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 - Sinful Colors 'Sugar Sugar' x China Glaze 'Golden Enchantment'

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the extreme hiatus - college is pretty busy at the moment!

However, I have good news to report - Boots is now selling Sinful Colors nail polish! This is really exciting because it's not often that we can get hold of US brands in the UK outside of trade outlets or department stores!

I've picked up 4 SC colours so far, and today I'll be showing you the latest one, 'Sugar Sugar'. This is a shimmery cherry red that's opaque in 2 coats. A word of warning - make sure your first coat is completely dry before applying a second, or it'll streak up a storm! In all other respects it applies pretty normally though.

On the plus side, 'Sugar Sugar' is fairly quick to dry, and it looks lovely with some glitter on top. I've decided to use two gold glitters here. One is by Rimmel, and it's called 'Disco Gold'. That's the bigger pieces of glitter that you can see below. The smaller glitter is a mix of gold and holo glitter that's by China Glaze, and it's called 'Golden Enchantment'. Please excuse any hangnails in advance, my cuticles are in a bad way at the moment!

It's a good combination, I think. The Rimmel glitter shines warm gold in some lights and green-hold in others, which makes for an interesting visual effect in different types of light. 'Golden Enchantment' has a mix of gold and holo glitters that are micro-micro-small, they're more like a dusting of glitter than actual sequins or anything - but this is why I like it so much. It adds something delicate to an otherwise bold combination.

Holo Polish: The Makeup Store's 'Siw' and GOSH Fix Base Coat

Hello!

Today I'll be demonstrating a rather beautiful polish from The Makeup Store. I believe that this brand is quite hard to obtain in the UK unless you take a trip to Carnaby Street in London, although I've heard that a Westfield somewhere in London also has a branch. I think it's a Swedish brand if I've heard correctly. Their nail polishes are all £11, and they're also all 8ml. Expensive, yes, but this is one of the only holos I've found on the UK market, and possibly the only coloured one apart from its TMUS sister, Britta, a pink holo with a more pastel holo shine (which I coincidentally also own).

This polish is a wonderful, vibrant green-blue holo. The holo is linear and very, very bright- I suppose I would describe it as fiery more than anything, it really is that bright! I find that the effect is most visible under artificial lighting, so before I get to talking about formula and longevity etcetera, here are some photos. This is 1-2 coats depending on the finger, over GOSH Fix Base Coat, without topcoat:

Isn't it beautiful? The name is apparently said 'Seev', despite being spelt S-I-W. Interesting.
It's incredibly vibrant, and is perfect for any event where you'll be under bright lights. It's not quite as bright in daylight, but still gives a pretty, fish-scaly effect. It's a personal favourite of mine.

As far as topcoat goes, I've heard that topcoat can diminish holo polishes in terms of shine, but I used one coat of Nina Ultra Pro Wet Glaze on top of this afterwards out of curiosity and found that once it dried, it made no difference at all to the holo effect - in fact, it just smoothed out the planes of the nail and made it smoother.

As with all holo polishes, this lasts for less than a day on me without tipwear and minor chips, but this comes with the territory as far as I'm concerned, so I was far from surprised at this. Holos are notorious for chipping very quickly, but I feel like the effect is worth the minor tipwear that I've experienced. On this polish, it's not especially noticeable when there's tipwear anyway.

One thing you have to realise with holo polishes is that if you want them to apply anywhere close to easily, you must use an aqua base coat. If you don't do this, then you end up fiddling around and using close to 3 or 4 coats. A normal base coat just won't do the job, and you'll end up wasting polish trying in vain to even out the polish. 
In addition, I've tried using this without aqua base coat and the holographic effect is nowhere near as bright.
Aqua base coats multiply the holo effect by a huge amount and make application a hundred times easier, trust me!

The aqua base coat that I use is GOSH Fix Base Coat. I bought this off of Ebay for £5 including postage, which was a total bargain considering that it is now discontinued as far as I know! TMUS also make their own aqua base coat called Aqua Fix, but it is more expensive per bottle and cannot be ordered online (at least, not in the UK).

