Nail Design, Articles, and Tips

This is the second article in a series:  CND Shellac application and removal. Read the second article about how to apply CND Shellac nail polish that you can do at home.

The demonstration was done by CND Education Ambassador, Michele Huynh, who is also a nail technician at a salon at Del Mar, CA.

Products:

1. Pure Acetone
2. CND Shellac Remover Wraps
3. Nail Wipes
4. Wood Cuticle Stick
5. Cuticle Oil

1. Before removal

Just want to show one of my nail sporting CND Shellac Rock Royalty before removal. This was 2 coats.

2. Wrap the nail with CND Shellac Remover Wraps. Make sure to saturate the cotton pad with Pure Acetone first. Then, place wrap under finger and fold the pad over nail and wrap around finger ensuring a tight, snug fit. Secure wrap with adhesive tab. The CND logo should be on top of the nail.  Leave wrap for 10 minutes.

3. Using a twisting motion, slowly pull wrap from the nail.

4. This is how the nail looks after pulling the wrap. There is still a lot of residue.

5. Gently slide off any remaining polish with an orangewood stick. Be careful not to scrape away the surface layers of the natural nail plate. Don’t use metal pusher as it will scrape the layer of the nail.

6. Wipe clean nail with lint-free nail wipe saturated with Acetone. Now the nail is clean and ready for another nail polish application. Or use and massage Cuticle Oil on nail if no nail polish will be applied.

My nail is as clean as the others. Removal was a breeze with Shellac Remover Wraps. CND Shellac removal is best done with Shellac remover wraps. She strongly discouraged soaking nails with Acetone because it will make the nail and cuticle dry. Thus it will create problem of weak and splitting nails in the future.

If you are wondering what color she used, it was Moonlight & Roses over Asphalt. Here is her nails.

Using a pump bottle like this will minimize messy application.

All products are available at Esther’s Nail Center. Visit us for CND Shellac products, Gelish, Daisy Gel and other manicure pedicure supplies.

Purchase $45 or more in a single transaction, get $5 off. Use coupon code ‘shellacnail5off′ at checkout. Expires 9/26/2011.  Applies to online order only. No cash value or credit back. Coupon can’t be applied to prior purchase.  One coupon per customer.

This is the first article in a series:  CND Shellac application and removal. Read the second article about how to remove CND Shellac nail polish that you can do at home.

Recently I was blessed to participate in a CND Shellac Workshop because I got ‘shellacked’ by an experienced CND Education Ambassador, Michele Huynh.

She did a demonstration on how to apply and remove CND Shellac nail polish.  Her application was flawless and removal was a breeze.  My nail (only one nail got done) looked great. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to know how long it would stay since my shellac was removed the same day…:-(..It had to, so I can show you all on how to remove Shellac.

Alright, let’s continue on how to apply CND Shellac. Also beware this is a heavy-picture post.

1. File edge of the nail with 240-grit nail file, to shape the nail. With CND Shellac, you would never file your nail bed.

2.  Push back and clean cuticles with cuticle pusher. Notice that this is a dry manicure.

3. Cut any hang nails or cuticle if necessary with cuticle nipper.

4. Wipe clean nail with lint-free nail wipe soaked with CND Scrubfresh.

5. Shake, shake vigorously the Shellac Base Coat so the ingredients mix well.

6. Apply a thin coat of Shellac Nail Base Coat. The key to get a good result is to apply every layer thinly, said Michele.

7. Cure under 36-watt Shellac UV Lamp for 10 seconds. Make sure your middle finger touch the end of the tunnel before starting the process.

8. Apply a thin layer of Shellac nail polish. In this case, I used Rock Royalty. And cure for 2 minutes under Shellac 36-watt UV lamp. To clean the messy polish application on the cuticle or skin, just use the wood cuticle stick to wipe clean. Do it before curing the polish.

9. Apply another thin layer of Shellac nail polish. And cure for 2 minutes. If necessary, you can apply an extra layer for dark coverage.

10. Apply a thin layer of Shellac Top Coat. And cure for 2 minutes.

11. Wipe clean the nail with lint-free nail wipe soaked with 99% Alcohol. It has to be 99% Alcohol. If less than 99% it won’t show the full shine. After wiping, the polish should be dry, hard and not tacky.

12. Apply and massage Solar cuticle oil on nails. And here’s  CND Shellac nail polish Rock Royalty.

I also asked her some questions I often heard regarding CND Shellac application. To keep it short, I’ll just post the answer below:

• It’s not uncommon to hear customers complain about her nails getting dry after using CND Shellac. Michele suggests to use CND Solar Oil every day to combat this problem. If Solar Oil is used often, there shouldn’t be problem of dry or splitting nails.
• Regarding nails that are not cured properly, check the bulbs. Perhaps one of the bulbs is out. Also on CND Shellac 36-watt UV lamp, you can press the Reset button to see how many hours left for the current bulbs. Also shake, shake shellac coats or polish to make sure the ingredients mix well.
• Her choice for French Manicure is Cream Puff or Studio White (an off-white) for the white tip and Clearly Pink and Romantique (more opaque) for the pink. Here’s her French Manicure with Studio White and Clearly Pink.
  
• Using less than 99% Alcohol won’t show the full shine of Shellac. Make sure when buying, you get only the 99% Alcohol.
• For customers with weak or splitting nails who want to use Shellac nail polish, she advices to use Brisa Gel as a foundation before using Shellac. The purpose is to strengthen the nails before applying Shellac.

