Gelicious French White

White is a very unforgiving colour, at least on me. But I needed this base for my July 4th nail art and I decided to try out the gelicious French White for this. So this is just a quick photo op with the colour before I continued with the art.

Same procedure as always. This is two coats, then top coated. Coverage was very good in the second coat and the white is a good clear creamy one. Like I mentioned in another post, I would have a top coat reserved for whites and nudes. In fact, probably one each. If you notice on my pinkie, there is an ever so slight red taint to the white. That comes from the top coat residual red on the brush. Another option would be to wipe the brush off on a towel after use with a coloured polish (dunce, just thought of that). This is no fault of gelicious as it happens with other top coats, too. But here I am curing the polish on so feel like it should be perfect!

This is a great base for the art to come. Especially the acrylics just glide on the surface. And from a studio standpoint, this will be a great French tip white for gelled manis – and that would be another good base option for nail art or normal polish on top.

right hand

My Ripponburn ladies 11:14

gladys' nails looked totally fab!

Another great Ripponburn day!! This time the room was totally full – though, a couple of men were there, husbands and such! The chairs were all facing the TV so it looked a bit like an auditorium. Star pupil of the day was Gladys. Her nails looked amazing – a silver foil topped with an Emily de Molly glitter bomb! Hard to capture but the jelliness of the glitter allowed the silver gleam to come through. I must remember this for myself.

lilian

helly

meg

Lilian was first as she was last the time before. I try to even everything up, though I never know how long people have been waiting. Helly told me she comes down right after lunch. I guess there is not much more to do. Helly tried a colour changing polish; goes from brick red to tomato red depending on hot and cold. I had two newbies and the one, Meg (from Scotland originally), also tried the colour changing red.

margaret

joan

joyce

Margaret – and my Joan – also got on the colour changing bandwagon but this time tried a subtle pink with glitter. This is a really cool shade (I also have this in green, my total fab). Even though it was Janice's birthday, and I had heaps of blues for her, she opted out today. I tried to get Joyce on to something else but then she said: "It wouldn't feel the same". So pink shimmer it is!

teresa

lena

joan 2nd

My second newbie was Teresa and she wanted gold, so I did a double up on glitters. Lena went for a darker red, something more wintery. I tried a CND on her. She can't really she it but the dark colour did look good on her skin tone. Joan the 2nd tried something totally new for her, a grey glitter. I am afraid she is getting less and less articulate. Just things I notice every other week. Am certainly no doctor, but she seems a bit out of it. Makes me a bit sad.

nellie

ina

Well, next in line for the star pupil awards are Nellie and Ina. They were last and had decided they wanted nail art. I still had my dotted flowers and Ina liked that idea. I really like that they are getting more and more courageous with their nails. And both have beautiful nails, too. Nellie had the stand by elegant tip with glitter and Ina gradiented sky-grass with flowers. I really wasn't prepared for the sky-grass gradient so had to work with the colours I brought. Even though we had heaps of time till teatime, the staff was rushing us to leave the room. I told her I will take the ladies down, we have to finish this first! Art takes time! haha. And it all had to be top-coated. I am pretty quick, but I also want the ladies to enjoy their nails as they have to look at them for almost two weeks.

Mani breakdowns:
Gladys: one coat Butter London Lillibet's Jubilee, one coat Emily de Molly Scarlet's Red, top coat.  Lilian: one coat a-england Rose Bower.
Helly: two coats Pretty & Polished Vampire strikes back.
Meg:  two coats Pretty & Polished Vampire strikes back, top coat.
Margaret: two coats Pretty & Polished Flip Flop Fuggetaboutit!, top coat. 
Joan: two coats Pretty & Polished Flip Flop Fuggetaboutit! 
Joyce: one coats Revlon Innocent. 
Teresa: one coat CG Blonde Bombshell, one coat Orly Sashay My Way, top coat. 
Lena: one coat CND Dark Lava.
Nellie: one coat OPI Bubble Bath, gradient tips in CND Dark Lava, glitter passage in CG techno, top coat.
Ina: one coat OPI Warsaw..., tips in CG Winter Holly, dotted flowers in OPI Need Sunglasses? and CG White, top coat. 
Joan 2nd: two coats Butter London No More Waity Katie.

Gelicious mani breakdown

Following my last post I thought I would elaborate a bit more on the gelicious mani. I am in no way an expert. I did have a lot of questions when deciding on whether to do gel or not, and how it all works. So I thought I would document how I did my new gel mani today.

after non-acetone removal

after rubbing alcohol - 8 days old

Just to see how well my old mani was holding up - eight days (8) – I removed my nail art using non-acetone remover. This left the nails a bit cloudy or matte. So I soaked a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and swiped off my nails. This brought back the shine. I am really impressed at the mani after over a week. My middle finger is starting to split and there is some tip wear, otherwise great.

