Friday 21 December 2012

Keeping it Simple: Festive Accent Nails

Hello lovelies! Welcome back to my blog. 

Today I have a very short post for you :-) This is Kiko 221 (Light Satin Beige) with a KBShimmer No Whine Left accent nail:

Keeping it simple!

I'm a bit sad because the picture doesn't capture the beauty of either polish, really; I'm sure that this mani would have looked more impressive in the sunshine, but all we have right now is rain *le sigh*. 

For the record, the Kiko polish is a sheer champagne glass fleck/shimmer polish, and this is about four coats. The polish is actually a favourite of mine, though it suits my summer fingers better. In the bottle it looks quite silvery, and even has subtle purple and green specks in it (you'll have to take my word for it!), but in artificial light it looks quite golden. 

No Whine Left is shown here in about three coats plus several layers of shiny top coat. I did think about putting KBShimmer We Three Blings over the Kiko to make this mani more Xmassy, but I was too frightened of the removal to attempt it and ruin my nails just before Xmas.

Speaking of removal...

Victory!

...I mastered the glue base coat! 

This time, the glue dried in about 5-10 mins and then I could get on with my life (yessssss!). I think the trick was not to apply lots of thick heavy coats, but to apply the one thick-ish coat, wait a few minutes for the water in the pva to evaporate, and then repaint only those areas around the edges of the nail that already had a super-thin layer of dried glue. I also didn't use my base coat over the glue like last time. 

The wear time was probably about 3 days (probably because I like hot showers) and the glitter popped right off my nail in one big sheet - I didn't even need my orange stick! My nails actually look really moisturised too. This is definitely a keeper :D I love that I'll now be able to use a main mani colour and then change my accent nail according to my mood ^^ 

Have you tried the glue method yet? And what do you think about these champagne shades? Yea or nay?

'Til next time and stay happy :-)

- Skye x


8 comments:

  1. I am absolutely freaking in love with the glue manicure. I've had a couple times where I put it on too thick and the polish popped off much quicker than I wanted, but either way my life is so much easier now wearing glitter and not having to spend 30 minutes removing it!

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    1. I'm just so excited I finally got it to work after my last failed attempt! In the new year I'm now planning a KBShimmer swatch-a-thon because the glue WORKS muahahaha. I'm so happy I can now wear my pretties without sobbing on removal haha.

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  2. I'm glad you got the glue thing down. I haven't tried it yet. No Whine Left is such a pretty glitter! I'm glad you are able to wear your KBShimmers and aren't scared anymore!

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    1. YAY for KBShimmer :D Swatch-a-thon definitely in the works now for the new year :) And No Whine Left really is lovely. Difficult to photograph in our rubbish weather at the moment, though! I definitely recommend giving the glue a go now, btw, just be careful of the edges, especially around your cuticle - make sure you don't miss a good layer like I did the first time :)

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  3. I don't wear enough glitter to feel motivated to try the glue base, but sometimes I wish I just would when I find myself removing glittery polishes! What a pain!!

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    1. I have to say, the reason I have always avoided glitter is the removal. However, KBShimmer does funny things to me and I now have 10! I'm really thrilled that I can wear glitter whenever I want now... maybe now I have an easy removal method, I'll end up wearing glitter more often :)

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  4. I love that Kiko!! So pretty!

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    1. Ooof don't I know it?! I'm so sad I couldn't capture its beauty in my photos. It looks much more golden here; IRL it's a lovely champagne colour with purple and green sparkles - and those sparkles really are noticeable. I tried getting a bottle shot but I had the same problem again, would you believe? Must invest in a light box or something sometime this coming year!

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