Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza

Inspired by Nailside

I'm so excited to have submitted my nail art to the Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza contest.  Today is the last day to submit.  I believe they will choose the top 10, then the public will vote for a winner beginning June 12th.  There are hundreds of really good submissions.  My manicure for this entry was inspired by blogger Nailside's - Explosion tape manicure.  Her work is so awesome & I finally, with much practice was able to figure out the tape placement for the explosion.  I did have to use Seche Vite in between each layer of polish because of time restrictions with my boys but I was able to get it all out neatly.  Also since I had that layer of Seche Vite in between, wherever there was a mistake I was able to take my tiny paint brush with acetone and quickly fix it without ruining the rest of the application.  It was pretty fun to do & was inspirational for other manicures I plan on doing.  I used Revlon's - Metallic, Santee's - Black & China Glaze's - Pretty in Pink.  Thanks for visiting!!

Mother's Day Manicure

Base Color: Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails - Love Rocks,  Stamp Color: Jordana - Cabaret & Rhinestones from E-Bay

So this is my first official nail art post.  I put the kids to bed and got to work on this. Please excuse my photography, I'm working on it.  I shared pictures from different types of light.  I'm trying to find out what works best.  So for the last month or so I've been using Nailtek Foundation 2 as a base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat.  I notice that my manicure won't last beyond a day and a half or so with that combination before it starts peeling off in sheets.  I also noticed that my nails are peeling.  I'm not sure what's causing it but I decided to go with something different.  

I purchased Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails base coat and used OPI's Rapid Dry Top Coat for this manicure.  I'm trying to find a top coat that will dry as quick as Seche Vite but not shrink.  As much as I love Seche Vite's drying time, I can no longer ignore the ridiculous shrinking and awful smell.  I can do a manicure and within a few hours the nail polish has shrunk back so much you don't even have to look closely to see a big space of naked nail at the top of my nail.  I can't see putting so much time and effort into a manicure only for it to be ruined by shrinkage. Although for this manicure after using OPI's Rapid Dry top coat, I was forced to go over it with Seche Vite. OPI's Rapid Dry just didn't cut it.  It had very little shine and was taking forever to dry.  I'm going to try out Essie's - Good to Go fast dry top coat.  We'll see how that goes.

I do like the Sally Hansen base coat though.  My nails do feel stronger than with the Nailtek base coat.  And they have yet to chip.  It's also free of the "The Big 3" harmful toxins, and inexpensive ($2 Walmart) which is always a plus.  On another note, I have been reading Sammy's blog post's from her Nailsaurus blog all weekend.  She has a post on just about everything nail related, I was reading up on her photography.  I can't believe her work! She is out of this world good!  It's like each post is better than the last. I thought I would share her link because it got my nail art ideas going.  Thanks for visiting!!