Incoco Fourth of July All Star Collection Dry Nail Applique in Star-Studded

Incoco Dry Nail Appliques in Star-Studded (limited edition)
Either these were somehow easier to apply than other designs, or I'm just getting better at applying them because they came out more perfect than any nail applique I've ever tried wearing before. I only made one mistake this time, where I took a chunk out of the design on my ring finger while filing off the excess material. For more details on how to apply these, please see my previous reviews.

Happy Independence Day! Try not to lose any fingers!

(This was sent for review.)

My 4th of July look (featuring Violent Lips)

I know I'm pretty late in posting this... Meant to post it last week! Been having some technical difficulties which resulted in my unposted pics being scattered across multiple computers... But that's boring and off topic so.... Yeah. Makeup time.

My nails were the Inque Free To Be appliques, the consensus on which seemed to be that they made my nails look wrinkled (I agree). XD




This was actually my July 3rd look, a 'test run' if you will. It didn't turn out so great. I used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance Lemon Drop
MAC Gesso on lid
Aromaleigh White Wedding over Gesso (just a little)
Aromaleigh Tainted Love in crease and on lower lashline
Fyrinnae 1.22 Gigawatts wet as liner
Urban Decay 24/7 in Deviant on waterline

The red bled and stained everywhere, but it's still my favorite red shadow. The 1.22 Gigawatts totally freaked out my camera. It's so blue... I don't have many blues bluer than that.





This one was my *actual* Independence Day look. My friend suggested something that looked like fireworks, so I immediately thought... GLITTER!
This was:
The silver half of L'Oreal HIP duo in Platinum (best silver ever) on lid
Middle of Stila Eyeshadow Trio in After Hours in crease
Pure Luxe OMG wet as liner
Fyrinnae 1.22 Gigawatts over Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow pencil in Clash on lower lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 in Deviant on waterline
MAC 3D Silver glitter (over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy) on lid

Liked this one much more. The Pixie Epoxy is a lifesaver for preventing glitter fallout. Haven't had too much luck using it under shadow, but for glitters it's amazing.


Now for the cool part... the Violent Lips American Flag lip tattoo. This was my first try ever with them and I made a few mistakes, but the end result was still pretty sweet:

Here's how they looked on my lips. Like I said, I made a few application mistakes, but being only my first try, they didn't turn out too shabby looking!

Closeup of star detail- they are actual stars and not spots!

The application was not too complicated, just time consuming. All you do is measure the tattoos against your top and bottom lips, cut them to size and then wet them like a normal temporary tattoo to adhere them onto your lips.

Here are the mistakes I made:
On the top lip, toward the outer corner, you can see where I broke the design. This was because I scratched my lip while the tattoo was still wet. Lesson learned: don't mess with them while they're wet! The only thing you should do while they're wet is gently push them into place if you need to- otherwise don't touch them. The second mistake I made isn't very visible, but I cut the corners too straight and short. Next time I'll taper my cuts and not leave square edges. And the third mistake I made is I placed the bottom lip up too high while applying so it doesn't cover my entire bottom lip and left a loose part on the inner part of my lip, which tore off. You can see where it looks crinkly in the center/inner part of my lips- that's because I got the tattoo too far over the inner lip. Keep the tattoo only on the dry/outer area and it won't wrinkle.

The wear on these really surprised me in a good way. I thought they would be sticky and wear off right away. They didn't. They lasted all day long, through eating, drinking, lip balm application and an attempted removal. What happens is that the top layer of the tattoo does wear off after a while, leaving a less-vibrant version of the tattoo in a thinner layer on your lips. The thin layer seemingly lasts forever and was more difficult to remove than I thought it would be. I used Almay makeup remover pads and vigorous scrubbing to remove it.

The design is super cool and I'd totally wear these and other designs again.

