Picture Polish Believe--Swatch & Review

Press Sample

What's up weekenders? What do you all have planned for this lovely weekend? Tomorrow I'm going to my very first football game--Niners vs Seahawks. I'm really excited and of course I will be working on red and gold 49er nails tonight! Today I have one last Picture Polish to show you that I got for review--Believe. At first, I wasn't very excited to try this one because I'm picky with dark colors, but I was pleasantly surprised with it! It has a dark purple jelly base and teal shimmer.

Here it is at 3 coats plus topcoat. Smooth formula, easy application. 

I've been dying to do some stamping (it's been a whole week), so I decided this was the perfect opportunity. Here it is stamped with Nailz Craze NC 02 in Essie Blue Rhapsody. 

This color actually looked good on my skin tone which I liked, but once I stamped it, I loved it. One thing I didn't mention in my other Picture Polish reviews was that the brush is awesome. It is a little shorter and the bristles are just a tad firm and this led to me having little to no clean up. Well, that's the last of the Picture Polish pretties I have to show you. Next Saturday will be lonely without them =P. You can purchase this polish here for AU$10 which is around $9.11 in USD. Shipping is a bit pricey depending on what country you're from, so if you're in the US like me, you can also check out Llarowe, Overall Beauty, or find a seller in your country on Picture Polish's Network page.

Bio Seaweed Gel--Review

Hey lacqueristas! Today I have Bio Seaweed Gel polish to review. This was my very first time using gel polish so I was very excited to receive this product to test out. Bio Seaweed Gel is a Canadian Gel Polish company. Here's a some info about the company & the product: 

"UNITY All-In-One Colour Gel Polish by Bio Seaweed Gel is the first ever professional gel polish with top, base, colour & strengthener all-in-one bottle. (4 PRODUCTS in ONE Bottle)

Bio Seaweed Gel is the most versatile and innovative Gel System available today. But most importantly, it is the healthier gel polish choice.

Here is a brief list in how BSG stands out from the numerous other professional gel brands:

1. No dehydrators to thin or stain the natural nails - regardless of wear time. FORMALDEHYDE, TOLUNE, DPB, SOLVENTS & BHA FREE

2. Safe and gentle both during application and removal: no sanding, buffing, primers or bonders needed for application. The industry's quickest soak-off removal in 5 minutes.

3. Versatility: we do offer a separate Diamond Shine Top and No-Sanding Base Gel Polish, as well as a Strengthener Builder Gel to complete tip and sculpture extensions.

4. User-friendly: simple steps and self-leveling make Bio Seaweed Gel quick to learn and a pleasure to work with, our products never shrink or wrinkle - ideal for nail art

5. Innovation: UNITY All-In-One Gel Polish is the EXCLUSIVE PEDICURE PRODUCT: no top, base or cleansers needed. (the colours dry to the touch with no sticky layer unlike any other)

6. Over 150 Colours

7. UV, LED and SUNLIGHT cured!!! (Yes, sunlight!)"

So that may have been quite a bit of info, but if you're brand spanking new to gel polish like me, the info is quite helpful. In my blogger sample I received 2 Unity All In One Color Gel System polishes, Diamond Shine Top Coat, one file, one buffer, and a pair of toe separators. I did a manicure and followed the directions it came with (lightly buff, clean with 70% alcohol, apply thin coat, cure, apply thin coat, cure, top coat, cure, wipe with 70% alcohol. It is very important if you use the topcoat to do the last step otherwise it will be sticky! Let's take a look at some of my manicure pics and then my thoughts.

Here it is with 2 coats. The directions say to use 2 coats and not to wrap the tips, but for some reason the polish wanted to avoid the tips. 

Here it is with 3 coats. I decided to go for a 3rd coat to get better coverage on the tips and it looks much better.

Again, 3 coats.

Here it is with some nail art and Diamond Shine Top Coat. 

For the art I used Nailz Craze NC 02 in Konad White.

Day 8--design intact and bareeely any tip wear.

Day 8

Here's my thoughts on the product:

Application: Super easy! Great formula which made it easy to apply thin coats. The brush was amazing. I was worried about how I'm supposed to clean up gel polish, but I applied carefully and no clean up was needed. The topcoat was also great AND it did not smear my stamping! I was really excited about that. I used a UV lamp to cure and dry time was fast, 2 minutes for each coat. 

Wear: Great. No chipping and as you can see on day 8, there's minimal signs of tip wear. I wore this camping and was very hard on them (played with rocks, swam, tried to cut wood with an ax, etc.).

Removal: On the fence. I followed the instructions which is the foil method using pure acetone for 5 mins, push off with orange stick, and buff any remaining. I did this and I saw the top of the polish soften and crack, but an orange stick didn't really help in removal so I had to use my metal cuticle pusher. Even then, a fair amount of polish remained and I had to buff a lot, which left a couple nails super thin. I was bummed so I left my other hand in the foil for 10 mins and I didn't have to buff as much. 

Overall, I did have a good experience, but removal was not as great as I had hoped. I will definitely try it again, but just do the foil method for a few more minutes. I will say that I was impressed with the wear and I will for sure be using this for a vacation mani! Lastly, for my stampaholics, this is a nail stampers dream. If you stamp and mess up, you can wipe off and stamp again without ruining the base! You can purchase Bio Seaweed Gel polish here. Each color retails for $18.

Essie In the Cab-ana & Nailz Craze NC 01

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I know I did! It was my first weekend without any schoolwork in such a long time and I got to spend some time with my family. I also had a chance to do my nails a lot so I'm a happy camper. Here's one of the manis I did over the weekend. I used Essie In the Cab-ana and stamped using Nailz Craze NC 01 in Konad White. The accent nail is OPI Liquid Sand Solitaire. I can't tell you enough how much I'm loving all of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes from the Bond Girls collection!

Nicole by OPI Pink Seriously & Nailz Craze NC 02

Happy Friday! Today's theme of the January nail art challenge that I'm doing is "silver." I used Nicole by OPI Pink Seriously and stamped using NC 02 in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep. If any of you are interested in purchasing Nailz Craze plates, you can find all the info you need here.

China Glaze New Bohemians & Nailz Craze NC 01

Hey beauties! Today I have a beautiful butterfly wing mani that I will be entering into Nailz Craze stamping contest. I used the same method to do my base as I did in my pastel mani. In case you missed it, I used Miss Jen Fabulous's tutorial here. I started off with a base of China Glaze Rare & Radiant and made the blobs using China Glaze: Unpredictable, Want My Bawdy, Deviantly Daring, and No Plain Jane. I stamped using NC 01 in Konad Black. I added dots using white acrylic paint. Clean up was a pain, but I'm so happy with the result!