Finally, take a look at these photos on Shellac colors and products that were used.

I noticed using pump bottles like these make application process less messy and easier.

CND Shellac Moonlight Roses over Asphalt. Michele was sporting this color. If you like this color, take a look at other photos above. Those purple nails are hers.

That pretty red nail is Red Baroness. Two coats with a Top Coat.

Phew! What a long post. I have to split this story and write on how to remove CND Shellac nail polish in another post. Stay tuned!

You can get all these products at Esther’s Nail Center. We have all new CND Shellac Fall 2011 colors in-stock. Check us out.

Yes! The new CND Shellac Fall 2011 colors are now in-stock.  They tend to run out quickly and we only have them in limited quantity. So get it before it’s gone.

The new colors are:

Studio White is a white-off color, great for French Manicure tips. Zillionaire is the only multi-color glitter in this collection. Check out the swatches here.

CND Shellac complete products are available at Esther’s Nail Center.

Very sorry for not posting for a while. My husband and I have been working on a new website, which was launched last week. I’m so relieved when finally it opened officially on 8/12/2011.

We named the company and website Honey Day. Credit goes to my husband who got the idea and the tagline, while working tirelessly on developing the website. Love you honey!

Basically, Honey Day offers a candy subscription service that will deliver unique candies from around the world to your door.

Sometimes I get a situation when I walk along an isle of an asian supermarket, searching for the perfect candy and snack for the week and I just can’t decide which one because they all look yummy and foreign at the same time.

With Honey Day, you can go pass this problem by trying surprising candies each month. We’ll hand-select the candy for you so no more struggle over candy. We will bring more Asian candies plus occasionally from other region as well.

So, how it works? Just pick a plan, whether you want the candy delivered once or twice a month.  There’s also a one-time plan for you who want to try once.  After subscribing, just wait for the candy to come. Check out the sample shipment below.

Interested? Visit http://www.thehoneyday.com for details. I also would like to know comments or advices from all my reader. Would you please leave me a comment? I appreciate your attention. Thanks.

Hello all! I’d like to ask a favor from all of you about our plan to offer nail polish subscriptions.

Here’s the detail. We have a plan to offer monthly subscription for Gelish, Daisy Gel and Adoree nail polishes. Customers can subscribe to get one or two nail polishes monthly. Subscriber can make a list of colors of choice and we’ll do our best to ship whatever color in-stock. The plan price probably the same or a little over the price of the polish.

Now I am wondering what you would say about this. Do you like the idea? Do you have any suggestion on the plan and the price? Leave your comment, please. Any advice is really appreciated. Thank you.

I post some Adoree nail polish photos, plus reviews from nail blogs, Prettyfulz and KittyPolishnBags.  Check them out.

First of all Adoree Nail Polish #113.

“Dawn Sky is a beautiful raspberry fuchsia shimmer. I absolutely love this shade. I caught myself staring at the bottle a couple of times. The swirling in there of the blue and pink shimmer…..it’s so mesmerizing. This shade reminds me of China Glaze Reggae to Riches. They’re very close, but I don’t think they’re dupes. Formula was a teeny bit on the watery side. Application was a breeze. Shown is 2 thin coats with no top coat.”

Photos from KittyPolishNBags. Thank you Kathrina!

Below are the swatches of the new colors from Adoree polish collection.

Adoree #501.

“This is one of my favorite colors from the bunch. It is a shimmery gold/bronze color that is neutral enough to wear to the office but still glitzy enough to wear on a night out. The picture didn’t capture the bronze and shimmery-goodness that you see in person, but nonetheless it is a beautiful color. I wore this color for a week without a single chip before I took it off.”

Adoree #502.

“This is a raspberry color with cool undertones. It also has a small amount of shimmer which adds some dimension and depth to the polish. Above is 2 coats, if you look closely you can see a little bit of my smile line. But if you want this polish to be opaque, just one more coat will do the trick.”

Adoree #503

“This is another one of my favorite colors. A cool silver with a slight metallic finish. I love how this color is one of those rare polishes that can go from day to night so well. It also would look lovely on any skin tone.”

Adoree #504

“The picture does this glitter polish no justice! The glitter in this polish is a holographic and dances in the light. I also like how this polish is jam packed with glitter. I used 1 coat above over Adoree 503, so not exactly a one coat glitter, but with 3 coats you can achieve a more opaque glitter nail”.

Adoree #505

“This was one of the hardest polishes to capture on camera due to the unique color. It is a warm rosy color that would be perfect for the fall season. It appears to have soft pink and orange undertones and I have never seen a polish quite this color”.

Photos from Prettyfulz. Thank you Julie!

You may know already that we have the new Daisy Gel Soak Off Polish, a new brand of gel polish in the market. We’d like to have a blogger to review (video also great) this gel polish on her blog. We need someone who are familiar with Gelish and have Gelish products at home because you will need them to do this review.

For this purpose, we will provide Daisy Gel Top and Base Coat, Ultra Bond, and 2 Daisy Gel Polish Colors. If you are interested, leave your blog name and url in the comment below. After getting enough responses, we’ll pick one blog and notify the owner.

A little about Daisy Gel

Daisy Gel works similar like Gelish with the same steps and can be used together with Gelish products. It has good quality and good brush. This is a great choice if you are looking for an affordable gel polish or trying new gel polish at home. Big 3 free and made in USA.