Here's a couple of photos of GOSH Fix Base Coat:

That's TMUS' Siw and GOSH Fix Base Coat in a rather wordy nutshell. I hope that this has been useful, and please contact me or comment below if you have any questions!

Thanks for reading,

Amber ♫ 

Ocean Glitter - NOTD

Hello everyone! I hope that you had a great holiday season this December and a happy new year too! 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, January A2 exams are getting in the way of pretty much everything at the moment.

Today I'm sharing with you a lovely, frosty manicure. It's inspired by the sea!

I really like it when holo glitter polishes are left rough on the nail, so that they sparkle more and look like mermaid scales or ice. It's an interesting, eye catching look that also seems to not be as prone to chipping depending on the polishes that you use.

This manicure works around that idea of rough glitter finishes!

I apologise in advance for photo quality, I don't have a proper camera so I have to resort to using my iPhone instead...

Here's the finished product:

And here is what I used to achieve these effects:

From L-R: Sweet Kisses by 17, Aquatic Glitz by POP, Mermaid's Dream by Deborah Lippmann

Basically, what I did on my index to little fingers was 2 coats of Sweet Kisses, followed by 1 coat of Aquatic Glitz. The pinky - nude colour of SK gives the AG a slightly more cornflower blue appearance and gives a nice subtle colour base for the glitter. Sweet Kisses applies well but takes a little while to dry, which isn't so great for someone like me who can be very clumsy with their hands! No matter, as the glitter covers any bumps and imperfections. I've reviewed Aquatic Glitz before, which you can read about in my Early December Nail post. ♫

On my thumbs are simply 2 coats of Mermaid's Dream, which is a real favourite of mine - it's like nothing I've seen before. It gives an almost sandy effect, like a mermaid tail's scales. Small blue hex glitter mixes in with gold and silver micro glitter in a frosty, pearly, slightly duochrome aqua-gold base. It applies really easily and lasts for a long time!

Over Christmas I both bought and received some really great new polishes, which I hope to show you soon! These include the Sprinkles collection by Nails Inc, OPI Nail Envy, some holographic polishes from The Makeup Store and some other ones too!

If you have any questions about anything I used in this manicure, or any other posts I've done, please feel free to ask away!

Thank you for reading!

Amber ♫

Metallic Nails - Silver, white gold, gold~

Hello everyone!

Today I'm sporting a lovely, shiny metallic set of nails.

I've used White Gold by Accessorize (2 coats) on all fingers except for the ring fingers. On the ring fingers, I've used 1 coat of Barry M Silver Foil Effects with 1 stripe of Models Own Champagne down the middle and 2-3 stripes of OPI Goldeneye on top.

As you can probably gather, metallic nail polishes are my current obsession. I love the mirror shine, the shimmer and the lovely colours.

White Gold is especially reflective, and it's quite an unusual take on metallics too. At first you'll probably think that it's a bright silver, but in actuality there are gold flecks running throughout it. This gives an overall impression of the white gold colour that this polish owes its name too. I prefer warm metallics to cold in general, so this is why I like it so much! It's silvery but with a warm twist. It also lasts well and doesn't chip too much, even on my bendy nails. I think it's about 4 pounds. The bottle doesn't seem big but it does last, thankfully.

The Barry M silver nail paint is a cooler, more grey-toned silver. It doesn't really have much of a flaky shimmer like WG does, it's more of a smooth chrome effect. It's not particularly reflective, but it's completely opaque in one easy coat, and dries quickly. Chipping is minimal, and I've heard it's great for stamping with too. These factors, along with the cheap price (it's about 4 pounds for a big bottle) make it a winner for me!

Models Own Champagne is something that I mentioned in yesterday's post. You can read more about it there, it's a personal favourite of mine save for the quick chipping!

OPI Goldeneye is also something that I've reviewed before. It's one of my most prized polishes, it's utterly beautiful! It's a favourite of mine for doing stripes such as these because of the rich, bold gold colour.

