My official Valentine's Day manicure

I had this idea in my head for a while, so I decided to finally try it as it was perfectly suited for Valentine's Day:


But it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped! This is a base of Essie French Affair with the new Art Club Nail Glam full nail decal design Hearts of Gold on the ring finger. I originally wanted to put the designs on every finger, but I'm really glad I started with my ring finger. Now I know what you guys were saying about these. They're... not so great. They're extremely stiff and don't conform to the natural curve of the nail, so you end up with weird lumps and wrinkles like you see on mine. And they say to seal them with topcoat, but the decal covers the whole nail so it's really not sealing it to the nail, it's just coating it with topcoat, which means... it peels. Gah, what a disappointment. I loved the design so much, too. I wish I could have made it work.

The Essie polish was exactly the color I was thinking of for the base of the mani, so that worked out well!

But yeah, too bad about the Art Club Glam decals. I had really high hopes for them. *sigh*

So, how was your Valentine's day? So what if it's a Hallmark holiday! That does not negate the awesomeness of heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting! And sprinkles! Any holiday that advocates the liberal use of sprinkles is a winner in my book.

Inque Nails Designs and Sale

Inque Nails is having a sale until February 8th: Get 15% off your order with code thanksget15off OR get $5 off your toenail sizing fee with code get5offsizing.

Edit: Reader Vampkat also shared this code: 20% off if you use the code FBPPPQOW

I haven't posted about them yet because I haven't tried applying them. I'm currently working on swatching a lot of polish, so I didn't want to apply the Inque nails and immediately have to take them off and waste them! But, when I get a chance to wear the same thing for more than a day, I'll do an application post about these.

In the meantime, here's a little information about Inque.

Inque Nails are a vinyl nail wrap- a little like a decal, a little like Minx. You apply them with heat and they stick to your nails, similar to the Minx process. Except, with Inque nails, you can pick and create your own designs and they're custom sized to your nails.

The first thing you have to do is register your nails. You take a picture of each hand (and/or each foot if you want Inque for your toes!) and they custom size all your designs to the shape of your nails. I'll explain this more in detail when I post my Inque tutorial.

There are a ton of designs to choose from, or you can create your very own style!

To give you an idea of what's available, here are some of their designs:


This is what the Inque nails look like when they're sized to your nails.

However, it's easier to see the detail in the patterns on unsized sheets, so I'll post the unsized ones for these pictures. Keep in mind that you'll get the sized type above once you register your nails, and they'll be perfectly fitted to your own nail shape.

Amoeba


A Little Cheetah


Dog Gone Crazy



Flight


Go Green (these might just be my favorite!)



Peacock 2 (Peacock 1 is only one feather)


Proud To Be

Snake 4

Aren't those cool?! Such amazing, intricate designs that could never be duplicated with Konad or painting alone. They've added a ton of designs since I picked mine out and there are a lot new styles I want... I'm particularly fond of the new 'Cheese' design. Wish I saw that when I picked mine!

Right now they also have Superbowl designs, in case you're into that kinda thing and want to show some team spirit.

Those are the designs I chose, but there are over 200 designs to choose from. You can also submit your own images for a completely custom design. I'll do a more detailed post on application when I am able.

(These were sent to me for review.)

New Drugstore Nail Appliques- Broadway, Art Club and Sally Hansen

I was out scouring the drugstores this week looking for new 2011 beauty products and came across a bunch of nail art items that seem really awesome.

You might be familiar with nail appliques like Incoco or Inque (I'll be reviewing Inque appliques soon), and these are pretty much the same idea. I haven't tried any of them on yet- I have a lot of polish to swatch and I don't want to waste them because they're so cool! I'm so excited about these. I have a feeling we'll be seeing even more designs this year, too.

Here are the ones I grabbed:

Art Club Glam

Art Club Glam in Diamond Studded, Hearts of Gold and Vivid Zebra. These ones seem more like plastic full-nail sized decals more than stretchy vinyl-like or polish-like strips like the others. These had the best designs out of all of them- there were a bunch but I only grabbed these for now.

Diamond Studded. A clear base with black diagonal and chevron french tips and black leopard spots accented by pink hologram foil.

Hearts of Gold. A clear base with gold hologram foil in concentric rings, dots and hearts.


Vivid Zebra. Clear base with black and rainbow foil zebra stripes.

Gotta love Art Club!


Broadway Nail Dress

The Broadway Nail Dress ones were a little more expensive and came in only four designs. Two animal print styles and a silver fishnet style, nothing you couldn't do with Konad. These are the most intricate ones. They don't seem to have a name, just a number. This is what's inside the box:

Two sheets of stickers and a little emery board.


There's also a booklet of $1.00 off coupons on the display, so make sure to grab one!



Sally Hansen Salon Effects

The Sally Hansen Salon Effects had the biggest display but the least intricate designs. Half of them were just plain creme finish polish colors, a few were some decent glitters and the rest were nail art designs like this, but some of them could be duplicated with Konad. I almost got the Denim-print ones, but at $8.50 the Salon Effects appliques the least cost effective of the three brands. I don't understand why I'd pay $8.50- the price of a bottle of OPI at retail- for one manicure with a normal pink or blue polish like some of these Salon Effects... I would consider paying that much for the nail art ones as long as they were complicated enough designs. Anyway, this Laced Up style stood out to me, very sexy.

It comes just like the Incoco sets do; an emery board/buffer, a manicure stick, instruction sheer and sealed foil packets with nail polish strips.

Isn't this design pretty?

I can't wait to try these out on my nails. I think the Art Club Hearts of Gold might end up as my Valentine's Day mani this year.