Harmony Gelish Shake It Til You Samba, Vegas Nights & Tumberline Violet

Today I wanted to share with you the gels that I wore on my vacation (& some exciting news!). I actually wore these babies for a full 2 weeks and they stayed on perfectly! I have posted a bit about my gels before, if you are unfamiliar with gel polish I put a descriptive post up a few months ago, here. This is two coats of Harmony Gelish Shake It Til You Samba, followed by a coat on half of my nail of Harmony Gelish Vegas Nights. Finally on the top half of my nail again, I put a coat of Harmony Gelish Tumberline Violet. I had a little bit if a struggle placing the glitters in Tumberline Violet. I would have preferred it to have a lot more glitter and application would have been a lot easier. Either way, it's a very pretty color and I liked this combination a lot. I actually wasn't sick of it after 2 weeks, but I had a lot of growth - it was time to remove it.

So, now for my exciting news! I waited to tell you in this post, because this is the polish I had on my nails when it happened! When I was on vacation in Jamaica with my boyfriend, my family, and his family - he proposed! I was floored and completely taken by surprise! It was completely unexpected, because we are both still in school and had always talked about waiting until after we graduated this Fall before we thought about marriage! We've been together for 5 years now, and I couldn't be happier! I just had to share with you all! But of course, you need to see pics of the ring, right?! It's perfect and I love it! Check it out and thanks for looking :)

PS - The color of the Gelish in these below pictures is much more accurate to real life.



Oh - I gave my sister Kaity, my friend Julie & my Mom all gels for the trip as well. :) The coral color is Harmony Gelish Tiger Blossom on the top two hands. Julie has an accent with stripes I added using Harmony Gelish Sleek White and a thin striping brush. The bottom are my own, and on the right is Shake It Til You Samba with an accent of Harmony Gelish The Great Googly-Moogly.

Harmony Gelish Tiger Blossom & OPI Servin' Up Sparkle Gel Mani

Today I want to share the gels that I wore for a while to make myself focus on final papers and exams instead of playing with my nails and wanting to blog! I got a Harmony Gelish starter kit from Sally's around Christmas time and have really only used it on myself three times (check out my one other post). My friends and family really love the gels, so I thankfully have gotten use out of it - but mostly I just want to change my nail polish too often for me to like having the same color on for 2 entire weeks! I am sure there are many of you out there that can share this feeling :)

I thought I would give a bit of a description on how to use the gels, and a few tips for application.

In the starter kit from Sally Beauty, they have the Mini Gelish Ph Bond, Mini Gelish Foundation, Mini Gelish Top It Off, Mini Gelish Nourish, Mini Gelish Cleanser, and Mini Gelish Artificial Nail Remover.

You start by using a lint free wipe, and wipe off the nail with the Nail Surface Cleanse, and follow it with the Ph Bond. Next you put on one thin coat of the Foundation, and be sure to wrap the tips of your nails. To get the gels to cure, you need to place them under a UV or LED light because they won't dry on their own like regular polish. I really like the Gelish Mini Pro LED Curing Light I got from Sally's, because the Gelish Mini UV Light was the first one I got, and it was cheaper however it was a 3 minute cure time. This one is a bit more expensive but the cure time is 45 seconds, and I just feel like it does a better job. Below is a picture of the LED light I use.

The foundation layer only needs cured for 20 seconds, but all of the following layers will be cured for 45 seconds. The nice part about this light is that it has an automatic timer on it so it turns off after 45 seconds. I love that part!

Next you choose your color and place one thin coat of polish on, again, wrapping the free edge of your nail with polish in order to help your mani last longer. Cure it under the LED light for 45 seconds, and continue with a second thin coat of the color, and cure it. Another tip would be to make sure you paint as neatly as possible so that you don't get the polish to touch the skin around your nail because the mani may not last as long for you.

When you are happy with the amount of coats you have on, you can follow it with the Top It Off, sealing the free edge of your nail, and then curing it for 45 seconds. The mani will remain tacky until you cure the final top coat and then use the Nail Surface Cleanse on your lint free wipe, and wipe off your nail. Then it's all done! Another tip would be to stay away from cotton balls during your gels, because the lint will find it's way into your mani!

Is this a long enough post yet? Sheesh! I did ONE more weird thing that I hadn't tried before... I wanted to see if I could put regular polish in between the layers of my gels. Before I put on my Top It Off, I put glitter on the top half of my nails, and waited for it to dry completely, and followed it with Top It Off. I noticed that some of the gel color came off on my regular polish brush, so I don't think that these gels and regular polish like each other. I also had a few glitters leave my mani during the time I wore it because I don't think the top coat was really thick enough to contain them. Either way, it was an interesting thing for me to try. Now... on to the pictures of the mani! For this one, I used two coats of Gelish Tiger Blossom, followed by covering half of my nail with OPI Servin' Up Sparkle.

I actually only wore this mani for 10 days, I just was ready for a change (it could have lasted longer)! I also had lost a few glitters from the mani, and it was a little rough so I kept getting my nails snagged. I just had to change it. Below are a few pics to show how the mani held up after 10 days. Thanks for looking!

Harmony Gelish Need a Tan & Silver Sand

A few months ago I got a Harmony Gelish Soak Off Gel Polish kit at Sally's. If you are unfamiliar with Gel Polish, basically it applies like a nail polish, but after each layer of the kit you need to cure the polish by placing it under an LED light or UV light. If done correctly, you can wear it for 2-3 weeks without any scratches or chips. You can go to a salon and get a gel manicure done for around $30. I first purchased the cheaper UV light they sell for around $16, however I didn't like that the cure time was about 3 minutes per layer. I got the LED light for Christmas, and so far I like it a lot better.

Anyway - I also got some new Gelish colors from my friend Debby for Christmas and after using them I just love how they turned out. I am planning on doing a tutorial with pictures of each step and more explanation at some point when I have the time, but I really just wanted to share these pictures! This two coats of Harmony Gelish Need a Tan, and one coat of Harmony Gelish Silver Sand.

After wearing the Gels for a little more than a week, I took a picture, below, to show how good they still look but you can see how much they have grown out. I got antsy after wearing this for a week and a half and took it off, but I really could have worn it for a lot longer based on how well it stayed on.