Review: Incoco Dry Nail Appliqué

For the past week I have been sick and miserable, so you know what that means--a trip to Walgreens! Luckily for me, Walgreens is one of the places that carries Incoco Dry Nail Appliqué. I was always skeptical of these, but I've read some positive things on the blogosphere so for about $6 I thought I'd give them a go.

I picked the shimmer color, Flaunt. There wasn't much to choose from at my store, and in the packaging all of the colors looked a little dull and old lady-ish, but after my application I'm pretty sure that's mainly the fault of how these have to be packaged (blue tinted film over to polish, white paper underneath).

Color description from incoco.com

Here's what they look like out of the package. They also come with a nail file, cuticle stick, and removal pad. There are 2 strips of nails with 16 different sizes on each. Each side of the nail shape is slightly different. I was only unable to fit one nail fairly perfectly (a pinky), and I think I could have fit it better with a little work, but it's no big deal in the long run and I hardly notice it.

After peeling the outer strips off, you place the polish strip on the nail. If you're resourceful you can cut the excess off with scissors and save that for another nail (I managed to have a full set leftover to do my mom's nails, and I probably could have saved more had I thought ahead). File downward on the nail (perpendicular to the finger) to remove the excess polish so that it perfectly fits the edge of your nail.

Here's my finished result! This was SO easy to do. No mess, no dry time, no fuss. It's awesome. The color is great too. I'd best describe it as a shimmery raspberry. It's ever so slightly sheer in that I can see my nail line a little bit, but I don't see it enough to bother me. The end result isn't very shiny so I painted a top coat over it (not pictured) and now it looks amazing. I'll try to remember to update with how long these last.

I purchased these on my own and you can buy Incoco Dry Nail Appliqué at Walgreens or http://www.incoco.com/

UPDATE: These lasted at least a week. I probably could have gone longer, but my nails were too long and becoming a nuisance. Overall I LOVE this product (I received many compliments) and I will definitely be buying more in the future!

Lace Nails

I was always resistant to putting lace on nails because everything that I had previously seen looked pretty messy. Now I'm not saying that mine are perfect, because they're not, but I tried my darnedest. Anyway, I changed my mind about attempting this mani because I have recently inherited a bunch of lace scraps (see first picture) that are too small to really do anything with so I thought I'd give it a go.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with this look and I will say that it looks much better in person. To me it's very Noirlette, and if you're not into that style it'll still be great for Halloween without being overtly obvious.

Here's how to do it:

1. 1 or 2 coats of your favorite color (enough to make it opaque). I used 2 coats of China Glaze's Light as Air.
2. After that has dried, cut a piece of lace that is roughly the size of your nail (preferably slightly larger so you can trim it down).
3. With your base color or a clear coat paint the nail you want to cover.
4. Place the lace on the wet nail. If you don't like the placement, peel it up instead of pushing it to where you want it. Pushing it will cause the color to be shoved on top of the lace. Hold down the lace until it sticks to the nail--pay extra attention to the edges.
5. Trim the excess lace with small, sharp scissors.
6. After the lace has dried onto the nail, paint on a top coat.
7. If the edges are still rough from the lace, file downward on the edges with a super fine nail file (like you would find on a buffer block) after the top coat has dried.
8. If you had to do step #7, add another top coat... and then maybe another if your nails are rough on top.

That's it! It really is much easier that it seems!

So Girlie: Hello Kitty & 3D Flowers

I'm still waiting for my Nail Rock nail wraps to arrive (so excited!), so I've been keeping myself busy...

Three coats of China Glaze's Something Sweet (pink), four coats of OPI's Alpine Snow (white), and CM Nail Art's pink, black, and yellow for the Hello Kitty face.

I'm a Hello Kitty purist, so I'm disappointed with my execution of the ring finger. The eyes are far too close together. I'm thinking I should have nixed the whiskers (since I never do those well) because I was worried about fitting both the eyes and whiskers along the same line, which is essential to do a proper HK.

I got the flower on eBay (from a store in China) for super cheap as a part of a multi-color set. They're rubbery so they can bend with the nail. When I've used the flowers in the past I would embed them in a few still-wet coats of color. They'd pop off pretty soon after that even though I'd put a top coat on. This time I waited until the pink and a top coat dried, and hours later I placed a patch of top coat where I wanted the flower and placed it on top (and held it down for a few minutes). I put another top coat on after that. Hopefully it stays this time!

Extra! Extra! Read All About My Nails!

This is probably the craziest mani I've ever done, and yes that is real newspaper.

