Tag: Shellac
Nail-job craving: A few days before my manicure appointment I sent the above image, which is Roy Lichtenstein, to Leeanne at Tips Nail Bar, and said it’s what I was thinking I’d like for my mani.
“Dear god” was her text reply.
“That’ll take an entire day with all the layers to it,” she said to me once I got into Tips.
How I satisfied that craving: We went with a slightly simplified (but not really) version of this comic book look. Leanne started working on a few nails and it all came together as she worked. We knew were doing “Kapow” on two fingers, and I thought dots on one or two fingers, like the pixelated comic book print would work well, too (so that a few nails would be less complicated).
By the time we did one nail, Leeanne had her next client coming in, so the amazing Naomi Misu continued on the other nine nails. I (along with some of the other Tips nail artists) pretty much watched her do my nails with our mouths hanging open. When she outlined the words Kapow and Booyah (Leeanne’s idea!) in black, I think I held my breath.
When she decided to add a kiss on one of my thumbs, I thought it was cute exactly the way she painted it on…and then she took it to the next level by adding the delicate little lines that made it look like a real lip print! Whoa.
The colours used include a mix of soak-off gels and regular polish (all the detail nail art is in regular polish) including Cream Puff, Wildfire, Wham, Bicycle Yellow, Superstitious and Black Pool. Including the nail work to prep my nails, the manicure took three hours to complete.
How this nail-art makes me feel: Like I totally had to ROCK that Nike Women’s Marathon. I could hardly have “Booyah” on my nails and run my slowest marathon ever could I? And whaddyaknow, I ran my fastest marathon to date!
Love it or hate it: LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. This is up there amongst my most favourite manicures ever.
I run the Philadelphia Marathon in 17 days…can’t wait to get my manicure (and, oh yeah, cross the finish line, too).
November 1, 2013
Nail craving: I had a mish mash of items I saw online that had caught my attention in terms of nail — very playful and graphic and I knew I wanted to have an evil eye in the manicure, too.
How I satisfied that craving: I showed Leeanne Colley of Tips Nail Bar (I went there this weekend while traipsing around town in a Ford Focus for my #focusonmytown weekend, more on that in another post) a few of the different things I had in mind, and she suggested the amazing maniecure you see above! She used CND Shellac in Black Pool Cream Puff and Azure Wish, along with two clear base coats and two tops coats.
(Coincidentally, doesn’t it just pop out against the vivid blue paint job of the Ford Focus?)
How this manicure makes me feel: I think it wicked cool so it just makes me feel more excited than the crowds at the Phillip Lim for Target collection launch yesterday! (and those people were cray cray excited)
Love it or hate it: Love, love, love. It’s up there amongst my favourites.
September 16, 2013
CND has just launched a new nail polish, Vinylux Weekly Polish System. That’s right, it’s a polish you apply at home, that you don’t cure under a lamp, and is said to last seven days.
Seven days.
Considering regular polish typically lasts less than one day on me without chipping, I was super keen to test it out, and Leeanne of
Tips Nail Bar generously had me come in to see her to try it.
In typical Leeanne fashion, she knew exactly what colour I was in the mood for. Is there such thing as mani ESP, cuz if so she’s got it. We went with a pale grey called Cityscapes.
There’s no base coat for Vinylux btw. Leeanne applied three coats of Cityscapes (two was sufficient but she wanted to ensure the colour was solid) and then the topcoat, which features Prolight Technology (ie. it cures in natural light). No lamp, just a short wait as Vinylux dries in 8.5 minutes.
I left Tips, a happy camper with pretty, shiny nails…and then this happened:
Not even 10 minutes after leaving the salon, I’d dented my thumb when I went to pay for the takeout I’d bought for lunch. So lesson #1: the polish may dry to the touch in 8.5 minutes but you still need to be careful with your nails because that doesn’t mean it’s 100% dried.
Besides this, my nails looked great until day five, when I noticed a strange sort of sinking back of the polish on my thumb. I showed Leeanne who said this possibly stemmed from a bubble during application.
Then day six, chippage action on many nails.
All in all, pretty good results. I’m impressed. I consider it lasting six days longer than any other polish I’ve tried. Is it a game changer? I’ll have to test out how well it performs when I apply it myself, that’ll be a truer test–see how it performs with my very average polish application skills. Stay tuned for the post!
CND Vinylux Weekly Polish, available in 62 colours. $12 each.
August 12, 2013
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