Red Carpet Manicure Gel Polish Pro Kit : What you get, How it works, What it looks like

Hello everyone!

Yesterday was my 18th birthday, and typically I asked for some nail tech bits and pieces. I've recently become really interested in gel polish, and I wanted to know how I could do my own gel manicures at home, since getting a gel manicure where I live is £20 upwards! I thought that getting a DIY kit would be more economical in the long run.

So, I asked for the Red Carpet Manicure at-home gel polish kit. I had a go with it yesterday, and I'm very happy with it indeed!

First of all, here's some pictures of what you get in the kit:

This is the box that everything comes in. It's all safely packaged inside so that nothing gets broken or tipped over.

This is the LED lamp! It's a 6 Watts lamp. As you can see there's enough room for all 4 fingers underneath. The button above the RCM logo switches the light on for 45 seconds, after which it automatically turns itself off. The lamp plugs into the mains socket directly, so no batteries are required!

I've heard that you can get stronger lamps and I know that there's also UV lamps available. I've yet to try out any UV specific polishes with my LED lamp - I'll probably stick to the RCM nail system for the moment. However, I did see someone on a nail tech forum saying that you can use Gelish with the RCM system.

These are 59ml bottles of Purify and Erase. Erase is RCM's branded gel polish remover, Purify is used to cleanse the nail plate of tacky gel residue before gel application, and also to remove the sticky surface of the Brilliance topcoat after it's cured under the lamp.

Prep is a nail plate dehydrater that removes excess oils from the nail and prepares it for the base coat.

Structure is the base coat for this system. After it's cured, it's sticky so that the gel colour can adhere to it  beter, so it's important not to touch it when you've cured it! Also, it's best to apply this in as thin a coat as possible, otherwise the base coat tends to shrink away from the nail tip.

This colour came with the kit; it's called Red Carpet Reddy and it's a jelly-based bright red. I use 2-3 coats on each nail to get a bright, slighty translucent red. Again, I cure each coat for 45 seconds. After curing, the polish is still sticky, so you have to make sure that you don't dent or wipe your nails on anything before sealing the colour with Brilliance topcoat.

The Brilliance topcoat seals in the coloured gel polish. I cure this for 45 seconds and it's ready to go, provided I use Purify to wipe of any stickiness.

Revitalize is a cuticle oil which you can apply every day to keep your natural nail hydrated. It smells really lovely, sort of like flowers!

In short, the process of actually doing a gel manicure with this system is as follows:

1. Apply Prep to nails liberally.
2. Apply Structure to nails, using a thin coat.
3. Cure Structure under the lamp for one button-press, i.e. 45 seconds.
4. Apply a coat of colour.
5. Cure the colour for another 45 seconds.
6. Apply a second coat, making sure you don't touch the sticky layer on top of the first coat of colour. Also, make sure to swipe the brush along the free edge of the nail to prevent the nail tips from showing and to improve longevity.
7. Cure the second coat for 45 seconds.
8. Apply Brilliance topcoat, again making sure to swipe it along the free edge of the nail. This seals in the colour and prevents the gel from peeling off of the nail / chipping.

Provided that you follow these steps, this is what you'll end up with:

It's incredibly shiny and looks almost jelly-like. Best of all, it looks identical to the gel manicures that I've seen done in salons, but you can do it at home yourself!

You can buy this kit on Asos.com, and you can also buy additional colours of RCM nail polish on their website or at Sally's Beauty Supply.

I hope you've enjoyed this post, if you have any questions about the RCM gel polish system or any tips/pointers for me, please comment below! 

Amber ♫

NOTD - *~* Stars and Meteors *~*

Hello everyone!

Today's NOTD (that's Nails Of The Day) post is inspired by space. Retro cartoons of space, with all the little stars and planets whizzing around, have always been something I like. They're charming in that they show a futuristic landscape in an old-fashioned style!

Today, I started off with 2 coats of Sinful Colors' 'Rich In Heart'. In the bottle this is a blackened red metallic colour, but once on the nail it appears to be a deep chocolate brown. It's not what I was expecting it to be, which is unfortunate, but I can still find good uses for it despite the red shimmer only showing up in very bright sunlight. I like to think this colour lends a warmth to my fingers - black can sometimes look quite harsh unless I jazz it up once it's on my fingers.

On top of this is one coat of 'Golden Enchantment' by China Glaze and one coat of 'When Monkeys Fly!' by OPI. GE is a lovely micro glitter which contains both gold and holo particles. It works best as a  subtle shimmer over the top of dark colours. Here I've used it to create the effect of stars. WMF! is a mix of big gold hex glitter, medium round holo glitter and small round holo glitter. It's a huge favourite of mine already! The holo glitter looks like twinkly stars and planets, and the gold hex glitter looks like little shiny meteors. It's a very sparkly but interesting combination - not just your average glitter! Now that I think about it, this combination kind of reminds me of Easter eggs, what with the whole brown and gold combo....

Let's have a look at some crappy iPhone pictures:

RE the 'taco glitter' qualities of WMF! : I've heard tell all across the blogosphere that the gold hex glitter in WMF! is of the taco variety - as in it curls in on itself to the point that you can't get it to sit properly on your nail bed and it sticks up and snags on things. It basically looks like tacos on the nails.

BUT! There is a way of getting past this taco-y disaster! If you're willing to take a few extra seconds on each nail, what you can do is apply the gold glitter manually with the polish brush. The steps are as follows:

1. Fish out a gold hex glitter - I find that plenty of glitters are loaded onto the brush with each dip in the bottle. Lay it onto the rim of the bottle.
2. Make sure that your glitter is sitting so that it curves in a way that makes it look like an upside-down U shape. This way it'll curve to the shape of your nail instead of snagging on things!
3. Pick it up using the end of your brush and place it down onto the wet nail polish. 
4. Wait about 30 seconds, then take the end of a cuticle pusher/orange stick and gently press down any curved edges of the glitter to ensure that it sticks to the nail.
5. Finish off with topcoat!

This way I can easily get the gold glitter to sit flat against my nail and I have no snagging problems! It's really easy once you get the hang of it. This is how I deal with that other tricky OPI glitter of mine, 'Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It'.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this and that your Easter's been a good one!

Amber ◕‿‿◕