Stamped in Steel - EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter kit wear test

This is the last post in my review for the EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter Kit, and I'm showing you the results of wear up to 10 days with the shade Aqua Addiction. To take a look at the kit contents, application, removal or other shades, check out my previous posts!

[Fresh application: EpicNails Aqua Addiction]

So how did we go? The photo above is from my initial application post - basecoat, two coats of Aqua Addiction, and topcoat, freshly cured.

[After 7 days: EpicNails Aqua Addiction]

This photo is after a week in slightly different lighting conditions. But the polish is still whole and unchipped. It is perhaps the slightest bit less glossy, but still very smooth and glossy overall.

[After 10 days: EpicNails Aqua Addiction]

Here's my mani after 10 days! You can see that my nails have grown a little... But the shellac polish is still going strong so I have no doubts that it will last well over 2 weeks!

I'm very impressed with the wear and it's great to not have to worry about denting or chipping especially when I use my hands so much at work. I imagine this would be great for those who need a long-lasting manicure and aren't prone to changing their nail polish every few days!

However, I did a little experiment to see how it would work if you're someone who likes changing it up a little to keep things fresh....

[Base: EpicNail Aqua Addiction; Stamping: China Glaze Millenium]

I very quickly did some stamping over the top of my 10 day old manicure, using a silver foil polish (China Glaze Millenium) and a Bundle Monster plate. I then sealed it with topcoat and let it dry.

[Base: EpicNail Aqua Addiction; Stamping: China Glaze Millenium]

Once it was dry, I used regular nail polish remover (ie. not pure acetone) and removed the stamping and topcoat from my pinky and middle finger. As I hoped, this didn't affect the shellac base, which is great because for one, you don't have to fuss too much about your base colour if you mess us the stamping, and secondly, when you get bored, just clean off the top and you have a fresh new canvas to make more nail art on!!

I hope these posts were helpful if you were thinking of trying out shellac polish. Remember, we have a code that you can enter on the EpicNail website to receive free standard shipping for any kit purchase. Just enter KITPLISHERRIFIC when checking out (expires 31st March 2014).

Candy Colours - EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter Kit Shades

Here's the next post in my review of the EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter Kit. If you missed the overview or the application post, just click on the links to check them out!

Today's post is about the other colours that come in the kit, as well as a little bit about removal using the foil method and acetone.

[EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter kit]

As I mentioned before, there are 6 colours in this kit, four cremes (Cheeky Pink, Sherbet Sorbet, Big Sky and Aqua Addiction) and two glitters (Summer Dream and Cosmo).

[Pinky to index: Cheeky Pink, Cosmo, Blue Sky, Summer Dream; Thumb: Sherbet Sorbet]

As I'm using Aqua Addiction for my wear test, I did skittles of the other shades so you can get an idea of how they look like on!

Pinky: Cheeky Pink is a medium pink creme, slightly on the cooler side.
Ring: Cosmo is a bright retro red with matching hex glitter in various sizes. It looks like a jelly finish and has great depth to the glitter. I really like this shade too!
Middle: Sky Blue is a medium blue creme, a bit dustier than my photos show.
Index: Summer Dream is the sister polish to Cosmo, this time in yellow. I had a bit of trouble with this shade - it was thicker than the others and needed a bit of dabbing to apply evenly. I also found out what happens when you "paint outside the lines" and then cure the polish! That's it right there just completely solid after curing!
Thumb: Sherbet Sorbet is a medium orange creme, a finish and shade that always reminds me of M&Ms or Reese's Pieces!

[Pinky to index: Cheeky Pink, Cosmo, Blue Sky, Summer Dream]

All of these are basecoat, 2x polish, finished with topcoat. Each layer cured for 90 seconds under the supplied LED lamp. All of them had a super glossy finish and cured completely dry. As I said before, the only shade which wasn't as easy to apply was Summer Dream. But what about removal?

[Removal: Foil + Acetone + 10 minutes]

I have NEVER used the foil method before now because I have "teflon nails" and polishes tend to peel off my nail easily in a single piece just with a nice hot shower. Anyway, I was a bit daunted by how sturdy these shellac polishes were after curing, so I used some of the handy foil pieces from EpicNail, soaked the cotton with a generous helping of acetone and wrapped my nails up for about 10 minutes.

It was pretty interesting to see the layers of polish just lift off in flakes after a good soaking in acetone! The basecoat was a bit harder to get off and I finished off with a good rubbing in acetone to get off the last bits. Not too difficult in the end! Do remember to slap on some hand/nail cream after though because acetone can be very drying to your skin and nails. =)

I'll be back soon with the results of my wear test using Aqua Addiction so watch this space!

