ESSENCE GEL NAILS AT HOME TUTORIAL & REVIEW

Hi guys! How are you all? 

Todays post is all about the Essencce Gel Nails At Home System. I picked up the Gel Effect Top Coat* from the bloggers event but didn't pick up any other gel products which I kinda needed to use the top coat, what can I say? I must have been having a blonde moment! 

Anywho I ordered the Cleanser, Primer and Peel Off Base Coat from Wilko's online (they still have a 3 for 2 offer on so now is a good time to stock up) and LED Lamp* came from the PR Company. 

So I thought I'd put a little tutorial together for you and also a little review, I haven't seen any other Gel systems for home so I was really excited to try this out. 

I haven't had gel nails myself because I change my polish too often so the thing that really appealed to me about this Gel System is that it comes with a Peel Off Base Coat so you can remove it whenever you want which suits me perfectly :)

Without further ado...

What you will need: 

(I have included clickable links to buy all of these products online) 

Essence Gel Nails At Home Cleanser £2.50 

Essence Gel Nails At Home Primer £2.50

Essence Gel Nails At Home Peel Off Gel Base £3.00

Essence Gel Nails At Home Effect Gel Top Coat in 05 Polka Dots* £3.50

Essence Gel Nails At Home Mini LED Lamp* £19.90

Any nail polish of your choice (not pictured) I used Essence Color Viva Brasil in 02 Everybody Salsa 

This is what comes in the LED Lamp box. There is a small(ish) lamp, USB lead and an instruction manual. 

STEP 1 - Wipe your nails with the Cleanser to remove any oils/residue on your nails 

STEP 2 - Apply a coat of Primer  

STEP 3 - Apply a layer of the Peel Off Gel Base to the entire nail, don't forget to wrap your tips.  

STEP 4 - Place finger under the LED Lamp for 10 seconds to cure the base coat. You don't need to count the lamp will automatically turn itself off after 10 seconds.

STEP 5 - Wipe the nail with the Cleanser to remove any residue.  

STEP 6 - Apply a coat of your desired nail polish/nail art.  

STEP 7 - Once the nail polish is dry apply a coat of the Gel Top Coat. I'm using the Effects Top Coat but there is also a clear top coat available.  

STEP 7 - Place finger under the LED Lamp for 10 seconds again to cure the top coat. 

STEP 8 - Finally wipe the nail again with the Cleanser to remove the sticky residue.  

This is the finished nail !  

To remove, take an Orange Wood Stick, starting from the cuticle just peel the polish off, it should lift in one layer but if it doesn't it's still fine. Remove any excess nail polish etc from the nail with acetone or nail polish remover. 

Ok, so that's the tutorial, I know there are quite a few steps but it's really easy to do and it doesn't take as long as you'd think. 

So Pros and Cons.

 Let's begin with the Cons shall we: 

Actually there's only 1 con which is also the most annoying thing for me was that curing the base coat and top coat under the lamp caused the base coat/ top coat to shrink and pull away from the edges of nail. I don't know why it did that, I made sure my nail was completely clean and I applied the layer all the way to the cuticle and wrapped the tips, I just don't know why it did that?! If you have experience with gel nails and you might know why this happened please leave a comment! 

The Pros: 

It's a lot cheaper investing in this set and doing your own gel nails than going to a salon ever few weeks.

It's very easy to do, there are several steps but you very quickly get into the swing of things so you don't even have to think about what the next step is.

I love that you can apply any colour or any nail art, it doesn't have to be an Essence polish. I also tried it out with a Morgan Taylor nail polish.

The Peel Off Base Coat is amazing! It makes the removal so easy and it means I change my nails as often as I want and still have the 'gel look'. Removal is not damaging to the nails either.

It wears well, Essence claim it lasts up to 10 days however I removed it after 4 days so I can't comment on the 10 day claim, but when I removed it I didn't have any chipping or lifting or anything of that sort. 

The lamp is small and comes a USB lead which means you can take this on holiday if you want! 

Overall do I recommend the Gel Nails At Home System? Absolutely, I really like it and I know that I will use this a lot! Actually my non swatching hand will make the most use of this because I won't end of removing my nail polish on my right hand when swatching anymore! \o/ 

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ESSIE TRUTH OR FLARE

Hey guys, how are you all? Today I have a really pretty Essie polish from their Spring 2014 collection and a review of www.nailpolish.co.uk. 

I believe they are a relatively new online store which offers a wide selection of nail polish ranging from Barry M to OPI. They didn't actually have OPI when I received this Essie to review so they are adding new lines regularly so it's worth checking their store every now and then. 

They offer free first class delivery in the UK which is always a bonus! However their packaging is not the best, I received my polish in a jiffy bag without any bubble wrap or any other type of packing. Neither did the parcel have the Royal Mail ID8000 label which is needed on all parcels containing nail polish! They are a new company though so they'll probably change this but I just thought I'd warn you. 

