Sensationail - Long Lasting Gel Manicure! {Review}

I know that this time of the year, a lot of people will be planning their Christmas and summer holidays. When you are super busy or are going away on a holiday, you will definitely want your nail polish to last a while! Who wants to be re-painting their chipped nails on holiday?!

Today I have a review of Sensationail for you. Sensationail is a gel polish system that will give you up to 2 weeks of wear! Perfect for this busy time of year, or for your summer holiday. Or a perfect Christmas gift for someone special in your life!

I have a few Sensationail products to talk about, but I'll start with the Starter Kit.

The Starter Kit comes with a Pro 3060 LED Lamp (which you must have to use Sensationail products, as it's used to cure the gel - the polish will not set without it), the gel primer, gel cleanser, base & top coat, the coloured gel polish (choose between Scarlet Red and Raspberry Wine), as well as some lint free pads to use with the gel cleanser, a nail file and a cuticle stick, and the instructions, of course.

(If you're interested in seeing HOW TO apply/remove these products, check out the How To page on the Sensationail website. I won't be going over that in this post, as I have already done so in other posts.)

Here is Scarlet Red, the day after I applied it. It's a gorgeous, classic bright red. I used just two coats. I've tried a few red gel polishes and this would have to be one of the nicest. However, when I was applying the top coat, I did experience some of the red transferring to the top coat brush. Other than that, I had no problems at all!

Here is Scarlet Red after 1 week of wear. There is no visible wear, apart from my nails having grown out, obviously. It still looks exactly the same as when I applied it, and is still very shiny! I definitely think it would last the two weeks that they promise. I get tired of my nail colour after a week, however and wanted to change it up.

You can also buy Sensationail colours separately. Here I have Pink Chiffon, Pink Daisy and Taupe Tulips.

So far I have only had a chance to try Taupe Tulips but I hope to try the others soon and give you a look at those.

Here is Taupe Tulips after about 6 days of wear. It looked exactly the same as when I first applied it! Perfect and shiny. I used 3 coats for this one, as it was a little sheer with just two. This is such a nice nude colour. I absolutely love it.

Here are a few other items that are in my opinion, optional but are definitely handy to have:

The Gel Polish Removal Kit includes a 125mL bottle of Gel Polish Remover, as well as 30 foil removal wraps. (Nail file and cuticle stick are also included - not pictured).
I really liked this but honestly, I wouldn't purchase it when I run out. I usually use pure acetone to remove my gel polish, with some regular aluminium foil and cotton balls and it does the job. But it is a nice kit to have.

I really like the Gel Polish Removal Tool! However, I would not say that it is the most "gentle way" to remove gel polish. If you use a heavy hand, you could definitely damage your nails with it. You must be very careful when using it.
I don't know if it's intended for this, but I actually like using it to push my cuticles back! But again, you have to be extremely careful!

The only problem I had with Sensationail, was the removal. I found it a bit harder to remove than other gels I have tried. You have to file the top surface of the nail first, to remove the top coat and then soak as normal. I soaked my nails for 15 minutes but found that I had to re-wrap my nails another time because it was very hard to scrape off. I also had some base coat left over even after buffing my nails. But if it's harder to remove, that means your polish will last longer so it has it's pros and cons. Having said this, I still recommend Sensationail. I think the removal process is worth it.

I absolutely recommend Sensationail to anyone who is interested in trying out an at-home gel manicure kit! It's the best one I have tried so far. I love that their products are so easily accessible.
You can purchase Sensationail products online (free shipping over $50!), as well as Priceline, Target, Terri White Chemists, Woolworths and Chemmart.

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Hollish Patisserie Collection | Swatches & Review

Hi guys! Today I am so excited to bring you my first indie nail polish swatch & review post since March! Wow. I can't believe it's been that long. I hope I can do these polishes justice that I'll be sharing today!

Today I have the new Patisserie Collection by Hollish to share with you! :)

There are 6 polishes in this collection and they are all pastel crelly (creme/jelly) polishes with metallic and holographic silver micro-glitter as well as other glitter.

