I've had a lot of fun over the last few weeks with clients. A lot of them are really embracing more adventurous nails, and while I still do my most obnoxious and involved stuff on myself, I'm slowly seeing a lot of my clients venture towards that end of the spectrum and I'm so excited. Below I'll show you six clients' nails and tell you what I used.
This design was from last month before the move that destroyed my nails. Grrrrrr. I think that I'm going to try to get them back to this shape and length, but due to a few splits, it may take me a while. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted! Anyhow, this design was based on an editorial nail I saw in Nail Pro Magazine, and it was by CND. I added and embellished a little more and changed the colors, but the design reminded me of a rising sun, so I went with it.
Products used:
Sally Hansen Insta Dry in Sea Breeze (flash)- about $5 in most drugstores
I spotted Sea Breeze in the newest Limited Edition display this past week while looking to pick up Mint Sprint, and originally thought that this was Mint Sprint. Not so, but I did hold it up next to that polish in the store and the only difference is that MS has a slightly more yellow tone. I thought about picking up both to do a comparison but the difference was so negligible that I doubted I'd be able to capture it on camera, so I left it behind. The fact that Sea Breeze is very slightly more blue, or less yellow, made me feel like this would work better for me. I definitely ended up very happy with this polish. It's neither too soft nor too bright, and the vibrant jade tone really pops against my medium beige skin. I have no qualms about the color, nor do I take issue with the formula.
I have bought a few Insta Dry in the past, and while some of them can run on the goopy side, overall they're pretty smooth and pigmented. The brush is the same as the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure; the frayed rounded paddle that so many despise. Applying nail polish neatly with this is akin to plucking one's eyebrows with chopsticks. Even with the less-than-stellar brush, I managed ok with this. That the application worked out for me was a credit to the pigmented formula more than anything else. This is two coats from a three coat girl. You may even be able to manage with one thick, careful coat. The big issue with this polish is the bottle. It's triangular and tall, and I feel it's got a tip-over factor of about 1000%. Hasn't happened yet, knock on wood, but I have nightmares about it. Also, cleaning off the brush on both the Insta Dry and Complete Salons is quite a chore. The stem of the brush has a sort of channel down the middle, and the bottle necks are so small that it makes it very hard to clean off the excess so you're not surprised by a huge glob of polish migrating on to your brush whilst in the middle of careful application. As a side note, I think it's sort of silly that the SH Salons underwent this new whizzbang re-imagining and they managed to completely eff up the packaging. Likewise, the Insta Dry polishes, while containing a wondrous formula and range of colors, fall flat when it comes to the packaging, in my opinion.
Konad plate m51 is full of intricate swirling designs and has long been one of my favorites. I used a base of two coats of China Glaze Flyin' High and and let it dry without topcoat. Then I stamped over it with this plate and China Glaze Adore. I liked that unless you looked up close, you couldn't tell it had a pattern on it. The flash on the camera makes it more obvious, but in person it was a tough design to see. I kind of liked it's subtlety; if you can call turquoise nail polish subtle.
If you're new to Konad, you can watch this how-to video to learn more about it.
NOTE: please forgive the copious amounts of cuticle oil! China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise is an amazing neon, that in the midst of the matte craze could qualify as a "satin." With it's glowy shimmer and a bit of top coat, this beauty has got a very interesting finish. The color itself stands out from an ocean of other aquas by having very little blue involved, making it more of a turquoise. The shade is quite similar to China Glaze's Passion in the Pacific, however the finish of TuT sets it apart.
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