The downside to them is that they make your lips feel weird all day. Dry and kinda... papery? You can put balm over them but it will decrease wear time. They didn't actually dry out my lips, but the sensation is weird and slightly annoying. But, it's a reasonable trade off for having a crazy design (that doesn't need to be reapplied or touched up!) on your lips all day.

Next time I'm going to be much more careful to cut them properly, place them more accurately and not mess with them until they're dry.

(The Violent Lips were sent for review.)

My Independence Day Mani - Inque Nails Proud To Be

I had planned to do some layered Konad stamping with red, white and blue stars and stripes and glitter and whatnot, but then I couldn't find my Konad plates and it was so hot my white base polish started bubbling... So I said 'screw it' and used these Inque decals instead. The style is called Proud To Be and it features an American flag waving in the breeze.


I used the custom sized nails again. They seem to fit better on my right hand than my left hand, as you can see in the pictures. They're a little too narrow, and they taper too much so they bunch up at the tips. They're really not as close a fit as I had hoped they would be- I mean, they were measured from my actual nails! I should have tried the un-sized ones this time.

What I like about these Inque appliques is that the designs are actual photos. You can get custom ones, too. Not something I can duplicate with Konad. I really hoped I could get them to work this time.

The problem I have with these is that they peel like crazy. From the moment I apply them, they drive me f#@^$! BONKERS. The edges are sticky and weird feeling and they peel up and feel so awful that I can not wait to take them off.

These are not even 24 hours old in this picture and look what happened. I applied them yesterday afternoon and this is how they looked when I woke up. They started peeling the minute I put them on. I was really careful with my application this time, too!

My extremely helpful and awesome reader Zandorpha sent me these extremely detailed tips for applying them. She says she has great results with the Inque nails and here's how she applies them:

"I teach art & can get them to last about 5 - 9 days doing all the things I do as an art teacher (clay, paint, plaster) depending on just how messy things get @ school. I really think it may be application that is causing your problems with the stickers. Here's what works for me:

• Nail polish remover (be thorough) to take off polish.
• Any filing on my free edges of my nails where I need smoothing or shaping (largely because of my job beating up my nails).
• Wash hands with soap & water using nail brush to really get the nails clean.
• I use the stickers that are standard sizes (with such short nails and nail beds I can get the long ones for some designs & cut them in 1/2 to save for my toes for another day).
• Being right handed I start with my left thumb.
• I pick out the right size for one nail, stick it down using the cuticle edge & right side of the nail bed as my main guides to line it up really well, don't press it all the way down yet leaving it stuck only partway down (mainly on the right), then eyeball it to see if it needs trimming on the left side of the nail bed, do a quick mini-trim on that left side if necessary w/ some big toe-nail clippers, then press it down with it fitting pretty well.
• I rub the sticker down all over with medium pressure w/ my fingers & check to see how much overhang I have over my free edge. Using the nail clippers, carefully clip off only the bulk of the sticker hanging off my free edge.
• I proceed to do one whole hand like this. It takes time.
• I then go to the hairdryer & have a dry hand towel & dry wash cloth set up. W/ the hand towel under my hand for comfort, I heat up one nail w/ the hair dryer starting on medium & move up to higher heat for as long as I can tolerate.
• As fast as possible I turn off the hair dryer & set it down. I rub really hard w/ the washcloth corner(to keep from accidentally scratching myself - or if I am done w/ one hand already, from ruining my other work) focusing on rubbing from the center to the edges of the sticker. I press hardest on the edges, pressing through the wash cloth with my right thumbnail to really stick it down. You only have 10 seconds to do this in @ the max.
• Then I repeat the heating process doing each nail separately, I don't heat 5 nails @ once & try to get them pressed down, they'd cool too fast.
• Then I file vertically w/ a medium coarse (not crazy coarse, medium fine should work) nail file to get the excess off.
• Then I do the other hand the same way.
  

• Once both hands are done & excess is filed off all nails, I reheat one nail @ a time & re-focus each time on the edges of the stickers. I press HARD w/ my thumbnail on top of the washcloth or it's corner on each nail to really get it to stick.

