Autumnal Orange Plaid Gel Nail Art

Today's 31DC prompt is "orange." Not many people tend to reach for orange when choosing a nail color -- I think that it and yellow are the redheaded stepchildren of the polish world (or would it be orangeheaded?). That's the great thing about the challenge though, it forces you to use colors and techniques that you wouldn't normally use.

For this manicure, I started with a base of OPI GelColor in A Great Opera-tunity. Then, I freehanded the plaid striping using OPI GelColor It's a Piazza Cake, Gelish Tiki Tiki Laranga, and Wildflower's Art Paints in Bright Blue.

I finished with a layer of gel topcoat to smooth it all out.

If you've got the need for more orange, be sure to check out my past orange challenge manicures!

• Mario Batali's Crocs nail art
• Orange gradient chevrons
• Orange fruit tips
• Orange with dotted accent

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Ride the Waves with a Pop of Pink

Black and white with a pop of color is a tale as old as time. It's such a classic combination: black and white on either end of the spectrum, with a color that falls somewhere in between. I had this manicure in my mind for a while now, and just had to pick the perfect base color. I found it in Gelish Tokyo A Go Go, a beautiful, bright pinky-purple.

And there's good news for those of you that don't wear gel: this pretty pink is also available in regular lacquer form from Morgan Taylor!

To begin this manicure, I applied Gelish Foundation before adding two coats of Gelish Tokyo A Go Go. It's just... ugh. So pretty. I'm obsessed.

Then, I used Akzentz Gel Play Paint in white to block out the general shapes of the waves. It was pretty opaque, but I went back after curing the first coat to fill in a couple of patchy areas. I used Akzentz Gel Play Paint in black to add on the thick and thin wavy lines.

Finally, I finished the manicure with Gelish Top It Off.

I was really happy with the outcome of this manicure and enjoyed wearing it quite a lot! It's always satisfying when a manicure you have in your mind turns out how you hoped it would on the nail.

Purchasing Information
The Gelish Hello Pretty collection is available from Esther's Nail Center, as well as Amazon.com. You may still be able to find the LE collection in Gelish MINI at Sally Beauty.
Morgan Taylor lacquer equivalents are available from Loxa Beauty.
Akzentz products can be purchased through Gellipop.

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What's green, glittered, and glowing all over?

I had a lot of fun with this manicure. I was heading off to Las Vegas the next day and needed to do a new and fun gel manicure. I kept adding elements and piecing together and making up patterns and eventually I ended up with this glowing, patterned, glittered combo.

AND! I successfully replicated the pattern on my other hand, so hooray!



As I said, these are gel nails, but they could easily be done with regular nail polish too! I'll list the products I used below but also recommend some close RNP equivalents.

GEL NAIL POLISH // REGULAR NAIL POLISH
Gelish Mini - Do You Harajuku? // OPI - That's Hula-rious!
Akzentz - Lights Out Glow in the Dark Gel Topcoat // China Glaze - Ghoulish Glow
Akzentz - Gel Play in black // Formula X - Dark Matter
Rockstar glitter nail with Artiglio Odessa // Zoya - Storm

Working with the glow in the dark gel topcoat was really cool, because the glow got supercharged in the gel lamp as I cured it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as heavy-hitting in the glow department during my regular life. I would catch it glowing sometimes at night, but it wasn't super remarkable unless I charged it.

Still, it's neat to have the option for glowing gels, and I was really happy with this manicure overall. The light green Gelish Mini shade is super delicate and youthful, and the Gel Play paint is awesome for handpainted nail art.

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Mani Mania: UberChic Beauty Stamping Plates Review

piCture pOlish Forget Me Not stamped with plate 1-02

Despite not being much of a nail art stamper, I've been playing around with UberChic Beauty stamping plates lately! The manicure above was my biggest success, and maybe one of my best stamping manicures ever. Though I'm not the best stamper, I've been having a blast putting together manicures with these plates. Keep reading to check out more of my results!

Colors by Llarowe Mom Jeans stamped with plate UC 1-03

What really stood out to me about these plates is how beautiful the patterns are. They're modern, well designed, on trend, and just really fun. Many of them have superfine, intricate details, like in the photo above.

I'm not particularly skilled in stamping, but these plates seemed to work well for me! Even the finest of lines picked up each time.

Here's some more info about UberChic plates:
- The plates themselves are pretty large, especially compared to the other ones that I have in my collection.
- The designs are large, and easily covered my nails with room to spare.
- Each plate has a general theme, which includes full nail designs plus coordinated single images.

Gelish I'm Brighter Than You stamped with plate UC 1-01

KBShimmer Summer 2015 neons stamped with plate UC 2-03

Purple rockstar gel manicure stamped with plate UC 1-03

Stop by UberChic Beauty to check out their plate lineup as well as their glitters and pigments! The plates used here can be purchased in plate collections 1 and 2.

I encourage you to go and check out the designs on the plates, because they really are well done. A stamper's dream!

