Beat the system!

I never understood why the directions on some nail treatments called for an extra coat everyday or every other day. Are you suggesting your miracle juice is able to penetrate through the layer (or four) I put on in the previous few days?! That would be fantastic! However, I'm a beauty skeptic, remember? Once the product is dry, can more product absorb through and penetrate the nail?

The following is my brain daydreaming...
I imagine after a polish has dried (or cured) it can have small pores (or cracks). That, I can accept. Whether it actually happens is another question.  However, I do remember seeing the following video explaining how soak off gels work, which supports the mere possibility in regular polish.


In this situation, a chemical solvent (or perhaps the word molecule may be more appropriate) seeps through these engineered cracks or pores and is able to reach the dissolvable portion of the product. Is this possible for regular polish or treatments?

Let's assume the mere possibility:
My mind can imagine such a process for treatment products. Perhaps after the first layer has dried/cured enough cracks or pores exist and the treatment molecules are small enough to fit through and make it to  the nail nail surface. However, how likely would it be that companies actually engineer their treatment products like this? I have no idea.

Now let's assume this does NOT occur with regular polish and treatments:
There are two main reasons I can think of for these directions to exist, both are purely based on my gut and experience. My guess is they have you reapply the product merely as a coat of physical protection, which in reality any decent base coat or topcoat can provide (it's likely more cost effective too).

The other thought I had was, these directions are a marketing/selling tool. They make the consumer feel like they are doing something everyday to help their nail situation. Meanwhile, more of the product is used up, forcing the consumer to buy more to sustain their results. In the end the consumer feels like they have really contributed to their nail health (yay accomplishment!), while the company is ecstatic over their bottom line (they probably get a party with fancy champagne and hors d'œuvres *jealous*).

I like to beat the system. Ya know, stick it to the man! Treatments that come as a lacquer, I generally only apply to the actual nail surface. All other subsequent coats would either be a base coat or topcoat, depending on whether I already applied colored polish.

Summary:
This is all just me thinking aloud. I have no proof of anything. I wish I could be more concrete, but until I learn something new, I say don't waste your expensive treatment products as extra layers.

As a reward for making it all the way to the bottom of this post I'll show you meat and a franken:

Because who doesn't like meat in their mouth, duh!

Prosciutto.

The franken!

Really easy to make!

I used Revlon - Tropical Temptation and NYC - Starry Silver Glitter.

I've swatched Revlon - Tropical Temptation here. It somewhat resembles Revlon - Make Mine Mango here.









I have a Nail Treatment/Hardener Series, click here.

My Dirty Jet

Ummm so I accidentally made a dupe of a OPI's defective batch of My Private Jet.  Actually, NO not a dupe, it's better :P

How did this happen?

I really wanted something brown and burgundy; really rich and delicious. However, after the smoke cleared I some how ended up adding some holo stuff to it and yummy, it became near edible.

(I don't advise the latter)

I probably could have made this more holo; maybe next time.  I like this one as it stands.

2 coats in the sun <3

Gosh I don't know where to start.  How about a comparison first to the defective MPJ:

Mine is on the bottom.
Definitely more burgundy. 

Bottle pic's next!

I think mine is more sparkly too :D





















Alright here is what I used:

Cover Girl - Goddess
ZOMG if you don't have this you should! China Glaze - Fairy Dust is similar.  I'm sure there are others, feel free to leave a comment ...

Color Club - Love Em/Leave Em
Perhaps a more holo version of something would be better

Color Club - Jewel of a Girl

Color Club - Nothing But Truffel


That very first pic is two coats on its own.  Now on to the layering ...

-

OPI Siberian Nights - How lush.  I'm a little mad it looks black most of the time though.

Flash shot!

Seriously, see it's black in most lights.

Natural indirect light.  Still hot though!

Aahh only in the sun do you see the deep purple plum.

One day I woke up to sheet marks! Ugh, it was horrible!! I had to go to work all day like this.  I'm sure I am the only one that noticed.

Came straight home and layered this baby.

Sunlight picture!

It's definitely darker than in the first picture, hu?

I love these fluorescent light pictures.  It makes them so squishy looking.

Here is an incandescent light picture.  Still YUM.

What do you think?

Disappointment makes for good frankening

This franken was inspired by my slight disappointment in Zoya's Ki. Well maybe disappointment is a strong word. Let's just say I had an expectation it didn't live up to.

Over 10 years ago I had this seriously delicious duochrome.  It was like Ki, but better.  The flashes were a deep dark green and a purple/brown/burgundy.  I don't even remember who made it.  It was either Naturistics or Sally Hansen.  I feel like Scrangie might have this old fart. *note to self, send her an email.

I didn't try to copy my memory of that polish, only see what I could do with Ki.

This is what I came up with.

I'm wearing underwear with this one.

L.A. Colors - Nuclear Energy

This is such a yummy purple jelly. I wore this alone for two weeks straight.  This is three coats in sunlight.

This is in natural light.

 Then a coat or two of the franken.

 I would say it looks like this most of the time straight on.  

BUT then as soon as you start maneuvering your hands we get some pretty color change and sparkle.

In the sun.

















Again I suck at measuring anything to give you a true recipe, but here is what I used to make this franken

Scherer Chameleon - Blue Sky and Calypso
Zoya - Ki
Milani - 83 Neon Lites
Zoya - Yasmeen



Whatcha think?

Sorta holo blue franken

I hesitate to post my frankens because I make them so haphazardly. As such, I hope to give you only a very loose guideline for inspiration purposes only, so don't hold your breath for exact measurements.

