Greyhound Mani

Hey Everyone!! I am so happy it is Friday. I did not sleep well last night and I am tired!! I am super excited because after a year of going back and forth on wanting a makeup case and trying to figure out what I wanted I finally got one. Sort of. I found a great deal for one of those professional rolling cases on Craigslist and was actually able to get this one! It was a little difficult since she actually lives in one state but had the ad in a different state but she was going there for a visit and it was close enough to where my brother lives that we made it happen. She was really sweet and it was storming so she was running late and my brother was going out of town so he could only do it yesterday and it wasn't the easiest ordeal but she brought it pretty close to him which was awesome. I am so super excited however I don't know when I will get a chance to get it home. That is my excitement for the moment. 

Today I have another mani I did using Couture Gel Polish as a base.

I used Dance Til Dawn as a light base for some homemade decals I prepared. I wore this mani when the adoption kennel was closing and they were having a big open house to get dogs adopted. I made decals of the dogs that were actually available for adoption which was fun.

It was so cute because I actually know these guys. 

I loved them and so many people got a big kick out of seeing the dog pictures on my nails. Several people took pictures of them. I thought it would be a fun way to show off the dogs.

That's all for now :)

Couture Gel Polish Dance Til Dawn

Hey Everyone!!! I am going to make this quick today since I have had a busy day at work, YAY, and it is almost time to go home. 

Today I have the second polish I chose when I ordered my Couture Gel Polish kit. I absolutely love this polish.

Couture Gel Polish in Dance Til Dawn (#96) is a very pretty off white with a hint of pink. I know, I just said I don't like pink but this baby is only pink in certain lights and it is really just a hint of pink.  

Like Aloe Very this polish was a breeze to apply. It didn't flood my cuticles and cooperated very well. I really do enjoy the application of this brand. 

I believe I used three coats, not too thin, after my experience with Aloe Very. I was quite happy with color.

I had wanted a white but not a stark white to add to my gel collection and this one fit what I was looking for perfectly. It is not bright, in your face, white but it is still crisp.

Out door lighting.

Indoors and more accurately in the office lighting you could see a little bit more of the pink hue I was talking about. 

Nothing too pink but just enough to know that it isn't white white.

Right now Couture Gel Nail Polish is having a 2 day sale, according to their facebook. You can use the code 2daysale for 20% off. I thought that was a perfect tie in to my review of their products this week. Quite a great coincidence :) 

That's all for now :)

Couture Gel Polish Aloe Very

Hey Everyone!!! Oh Tuesday, you are not being kind to me. You are acting like a Monday and that is not friendly. I have a slight headache too. It is just one of those days.

Today we continue gel week with the polish that turned me on to the brand Couture Gel Nail Polish! I actually spoke with a very nice member of a nail group last night who loves Couture Gel Polish. I thought it was really cool since I had initially contacted the lovely lady regarding stamping polishes and the conversation just roamed to gel and Couture. 

You saw a sneak peak at this mani yesterday in my system review. This is Aloe Very which is #100. It is a gorgeous color but I believe I made my coats a little too thin. Since this was my first experience with Couture polish and the system I went pretty thin and cautious. My mani is very much lighter than the swatches I have seen for this color. I think next time I need to actually use more polish. This was four very, very thin coats.

I absolutely love the color but 4 coats did not make me happy. You can see how thin it is in some spots. This is no reflection of the actual product but very much a reflection on the skills I lack. The shade is a very pretty shimmering sea foam type green. Very very pretty even though I made it very light.

I will definitely do another mani with this color and post that one. It doesn't look too bad being very light but the visible nail line drives me mad.

This polish was so easy to apply and super smooth. The mani itself did not last very long on me but that was not due to the color. 

It is so pretty in the sun, I love the shimmer. I pretty much went through the site and wanted all the polishes that have this type of shimmer in it. It is stunning.

I was extremely happy with this polish and the way it cooperated. It didn't flood my cuticles at all which is a great bonus. I am not the best with gel polish but this one made it so easy to work with. I usually have some cuticle flooding issues with other brands and was so happy with the formula on this one. 

This was probably one of the least messy gel manis I have accomplished yet. I am very impressed with their polish. I wish it would have lasted longer but the color and formula were great. I will be able to say for sure it is a complete winner when I try the mani again with thicker coats and see the coverage. Right now I am happy to say I am not at all upset about the purchase or the quality.

That's all for now :) 

Couture Gel Nail Polish Review

Hey Everyone!!! Ok, I am ready to start gel week! I love gel polish because it gives my nails some strength. I started out with the basic Gelish kit and the lamp from the SensatioNail kit. I had been researching for a better lamp for a long time. I had also seen a swatch of Couture Gel Polish in Aloe Very which I fell in love with. After asking some questions from both the company and a blogger I decided to give Couture Gel Nail Polish a try. I bought my kit and patiently waited for it to come.

