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.

OPI Die Another Day - Review and Swatches

Hello again, for the second time today!

I picked up this polish yesterday at Sally Beauty Supply for a wondrous price of £3.64! How amazing is that? I've never managed to get OPI at such a huge discount before, and the bottle is full size too!

This is Die Another Die from the OPI Skyfall collection, as I'm sure many of you know.

It's a beautiful orange-tinted red. It's opaque in 2 coats, and I had few problems with application. It dries quickly to a satiny finish that's very very shiny. It appears to have a bright orange-red shimmer going through it that's quite silky looking, it's not frosty in any sense. In some lights this polish appears cherry red, and in others it leans more towards orange. I love it because it's a subtly different, dynamic take on classic red.

I can't comment on durability having only had it on since this morning, but I expect it to last me about 2-3 days at the maximum without too much major chipping. My nails are bendy to the point where long-wearing nail polish sadly just isn't a thing for me.

On my right hand, I used OPI Goldeneye on my index finger as an accent. I think it goes quite nicely with the red!

Here are some swatches:

I have to say, I had a couple of problems with streaking when I applied this, but that was more my lack of left hand control than anything else. I doubt that it's anything to do with the formula.

Anyway, I highly recommend this colour - it's a bright, vibrant red that's good for all seasons and is classic with a twist - definitely not boring at all!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, if you have any questions please ask!
Amber ◕ ◡ ◕

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! (´▽`)

Ruby Slippers Jelly Nails

Hello!
Today I have another nail tutorial for you. This time it's a kind of jelly sandwich, it's pretty simple to do.
I used Louise Gray for Topshop's 'Pinch Punch', Barry M's 'Red Wine', a glitter topcoat from Rimmel and a clear polish to finish from 17's Lasting Fix range. The steps are as follows:
1. Apply base coat as usual.
2. Apply an even coat of 'Pinch Punch'- I usually dab it on to spread the silver glitter evenly.
3. Now put a good coat of the glitter topcoat on top. This way you get to see both types of glitter at once!
3. Next apply a thin coat of 'Red Wine' on top of this- this is great because it tints the glitter underneath red, but still lets it sparkle in the light. You don't need much at all to cover your nail and it's a lovely, semi-sheer jelly red.

Below you can find a step by step photo guide to this process and some pictures of the polishes too.

Rimmel's Glitter Topcoat in 'Disco Gold', it's about £4-5 if I remember correctly.

'Red Wine' by Barry M, this was £2.99 from Superdrug.

'Pinch Punch' by Louise Gray for Topshop, this was about £5 or £6 I think.