Gel nails without gel? Kiss Me Nail Mente Top Coat

Kiss Me Nail Mente is a Japanese brand top coat which is supposed to give nails a gel-like finish. Kiss Me is the brand.... don't ask me what Nail Mente means.

I have had this top coat for a while and I really like it. I bought it from Sasa.com for around $7, but I guess they are no longer shipping to the US as it says 'Only available to China, Australia and Hong Kong orders'. Is this because the nail polish shipping laws got super strict over here? Whatever it is, I'll have to find another way to get my gel shine-look top coat fix :( I only have half a bottle left! :'(

Kiss Me Nail Mente is thick, without being too gloopy (if you get my drift). It can drag a bit if you don't put enough on, this needs a thick coat. It covers flaws, brushstrokes and chunky glitter with relative ease, although with some nail stickers and crystals you will need a second coat. I love the wear time, it lasts a week or more without chipping, but you do have to be sure to wrap the tips to avoid shrinkage. Drying time is fast, but be careful if you do nail art as it can smudge it a little if you apply it when the nail art is still wet. With most nail art I'd wait 5-10 mins before putting top coat on.

You can see in the picture below how one coat smooths out texture and any flaws in application.

It does give a nice, thick gel-like finish which I love. It also lasts a long time, I can go a week + without any chipping or peeling and minor tipwear. I don't usually last that long though, I have a really bad habit of peeling off my polish :(

Here are a few manis using the Nail Mente top coat (click pictures for original post):

Have you tried a gel look top coat before? I'm going to have to hunt this one down and find somewhere that ships to the US!

Manicure Monday: Pink & Grey - The epitome of simple & girly.

Honestly, I'm not really a grey kind of person... or so I thought!

I've found that this colour is actually super chic and looks really pretty with a sweet pastel/baby pink. I wanted to try Zoya Dove, from the Intimates collection, but didn't want it to look too boring.. so I decided to jazz it up a little bit by adding some nail stickers I got eons ago at Sally Beauty.

Natural light

This is 3 coats of Zoya Dove with two of the bow stickers. I thought they looked a bit plain, so I added two longer stripes (supposed to be ribbon tails I guess..?) with Kiss nail art polish.

Direct sunlight

Natural light

I really love the look of Dove, it's such a perfect muted grey, without looking stark or too blueish. The formula was ok, a bit runny and patchy in places which is why I need 3 coat. Not too bad though, Zoya is usually pretty good formula-wise. My topcoat is one coat of ORLY Sec n Dry over the polish, then the nail stickers and nail art polish, then one coat of Kiss Me Nail Mente topcoat to seal the stickers.

I really need to do a proper review on the Nail Mente, it's such a good topcoat.

Incidentally.. this mani kind of reminds me of my signature down the bottom of the post! Yeah, I just noticed that.

That's all for today, loves... It's ridiculously hot out here in inland SoCal so I haven't been wearing much makeup lately. I hope to do a FOTD post soon!

Saran Wrap Nails - Mint & Purple.

Hello, hello.

Meant to post this yesterday, but omfg I needed to catch up on some sleep. Between a long ass day at the OC Fair, super loud meowing cats and kids rolling onto each other's beds and waking each other up at 2am, I have been utterly exhausted the past 3 days. I managed to have a nap yesterday afternoon when I was supposed to be writing this up, thank heavens for Netflix...... distracted the kids so I could doze (in the same room) brokenly though, as they constantly jump on the bed and climb on me lol.

ANYWAY, I saw this tutorial for Saran Wrap nails on Nailed It and just had to try it. I have been wanting to do water marbling for a while now, but I cringe at the thought of clean up afterwards, so I had been avoiding it. This alternative is gorgeous and a lot less messy!

As a base, I used ORLY Bonder, then 2 coats of Wet n Wild French White Creme.

I used one coat of Sinful Colors Open Seas on my index and middle fingers, Confetti Belle of the Ball on my ring and pinky fingers and gave them the Saran Wrap treatment. Topcoat is Kiss Me Nail Mente topcoat.

I really like how it turned out, it reminds me of a watercolour painting :) I might try a pastel over a pastel next time, to enhance that dreamy, impressionist effect. The best part is, it's sooooo easy to do! If you've been feeling a bit daunted about trying water marbling, or toothpick nail art, try this. I guarantee you can't mess it up (ok, please don't hold me to that...). I would recommend doing a thick coat of nail polish and quickly using the saran wrap while it is still quite wet. If you wait too long, the polish gets tacky and doesn't lift away from the base coat very well.

I'm having a lot of fun trying out new nail art and getting lots of inspiration from some very talented nail bloggers!

Have you tried this style before? Does it look like something you think you could attempt?