• Then you are done.

This works well for me. I do not wash my hair or take a shower right after doing this, I give it a few hours before I do anything that would soak my hands for more than a hand washing."

Unfortunately, even these tips still didn't stop the peeling for me, but since they work so well for her, they may work for someone else.

This is only the second time I've tried to wear these, but they're so much of a hassle that I don't think I'll wear them again. I'm so disappointed about that because the designs are AWESOME and I want pictures of feathers and snakeskin and giraffe fur on my nails... But I can't deal with the peeling. They're so uncomfortable when the edges get sticky and peel every time you touch something!

*sigh* Bummer...

(These were sent to me for review.)

4th of July Mani/EOTD

I'm a few days late on this... just got done uploading the pictures from my camera!

You know I'm all about the cheesy, tacky overdone holiday-themed everything, so I had to do a special Independence Day look!

Here were my nails:

The flash seems to show the little holo sparkles pretty well!

This was: One coat Nubar Night Sparkle with one coat of Art Club Red Glitter striper polish on the tips and the stars from a random drugstore no-name (possibly Blue Cross) glitter polish from Halloween, topped with a coat of just-barely shaken Orly Prisma Gloss Silver. Pictures taken immediately after applying a super thick coat of Lippmann Addicted to Speed topcoat which is why they look like they're a mile thick. And also why it peeled off the next day!

And my look wouldn't have been complete without a holiday-themed eye of the day:



This was: Ben Nye Ice topped with MAC Gesso (didn't think the white was going to turn out as frosty as it did so I tried to cover it), Aromaleigh Tainted Love and Ben Nye Cosmic Blue with MAC Blacktrack as liner (Urban Decay Zero for tightlining though) and Cover Girl Lash Blast. Urban Decay Primer Potion was the base.

I'm really in love with Aromaleigh Tainted Love. It's a shame I can't get it anymore now :(

Happy Independence Day!

I was playing around with some of my Art Club striper polishes and did these two designs really quick:

Stars

Stripes

Lippmann Holiday , Art Club Blue Glitter, Art Club Silver Hologram, the silver stars from Love My Nails Glort, INM Out The Door Northern Lights Gold and Orly Prisma Gloss Silver.

I know, they're a little sloppy and uneven, I was just playing around a bit, but I think they turned out pretty cute! I might actually leave this on as my final Fourth of July mani. It's so sparkly, like little fireworks on my nails!

If I don't get a chance to post again, I wish you all a happy and safe fourth of July / Independence Day!

Independence Day Mani Idea: Orly Star Spangled

This is Orly's Star Spangled. A red jelly-like base with tons of sparkling red glitter. It's from the Orly Stars and Stripes collection, which is not really a "new" collection, but a set of three polishes, two are repromotes (Star of Bombay and White Out) and one is new (Star Spangled).

Even though I bought this polish just for the name, I still love the color. I can never resist a red glitter. There's just something about red glitters that makes me excited. They're so rich and sparkly, I can't take my eyes off of them.

I haven't decided exactly what my 4th of July manicure will be yet, but this might be part of a cool, festive fireworks manicure.

On a totally unrelated note, I thought I should let you know that I am still *way* behind on everything- posting reviews, responding to emails and comments and completing requests. I am absolutely buried in requests and I'm starting to feel like I'll never be able to finish. I know that lots of you are waiting for me to post your requests, and I apologize. Lately my schedule just hasn't allowed me to complete them. And if you've sent me an email that I haven't responded to, I'm not ignoring you! I promise! There's just a lot going on for me right now. I'm sure you can relate to that. Thank you for your support, I really do appreciate every one of you!

And on a happier note, I hope to have the rest of the Obsessive Compulsive polish line posted this week, and some polishes that have travelled halfway around the world to reach me, including Illamasqua, Barry M and Bloom!