Sparkled Beauty

It has already been a long day for me today, the day after the snow storm.

Early morning shoveling in the wind to dig myself out of the 40-cm snowdrift sure woke me up. But now I am yawning :)

They even cancelled school today for snow cleanup (so yeah, we got lots of snow), boo for Squirt!

Back to the topic, I dived into the pool of Red Carpet Manicure LED gel nail polish last week with Midnight Affair, a beautiful deep navy blue.

This is 2 coats, paired with all the treatments from the Must Haves kit - Prep, Structure and Brilliance. On my thumb is I Can't Believe It on its own. I didn't mean to steal the thunder from Midnight Affair, but I Can't Believe It is quite breathtaking :)

My LED lamp only has 30 and 60 second settings, but I managed to cure each layer for 45 seconds as suggested.

Purify on a cotton pad wiped away not only the stickiness at the end but also some blue colour, so I might do full 60 seconds next time.

Ignore the uneven application on the nails here, partly because I did the mani at 10pm :) Also, I tried not to bring the colour close to the cuticles to avoid it being cured on my skin. This for sure will take practice, I hope to be better at it as I do more NOTDs.

This mani is going on to day 6 and still looks brand new, all shiny and there is no chip at all! No nail breakage either. My nails have been breaking randomly with regular polishes and OPI Nail Envy as a base coat, so I am happy to see they are still in good shape after a week with gel polishes.

I am not thrilled with having to cure so many layers, but for once, I appreciate the effects :)

Here we go, my first experiment with gel manicures :) I have been putting off trying them out until I received a system to review. This is Red Carpet Manicure Must Haves kit, $44.29 at Lawtons.

The kit has all the essentials for a LED gel polish application, minus the LED lamp:
- Prep Max adhesion sanitizer (9ml/ 0.3oz)
- Structure base coat gel (9ml/ 0.3oz)
- Brilliance seal & shine top coat gel (9ml/ 0.3oz)
- Revitalize nourishing cuticle oil (9ml/ 0.3oz)
- Purify pre & post application cleanser (60ml/ 2oz), and
- Erase gel nail polish remover (60ml/ 2oz).

At this point, I realize that there are more products/ steps involved in doing a LED gel manicure to exchange for a longer lasting power, and patience is a must lol. I have to go to the lamp so many times to get all my 10 fingers done, so don't start doing your mani at 10pm like I did the first time.

Application steps: use thin coats, curing each layer for 45 seconds with a LED light
- brush on Prep to clean nails. It dries lightning fast
- apply Structure to 4 nails (leave the thumb for last), cure. It is a lot thicker than a regular base coat, so cuticle flooding risk is high
- apply a LED gel polish (not part of the kit), cure, repeat for second coat
- apply Brilliance, cure. It is thinner than Structure, but still, use less than what you think you need
- remove tacky residue with Purify using a cotton pad.

Then that's it, the nails are dry and ready. No wait time, other than the wait during curing process. And no chipping in at least a week.

For removal:
- buff the nail surface to break the top coat seal
- saturate a cotton ball with Erase, wrap in aluminium foil on nails for 10-15 minutes
- unwrap, slide off cotton, gently scrape off remaining colour
- massage Revitalize into cuticles and nails.

This is another reason for me to do a gel mani, it takes a lot more to remove. I don't normally opt for the foil method, even with glitters. It all comes down to your preference - long lasting mani vs. time :) Stay tuned for the NOTDs I did with this kit.

I also received Red Carpet Manicure Crystal Gems in French Riviera with 600 Designer Austrian nail crystals and a picker, retails $9.99.

Gel polishes start out with just plain colours, so having these gems to bling up the mani is fun. I do prefer the glitters already mixed in with the polish, but I haven't seen glittery gel polishes just yet, so these will do :) Red Carpet Manicure does come out with shades with fine glitters, as you will see below.

Here are Red Carpet Manicure LED gel polish (on the left), from L-R: Black Stretch Limo, Midnight Affair and Best Dressed. Glitter gel nail polishes (on the right): I Can't Believe It, Make Up Time and Perfect High Heels. Each bottle is $12.99.

Stay tuned to see these colours on the nails soon.