Super Gloss - EpicNail Aqua Addiction Shellac polish

I introduced the EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter Kit in last week's post and tried it out a couple days ago. So, how did my experiments go? Being a complete n00b to using shellac and curing lamps, I had no idea what to expect! Luckily, it was super easy and everything turned out better than expected... ;)

I have to say, one of the awesome things is the funky space age feeling of sticking your fingers into glowy blue light.... !!

So... when you plug the LED lamp in, it comes on immediately with a beep. The light button on the left side should not be lit up when the lamp is first plugged in but I took this photo while my hand was in there... =p The timer always begins set to 60 seconds but pressing the (+) button on the right increases it to whatever time you'd need.

Here I've pressed the (+) button once to increase the time to 90 seconds which is what I'll need to cure the polish using this LED lamp.

Stick your fingers in once you're ready and a sensor in the middle will detect this and turn the LEDs on automatically. The timer will NOT start though until you hit the light button on the left side, after which it beeps and begins counting down. Once it hits 0, the lamp will beep again and the lights will automatically turn off after 2-3 seconds.

[1 coat: EpicNail Shellac Base Coat]

So, as described in the instructions, I cleaned my nails with acetone and started off with a layer of base coat. Be warned that the base coat has a pretty strong smell, sort of like epoxy, so make sure you work in a well-ventilated area. The other polishes don't have much of a smell though, phew!

I had no problems doing a thin even coat on each nail. The photo above shows the polish after curing for 90 seconds. I'm using diffuse lighting so you can't see it quite well, but it is amazingly shiny after curing!

[1 coat: EpicNail Aqua Addiction Shellac Polish]

I then chose one colour for my 2-week wear test - Aqua Addiction, a lovely minty shade that reminds me of Tiffany blue. This is one thin coat, cured again for 90 seconds (except for two coats on my middle finger because I almost forgot to take a photo before starting the next coat...). The polish was easy to apply evenly and cured to a lovely glossy finish.

[2 coats: EpicNail Aqua Addiction Shellac Polish]

The great thing is after the 90 seconds of curing, you're ready to put on the next coat immediately! So this photo above is after two coats, cured. Nicely opaque for the most part but there are some barely noticeable patches where its a bit thinner. You could do a third coat as well but I decided not to.

[2 coats: EpicNail Aqua Addiction Shellac Polish]

I then popped on the topcoat and cured that for another 90 seconds. As described in the instructions, the topcoat has tacky residue after curing which easily wipes off with an isopropyl alcohol wipe.

I was pretty impressed by this stage as you can apply as much pressure cleaning it, and everything is still perfect and glossy! I even used my nails to score the surface AS HARD AS I COULD, right after curing the final layer and nothing, nada! Perfect glossy gel finish.

[Bottle to Nail: EpicNail Aqua Addiction Shellac Polish (2 coats)]

Here's the finished mani - pretty close to the provided swatch, eh! It's been a couple of days since I've done this mani and it still looks as good as when I first did it, and I work with my hands a lot at work! Can't stop touching my nails - they're so smooth!

I'll be back soon with the results of my wear test as well as photos of the other shades available in this kit so stay tuned!! =)

Summer Lovin' - EpicNail Summertime Shellac Starter Kit overview

Hey all! Jme and I received this awesome kit from the team at EpicNail for review and we'll be roadtesting it over the next couple of weeks, so today I've got a couple of kit photos as an introduction.

This is the Summertime Shellac Starter Kit, a handy kit that includes pretty much all the important bits you need to get started with using shellac. Neither of us have tried Shellac before so this was a pretty exciting kit for us to try out! As before, shipping is amazingly fast, the team knows we want our polish in our little paws ASAP! =p The kit arrived impeccably packed in a white box with the EpicNail logo on the front.

Inside the box, everything is packed together well in separate boxes/bags. Nothing was rattling about and it arrived in pretty much perfect condition. Now what's included in the kit? You get basecoat, topcoat, 6 different colours, an LED curing lamp, plus some bonus cuticle pushers and alcohol wipes to make cleanup a little bit easier. Let's take a closer look!

Also included were two copies of an information card showing a chart of available colours (so many!) as well as instructions for application and removal. I always find it handy when instructions include images so these were great. As usual, the layout and design were very well-done and easy to understand. Click the photos to enlarge! Otherwise, check out the instructions and full range online~ =) You can also get assorted custom colour packs of different themes, which work out cheaper than singles.