Darn, I'm sad this picture came out blurry (so I made it small :p), but I still like how its half with sun beam half without :)

This is not color accurate, it looks more like the picture above. 

I say this franken is only sorta holo-y because obviously the effect is weak. Sun is required to make it look super special ...

... otherwise it just looks blue, I mean a really cool blue, but still just blue.

Here is a picture with flash. :)


















And now for inspiration purposes only:

1. Sally Girl- Mean Streak #812152. (Thanks to For Me, It Works for the name!) There are plenty of dupes though, including -
a. Essie Midnight Cami
b. Sally Hansen - Navy Baby  (Salon)
c. Sally Hansen - Blazing Blue (Insta Dri) - this has some green micro stuff though

2. Color Club - Worth the Risque

3. Clear



Have fun!

Quick Dry Top Coats = Conditional Love

Love, Hate, and Frustration.

These words correctly describe my relationship with quick drying top coats. For many, fast dry topcoats are a game/life changer. However, for me, the constant battle with their faults has soured my love for them; hence my love for them is unconditional. In particular, let's concentrate on Seche Vite because it is by far the most well known and used.

Love

1. One word: Fast. Who could not love a mani that dries to the touch in 2-5 minutes and then fully in 20-40 min. Taking into consideration that a regular mani takes ~3 hours to dry fully after the last coat of topcoat, which does not even include well dried coats of base and color in between, this is tremendous.

2. The shininess that one can achieve is just plain silly.  Simply gorgeous.

This is Essie - Masquerade Ball with Seche Vite.

That pic on the bottom right gives me convulsions.

3. Due to it's thick formulation it provides a nice layer of protection.
Here is a before and after picture using Seche Vite.

Before on the left.
After on the right.
Clearly the one on the right is much thicker.













4. The formula of quick dry top coats sets to a much harder finish. This is a pro from a strength aspect, but also a con because at some point too hard = brittle and chipping can become a problem. I'm not saying Seche Vite alone causes chipping or that it can't be prevented.



Hate and Frustration

The many complaints of fast dry topcoats include:

1. Shrinkage at the tip - Granted this problem can be prevented, here is an example:

I don't normally have this problem because I either wrap the tips or swipe the brush down right at the tip. However, this gets tricky with short nails. Another solution I have seen mentioned on the MUA nail boards is using a traditional top coat underneath the quick dry one. I can't attest to this, but it sounds reasonable.



Anyone have a personal experience with using this technique?




2. Shrinkage at the cuticle - this is one of my biggest pet peeves.

Here is a picture of the franken I showed in an earlier post right after I put on Seche Vite (SV). HELLO Gorgeous!

 EXCEPT, the very next day this happen. wtf.

This is another example with a different franken (another blue one). This is the day of application with SV.

First, excuse the rando fuzzy, but this is the day after. The problem occurs when you don't encapsulate the polish as a whole.  Had I left a larger gap between the cuticle and polish, I could have avoided both shrinkage at the cuticle and touching my cuticle with Seche Vite. However, I got so close with the actually polish color it was impossible to "encapsulate" the polish without flooding the cuticle.









So of course you're probably saying to yourself "hey dummy, leave a larger gap." To be even more difficult ... another pet peeve of mine is a large (and growing) gap between the cuticle and color. Sometimes performance tests will be ended short due to this annoying gap from regrowth. So, what I am saying is I struggle with this problem.

Perhaps a regular top coat under Seche Vite would help solve this. Any advice from others? 


3. Dulling after a day or two. Sometimes this dulling is only visible with camera flash, but otherwise since I apply a coat of clear every two days or so to make mani's last longer this is not such a big deal.

4. More chipping than a regular top coat.

Quick dry top coat formulations may

a.) be incompatible with certain polishes (or with your own nail chemistry) OR

b.) dry to a much harder finish in comparison to the flexibility of the nail or polish underneath.

Thus in both cases the polish is much more likely to chip because there is not as much "give" as in the natural nail.

The top coat I have pictured is Seche Vite Ultra-V. It's suppose to be Seche's version of a UV curable top coat. It is absolute crap. Not only does it chip like crazy, but it's a fake UV activated top coat. None of the ingredients listed require UV to cure, so what up wit dat?







5. Thickening of the formula.

About half way down Seche Vite can get a little thick, but that's not something a little nail thinner can't cure. 
















6. Incompatibility with some base coats/colors.
Some people report Seche Vite (and only SV) peeling off in layers with certain polishes. I have not had this happen to me often enough to make any comments, nor have I studied the ingredients to judge it fairly from a scientific point of view ... so that is very unhelpful of me on both accounts. However, from a very simple point of view, obviously the formulas don't want to play nice.

What base/color/SV combos do not work for you?

At the very least now we can all unconditionally love Seche Vite together. Yay! What other quick dry top coats do you love?

Light blue jelly franken

So there is this pretty blue color by Color Club called Factory Girl.  One problem ... pasty city! I always get really disappointed when I put it on because it's like wet chalk. Ewww. I prefer a more shiney creamy consistency and look, hence this franken was born.

Since I am a scientist I should be much better at keeping record of how I make these things,  but perhaps since it's my job and this is a creative outlet, those rules get thrown out the window.  Sorry people, I will just give you estimates and even those are only as good as my memory and I'm no elephant.


Color Club Factory girl + Maybelline wet shine Ballet on Ice (40) + clear topcoat

1/4 +1/4 + 1/8

What weird measurements right? Basically, I didn't make a full bottle, slightly more than half.






The result:

3 coats with flash.

From the side with less flash.












Side with more flash

It's definitely less harsh and I like it lots more than the original.

yeay!