Now for some pictures! :)

In addition to this, I've found a great way of preventing chipping! It's something I found out on the internet. You basically wrap your tips with nail glue instead of clear polish, and this protects you from tipwear or chipping for longer than just topcoat!

As usual for all of my nails, I used my trusty Seche Vite, then swept some clear brush-on nail glue across the tips to prevent chips. I'll tell you if this works for more than just a day!

Thanks for reading! :)

Early December Nail Roundup : 3 new nail looks

Hi everyone!

Today I have a couple of new nail looks to show you. I hope that you like them!

 Please excuse my cuticles in advance, I'm afraid the cold weather is not kind to my fingers!

First up is a glitter gradient. The purple is Fantasy Fire by Maxfactor, and the blue glitter is Aquatic Glitz by POP Beauty (more on this one later!).

I applied 3 thin coats of FF (which is very much a sheer jelly, very pretty and versatile with a cool multichrome shimmer) to begin with. Then, I dabbed AG along the tips of my nails. As you can see, I've managed to tear my ring fingernail, which is sad for me as it was getting quite long too! :(

Then, I just dabbed some more FF over the seam between the two colours to blend it all out.

Next is a lovely shimmery metallic by Models Own called 'Champagne'. It's literally a champagne-coloured metallic polish, which is completely opaque in 2 coats but looks nice with just 1, too. I love this colour but it doesn't last long in my experience, I only wore this for one day until I had major peeling and chipping! I did make a mistake in my basecoat-

topcoat routine though, so I think this might be why.

Finally, what I'm wearing today is 2 coats of POP Aquatic Glitz, as mentioned earlier. It's a beautiful mix of fine pale aqua blue, darker blue-green and silver holographic glitter. It twinkles beautifully in the light, and I chose it for today because it looks rather like all the frost and ice outside!

Thanks for reading, bye for now!

NOTD - Essie 'Leading Lady'

Hey everyone! ♫ 

I hope life's treating you all well. The weather in England right now is evil, so bitterly cold! That's why we need lots of pretty polishes to keep us cheerful in the colder months!

Today, to celebrate getting a university offer for medicine, I went into town and grabbed some sweet new nail polishes! Yay! This includes a new Essie polish called Leading Lady.

I walked into Superdrug and literally almost squeaked a bit when I saw the new Essie winter 2012 collection! Shelling out £7.99 for this polish hurt a little, but just seeing the colour in the bottle was enough to take away the pain, haha!

Leading Lady (LL) is a berry red jelly packed with pretty pink-red glitter. It reminds me of raspberries and redcurrants, it's really juicy looking! And so sparkly too. My camera seems to be making this polish appear to be a dark burgundy, but it's so much more 3-dimensional than that, and a lot pinker too. It looks like someone mixed raspberry jam with pinky red glitter and put it on my nails! 

Here I've used two decent coats, three on some fingers. Honestly, if you're careful, 2 coats is plenty, as it transpires that LL has a really nice, semi-sheer red base to it that builds up really well. From past experiences of Essie polishes (granted, only pastel colours) I mistrusted the brand a bit after my polishes went gloopy and bubbly on me after a week of owning them! All I can say is, Essie, I forgive your for your past pastel sins, because this colour is just amazing! (* O *)

  

LL applies very evenly and smoothly, dries quickly with help from my Revlon Liquid Quick Dry, and is incredibly sparkly and pretty. I'm a sucker for jellies and glitters so it's a perfect combination of the two! I forgot to put topcoat on originally as I was in a rush and so got some tipwear after 24 hours, but I simply topped up my tips and applied topcoat as usual, remembering to seal the polish underneath my nails, and it seems to be going strong.
My personal durability test for polishes is that I go play my guitar and see what happens, and no chips / tipwear has been observed after a solid 20 minute practice! Amazing.

Overall, I give this polish a solid 4.5/5 for quality, application and durability. I'll report back later with durability updates as the week progresses! I can see myself using this all year round due to the lovely finish and quick drying time. (P.S. This looks great with just one coat if you're careful, it gives a lovely bright cherry red effect that's a little less heavy on glitter!)

I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading! (´▽`)