Now for the lamp included in the kit... This kit includes the LED lamp, but the polishes can be cured by UV or LED. There's also a similar UV lamp kit available, but the difference is the LED lamp takes 90 seconds to cure while the UV takes 120 seconds.

The lamp is bubble-wrapped in its own box and very handily has an Aussie plug which may sometimes be an issue if you're trying to buy a lamp online from overseas. It comes in pink!

The curing area is pretty generous! At the top are various indicators for use. I'll show it in action once I've got the actual mani done and uploaded~ =)

Now, all the polishes are separately boxed, and each box has a cutaway in the front to show the contents and instructions printed on the back. You just can't go wrong! These are the top and base coat, with each bottle snugly in a plastic mould. It's really nice packaging but it might not be handy to store them this way as you'd have to pull everything out to get to the bottle.

The six colours in this pack are four cremes (Cheeky Pink, Sherbet Sorbet, Big Sky, Aqua Addiction) and two glitters (Summer Dream, Cosmo). Very adorably and usefully, they come with little rings on the lids showing the shade.

I understand that these are being phased in at the moment, so the bottle of Summer Dream did not come with one, but all the newer stock should have this. It's a pity though that you can't see the shade when it's boxed up! The nifty little coloured nail is hidden away from the box cutout.

Here are some extra goodies that Jme and I were sent to test along with the kit - acetone, alcohol pads, cuticle pushers and foil strips. You can get a handy removal kit containing some of these all packed up pretty here. I thought it was super cute that these foil strips come with a little patch of cotton attached all ready for soaking in acetone!

Can't wait to test this one out properly, but until then... check out our last review of the EpicNail nail foil kit, or head over to the website, Facebook or Instagram page to check out all manner of products and photos!

Also, we have another code for you! Just enter the code KITPLISHERRIFIC when checking out to receive free standard shipping for any kit purchase. This code expires on the 31st of March so keep an eye out for our reviews before then~ =)

Jungle Jaunt - Epic Nail Foil Transfer: In The Jungle

Time for an adventure In The Jungle!

[Foil transfer without topcoat: In The Jungle]

In The Jungle was a dream to apply. I left the glue to dry for ten minutes, and transfer was easy and fast.

[Foil transfer without topcoat: In The Jungle]

The above is how the foil looks without a topcoat over it. It's super shiny and holographic, less plasticky in real life versus the foil in the photo under artificial lighting. If you look at the first photo, it looks less strange under natural lighting.

[Foil transfer with topcoat: In The Jungle]

I applied Blush-amour over it and then Jordana Quick Shine Topcoat over the lot, the same as what I did for All Laced Up. Alas, In The Jungle is a shiny foil that crinkles under Blush-amour. Only the shiny foil parts crinkled, while the maroon and black spots remained smooth. The crinkles actually make the foil look a little more natural to me. I think this turned out beautifully for a rather quick foil transfer job.

If you like what you see, visit Epic Nail for other nail related funtimes! From now until 31st December, you can use our coupon code BLOGPLISHERIFFIC to get free shipping on all orders with a product total of $30 or over.

At Sea - Epic Nail Foil Transfer: Nautical

Look at the rainbow from the stripes! :D  Unfortunately, I think this will be the prettiest photo in this post, oh dear...

[Roll of foil: Nautical]

Anyway, I'm stealing Ev's photo (below) to show the foil in its bottle. The foil looks like it is completely opaque, but that's actually just a white paper rolled up behind the stripes. As you can see in the photo above, the foil is actually white, blue, red and silver stripes with no foil in between the stripes.

[Left to right: I Heart You, Pipe Dream and Nautical]

So you have to choose your base polish wisely as it will show up between the stripes. The only problem is that I don't know if there are any other choices except white. You can see it somewhat in the first picture; the stripes aren't completely opaque. I tried them over a dark base, and nothing was visible except for the white and silver stripes, which both came out looking gray.

Now onwards to the foil on nails!

[Foil transfer: Nautical]

The base polish I'm using here is Orly Au Champagne. I have applied the stripes twice on each nail, except for the accent nail which I have left with just its base polish. I applied Nautical once horizontally, and then on top of that, diagonally for the middle and pinky fingers, vertically for the index finger. Because the stripes tended to tear and crack, I had to reapply glue and carefully try to reapply the stripes in some places, with varying success.

