Distressed Floral

This set uses two colors from the summer 2020 Gelish® Switch On Color collection. They are:

• Total Request Red
• Super Fandom

As the accent color on the floral feature nails, I used Wish Upon a Starboard, from the Gelish summer 2016 CosmoProf Exclusive collection, A Very Nautical Girl. The feature nails have the following layers:

1. Super Fandom base layer x 2 coats
2. silver foil on about 50% of the nail
3. a swipe of Wish Upon a Starboard
4. dots and lines painted with Wish Upon a Starboard
5. flower stamped with CJS-04 stamping plate and More like 1 AM from Clear Jelly Stamper

So far I am loving the Switch On Color collection. What do you think of it?  It was a bit difficult to get my hands on, but it looks like Gelish is taking strides to make products readily available through online outlets in the future.

Everyday Nail Art #5: Threads

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For this design I used Don’t Break My Corazon from the Gelish Matadora collection and some nail art threads. The ones I found were from Born Pretty, but those are no longer available. You can get nail art thread in a variety of colors on eBay now for low prices, though.

Before doing the nail with threads, I taped off the section that would have the threads, Then I applied my base and color coats, and removed the tape.  I actually glued the threads down to the nail enhancement to get them to curve with the nail.

I thought these turned out well and held up nicely for over a week, but I had to use a couple layers of top coat to smooth over the threads. To remove the threads, I soaked the nails in acetone, and was able to file down the rest.

 

Everyday Nail Art #3: Real Silver Glitter

Before we head into spring colors and designs, I wanted to share with you one of my manicures using this beautiful, rich shimmer polish from the Gelish Marilyn Monroe Forever Fabulous collection. The polish is called I Prefer Millionaires, and it’s one of my favorites in the collection.

For the design I tried out a new product that I read about in Nails Magazine awhile ago; It’s genuine sterling silver glitter from 24byRGI.com. You can buy one gram for $12.95 with free shipping. To create a block of glitter, I taped off the area before applying the glitter using Top It Off (I wanted to be able to soak it off later), and then used a striping brush to hand-paint the lines around it with Arctic Freeze by Gelish.

This design turned out really well…very striking in person.

The polish applied beautifully and worked well with the glitter.  I really liked the glitter, too, and will probably buy more products from 24byRGI.com. I love being able to buy real metal glitter, and they also offer their glitter in 24K gold. They also have a 24K gold nail polish, which is their signature product and namesake. The loose glitters must be suspended in a top coat or adhered during application, and there are probably a few methods for doing so. I’ll post a short video soon to the Smoke & Mirrors YouTube channel explaining the method I used for this design, so stay tuned!

 

Everyday Nail Art #2: Magnetic Nail Art

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The magnetic polish trend is a few years old but seems to have made a revival recently, since the “cat eye” look became popular. Here’s my take on it for fall! I used Gelish Magneto Electric Metal Lover on the middle and ring fingers, with Wanna Share a Tent? from the Fall 2018 African Safari collection on the others.

As you can see, I used the starburst magnet, from Gelish. These magnets are hard to find for sale now, since they were released so many years ago, but you can use another brand of magnets

(here’s the one used for a NailPro Magazine demo last year) or magnetic polish to achieve the same look. I’ve even seen nail artists use the side of a normal round or rectangular magnets to create the cat eye look.

Angling for a Kiss

For this design I used colors from the most recent Holiday and Winter Gelish collections. The base color is Angling for a Kiss, a beautiful deep cranberry red polish, and the white lines are My Main Freeze.  Both are from the Thrill of the Chill winter collection. The mixture of tiny and chunky glitters is Silver in My Stocking” from the Little Miss Nutcracker collection.

After painting the lines on one nail, I decided they were too thick and wished I’d used acrylic paint instead. But the lines were cured already so I decided to roll with it.  Overall this is a super simple design to do as long as you have a nice striping brush!

 

Don’t Break My Corazon

This design was done with two coats of Gelish Don’t Break My Corazón from the Fall 2017 Matadora collection. This is a stunning red in person, and it is the type of red that goes with everything.

On the middle nails I taped off the inner section before applying the Don’t Break My Corazón. After the polish cured I removed the tape and glued on some 3D net embellishments from Born Pretty Store. This stuff is basically a lot of strings all laid in a random pattern and glue together. It comes to you in a small sheet, and you can cut a strip whatever size you need from it.  It is a flat sheet of it, however, and only slightly flexible. And it is not self-adhesive, so I used nail glue to adhere it to the curves of my nail. It stayed on very well, and I had to soak it off with acetone when it was time for removal.

I’m not sure if this design is really my style, but the product worked well and I got a lot of questions and compliments on it!

Rocking My Stocking

This is Gelish Rocking My Stocking, of course, from the Wrapped In Glamour collection. I used a light gray from Apple Barrel Paints to hand paint the stripes and dots.

As usual, I loved this Gelish collection when I bought it, and love it even more now that I’ve experimented with the colors. Just a beautiful collection, and it holds up even past the holidays… I can totally see a client requesting this color for Valentine’s Day.

Wish Upon a Starboard

This color is Wish Upon a Starboard from Gelish’s A Very Nautical Girl collection, which was released in May. I did this set then didn’t get around to taking a photo of it for about a week and a half.  But I wanted to show you how smooth and shiny it still is after over a week.  The color held up so well that I would have left it on if it weren’t for the growth at the cuticle area.  If you are in the market for a tomato red polish, I highly recommend trying to get your hands on this one!

The lines for the French-style nails were hand-drawn with Chain Reaction, from last fall’s Urban Cowgirl collection.

Firecracker!

This is Gelish Firecracker, from the Red Matters Collection.  I used Cashmere Kind of Gal and Fashion Week Chic from the House of Gelish Collection and Chain Reaction from the Urban Cowgirl Collection to hand paint the swirls and dots.

So hot!

This is Gelish I’m So Hot from the Red Matters Collection, stamped with Born Pretty Plate BP-L002.  I double stamped this design – first with black paint, then matched up the lines as much as possible to stamp in silver.