For the love of the jelly sandwich...

Okay I admit it, I've never been a fan of jelly polishes. For those of you that don't know, a jelly polish has a transparent consistency. On the nail it looks a bit like jelly... there's color, but it's see through, and it's kinda shiny and squishy. My first jelly was Essie Marshmallow. That was back before I realized what different types of finishes there were and I have to say I HATED that polish for the longest time. I couldn't master it... it was streaky and never built up to full opacity. I don't like being able to see my nail line so I used like 5 coats. It was just awful. So it went in the polish drawer for like a year and a half. 

Fast forward to the time in my life when I started discovering nail blogs and learning about all things nail polish. I started seeing these manis called "jelly sandwiches" and they were incredible! But I couldn't find any explination or definition of what they were. After much searching and asking stupid questions I found out that a jelly sandwich mani is simply a mani that sandwiches a glitter polish between a couple of coats of jelly. Oooooh.... that made sense. And they are great! But, I never really tried one until one fateful day a couple of weeks ago when the lovely Amy McPolish on Instagram decided to do a giveaway. (Go check out her Instagram, trust me she's amazing.) She reached 2000 followers and decided to do a giveaway with "I Love Jellies" as the theme. So, I decided to get on board and enter a few times. Now you should keep in mind that since I discovered what this jelly sandwich thing was I bought a couple more jellies but hadn't played much with them. 

When Amy posted this giveaway I decided it was time to give a few a try. I knew I had a few amazing glitters that would work well, and I've got a handy dandy macro lens for my iphone that I absolutely love. So I went to work. 

First up is OPI I Theodora You with OPI Polka.com sandwiched in between.

Second is one that I did with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then Lush Lacquer Freckles, then Essie Marshmallow. 

And last but certainly not least is my quadruple decker jelly sandwich. I used OPI Don't Burst My Bubble and OPI Lights Of Emerald City. One coat of DBMB, one coat of LOEC, one coat of DBMB, one coat of LOEC, and topped it with DBMB. This one was my favorite. 

All three of these manicures are topped with Glossy Glam from Just Ricarda on Etsy. My very favorite topcoat ever. Yeah that's right, I said it. It's hundreds of times better than Seche Vite, my former favorite quick dry topcoat. Go check out her store here, buy yourself a bottle. Trust me, you won't be sorry. All the glassy shine of Seche but without the shrinkage and scuffing/scratching. Yeah, it's that good. 

So what do you all think about jelly sandwich manicures? I love them. I'm wearing one now that I will post tomorrow. :) 

Talk to you soon!

~casey

**All polishes in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.**

Freckles

Good morning everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far. 

Today I have a fabulous indie polish for you. It's no secret that I love indies, and my love for them started with Lush Lacquer. The first indie I ever purchased was their polish Clowning Around. It is a fabulous neon glitter in a clear base with varying sizes of hex glitter in all different colors. I fell in love with it the very first time I saw it, and I remember how excited I was when I finally decided to purchase it. Once I got it on I still loved it, but large hex glitter isn't my favorite. I love the way it looks on others, but I think because my nails are relatively small it just doesn't always lay right on me. Plus it is a little trickier to work with. 

So, when I found out that Lush Lacquer was releasing Freckles, the little sister to Clowning Around, I was ecstatic. Clowning Around has 6 different sizes of hex glitter, Freckles only has 2; and they are all small. This polish is amazing. If you are on the fence about trying an indie, I highly recommend this one because it's really versatile. I bought it for myself as my "birthday polish gift" to myself. Sounds weird, I know. I've been planning a birthday manicure since my birthday last year, and this polish is perfect for what I've got in mind. 

Freckles is densely packed with neon hex glitters, there is no need to place this baby. It flows on all by itself in a nice, dense, layer of colorful goodness. For this manicure I decided to layer it over my favorite blue, OPI Can't Find My Czeckbook. You don't see a lot of people layering these neon glitters over color, and I have no idea why. The result is fantastic; it totally changes the look of the glitter! They are such chameleons, I can't wait to try it over many more. 

For this mani I used 2 coats of Can't Find My Czeckbook and 2 coats of Freckles. I could have left it at just 1 coat of Freckles, but really the only thing better than glitter is more glitter... So I couldn't help but add 1 more. Then I topped it off with my beloved Glossy Glam. I've had this one for 3 days and it is still just as shiny and bright as the night I put it on. 

Here are some pics. I'm going to apologize here because I feel like I need to. I'm still working out how all of this works and I feel like my lighting isn't always the best. Sometimes I have lobster hands and other times my fingers look like ghosts. I think I'm getting better, but it's a learning process. But, even with lobster hands you can see how awesome this combo is! 

Light Box 

Light Box

Light Box Nail Macro

Light Box Bottle Macro (look at all that glitter!!!)

I took these light box photos the night I painted them, but then the sun didn't show up much the next day. So this picture is after a full day and a half of wear, including my usual routine which USED to really scuff my nails. Check out how great Glossy Glam holds up! It's amazing stuff, I can't say enough good things about it. 

What do you all think? Isn't this glitter fun? I can't wait to incorporate it into my birthday manicure. Or maybe birthday manicures, because I'm getting so many ideas that I might have to do them for the whole month of September. 

Lush Lacquer can be purchased on their Etsy store here. 

Glossy Glam can be purchased on their Etsy store here. 

OPI can be purchased at salon retailers, Ulta, and many other online retailers. 

**The Lush Lacquer in this post was purchased by me for my own personal use. I did receive a blogger discount in exchange for an honest review.**