All of these polishes are gorgeous, and so perfect for the spring time. I am super impressed with all of the colours!

Mani Monday: Arte Clavo - Cake Pop

Happy Mani Monday friends! Hope you had a fantastic weekend & Father's Day {for those of you in Aussie-land}. What did you get up to? :)

I can't remember if I mentioned here on my blog or not, but my nails are very damaged at the moment. I committed a nail crime a couple of weeks ago when I was wearing fake nails, and pulled them off, instead of soaking off like you're supposed to.
Needless to say, my nails are now extremely weak, peeling and awful! They were also super painful at first, which was horrible. Thankfully they aren't really painful anymore.

Since my natural nails are awful, I'm trying to grow the damage out. I decided to try and stick to mostly gel manicures for a while, as they last longer and many people also say that gel manicures add a layer of protection to your nails and help them to grow, which I do believe is true.

This is a gel polish from one of my favourite brands, Arte Clavo. I don't know a lot about the brand, to be honest, but I found them by accident on eBay. They sell very affordable gel polishes, and almost all of them are dupes {or similar - some aren't exact dupes} for CND Shellac polishes. I don't know about you, but I'd never be able to afford all of my favourite colours if I used Shellac polishes. Which is why I love these Arte Clavo polishes. I use them along with my Gelish Foundation & Top It Off base and top coats. :)

This polish is called Cake Pop. It is a gorgeous light pink creme. I needed 3 coats for opacity.
I don't believe it's an exact dupe for the CND polish, but it is similar. {I think the CND polish might lean a little more on the blue-y side of pink, and is a little lighter.}

I totally love this colour! Lately I have been gravitating towards light pinks and other pastel colours. I guess that's because springtime is starting.

I find that the Arte Clavo polishes apply great and last just as long as any other gel polish. I know that some people don't agree with using the cheaper gel polishes but I don't have a problem with it.
I wore this gel manicure for about 5 days before I got bored of it. I do think it would've lasted at least a few more days!

I also wanted to share with you a mini nail haul that arrived in my mail box today! :) I bought two items from the seller "enchantedbeautyspot" on eBay.

I made this eBay order mainly for the Nailtiques Formula 2 nail strengthener. I heard about this from Lindsay Does Nails on YouTube. You might know that my favourite strengthener has been Duri Rejuvacote for over 2 years now, but lately I haven't really been seeing results when I use it, so I decided to try something new! :) I will update you on my thoughts.

I didn't want to pay shipping for just one item, so I also bought the Orly Gel FX gel polish in Beach Cruiser! This is a super bright neon pink. I am sooo excited to try it out when summertime comes around! {Although I am not excited at all for the sticky disgusting-ness that comes with summertime.} I think it will be an amazing pedicure colour.
This will be my first time trying an Orly gel polish so that's exciting too! I only own a few "name brand" gels.

Thanks so much for reading. Especially if you got all the way to the end. ;)

What is on your nails this Mani Monday?! ♥

Mani Monday: L'oreal 'Lacey Lilac'

Hi everyone! Happy Monday & HAPPY SPRING!
I am so excited that springtime & September are here. I really love this time of the year when it's starting to warm up a bit. {Although I am not looking forward to summer/heat wave season, but that's still a few months away yet.}
It's a little ironic, however. We had lovely, warm, sunshine-y weather the past few days, but the first day of spring has been a little chilly and rainy.

Being the first day of spring, I decided to paint my nails with a spring-y colour! The past few months I have really liked painting my nails to go with the seasons. In winter I enjoyed dark/muted colours, and now I'm reaching for more pastel/bright colours.

This is Lacey Lilac by L'oreal.

