Manicure for 4 February 2015 - Not Happy, Jan!

Firstly, I'd like to say sorry for not showing you my nail polish stashes that I received last week as promised, but I put them all away, and they all got muddled up with my other polishes before I remembered I was supposed to be photographing them for my blog.  OOOPS!!!

Now to this week's mani.  After looking at the photos my hubby took for me today, I have to say that I have a lot to learn about the art of cleaning up my manicures.  My cuticles and the side of my nails look dreadful, so I'm going to have to do some research and see if I can find any tutorials to show me how to do it properly.  However, despite the horrible cuticles, etc, I've decided to show you my first mani for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month - featuring the color "teal".

Products used are:  OPI Natural Nail Base Coat; Revlon Top Speed Fast Dry Nail Enamel Spirit, the white polish on my index and ring fingers; Essie Beach Bum Blu, the teal blue shimmer on my pinky and thumb nails; and LYZ Cosmetics Fairybread Nail Polish Mermaid's Voice, the first Australian Indie nail polish I have used, on my middle finger. I also used Savvy Teal and a stencil from Smart Nails (see photo above) to do the OCA ribbon design on my ring fingers, and two different shape and size teal blue rhinestone decals, bought through AliExpress, on my index fingers. Then I finished it off with one coat of OPI Top Coat on all nails except the nails with the decals, where I used two coats..

Mermaid's Voice was one of the two polishes in the December Sweet Surprise Box I purchased from Fairybread Nail Polish.  They put out a Sweet Surprise Box every month which has two polishes in it, and all you see in the listing is the name of the polishes and two photos which give you a clue to what type and colour polishes you may receive.  It is such a lovely surprise to get when you open the packaging.  So, in case you decide you want to purchase the December box (it is still available on the site), or one of the other boxes on offer, I won't tell you what the other colour I received is.  But I can assure you it is beautiful.  My photo doesn't do Mermaid's Voice polish justice, though.  It is a soft teal base, with heaps of teal and pink small and medium hexagon glitter, and lashings of microglitter, and looks particularly beautiful in the sun or under artificial light.  I used 2 coats of Mermaid's Voice on my middle fingers, and got good coverage, but I'm still trying to work out whether I should have used it as a top coat or on its own. It looks beautiful in the sun, and in the shade, but I couldn't catch it properly in my photo.

I'm afraid to say that I do not like the Revlon Top Speed Spirit I used on my index and ring fingers.  It was hard to get good coverage and, even after three coats and a top coat, I still couldn't get a smooth finish. I certainly won't be using it as a base for any nail art again.  It may be good for stencils and dotting, etc. though, so I'm sure I'll find a use for it sometime.

The Essie Beach Bum Blu is a beautiful, bright teal blue shimmer, and it went on very well, but it took 3 coats to get full coverage, because it is a fairly thin polish.  Unfortunately, though, after I put the top coat over it, the polish on my right thumb bubbled, so it looks awful.  However, the other three nails I used it on are just fine. So it really has me puzzled.  Also, I have no idea what the white mark is on my thumb nail in the photo, as it's definitely not on my nail.  All I can think is that it must have been a trick of the light at the time.

The Savvy Nail PolishTeal  I used for the stencil came out a lot darker than it looked in the bottle, which was disappointing, because I thought it would be just a bit darker than the Essie.  However, the SMARTnails Stencils were amazing.  They stuck to my nails really well, without being TOO sticky, and I had no trouble with smudging when I removed them.  However, when I put my top coat over my middle nails, the ribbon smudged badly on my left hand (I obviously put too much pressure on it, because it was very, very dry, and shouldn't have smudged.  It smudged very slightly on my right hand when I virtually just waved the brush over it with the top coat, but nowhere near as badly, and that is why you are seeing my right hand instead of my left, which is actually my preferred hand to photograph because it is my non-dominant hand, and the nails are actually better to look at with regard to shape and length.

When attaching the rhinestone decals, I dabbed a little top coat where I wanted them to go, picked them up with a wax pencil and placed them on my index nails. I then put two coats of top coat over them to hold them in place.

Overall, I'm pleased with the actual colour and design of the manicure, but I just wished my nails looked neater, and that the photo showed the colours better.  I really am going to have to work on both of these aspects of my manicures, because it really upsets me when I see how bad they look compared to others on the web.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that you have enjoyed my reviews and my manicure.  I hope you will come back often to see what I have to show you, and check out the beautiful, exciting hand-made nail polishes at LYZ Cosmetics Fairybread Nail Polish, the fabulous nail art stencils at SMARTnails, and the wonderful array of nail art supplies available at AliExpress.  You will be very pleasantly surprised if you haven't discovered these sites yet.

God bless you!

Hugs

Christine

(Please check out my other blog below, too.)

Words of Life and Hope
http://wordsoflifeandhope.blogspot.com.au/