I had looked and looked before I finally decided to take the plunge on Couture Gel Nail Polish. I decided to buy the deluxe kit because it came with three gel polishes and was the best value. I did have a coupon code to help offset the cost. Considering I was looking at LED lamps alone that cost $200 this kit was a great deal. I did pay for my kit and nothing was given to me for review of this product. The kit currently runs for $129 on the site.

I was super excited when the kit arrived. The Deluxe Starter kit comes with a ton of stuff. It was packed very well and delivery was pretty quick.

The Deluxe kit came with the LED light which was my main reason for buying. It came with top coat, base coat and three colors which you get to choose. I chose Aloe Very because I had wanted that polish for a very long time. I also chose Dance till Dawn and Pillow Talk. The kit also came with a pretty big bottle of Clense and Remove and a instructional dvd. There was a bonus manicure kit included as well as a cosmetic case and a free sample of their foil remover wraps. 

The light is pretty cute and reminds me of a space ship. I mainly purchased this kit for the light so this was an important part of the purchase. It feels pretty sturdy but isn't overly heavy. 

The light has different time settings on it in increments of 30 seconds. There is a 30, 60 and 90 second timer and then a 30 minute timer. I am not sure exactly what one would want a 30 minute time setting for but it is an option. The light beeps when it turns on and off. The beep annoys me greatly but it didn't seem to annoy anyone in the house so I guess it is just me. I would love to be able to turn the beep off or make it quieter.

A shot of all the bubble led lights. I love the way they look. 

The lamp in action. It is big enough that I could fit my thumb in there if I wanted to. I still cure my thumbs on their own.

Quite the roomy lamp. 

Everything arrived in perfect condition however the top coat did have some polish in the thread and around the neck of the bottle. It was a little bit annoying but nothing major. I cleaned up the threads and the neck however there is still some polish in the threads of the cap so it is still messy. Again, nothing major just something that happened with one bottle in the package.

I will do a review of the polishes later but I did want to show a quick picture of the first mani I did with this system. I used only Couture Gel products for the first mani so that I could judge how the system worked. I used Aloe Very first because I wanted that polish the most. 

I did have some lifting at the tips and chipping on the index and thumb nails. I often have lifting and chipping because my nails are peely and have some issues. I will say that this happened within 3 days of doing the gel mani which is on the quick side. I can usually get about 5-7 days out of my gel mani without having too much of a lifting problem. 3 days bothered me but I thought maybe it is because I usually use a bonder with my gel manis. If it hadn't peeled off so much I wouldn't have taken my mani off so quickly but it was to the point where I had to remove it. I lightly buffed the top of the mani to help aid in removal.

I had never used foil remover wraps before so I decided to give them a try. They are cute precut strips with a cotton pad attached to them. You saturate the pad and wrap your nails up tight.

Aren't they cute? I forgot to take a picture when I removed my first hand so this is actually a picture on my second hand. I was able to get away with using only 5 wraps. The polish came off so nicely I was able to resaturate the pad and then use the same wraps on my other hand. This made me happy since I was able to stretch the wraps out longer.

As you can see the polish removed quite quickly and easily. It pretty much just popped right off. I wish my gel manis came off this easily every time. I absolutely love these remover wraps. I am considering ordering more because I really like the ease of using them.

I was quite impressed with how easily the polish popped off my nails. 

I had not really heard much on this company before seeing a swatch of Aloe Very and looking further into it. The company overall had a very quick response time when I asked questions. The products all seem to be of good quality and I am very happy with the light which I have used several times since getting it. The beeping annoys me but that is just a personal thing against noise that I have. I am still experimenting with their base and top and a combination of products that will work best for my nails but I would definitely purchase from this company again. There are several colors I would still like to try.

 My only real complaint has somewhat been fixed by the company. Since ordering they have changed their site to have actual swatches of each color on real nails instead of the little color bubbles they had before. When I ordered the swatches were not available and I wasn't able to really find a swatch of Pillow Talk when I googled it. I ordered Pillow Talk based on the swatch bubble and the picture that they had on the website in their try it on image. The color is completely inaccurate and I ended up with a pink I would describe as a light bubblegum rather than the pretty pale color I thought I was ordering. 

I snapped this screen shot just now because it illustrates the difference in the color I thought I was ordering vs the one that actually came. The picture on the hand on the left is what the color looked like online before the real swatches were added. The color on the right, third picture from left in the top row, is the color that arrived. The description also led me to believe it would be closer to the pale picture on the left. I am not a fan of pink and I would not order that shade on purpose. Honestly between lack of time and not really wanting to go through the hassle I just kept the bottle and chalked it up as a live and learn experience. I was pretty much taking a chance anyway since I hadn't found any real swatches for this color I just happened to go the wrong way on this one.  

Despite my new pink polish I am very happy with my purchase and the product. I will definitely order in the future as there is already a list of polishes I would like. I also fell in love with the removal wraps and their ease of use. I love the lamp and it has worked with other brands and systems with no issue whatsoever. 

That's all for now :)