polish in this months box, and oh boy what a nail polish! Zoya Neka from the new Smoke and Mirrors Collection! My very first Zoya. From what I've seen on other blogs different people got different colours, and I'm glad I got Neeka. Dusty purple with gold and pink micro glitter? Don't mind if I do. I love love love it, unfortunately, the shimmer doesn't show as well on the nails (2 coats) as it does in the bottle, but it's still yummy. I stamped over it with Miss Sporty Electric Beige.

I'm now pining over Jem and Yara from the same collection, thanks to getting some nail spoon things in the Boudoir box, but there's no way I'll ever be able to afford them, especially at over £9 a bottle. But Neeka I got for free (even if I had paid the £5, or heck even the £10 I would have loved it just as much), it's gorgeous and it's my first (and probably only ever) Zoya.

If you got a Boudoir Prive box, wha Zoya did you get? If you haven't signed up yet, and you want to give it a go you can use the code 1box12 until 29th Sept to get your first box half price. You can thank me with a "bisous" apparently.

Hx

PS Would you be interested in seeing my collection swatched on nail wheels?

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