I used Zoya London to cover up the last of my month of Halloween manicures when I didn't have time to do a full mani and didn't want to go around with ghosts on my nails after Halloween.
My nails were a bit raggedy when London came off, so I thought I'd cover them up with falsies. I'd found a bunch of the Maybelline Color Show ones at Dollar Tree and grabbed Bright as White, which has white framed with black.
It had been a while since I used any of these, and this design is rounded on both ends, so I managed to get them all on before I realized I'd put them the wrong way round. I had the super flexible thinner end at my tips, which meant they were entirely too soft and bendy to hold up to normal activities. I took them off within a day.
Another thing I found at Dollar Tree were some Sally Hansen Insta Gel Strips, so those were my next manicure. The Hooray Ombre design I chose has a microglitter gradient effect that ranges from golden peach to coral red.
Another set of Sally Hansen Insta Gel strips came next. This time it was the Party Hose design, which has tan fishnet diamonds on a pearly background.
Before I took off the Party Hose strips, I had a little fun with them and used black creme to dot between the fishnet grid.
I then added a coat of Wet Paint Crystal special effects topper plus top coat. I liked this look so much I was sorry I hadn't tried it earlier in the life of this manicure.
I still had half a box of the Bright as White Maybelline Color Show Nail Falsies, so gave them another go, making sure to pay close attention to which end was which. Since I'd used the best fitting ones for the first go round, this wasn't as successful as I'd liked, though due to the black border on the fakes, I was able to disguise the especially bad fit on some nails by putting a black creme polish on underneath.
I'd just bought the Maybelline Black to Black polishes when I was going to take off the falsies, so I tried four of them really quickly on top of the fakes. Left to right: Corrupted Black, Blackdust, Black Matte, and Smoky Black. I do intend to play more with these, but in case that doesn't happen for a while here's a peek at my quickie swatches:
I returned to the Sally Hansen Insta Gel strips well for my post-Christmas manicure. I used Shell We Dance, the same pale pink that was my first foray into this product back in 2012. I was so busy getting ready to go on my holiday ski trip that I didn't take any photos of the mani when it was fresh. Worse yet, I rushed through the process and didn't get the wear I expected. Talk about frazzle. I had strips that lifted along the sides and at the base because I hadn't taken the time to make sure the strips were smoothed down securely before I added the gel topcoat and cured it, which led me to pick at those spots and pull off bits of the polish. Other bits flaked off at the tips due to peelies. Nine days later, I had this mess on my hands, literally. (On the plus side, my pinky still looked pretty darn good after a week and a half.) This was as long as my nails got in recent months; just after this, I filed them down to take off the peelies I could see.
I did a treatment week, then kept on with the Insta Gel strips theme, doing another plain creme finish with Plum's the Word, a deep brownish purple. I'd intended to add a glitter or other topper to this after my father in law's memorial service but never got around to it.
I did practice my stamping just before I took off these strips, with the JR-27 plate and Bonita by Royal Essence in Penny for Your Thoughts.
I went even more subtle with my next mani, using Insta Gel strips in Pink Pong. I still think that's an odd name, as I have since it showed up in the Complete Salon Manicure line, but I liked how it looked with my skintone; I might have to buy a bottle of it to use as pink-toned undies.
Again, I didn't get around to blinging up the plain creme strips, but it's nice to have a palate cleanser now and again. My next mani was definitely more eye catching, but since that just came off my nails yesterday, I feel like I'm caught up enough for right now. Thanks for sticking with it and reading through this hodge podge of looks with pics in so many different lighting conditions.
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