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Cosmoprof North America 2014: Gels and More (Including Swatch Strips, a Nail Printer, and Glitter Tattoos!)

As Cosmoprof is a professionally-geared show, there are lots of salon gel brands and emerging salon technologies there. Though I'm only starting to venture into the world of gels, I've still got a bit of coverage to share with you on that front! I also have some info about some exciting new nail technologies and other goodies. And of course, if you missed it, be sure to check out my first Cosmoprof post on what's new in the world of lacquer.

Bioseaweed Gel
I stopped by the Bioseaweed Gel booth and was introduced to the ladies there! They showed me their two gel lines: one three step system and a newer product called Unity which includes base, color, top, and strengthener all in a single bottle. They claim their gels are healthier and don't require you to buff/sand the nail at all before application. They had some great nail wheels at the booth with tons of gel nail art using their product.

They also showed off a new portable LED curing lamp called the Flip. It's cordless, rechargeable, and folds up into a size smaller than a cell phone. It also comes in different colors! Neat!

EzFlow TruGel
I loved TruGel's Ringleader Collection. The palette is perfection (how nice is that yellow?). I was also impressed with their matte gel topcoat! Perhaps my favorite part, though, was their selection of gel nail art kits, which included a set of primary colors, a set of neon colors, and a design kit that has stylish studs and foils.

Gelish
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet with anyone at the Gelish booth to get a rundown of their lines. I was able to snap a pic, though! Here's the fall collection, called Get ColorFall. Check out more coverage on WPP.

House of Holland/Elegant Touch
The style house headed up by Henry Holland had a small presence at the show, and I got to take a look at some of their false nail sets. There are some really well designed sets, including my favorite, Game Changer. Did you know that Jenny Pasha from 10 Blank Canvases is a creative expert for the brand?

ibd
ibd Gel Polish showed off their Floral Metric and Neo Romantique collections (the latter of which has some very unusual glitters). They also had their gel art kits on display. I snapped a photo of their Pastel Gel Art Kit, which contains six garden-y shades. They also offer a gel art kit that includes basic colors like red, blue, and yellow. I'm really encouraged to continue learning about gels when I see brands making gel nail art a priority!

ibd also had soft touch silicone brushes on display. I was really intrigued by these and hope to try them out soon to give you the scoop. One of them has a chisel point, and I was told it works great for cleaning out sidewalls that have accidentally been flooded with polish.

MoYou US
Stamping brand MoYou US was in attendance and was demoing nail stamping for people that stopped by their booth. They were excited to share their high quality stainless steel nail stamping plates as well as 18 colors of stamping polish. We were also told that 6 additional stamping polish colors were on the way, and that MoYou plans to release seasonal stamping polish collections.

Nano Nails
Here's something I was interested to come across: a false nail that you attach on and acts as a smartphone stylus! The Nano Nail is definitely an interesting solution for those of you who may have acrylics that prevent you from effectively Instagramming. It has a thin body and a thick tip, and comes with a square edge. The gals at the booth mentioned that you could round the tips a little bit, but that the nail works best if left as is.

The Painted Nail
I had the opportunity to meet Katie Cazorla from The Painted Nail, and she was showing off a new product that I'm sure many of you bloggers would be interested in! They're called Swatch Strips, and they go on much like nail wraps. You apply polish over them, and when you're done swatching the polish, the wraps peel right off (with the polish)! Seems like they will be huge -- especially for gel swatching. Aw yeah.



SuperNail ProGel
I got a brief rundown of the ProGel line. The Boardwalk Babe Collection jumped out at me with it's cute and cheerful colors, but if you like something a bit moodier, check out the Pretty in Punk collection for fall. They also shared a matte gel topcoat called Make It Matte.

Tattoo Junkee
Because Cosmoprof isn't just a show for nails, there are a lot of booths with products that are cool, but not necessarily related to nails. Tattoo Junkee was one of those booths, featuring exciting products like a lip corrector pen, glitter and matte finish temporary tattoos that last for days, and ombre and glitter lip kits. Their product is sold at Wal Mart. The line is a lot of fun and Tattoo Junkee's booth was definitely one of the most popular at the show.

Here I am getting a glitter tattoo, which lasted a good two and a half days before it started showing any signs of wear.

Tat'z Nail'z
Ever looked at a photograph or an image on a computer and wished you could print it directly on to your nails? Well Tat'z aims to make that dream a reality! This machine is an inkjet printer that will print on any regular manicure (like polish, acrylic, or gel). You can upload a photo, snap a pic, or choose one of their preloaded designs.

I stopped by the booth with Andrea from Chickettes and she sat down to get a demo. We actually ended up snapping a photo of my face so she could have it printed on her nails, hah! It got a little scuffed in the printing process, but you can still see that it's me in the photo below.

What is piquing your interest here? I was really amazed by all of the developments in beauty that I saw at the show.

If you are interested in additional gel coverage, be sure to also stop by Andrea's post on Chickettes.com and Leslie's post on Work/Play/Polish.

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