Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat Manicure

Essie Come Here! and Beyond Cozy accent nail

Hello there! I've been seeing a pin floating around Pinterest for a few years for a cheap DIY gel manicure. The posts include the Gelous Advanced Gel Coat from Sally's Beauty Supply, nail color of choice, and any quick drying glossy top coat. The instructions are as follows:

1. Start with clean, dry nails.
2. Apply 2 coats of Gelous, allowing about 45 seconds between thin coats.
3. Apply a thin coat of your nail color of choice. Allow to dry for a few minutes.
4. Apply another thin coat of Gelous and allow to semi-dry.
5. Apply another thin coat of color and allow to dry a few minutes.
6. Finish off with a fast drying top coat. It is optional to use the Gelous on top again as top coat. Make sure to go over the edge of the nail to really seal in the polish.

Essie Come Here! and Beyond Cozy accent nail

Ooooh, so shiny!

In the photo above, you can see the bottle of Gelous. My manicure is 5 days old in this picture and you can see some minor chipping. Honestly, 5 days is a lot for me because I get bored with my nail polish easily, and most polish chips within the first few days. In the picture below, you can see the chips but the Gelous kept my manicure very shiny after 5 days.

Manicure after 5 days of wear

It might seem like a lot of steps just to make your manicure a little more shiny and to last a little bit longer, but I think it is worth it! I'm able to paint my nails before bed without worrying about the dreaded blanket smudge. I will be repurchasing Gelous. I don't always follow the exact steps. Sometimes I'll just use Gelous as a base coat alone. Feel free to play around with what works best for your nails.

I hope you enjoyed this post and give Gelous a try! It is only $5.99 at Sally's Beauty Supply.

Quick Swatches: New CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Glosses

Incredibly long time, no blog!

I apologize for the complete lack of blog posts, but this school year has really taken its toll on me. I'm half-way to getting my bachelor's degree, so I'm really trying to focus more on school. But I have picked up six shades of the new CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant Nail Glosses, and they are a huge hit in my book!

I do these quick swatches due to a lack of time, and so you can see some of the shades next to each other. Here are some super quick (slightly messy) swatches!
(Click on any photo to enlarge it)

Here is a bottle shot! From L-R

Constant Candy, Lav-endure, Coral Silk, Grapevine, Forever Festive, Wine To Five

Constant Candy is a milky, cool, light pink. This is very pretty and reminds me of Essie Fiji.(I don't own Fiji, but I think they look similar from swatches I have seen)

Lav-endure is a pale lilac cream. It is much paler in person, but pretty wearable. I think this is going to be a fantastic shade for spring, and how cute is that name?

Coral Silk is a creamy orange coral color that appears much more orange in person. I know this will probably live on my toes this spring and summer....

 

Grapevine is a deep metallic violet shade that looks to be a close dupe to Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro nail polish in Violet Metal

 

Forever Festive is probably my favorite from this line. It is a gorgeous shimmery red that would be perfect for the holidays! (hence the name...) I love this color so much because it is such a wearable red. If you pick up any color from this nail polish line, I highly recommend this baby!

 

Wine To Five was one of the first shades I purchased that helped me fall in love with these polishes. It is a deep wine berry creamy color. I almost wish it was just a tad more berry, but I do love this color!

Overall, I think this is a fantastic new nail polish line from CoverGirl! The application with all of the polishes were very smooth, and they didn't take long to dry at all. 
These claim to not need a base or top coat, but I used both out of habit. However, before applying my top coat, I did notice that my nails had great shine. 
They also claim to wear for seven days. This wasn't quite the deal for me, but I'm also quite rough with my hands. They chipped around the 2nd or 3rd day. I don't think this is a formula flaw, just my own everyday wear and tear.

One con of these polishes is that when I close the bottle, the edges don't always completely align. This is more of an aesthetic issue that isn't really important. You can really see this happening with my Grapevine bottle in the picture above.

But an awesome thing about the packaging is that it closely resembles Chanel nail polish packaging. I don't own any Chanel polishes, but I've seen photos of comparisons.


These are about $4-$5 at most drugstores. I highly recommend these nail polishes, and I can't wait to try some more! 

Have a lovely day! :)