Ok, let's get on to the actual nail polish itself now! This is Truth or Flare* from this years Spring collection. It's a very lovely slightly dusty blue/grey colour which looks very sophisticated and I'm sure it'll make a great base for nail art! 

I had to use 3 coats as it was a touch on the sheer side but I think it'll thicken up a little with time meaning it'll cover in 2 coats. I didn't apply top coat here and it's pretty darn shiny! 

You can find this here from nailpolish.co.uk. 

Have you tried this colour out before and what are you thoughts? 

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NAIL VINYLS IN THE UK - SHE SELLS SEASHELLS

Hey guys, how's your weekend going? 

Tonight I have a post about a lovely UK based nail accessory store, which you may or may not have heard of, She Sells Seashells. The store is run by the lovely Sarah (who is an absolute sweetheart) and offers all sorts of nail studs, embellishments, cabochons, jewellery making sets and nail vinyls, which is what this post is all about.

Nail Vinyls have kinda taken the nail world by storm over the past few months and instagram is choc a bloc with gorgeous manis created using them! They first started cropping up in the US and I was intrigued, when I did go to buy some I was a bit surprised by the prices! $4-7 dollars for one sheet, which is quite dear for a one use product. 

So when I heard that She Sells Seashells was going to sell Nail Vinyls I was so excited! When I went on to buy them I was even more excited when I saw that they were only £1 ($1.70) for a sheet of 100!

There are lots of designs to choose from and you can see them all here.

More Recently they've begun to sell full design vinyls which are great for super fast and easy nail art, these are £2.50 for sheet of 10 which is still very reasonable. If your nails are on the small side you can actually cut the vinyls in half and get double the usage! 

I've done lots of manis using these vinyls, some of which I've already published (which you can see here and here and here) and lots more which will be up soon and there might even be a tutorial or two ;) 

They are great quality, inexpensive and delivery is super fast and cheap as well! They also ship worldwide so everyone can enjoy them :) 

  Aren't these unicorns just magical?! 

I hope you've found this post interesting and now hop on over to http://www.she-sells-seashells.co.uk/ and help support this UK nail store.

 Don't forget to follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to have a nosy behind the scenes, get the first look at what's coming up and for voucher codes !

So that's me done for today, enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope you have a lovely week! 

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ILNP MASQUERADE & LIGHTNING BOLT NAIL VINYLS

Hey guys, tonight I have one of my most favourite manicure to date. It's no secret I love the ILNP Ultrachromes and, in my eyes, they are the best indie multichromes going! From the latest releases I wasn't sure if I should get Masquerade because it looked too similar to Nostalgia but the pre-order began on my birthday and I took this as a sign to buy them ;) Boy am I glad I did!

For these nails I layered one coat of Masquerade over a black base and on my ring finger I used these lightning bolt nail vinyls (which I received as a gift) from She Sells Seashells to paint on a multichrome lightning bolt.

 Words cannot describe how much I love this nail polish and how much I loved this mani! Actually I loved it a bit too much and ended up breaking a nail pulling down the shutters at work :'(

I'll shut up now and let you drool over the pictures! 

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ESSENCE NAUGHTY AND PINK 107 CHEVRON NAILS

Hey guys, so do you remember about a month ago I mentioned going to an Essence bloggers launch event? Prior to this event I went down to London for a little nail girl meetup and we stopped by the newly opened Essence kiosk in Westfields and of course, we all bought quite a few things! The following week I visited the new Essence kiosk in the Manchester Arndale Centre and picked up a few more things from there which included the nail polish I'm showing you today! The following weekend I went to the Bloggers Event and had such a great time, I did take pictures on my phone which I shared on my twitter and instagram so be sure to follow me on there to see. At the event we got a really big goody bag and then were told we could take anything which took our fancy! Needless to say I got lots of nail goodies from there too. I've been busy for the past 4 days swatching and doing lots of nail art with them so I will be sharing all of those soon! 

Phew! aand take a breath, are you still with me?

 Ok so for these nails I started with 2 coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff on all my fingers except the ring finger where I applied 2 coats of Essence Naughty and Pink 107. When the OPI was dry I applied these chevron nail vinyls from She Sells Seashells and painted on one coat of the Essence and whilst it was still wet I peeled off the vinyl and then added top coat. On my ring finger I added this cute little mermaid embellishment which is also from She Sells Seashells. 

Just wanted to say the Essence pink isn't as bright as it looks in these pictures but it's still pretty awesome!

Wow, if your still with me you deserve a medal! 

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WATERCOLOUR FLOWER NAIL ART

Hey guys, so it's not often that I'm blown away by a nail design! the last time I was, however, was when I laid eyes on these nails by Lucy's Stash, it honestly took my break away and couldn't wait to try it for myself. So for these nails I did 2 coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff and then used watered down purple acrylic paint. Go and check out her tutorial to see how to do these, obviously mine didn't turn out as well as Lucys! I did the same flower on my accent nail as well but the thumb turned out better so I thought I'd just show you the thumb instead! 

Ok, I have a splitting headache so I'm going to bed! 

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