The next step was to remove all of the gel polish (alu foil method) and wash my hands. After all these weeks of gelling around, my naked nails still look pretty good. No peeling or chipping, no ridges, smooth, and pretty strong. Except for my middle fingers which seem to peel always. Must be in my genes.

Then I totally cleaned the surface of my nails on my left hand with rubbing alcohol. I tried to take a pic while they were still wet. The alcohol evaporates really quickly. I go over heaps. Don't be fooled by the tiny bottle. I buy the stuff by litre at the pharmacy and refill small bottles (much cheaper).

top before with polish on skin next to top left, bottom after clean up

Using thin thin strokes, I paint my nails - one nail at a time. It really isn't painting like normal polish, more squishing. I start towards the bottom of the nail and squish the brush downwards toward the cuticle and move it back and forth a wee bit (kind of like the one stroke flower method). I am trying to get a neat cuticle line. I pull the brush out towards the tip. You can keep going over this until it looks right. When done, clean up with the alcohol where you might have hit the skin and draw a better line if you are not happy with the cuticle line. If you take out too much, no worries. Just go back over with some polish. Anything goes until you cure.

< before, >after clean up

I seal the sides and tip by holding the brush vertical to the horizontal nail and push it against the nail. This will inevitably result in globs of polish under your nail. I don't want these I am prone to pick at them, causing the seal to break and the gel to loosen. Using the alcohol and the brush, I blend in the gel with the back of the nail. Smooth it around a bit.

When all four of my nails are done, I cure them for 30 seconds. I use a digital timer and their simple LED light. I have two for clients but only use the one for me. My method is to turn on the light, push the timer, put my hand in and when the 30 seconds beep I leave them in for another 5 seconds or so.

after curing the first coat

The first coat is the most important, I think, as that is when you set your cuticle lines. It also takes the longest to apply. Neat freak! The second coat is easier as you are just going over where you painted before. The second coat still takes take, though, as you need to seal the sides and tip and make sure you fully cover the first layer. Also to blend in the back of your nails to get rid of the blobs.

three fingers with second layer, index still with one

This layer is cured again and then the top coat is applied. With the top coat I go further down towards the cuticle to make sure the gel top coat can grab some natural nail. This helps the gel grip. I empty the brush as much as I can of top coat and then apply a very thin layer to the backs of my nails. This seals in the tips fully.
**** If you can afford it, my tip would be to have one bottle of top coat for whites and nudes, another for colours. I haven't done this yet and can see that the top coat is slightly tainted from the last mani of red. Hardly noticeable, but still.

After the topcoat is cured clean all the nails with rubbing alcohol. That seals it all, brings the shine and cleans the nail of residue. Done! This is gelicious French White and I will talk about that more in one of my next posts!

Confessions of a gelicious nature

Tad pic heavy!
I have a confession to make. For the past many weeks I have been guinea-pigging gel polish.  I know gel polish has a bad rap and I am an advocate for healthy natural nails. So I feel like I am selling myself out. But, I also paint my nails heaps of times – sometimes in one week – and that is abnormal. So many clients and people ask me... "how long does it last?". I always chuckle at that as my immediate thought is: well, how long do you want it to last? A year? Ten months?? Really... what do they think? People want nail art or polish to last forever, at the same time they do nothing to keep their nails healthy, neat or non-chipped. And who wants to look at blue forever???? I get bored too easily. So my thought was to offer gel nails (no tips, just on natural nails) in my studio to those who want them. We all know that art lasts much longer on a gelled nail than on natural nails. But in order for me to honestly offer a gel nail mani I had to be sure that 1) your own nails do not get ruined in the process and 2) it actually works.

So after some research I decided on the gelicious nail system from Australia (gelicious website). The LED lights are safe, curing takes 30 seconds a layer, no need for a base coat, acetone takes it all off, their colours looked like proper nail polish and their prices are very fair (plus free postage!). To cut this really short right now, I will say I am hooked and in the meantime I have 13 shades of polish. This is not to say it did not have a teething stage. Nor that I am foregoing all other polish - what, am I crazy???
The first mani I did was using the nude Recover. Took no pics. But Recover is a sheer nude, perfect for a natural look, under other polish as a base or for French. It probably lasted two days before chipping. Not really chipping, the polish loosened itself from my nail. Very clean, but still loose and therefore came off in bits. Not impressed, was I. So, I thought about this some more, remembered what my manicurist used to do back in the Stone Age (!) and did some research.

