My Wedding Manicure - French manicure with Seche and Nail Art

This is perhaps the longest I've ever been away form blogging :( many many apologies for my lack of updates but its been a little crazy this year, I got married in March :), so most of my year has been spent organising the wedding and honeymoon, and I'm just about returning to some semblance of normality :) I've had a bit of time off this week, so thought it was a good time to try and start up this blog again :D And what better way to begin than with my wedding manicure :D

I was too caught up in wedding mania to take a photograph of my manicure (oops), but thankfully, my wonderful photographer snapped a few shots :D here are a few close up crops (all photos by eyeimagine.co.uk)

I used Seche's French Manicure kit, and some stickers I bought in Sally's, the stickers were called Instant Nail Art by Nailtopia (Nagelkunst), I've used this brand before on a halloween manicure aeons ago, here's a link. The stickers have a lovely texture and really made the french manicure look a lot more special, here is the kit I used:

French Tips - Using Seche Porcelain I drew the white tips free hand (doing the tips before base coat, means you can clean up any errors and really get them perfect)

Base - 1 coat of Seche Clear

Polish - 1 coat of Seche Rose

Top Coat - 1 coat of Seche Vite

10 mins to dry

I then applied the nail stickers using a hoof stick. On a previous manicure I made the error of applying top coat after the stickers, this looks fine on day 1, but by 2 there was bubbling all around the sticker, so it's best to apply the stickers after, they still lasted a good 4-5 days.

you can read more about the Seche Vite French Manicure Kit here

In other news, I've just tried my first ever "at home" gel manicure :D I'm so excited with the results, but I'm only on day 2, so once I see how this wears expect a full review up with more details :D

Those of you awaiting the rest of Ciate's advent calendar, I will do my best to get back on those swatches asap, if I can tear myself away from gels for a minute :D it's good to be back :D

KOTD - Phantom Of The Opera Inspired Nails

While looking through my Konad Plates, when I came across the music notes on Konad Plate M73 I felt inspired to create a Phantom themed manicure :) quite pleased with how this came out.

OPI Chip Skip

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy

OPI Alpine Snow (index to little finger) 3 coats

China Glaze Liquid Leather (thumb) 2 coats

Top Coat Seche Vite (10 minutes before konading)

Konad Plate M73 with Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl (index to ring finger)

Konad Plate M54 with Konad Special Polish in red and green (little finger)

Phantom Mask created using the pen tip of a Nail Star two way Nail Art Pen and Brush I first drew the outline with the pen nib then filled up the rest leaving the eye holes black.
Konad Plate M54 with Konad Special Polish in pink and green for rose
Konad Special Top Coat (5 mins after Konading)

NOTD - Halloween Manicure No.1

Left Hand

OPI Chip Skip

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy 1 coat

China Glaze Liquid Leather 3 coats

(I originally started with every other finger orange, but I didnt like the final effect so went over the orange ones with China Glaze Liquid Leather 2 coats)

Top Coat: Seche Vite (to ensure nails are completely dry for decals)

Nail art: Instant Nail Art by Nailtopia, gently slid each sticker off by rubbing a hoof stick under the decal slowly shaking the stick to free the sticker, then applied to the nail.

Top Coat: Seche Vite to seal the design

Left Hand

Left Hand

Right Hand

Right Hand

some close ups to show the glitter on the designs, isn't the waving skeleton cute :D

all photos taken indoors with flash

Had a lot of fun doing this one, and although I really want to try some other ideas for Halloween manis I just cant bring myself to take this one off, its day 4 and it shows no signs of chipping :)