Okay, to be honest, this was a really hard foil to use. Trying to do a foil transfer of thin stripes was absurdly hard, because the stripes are too fragile and thin, crinkling and breaking too easily. It took me two to three hours to do this because I had to keep redoing the foils from scratch, and you can still see the breaks and crinkles in the stripes. I pretty much gave up after this.

The result looked okay, but honestly, it was too much work for me to produce.

Diamond Frills - Epic Nail Foil Transfer: All Laced Up

[Foil transfer: All Laced Up]

If you have been following this blog, you would know it's foil time! Ev has passed the baton and I'm doing the rest of the swatches for the foils from the Essentials Kit at Epic Nail. The first one I'm doing is called All Laced Up.

[Dramatic lighting of a foil roll: All Laced up]

Now, what I like about the foils from Epic Nail is the way they're stored. I have received foils that are really tightly rolled and foils that are folded up. Those that are too tightly rolled are hard to flatten out to be used and difficult to roll back into place because they lack a cylindrical base. And those that are folded up have crease lines which is a bit of a waste. With these foils rolled in big and loose rolls around a hard cylinder, they pretty much unroll into a nice flat strip, so they're easy to use.

[Roll of foil: All Laced Up]

Okay, look at how shiny All Laced Up is on its own! The holo is amazing!

[LA Splash Sparkling Torpedo]

I thought a good base to go under All Laced Up would be LA Splash Sparkling Torpedo, because of its own super holo sparkliness~

[Foil transfer: All Laced Up]

Application for All Laced Up was pretty simple. They were a little bit delicate in parts, but transfer wasn't difficult. Ev goes into some detail on how to apply foils here, so I won't rehash that.

I used two thin coats of Blush-amour clear polish over the foil, and then Jordana Quick Shine topcoat (which is also a quick dry) over that. I find that Blush-amour's clear polish doesn't cause crinkles in some shiny foils so I tend to resort to that when I'm using foils. In this case, no crinkles again, which is awesome! I use quick dry over all of it for the extra shiny and also to dry Blush-amour's polish quickly.

[Foil transfer: All Laced Up]

Unfortunately, the holo on the foil was much reduced with the topcoat over it. But you can still see some of the holo in the above pictures, better photographed in the blurry photos as usual.

It's a shame my nails are a little small - cause my hands are small :( - to properly display the lace pattern of the foils, but the foils do look rather gorgeous as is.

Double Hearts - Epic Nail Foil Transfer: I Heart You

For my third foil transfer from the Epic Nail Essentials kit, I decided to change it up a little. I'm not quite sure if I succeeded or not though!

[Hearts on your nails, not in your mouth...]

Rather than doing a full manicure, I went with something a bit more cutesy to go with the heart design in I Heart You. Here's how I did it!

[Base: Revlon Powder Puff (1 coat); Topper: Color Club Pearl-spective, pa AA39]

I had a two-day-old manicure on which was a base of Revlon Powder Puff, a matte white polish with a blue sheen, topped with an iridescent topper (Color Club Pearl-spective) and tipped with flakies (pa AA39).

[Base: Revlon Powder Puff (1 coat); Topper: Color Club Pearl-spective, pa AA39]

I thought the shimmery white would make a great base to show off the deep pink and holo in I Heart You, so that's what I went with~

[Epic Nail: I Heart You]

Here's a shot of I Heart You - a dark pink background with shiny holo hearts. So adorable!

[Foil transfer: Epic Nail I Heart You]

I carefully cut out three heart shapes freehand, and then one rectangle for my ring finger. I applied glue all over the nail for all except my pinky, where I did a french tip in glue. Once that was dry, I placed one heart on each of my nails, with a full nail on my ring finger. For my pinky, I used leftover scrap edges and transferred them onto the glue-tacky french tip.

[Foil transfer: Epic Nail I Heart You]

It worked pretty well, not as great as I hoped! The full nail looks great and I'm looking forward to doing a full manicure with this design. The hearts did not transfer as well as I had hoped, simply because when you cut out a specific design, it's hard lifting the transparent plastic away from the transfer as there aren't any free unglued edges to grasp.

I think some great alternatives would be to paint on designs (or even stamp them on!) in glue, somewhat like the french tip I did on my pinky. It's so fun to get creative with nail art and foil transfers are such a great way to get fancy looking patterns on your nails with minimal effort~ ;)

Stay tuned for Jme's reviews of the remaining three designs in this set! If these foils interest you, head on over to Epic Nail to check out what other goodies they have available! Don't forget to use our coupon code BLOGPLISHERIFFIC to get free shipping on all orders with a product total of $30 or over, up to the 31st of December!