Speckled Egg Nails

So I'll admit, I'm kind of tired of the colors I've been wearing lately.  All the cool tones, all the sparkles...and I'm even kind of tired of the pastels already--even though spring's only just begun.

But despite all of that I couldn't help but think of this combo I had in my head, and I figured the Easter time would be the only time of year that this would work out.  What is it?  Pretty much the easiest "Easter" nail theme EVAR! 

I know, I know: if you guys are into regular polish this may seem boring to you--after all, Illamasqua started/made this trend popular last year with their "I'mperfection" polishes (that was another of my inspirations for this manicure, actually).  But in the gel polish world we're only just starting to get things like matte glitters in gel polishes, and those are only "toppers" and not complex polishes with color and glitter in one. 

So what did I do to create my own take on this very popular style?  I just layered a matte glitter coat UNDER my final layer of a semi-sheer or "streaky" pastel color. Basically, you'll make a sandwich of two or three coats of a creme gel polish, one coat of a glitter, and a final layer of your creme gel polish on top.  Since pastels in gel polish form tend to be a little thinner or streakier (and therefore require more layers), this was super easy to do--and as a bonus the glitter detracts from any streakiness!

I love this so much more than I imagined I would.  Even though a day after I painted them, I realized my nails also look a bit like scrambled eggs with salt and pepper.  I think I'm the only one that's thought that so far, but either way I think it's kind of hilarious and only makes me love my nails more! 

Ok, review time:

Gellaka "Banana Beach" is the pale yellow pastel creme shade I used for the color in this manicure. I think I used four coats altogether--since it is a pastel, it is a little streaky until you layer it up.  I mentioned in my last review on this brand that Gellaka polish is a little bit on the thinner side, so I paired it with a layer of a Gelish glitter this time (which has the added bonus of being a thicker gel formula on top of just being an extra fifth layer of strength).  Thanks to this extra strength, I've had improved wear so far!  Much less bending and no chipping.

Gelish "A Pinch of Pepper", which I layered under the fourth and final coat of "Banana Beach", is one of the matte glitter topper coats from their "Trends" collection.  When I say "matte", I don't mean it in the traditional "no shine" sense, but in the sense that the glitters are not metallic at all--they're just colored plastic pieces.  In this case, there are three sizes of black and three sizes of white matte hexagonal glitter in a clear base.  However, thanks to some of the irregularly cut hexes and the random way the glitters will apply to your nails, you get the impression that the glitters are much more complex than that! I used only one coat here, and it made a neat sparse glitter--but in no way subtle.  Since the glitter in this is sparse, too, I find the gel isn't too thick (it's just thick-er in comparison to the other color I paired it with).  So if you focus too much on glitter placement, you may find yourself having to deal with flooding on your cuticles!


My nails don't exactly match the eggs I had the urge to buy and consume after doing these nails, but that just brings to mind more ideas.  The Gelish Trends line has three other "matte" glitter gels--a green & blue shade called "Candy Shop", a pink & blue glitter called "Let Me Top You Off" (eugh, what were they thinking with that name), and a multicolored glitter called "Lots of Dots".   How awesome would ANY of those glitters look layered with that streaky pastel shade you've been avoiding for a while because it was just too hard to work with?