I picked up this colour at The Reject Shop for about $3, if I'm remembering correctly. They had a few pastel colours there, that looked like they had been sitting on the shelf for months, and I decided to give this beauty a try. {After Googling this polish, it seems it was from a limited edition spring collection from last year, so I'm not sure how readily available it would be now.}

Lacey Lilac is such a pretty spring colour. It's walking the line between pink and purple. Depending on what the lighting is like, sometimes it will lean very pink, and sometimes very purple.
The polish has a nice brush, with a slightly curved tip, making it easy to cover the nail.
It went on a little streaky on the first coat, but the second evened it out. I added one coat of Seche Vite top coat to finish off.

I can definitely see myself reaching for this colour again soon. Pinks and purples are my favourite in the spring!

PS. A lot of you requested more nail posts in my Requests/Suggestions post, so I couldn't ignore that kind of response! I've decided to try and put out a blog post whenever I paint my nails. I can't promise anything, but I will try to put up at least one nail post per week. :) But there was also quite a lot of you that said you wanted to still see my planners, so I will also be continuing those posts.

{Just know, I don't wear anything super exciting on my nails these days. If you follow my Instagram, you would probably know that I did a huge destash of my collection recently. I can now easily fit my collection into a shopping bag. I only own a few glitters, because I'm really only gravitating towards creamy colours.}

Some people had also requested to see things like nail care, polish clean up, etc. I actually have some videos on my YouTube channel relating to those things if you are interested. I also have a nail care section on my blog which contains some things like nail care, as well as other nail related tips & tricks.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic week. ♥

Happy Saturday.

Happy Saturday morning everyone! {Or whatever day/time it is when you're reading this!} I hope your weekend is off to a great start.

I hadn't planned on posting a blog post today, but I just got the urge to write something. So here I am!

I'm pretty excited that it's the weekend! Saturday in particular. Saturdays are probably my favourite day. I love Saturday mornings! I don't really know why. I don't sleep in, I get up at the same time as I do every other day. Something about Saturday morning is just nice.
Saturday afternoons, we usually do our food shopping and then spend the rest of the day at home.
And then Saturday nights, my husband and I have a date night, which is always fun, no matter what we do! A lot of the time we just stay home and watch a movie {it's too cold go to out!}. So Saturdays are definitely my favourite!
What is your favourite day of the week?!

I just painted my nails this morning, and I felt like showing you {and my pretty Kikki.K in the background}! I've used Face of Australia "Jafar", a super dark, deep red {almost black!}, from their Dark Side collection. I absolutely love this collection.

I have to be honest, though. These are not my nails. They're actually fake glue-on nails. I was trying to grow out my nails to this length/shape but it was just not happening. And I got so impatient. So, I bought some glue on nails. I told myself I'd never wear fake nails after I had acrylics back in the day, but I really like these! I don't think they actually look very fake {my opinion - you may think otherwise}. I know they'll only last me maybe 5-7 days maximum, because by then they will probably look a bit gross, but that's fine with me!

I uploaded an updated look at my Kikki.K Lilac Planner set up on my YouTube channel the other day, if you're interested in seeing that!
I am absolutely loving my Kikki.K Lilac planner and I haven't moved out of it since I got it, which is weird for me. I can't even see myself moving out of it soon.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! ♥ Let me know what you're getting up to!

Red Carpet Manicure Gel Nail Polish Review.

For the past month and a bit, I have been loving wearing gel nail polish. You may have realised that I am not as into nail polish as I used to be. I don't feel the need to change my colour every day or own a million polishes. I wore gel polish for my wedding, and it lasted about 9 days chip free! I thought that was amazing!
I have a gel nail polish kit from Red Carpet Manicure to share with you today. Red Carpet Manicure is a brand of gel nail polish. Before I share any more, I will let you know that gel nails and gel nail polish are not the same thing! Gel nails are a nail enhancement, similar to acrylic nails. Gel nail polish is a nail polish that needs to be cured under either an UV, or LED lamp to dry. If applied and removed correctly, it should not damage your natural nails.
I have received Red Carpet Manicure's Gel Polish Pro Kit to share and review for you. In the Pro Kit, you receive:

• the Professional LED Light (to cure the polish)
• Prep (nail dehydrator/bonder)
• Structure (base coat)
• Brilliance (top coat)
• Revitalize (cuticle oil)
• Red Carpet Reddy (classic red gel nail polish colour)
• Purify (gel cleanser)
• Erase (gel polish remover)
• Instruction manual

I applied the red gel polish Red Carpet Reddy, on the 24th of April, following the instructions that they provided. I found the instructions to be very thorough and helpful.

