Navy and Glitter Nails

Hello everyone!

 

I want to apologize in advance for the terrible final picture of this manicure! I literally have no clue why I thought it looked good! Terrible clean up on my part!

 

Enough of that, though! Yesterday, I was rear ended on my way to work and things aren't looking good for my beloved Escape, so how appropriate that this post features it's steering wheel as a background?

 

I did this manicure a few months back and it's super simple, but I absolutely love this color from Essie called No More Film!

What You Need:

•  Top coat (I use Seche Vite)
• Base color (Essie No More Film)
• Glitter Topper (Essie Stroke of Brilliance)
• Base coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base coat)
• Gelous Nail Gel

I'm not going to go through and tell you step by step how to paint your nails, since this manicure is so simple, but below, I will tell you my fool proof method of getting your nails to last 12 days or more!

To get your nails to last with Gelous, I have found the best method to be as follows:

 

Step 1. Paint a base coat of your choice. My current favorite is the ridge filling base coat from Avon. You can purchase it here.

 

Step 2. Paint one thin coat of your base color. Let dry.

 

Step 3. Paint a thin layer of Gelous. Let dry.

 

Step 4. Paint another layer of your base polish (if needed). Let dry.

 

Step 5. This step is optional, but if you're doing and designs, do those now. Let dry.

 

Step 6. Paint a layer of your top coat. Let dry. (A fast drying top coat like Seche Vite works best!)

 

Step 7. Paint one last layer of Gelous and let dry.

 

Below is my wear test of this manicure using this process:

 

As you can see, by say 7, there was minimal wear to the tips.

By day 12, I had to take it off because of how much my nails had grown out and I personally can't stand when my nail polish chips, so I started peeling it. Bad habit, I know!

I absolutely love this method and hopefully you all do too! Don't worry, I have plenty of tutorials to come! Hopefully I'll figure my car situation out!

Let me know what you think in the comments section!

Recreations? #countryclassdiy

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DIY Bow Accent French Tips

Happy Monday Everyone!

 

I'm still extremely behind on my blogging and have tons of drafts sitting out there waiting to be shared with you all!

 

I'll keep pressing on between school and work and eventually I'll get them all caught up!

 

But for now, I'll show you all how to recreate my manicure from 2 weeks ago!

 

This is the same process as my breast cancer manicure which you can find at the link. I'll include all the steps here, just not in as much detail.

 

Here is the finished look:

 

What you need:

• A neutral base color (I used Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect in Satin)
• American Classics Gelous base/top coat
• A color for your tips (I used Essie Bikini So Teeny)
• Black Polish (either in a decorating bottle or use a nail art brush)
• Top coat (I used Seche Vite)

 

After this manicure only lasted 8 days, I decided to try something different. I didn't dot his technique with this manicure, but I'm going to post it with this one so you can all actually enjoy your manicures for longer than a week as well! Coming soon will be my tutorial where my manicure lasted about 11 days!

 

Step 1. Paint a base coat on your nails. I use one that I bought from Avon recently.

 

Step 2. Paint your neutral color and allow to dry.

 

Step 3. Now take your tip color and wipe the brush so there's a small amount of polish on there. Carefully paint the "outline" of your tips.

 

Step 4. Paint a thin coat of Gelous over top.

Step 5. Paint a second line over your tips.

Step 6. Choose your accent finger and paint a black line where your tip ends.

Step 7. Paint 2 triangles that meet on the line.

Step 8. Paint a layer of top coat.

 

Step 9. Paint one last layer of Gelous and let dry.

 

Now, as I said, I didn't follow this method. I used the first method which is mentioned at the beginning of the post. I think what happens when you use gelous as a base coat is that it doesn't stick well to the nail, which seemed to cause my manicure to peel right off my nail. When I used a different base coat, my manicure lasted much longer, as you'll see in my next post!

 

Here is my wear test for this manicure!

Notice the "crack" on my pointer finger? I had to seal this with another
layer of Gelous.

Send me any questions or concerns and I'd love to see recreations and hear your comments!

 

Also, I recently started a Tumblr to help promote this blog! If you'd like to follow me, my URL is: countryclassdiy.tumblr.com

 

Want to buy AVON form me? youravon.com/dmalloy

 

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Recreations? #countryclassdiy

 

 

DIY gel manicure wear test

Hello everyone!

Good news, tomorrow's Friday! I'm probably more excited about that than I should be, but oh well!

I know I posted my first DIY gel manicure last week, and now I wanted to share with you all how it lasted! My manicure lasted about 7 days before I couldn't bear it anymore. I was hoping it would last a bit longer, but I'm happy with 7 days, considering my manicures only usually last 2-3 days. Below are pictures from each of the 7 days!
 

Notice the spot where the glitter cme off on the thumb. I simply 

touched it up and applied more Gelous.

Once again, the glitter started chipping off on my thumb. Also, part
of the breast cancer ribbon on my ring finger chipped off. I
decided it was too far gone for touch ups and took it off right
after this picture.

