TMI but, what that means is my nails suffered because my health suffered. My nails are almost uncomfortably short for me right now, because they ended up breaking off quite a bit.
But I finally painted my nails again very fast a few days before Christmas... you can tell I rushed the job a little bit, and I was in an unusual setting for me, too. I still think the nails I did turned out pretty cute (idea-wise, at least!) so I wanted to share. I tried a plethora of different nail polishes and made attempts to add nail jewels and nail art with gel polish. I had so much running through my mind while doing it, that I might as well just wait and put it in a different post. I'm finally back home again, and it's late!
The thing I like most about this manicure, though, is the thumbs! My painting job is pretty wobbly because I was using only gel polish, but it's still so much fun every time I use my phone!
Feel free to click the pictures on Pinterest to make them bigger, by the way. I feel like Pinterest's resizing is making them look blurry today.
Really quickly, I'll mention the colors and stuff I used:
- Nailuv "Bulletproof"
- OPI Axxium "Fresh Frog of Bel Air" sparkles over top of "Bulletproof"
- Red Carpet Manicure (RCM) "Glitz & Glamorous"
- OPI Axxium "Gettin' Miss Piggy With It" sparkles over top of "Glitz & Glamorous"
- Red Carpet Manicure (RCM) "White Hot" to make the stripes and candies
- Nail Jewels were a seasonal purchase from Avon (one already fell off, but that was my fault!)
Welcome back and glad you are feeling better! I love nail art + gel manis!! I am tired of people saying it can't be done... I have to confess I do my nails in gel and my art in lacquer ( then top coat in gel) Love, love the peppermint swirl thumbs! Bulletproof is an amazing green. Question, what is the dif between OPI Axxium and OPI gelcolor?
ReplyDeleteThanks! I must confess the green looks much better because of the sparkles over top, I'm not sure it'd be nearly as exciting without them. I'm going to have to try your method of using lacquer for the art next time, because it took too much gel polish to make this, and came out a little too thick.
DeleteAxxium comes in a pot like a lip butter/salve rather than a nail polish bottle. It's a little thicker and a little bit more like older-style gels or acrylics you'd get in the salon...at least this is my guess. They require a brush of your own and a stirrer to mix up the product, but because they are thicker, it's easier (in my opinion) to place the color where you want and not have the polish run into your cuticles. It was my first time using them this time, and I only own sparkle colors in clear bases, so my opinion may change over time, but so far I liked it!
Thank you so much for the explanation! It does sound like how acrylic colors are applied... neat. Sounds like it would be less clean up or pooling in the margins... hate when that happens.
DeleteI wanted to nominate you for a Liebster Award http://ecklipsedbycolor.blogspot.com/2013/01/liebster-award-nomination.html. I think it's fabulous that you are dedicated to gel manicures and are really trying to have some fun with it. Also, you have some great knowledge to share. Time to spread the love... :)
Thank you so much! I never even knew there were "awards" like that! I don't think I have much more knowledge than anyone else, I just feel like I should disseminate what I learn when I learn it, because there isn't a huge amount of information about gels online yet. :) I love that you post your gel manicures, too... the world can never have enough swatches!
DeleteYour other comment prompted me to make a video to try to show what Axxium gels are like, so now I have to fix that video and fix up a response to your post in the next few days, too.
Thanks once again. :)