I started with a regular polish mani with OPI's Papua Pink Pearl (seen on thumb), a fairly sheer, pink-tinted pearly white. Alas, this was too boring for me so I decided to jazz it up. I ripped some newspaper and partially covered my thumb as an experiment, and it worked! After the successful trial run with half of my thumb I went whole-hog and covered the rest of my nails. As you can see, my application improved over time (from index to pinky).

This may look involved, but it's actually shockingly easy to do:

1. Find a page or small segment of the newspaper that has writing on one side and no images on the other (words are okay).
2. Cut a part out that mirrors your cuticle edge and sides of your nail. It does not have to be the same length to cover the whole nail--it can be longer.
3. Apply a base coat and press the newspaper clipping on top and hold it down. Make sure the edges stay down. This is the longest part of the process. Keep an eye on it so it stays in place and doesn't peel up.
4. Once the newspaper has dried on, take a nail file and file downward perpendicularly to trim off the excess length of newspaper (this will match it to the nail edge exactly).
5. Apply a top coat and let it dry. If your topcoat reacts the same way mine did (Seche Vite), it will pretty much be absorbed by the newspaper. Don't worry, just apply another top coat afterwards (and maybe even another).

That's it!

Bonus tip: I buffed my nails beforehand because my nails have a lot of severe ridges. This may have helped prevent wrinkles, but I'm not sure--just a thought.

P.S. Welcome ONTDers!

White → Pink Gradient

I finally replaced my non-nail art bottle of white! I really love this gradient. There's something so angelic and dainty about it, especially from far away. It's definitely double-take worthy. I have a feeling that this would also work wonderfully with a baby blue fade to royal (if only I had a jelly blue!).

OPI's Alpine Snow (white) with OPI's Isn't it Precious? (pink)

Here's the how-to from a previous post, and here are the updated tips:

1. Take your time, do it in bright light, and watch what you're doing.
2. Let each coat fully dry before you add another one. See those grey spots in the pink above? Yeah, that's what you get when you get impatient and don't let them dry.
3. Go all the way over the end of the nail every time or else you'll have a white (or whatever base color you used) edge.
4. In my opinion, wide and even gaps between layers gives the best gradient effect. It seems to be more gradual and natural.

UPDATE: Here's a junky webcam picture to better show the range of the white to pink transition.

Venture Bros. Nails [Set #1]

Prepare for an epic load of fangirlishness ahead! One of my all-time favorite tv shows is The Venture Bros (airs on [adult swim] Sundays @ 11:30pm). On the surface, it seems like an old school Hannah-Barbara cartoon, but in reality it's a dark spoof of superscience and supervillainy. Oh, and it's hilarious.

Check out this 30 second preview to acclimate you to the nails that are about to blow your nerdy lil' mind.

Now for the nails, followed by polish breakdowns and the characters that inspired them:

Index finger: China Glaze's Happy Go Lucky (Up & Away Spring 2010), CM Nail Art's black.
Shortly after I the above picture I noticed that my index finger seemed a little... off. Yes, it was sloppy, but that's not what I'm talking about! It seemed empty. So, with my trusty CM Nail Art (black) I hastily added "Hench 4 Life" because #24 was a Monarch henchman. I'm pretending that I was going for a prison tattoo/hand drawn-style font and that's why the letters are all over the place =) Despite its less than polished look, it makes the entire mani seem more complete.

Middle Finger: China Glaze's Light as Air (Up & Away Spring 2010), CM Nail Art's black and pink. Inspired by Erinradler's minimalist poster.

Ring Finger: Nicole by OPI's Really, Really Red, CM Nail Art's black

Pinky: OPI's What's With the Cattitude? (Shrek Forever After Collection 2010), CM Nail Art's black and yellow

Thumb: China Glaze's Happy Go Lucky (Up & Away Spring 2010), CM Nail Art's red

**All images besides my own belong to [adult swim] and Astrobase Go!

For my second set of Venture Bros nails, click me!

So Zoe

I have always loved Rachel Zoe's nails. Short and dark is her signature look and I can't get enough of it!

It's a blurry picture with bad lighting, but trust me, this polish is an especially gorgeous dark, dark burgundy. OPI's Give Me Moor! from the España collection (Fall 2009). If anything, check out this collection for the punny names because they're OPI's best ever.

No idea where I got the inspiration for this one. I suppose I just had a budgie moment and wanted some sparkle. OPI's What's With the Cattitude? and Benefit's shimmer powder in Mint Julep. When the nails are still wet, dip an eyeshadow brush into your shimmer powder or glitter and tap it over the polish without touching the nail with the brush. Tapping the brush gives it a random pattern when it embeds in the nail.

In sunlight after heavy wear and tear.