The colour is a classic red, it sort of has that jelly-ish formula. 2 coats was fine, but a third would ensure 100% opacity. The manicure was definitely very shiny when I was finished, which was awesome. I did notice that while I was applying the top coat, the red colour did transfer onto the top coat brush a little. I made sure to wipe the brush off on a tissue before I put it back into the bottle.

I like the polish brush on the Red Carpet Manicure polishes, it was easy to control the polish so that it didn't get on my skin.

Here is what my manicure looked like right after I finished:

By day 3, I had experienced slight (very slight) tip wear on a few of my nails (you can't tell in the photo) which was a little disappointing.

By day 4, I had one or two small chips on a couple of my nails. However the manicure was still extremely shiny and looking nice. On that same day, I had a bad nail break and decided to cut all of my nails down very short - with the nail polish still on! To my amazement, I had no additional signs of wear after this. I wouldn't exactly recommend that you do that though, because for most people I would imagine that would make your manicure chip much faster. I just wanted to share my experience.
I removed the gel manicure on day 5 (sorry, I don't have a photo) because I wanted to change up the colour. The removal process was super easy. It is just like removing a glitter polish with the foil method (video tutorial here). I soaked my nails for 10 minutes and when I removed the foil, the polish flaked off of my nails very easily! I had a cuticle pusher ready to gently scrape at any bits of polish that needed it, but I barely needed to do that! The removal process was awesome.

I also received a second colour, Leading Lady, to review. I had an even better experience with this colour!

Leading Lady, is a creamy lavender pink colour. I used 3 (very thin) coats for this manicure. It had decent coverage at 2 coats, but I decided to go for 3. I think the consistency of this polish may have been slightly thinner than Red Carpet Reddy. This polish did not transfer at all onto the top coat brush.
I absolutely adore this colour, and I got a lot of compliments on it, too! :) My husband even commented on it! :P

Here is my Leading Lady manicure at day 3:

I was SUPER impressed by this colour. Because this colour lasted NINE DAYS, still looking as perfect as the day I applied it! I had no tip wear, no chips, no wear signs at all! It was still very shiny! The only thing that changed is that my nails grew out, so there is a gap at the cuticle. Because it lasted so long, I believe that the Red Carpet Reddy colour started showing signs of wear due to user error. I'm sure Leading Lady would have lasted even longer than 9 days if I had left it on, but I felt like changing up my colour.

(Sorry for the awful quality iPhone photo for this one. And I had a cut on my cuticle on my pointer finger, which is why I'm only showing 3 fingers in this picture.)

Another thing I really liked about Red Carpet Manicure gel polish that I haven't experienced before, is that this system comes with a LED curing lamp. I have only ever tried a UV lamp before, which takes almost double the time to cure a layer of polish! I loved that the LED lamp was so efficient, and it is also very small, whereas my UV lamp is ginormous and takes up a lot of room.
I am definitely in love with the Red Carpet Manicure system and hope to try more colours in the future! I 100% recommend it to anyone who wants to try out a gel polish system.
If you'd like to see an application tutorial for Red Carpet Manicure gel polish, you can check out their video here.
You can find Red Carpet Manicure polishes online, and at selected David Jones & Shaver Shop stores.
*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review.  For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Hollish Nails Swatches & Review

I have a new indie brand (to me, anyway) to share with you today! Hollish Nails is from right here in SA! :)

She has just released a huge range of new polishes on her store! I have six glitters from Hollish to show you. 

Glam Polish: The Supernatural Collection.

