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

Wedding Nails Contest Entry - First Toast Manicure

I did this manicure for a Dare to be: Wedding Nails Challenge on Make Up Talk's Nail Talk forum. I wanted this manicure to celebrate the "champagne toast" and as I'd received OPIs Spark de Triomphe today, I simply couldn't resist using this gorgeous glittery polish to achieve the champagne look I was going for with this manicure. So here it is:

First Toast Manicure

Base Coat: OPI Nail Envy 1 coat

OPI Step Right Up (From Femme de Cirque Collection) 2 coats

OPI Spark de Triomphe (Serena Williams Collection) for Gradient tips

Konad Special Polish in White and Konad Plate M67

Top Coat: Seche Vite (5 mins after Konading)

Here is the manicure before I added the Konad design:

And now for a few more pics of the finished Manicure:

This is first Konad Manicure I've done for a while, I must say I really missed it, had a lot of fun with this one, hope you enjoy it :D