Zoya Zara

Mixture of light purple and rich gold is surprisingly flattering. The downside of Zoya Zara is the sheerness, these two coats are still quite see through. I was in a hurry, just covering the Entourage disaster and did not have time to do more. Application was ok, bit runny, but nicely settling. In real life this polish is much more stunning, the golden shimmer is very deep and perhaps has a hint of multicolour in it.

But my Seche Vite starts to be bit goopy - and the bottle is not even halfway. Not impossible to work with, but bit difficult to apply near the cuticle. I'm slightly disappointed.

French manicure, Essie Pinkadelic

Before I stained my nails I had one decent classic french manicure on for several days. I haven't been too into french manicures, but for some reason recently they have started to look somehow better. Maybe it's the light tan I have, maybe it's just curiosity to this so popular look.

I have done it by myself just couple of times before - and have it done perhaps two or three times professionally. Never has the application nor the color choices been perfect. Personally I lean towards Beverly Hills manicure style, where the tip is more natural - but I also want to experiment with this style and find the best variant for me. So I plan to publish a short series about frenchies, starting from this post. But I have to wait my nails to clean before next post on the series after that unfortunate Entourage event.



This is quite a classic version with Color Club Tip White on tips and Essie Pinkadelic on top.

CC Tip White is excellent for bright white tips. One coat was enough, excellent self leveling and fast drying time. Just remember to mix the color well, there is ample amount of pigment in this.

Essie Pinkadelic on the other hand did not level as well. It is not stripy, but after two coats bit blotchy. I think that super thin layers might solve this problem - but on the other hand I like that the brush has ample amount of color especially on the first coat after tip, so I don't sweep the tip away. The color is not the best for my skin, but the nice thing is the subtle red shimmer that is clearly visible in some light. And it took away the excessive brightness of the tips in a very nice way.



I used a special technique for the tips utilizing the advice from YouTube video that I'm not able to find anymore. But because you really can't see any details from that video anyway, I plan to publish a short tutorial soon. These tips are by no means perfect, but they still are the best ones I've had.

China Glaze Entourage

Ok, this must be one of my this summer favorites: China Glaze Entourage. A gorgeous bright grass green with slightly cooler green shimmer. Looks darker in the nail than in the bottle. The shimmer is subtle in the nail, but does not entirely disappear and makes the tone to shift from warmer to cooler, depending on light. Two coats covered my nails well. Application was pretty easy, perhaps the consistency was bit runny, but nothing unmanageable.

I've heard some rumors about this polish being a very bad nail stainer, so I did something unusual and used some base coat underneath. I will update this post later to tell how my nails look after the removal.

My manicure cycle will be somewhat slower now, I try to grow my nails a bit and it helps to not use nail polish remover every other day. But I aim at least weekly updates from now on.

Enjoy the rest of the summer and wear the brightest of all polishes!

***************

Okay, it stained. Bad. My nails look like I had the worst nicotine addiction. My thumbnail had two coats of basecoat and it is not stained as severely as other nails, so with basecoat it is possible to protect the nails. But this is huge minus and I don't believe I'm wearing this shade soon again.