I know I said that I'd only be posting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sundays during February, but I have an extra post for you this week! :D

Today I have my Glam Polish Supernatural collection swatches for you! This collection is made up of 5 jelly glitter polishes. They all have pretty much the same glitter mix in them, but each one has a different colour jelly base.

These are fantastic, so without further ado, let's get into the swatches!

Love Month. Day 17: Pink & Gold Chevrons.

Hi friends!

I am so sorry. This post was supposed to go up yesterday. I thought I'd have time earlier today to get a post up, but my fiancé and I ended up spending the whole day getting wedding things done! I'm really glad that we were able to do that, though. :)

Today will be a quick post to show you a manicure from about two weeks ago that I didn't share here! I can't believe I didn't, because I really loved this mani.

For this manicure I used OPI's Mod About You - one of my all time favourite pink polishes. 

I paired that with a chevron accent nail using China Glaze's I'm Not Lion, a gold holographic glitter. I have a picture tutorial on how to do a chevron nail here, but I actually used a different method for this manicure which is a bit less time consuming. Nailsofjessiek on Instagram has a video tutorial for the method I used, which you can see here. I find this way to be a bit easier & less time consuming.

Hope you enjoyed. :) ♥ Hopefully I will be able to get back on track with my posts tomorrow.

Love Month. Day 13: Sweethearts Duo. ♥ - A Pretty Pots Collaboration.

Today I have something special to share with you. :) I am so insanely excited about it!
A couple of months ago, Jalene from Pretty Pots asked me if I'd like to collaborate with her on a polish duo to celebrate my engagement to Russ! I helped Jalene come up with a concept for both polishes for the duo and they turned out absolutely perfect; just what I was picturing in my mind!
This duo is called the Sweethearts Duo. ♥

Love Month. Day 10: Pretty Polished Tag.

Because I was a silly billy and ran out of time to put a proper post together for today, I have another tag post for you. This one is nail related though, so I'm sure lots of you will like it!

I promise that tomorrow's post will be a 'real' post, though. :)

I was tagged by the lovely Lindsay from Sparkly Tips (or Lindsay Does Nails on YouTube) to do the Pretty Polished tag! You can check out her video here.

I haven't found the time to put together a video so I thought I'd do the tag here on my blog instead.

Love Month. Day 8: Gold and Pink Valentines Mani.

I've had my DSLR camera for about 2 months now and I only just figured out how to use the live view function (so you don't have to look through the little viewfinder thing). Yep, took me 2 months to figure out how to turn it on. All I was doing wrong was that I didn't press the 'ok' button. Seriously?!
Anyway. Nevermind that. Today I have a short post to show you another Valentine's Day nail look. I really like this one.

My skin colour looks fairly alien-like in these photos... Please excuse that.

For this manicure I used China Glaze Something Sweet (baby pink), Loki's Lacquer Scrooged (glitter) and OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips (hot pink).

I really like the pink and gold colour combination right now!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. ♥

Love Month. Day 6: Glam Polish Fantasy Trio: Mei Mei's Signatures Exclusive.

I have a new trio by Glam Polish to share with you today. This is the Fantasy Trio, and it is exclusive to Mei Mei's Signatures (one of Glam Polish's overseas stockists).

The trio features two light-coloured creamy glitters, and one dark jelly glitter.

Out of this World is a light blue/grey base with pink, silver and turquoise glitters. A little sheer on the first coat, but the second built up nicely. I definitely feel like my collection is lacking these blue-grey colours so this one is a nice addition to my stash.

She is Elusive is a super dark purple jelly with a fine gold flake glitter and also some very small holographic glitter. This one is also a little sheer on the first coat, but the second coat builds it up. I love this so much! It's flippin' beautiful!

Unreachable has black, white, pink and gold small glitters, plus a gold shimmer, in a pink toned nude base. Lovely to apply, and opaque in two coats. It kind of reminds me of cookies & cream, haha.

This trio is now available from Mei Mei's Signatures here (at the time of writing, the trio is out of stock but should be back in stock soon). You can also buy them separately if you don't want all three.

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review.  For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*