Now, I was really hoping for my manicure to last more than 7 days, but I think there are a ton of factors that made it do what it did. For one, I think the thing that messed it up the most was the glitter. I'm not sure if I just didn't cover all of the edges or if glitter polish just doesn't work as well with the Gelous polish.

 

One thing I would like to point out is that the removal was super easy. There was no scraping off the glitter. It came right off. I peeled it off (bad habit, I know) but I also had some glitter that I removed with nail polish remover and it worked great!

 

Another factor could be that the pink polish I used is a dollar store polish, so that may have something to do with it as well.

 

Not to mention, my nails grow super fast. And as you can sort of see in the Day 7 picture, the polish grew out with my nails (which I liked). Most polishes tend to stay at the bottom of my nails as they grow and then the top of my nail sticks out and it looks terrible.

 

Down to the point, do I think this is worth the hype?

 

Honestly, I think this is a great option for a cheap gel manicure at home. I seriously put my nails through some crazy labor over the 7 days I had this manicure and I think it stayed on great for all of that. I pulled weeds, got squash and cucumbers out of the garden, baked banana bread, and chased my little cousin around the house.

 

I would definitely recommend trying this manicure out, and I have already tried it again! This time, I used an Essie polish and no glitter. So that post will be up soon!

 

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Post recreations to : #countryclassdiy

 

 

DIY Gel Manicure and Breast Cancer Glitter Gradient

Good Morning Everyone!

 

I'm super excited to share this DIY gel manicure/glitter gradient with you all! I actually told all of my Facebook friends/Instagram followers I would post this yesterday, but I decided to make chex mix and ran out of time (oops).

 

Back to the point, this is a super easy manicure and from the research I've done, it can last anywhere from 7-14 days. Yay! Mine has been on for almost 2 days, so I can't tell you if that's true, but I'll be writing another post once I take the manicure off with daily pictures for you all!

 

My inspiration for this manicure cam from Pinterest, of course. Here is the post that inspired me to give this a try. If this actually lives up to the standards I'm holding it to, it's a great option for someone who doesn't have the money or time to sit at a nail salon (like me). The main tool you need is Gelous Nail Gel made by American Classics. It's $5.99, but you can get it for $5.39 with a Sally's card here.

 

When I was researching doing this manicure, I only saw plain colors, nothing of any interest to me. So I decided to do a design and see how it worked, not too hard. Well, it was one of those days where I literally could not decide on a color of nail polish, let alone a design. So, I called on my lovely Facebook friends and one of them suggested doing a solid color base with glitter french tips. This got my brain going and I came up with the design below:

Now, you might ask, why add the breast cancer ribbon? As some of you may know, my grandma and my aunt are both battling breast cancer and I am very close to them. I even went so far as to get a breast cancer ribbon tattooed on my wrist. So I guess you could say that I'm a bit partial to things with breast cancer ribbons on them. Plus, I just purchased this cute glitter nail polish from Maybelline's Color Show line that has some light pink sparkles mixed in with the gold, perfect way to incorporate the breast cancer ribbon!

 

What you need:

•  American Classics Gelous Nail Gel (Link above)
•  A Quick dry top coat (I used Seche Vite, which I also got at Sally's)
• Pink Nail polish (I used LA Colors Pink-A-Boo)
•  Glitter nail polish ( I used Maybelline Color Show Gilded Rose)
•  Pink detailing nail polish or a detailing nail brush

A side note, you don't need a dotting tool. I'm not sure why I put it in the picture. 

 

 

Step 1. Paint 1 coat of Gelous on clean, dry nails. Make sure all the coats you paint are thin.

Step 2. Once this coat is dry, paint a thin coat of your polish on you nails. I did My glitter on my ring finger then painted the rest of the nails pink.

Step 3. Once that coat is dry, paint another coat of gelous on top.

Step 4. Once that coat is dry, paint another coat of your colored polishes.

Step 5. Take your brush from the glitter polish and wipe a good amount of the polish off. Paint about 2/3 down your nail or halfway, whichever you prefer. Leave the glitter nail alone at this point.

Step 6. Once that dries, take the glitter brush again and paint the top portion of your nail with a bit more glitter.

 

Step 7. Take your detailing brush and paint a ribbon on your accent nail. This was a bit tricky for me, but I eventually just did a hook shape for one side then added the line for the other side.

Step 8. Once that coat is dry, paint your top coat on.

 

**Side note, I absolutely love this Seche Vite topcoat and I will probably write a blog post comparing it to Essie's All-in-One**

 

Step 9. Add one last coat of Gelous.

And once that dries, clean your nails up and you're done!

 

Keep an eye out for my blog post about how long this manicure will last!

I am behind on my blogging and still have some pedicures that I have yet to post, as well as DIY Rice Packs, but I had to share this with you all!

I will also be making a canvas for my friend's baby tonight, so that will be up soon as well!

Post recreations to: #countryclassdiy

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If you have any ideas or questions, please feel free to comment or email me!