My second attempt was with their bold dark blue, Yacht Race. I bought this as they were out of the black and I wanted to offer a good dark base for duochromes and holos. This stayed on perfectly for four days before I had to touch up two nails as the gel had loosened. Still not ideal. So more refinement was needed.

The blue is gorgeous on its own, though. A navy blue with shimmer flecks that catch the light. I practiced some more - all unknown to everyone as I covered up my gelled nails with normal polish. Then came my breakthrough (I will elaborate on this further down).

day one

day eight (8)

My Dressed Up Nude challenge mani. As a base for this challenge I used a normal gel mani of Recover, that very sheer nude. After the nail art (you can read all about that in the link in above line) I top coated with Out the Door. I top coated again after three days. And that is all I did to my nails for over a week. A whole week!!!

You can see from the pics all taken on day 8 that the mani was still perfect. Absolutely no chips or loosening. The art was still perfect, shine still there. Excuse the blue blobs but I was working on jewellery. I was very impressed with gelicious now that I figured out how to make it work. So, onto another mani....

My current mani is 7 days in as I write this and looks just like in the pics. This is Hit the Gym, a fab tomato red. This is two coats and then top coated. Each layer is cured for 30 seconds (I promise I will talk about the method soon!). Since it is dry immediately, I got right into nail arting. This is a great plus if you want to do tape manis as the base is dry immediately and you can tape away!

I started with four dots of China Glaze Happy Go Lucky to create a flower. Then topped with two or three smaller dots of OPI My Paprika.... A small white dot was added in the middle of each flower and around to connect them. A bit a black added depth, or something. This was top coated with Out the Door and during this week I top coated once. I will remove this tomorrow as I want something new.

right hand

So, how does this all work???? The great thing about gel is that you can goof off with it and make your nails perfect before curing. I use really thin coats. In fact, the first coat doesn't even cover properly. I finish four nails on my left hand, then four on my right, then the thumbs (so three cycles). Before I cure each coat I do cuticle clean up (also the sides) and make sure my lines are neat. If it cures, it is there forever. Here is what I have learned and how I do it:

1) Totally totally totally clean your nails. I mean, totally. All polish off and wash and dry them. Then I use rubbing alcohol and clean the surface three times!!! The nail has to be absolutely oil free (otherwise loosening occurs as the gel has nothing to stick to).

2) One nail at a time, apply a thin coat of polish to your clean nail. I remove as much polish as I can from the brush (gel polish is thick and the brush is short) and apply. Seal all edges with polish! This is a crucial step. You must paint the tips and sides with polish so that the gel runs around the nail and adheres to the undersides. Using rubbing alcohol (not acetone!) and a brush I do cuticle clean up and remove any unwanted polish. Then the next nail. I do four fingers then cure under the LED for 30 seconds.

3) Same procedure again. Another coat of polish to the nails. This can be a tad thicker. If you see a clearish patch just go over it again. And seal all sides and tip again. And do cuticle clean up again. Cure for 30 seconds.

4) Same procedure with their top coat. I paint this one like normal top coat, not super thin or thick. Seal all tips and sides and do cuticle clean up. Cure for 30 seconds. When done, saturate a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and wipe your nails. This will remove the sticky gel topping, set the nails and give them shine. These four fingers are now done, dry and finished.

5) Repeat with the other hand, then your thumbs.

How does it all come off? For the nail nerds out there, this will be a common procedure: use the aluminum foil glitter off method. I use 100% acetone and cotton balls (I cut them in half). Put a cotton ball on your nail and wrap it in foil. Wait at least 10 minutes. You can't really hurt anything by leaving it on longer. When you remove the foil/cotton the gel polish would have loosened up like flakes. Just rub off with the soaked cotton. If it is not all off, remove what you can, rewrap and wait another couple of minutes. The polish is pretty gooey and soft, so you can scrap it off with your nail without damage.

Above are my nails after all of these gel sessions. The thinness at the tip of my middle finger has been there forever so is not from the gel, same with the unevenness on my pinkie (don't know what caused that). You can see that they are smooth and solid. The gel only comes off with 100% acetone (or acetone based remover). I use 100% acetone (cheaper) even though they do not suggest it. All it does is dry out your nail bed but danger is there only if you do that four times a day every day! Cuticle oil and all is good. If I want a change up during the gel period, I remove the "art" or normal polish with acetone-FREE remover and do another design.

Hope this wasn't too long. It seemed like I had a lot to say today!
Oh, here's more info about the mani process.