Millennium Nails Gel Polish no. 1402

This post is going to be about the first shade of gel polish that I wanted to try out, number 1402. It doesn't have a name as far as I can tell, I would describe it as a dusky purple/grey, with a super subtle hint of pink shimmer.

I was pleased with how easy it was to apply, and really loved that you don't have to wait for it to dry! It didn't take much longer than a regular manicure really, and I could certainly do regular activities a lot sooner than I can after normal nail polish!

I took a few photos while applying the colour to demonstrate the method :) -

Gently push cuticles back using the manicure stick

Using the pink duet file, gently remove the shine from your nail plate, this gives the gel a rough surface to stick to.

Apply a small amount of nail prep, and wait until completely dry.

Apply a thin coat of the base/top coat

This is how the gel base coat looks before curing.

Cure the base coat for 30 seconds in your LED lamp

The colour is now applied

Build the colour up in thin layers, this is one coat. Cure for 60 seconds between layers.

The second coat

After the 3rd coat I added a further coat of base/top coat

And cure in the lamp for a final 90 seconds

Finally, wipe with the gel cleanser. Lint free wipes are also provided, I used cotton wool for this nail to see if it would be ok -it was fine.

Here is the finished look :) I know I need practice - it's ok, I'll get lots!

This colour was really difficult to get an accurate picture of, so here are a few that I have chosen, with and without flash -

In bottle, with flash

No flash

With flash, shows the pink shimmer

No flash

As you can see, the colour of this polish varied significantly in different lighting! It was prettiest in sunlight, with the pink shimmer slightly more noticeable - it was barely visible in normal light. Unfortunately, good sunlight is hard to come by in England, and since it was only sunny while I was in work, I didn't get a chance to take any sun photos for you :(

I liked this colour, whilst it is dark, it's not too 'in your face' as a jet black etc can be, so it's fine to wear for 2 weeks as you can get away with it for most occasions! I really hope some people have found this post helpful, please feel free to leave a comment :) I am currently planning which colour(s) to try next, I am thinking maybe the bright blue, with a gold glitter accent nail... you will see soon :)

Thanks for reading, Steph X

Millennium Nails LED UV Gel Kit

I (finally) purchased the groupon deal for the Millennium Nails UV Gel Nail Kit - I'm glad I waited a while as the lamp has been upgraded to an LED lamp, whereas other times that the offer has been on it has been supplied with a UV lamp which takes longer to cure the gel. Also LED lamps have other advantages, including less power consumption, and increased bulb life.

While making the decision to purchase this product, I had a lot of trouble as there doesn't seem to be much information about it online, and when it comes to nails, I love to spend hours researching new things before I buy them. I am writing this post (and following posts) with the aim to give some information to anyone else trying to research this product, and hope that some people find my experiences helpful!

The deal that I purchased was for a kit including 8 gel polishes of my choice. The choosing was very difficult, as I had a lot of trouble finding any swatches of the available colours - and as such I will be posting pictures of each of the colours that I purchased, in order to help anyone else choose their colours slightly more informed than me! I ended up pretty much just picking random ones in the end, but I did spend hours trawling the web for any photos, and here are the lists I made whilst trying to decide -

The only slightly negative part of my experience was that the kits went on sale on a monday morning, and as I don't finish work until 5pm on weekdays, by the time I got home, all but 3 of the 8 polishes that I had chosen had already sold out. I quickly placed my order, pretty much just choosing random colours before any more sold out, and whilst I did not get the colours that I wanted the most, I am very happy with the colours that I did receive - and now I have a good excuse to buy some more gel polishes soon!

The kit arrived very quickly, I placed my order on monday evening and wasn't expecting my kit to arrive until the following wednesday. I was pleased when my kit arrived on the friday afternoon, as I have had all weekend to experiment with it! I did read a few negative reviews saying that the kit took too long to arrive, or that the colours that were received were not the ones that were ordered - they have definitely upped their game since then as my kit arrived very quickly, and contained all the correct colours. I will be ordering from them again in the future.

This is what I received on friday afternoon - I would have done proper unboxing photos, but I was too eager to open it up and have a look. In fact, I opened it all up, did my nails, and then packed it away again!

The Box!

Best bubble wrap ever! Not the point, but fun to pop :)

The contents of the box - clear instructions were provided

Accessory kit, including a pink duet file, a white block and a manicure stick.

250ml bottles of both gel remover and gel cleanser. The cleanser is for removing the sticky layer after curing.

250 lint free wipes, for removing the sticky layer.

The lamp.

The lamp is smaller than I expected, which is perfect as I have limited space.

The most exciting part - the gel polishes!

8 polishes, nail prep and a base/top coat, all 15ml

The Nail Prep and Base/Top Coat bottles.

The colours that I selected were -

• 1347 - Gold Glitter
• 1349 - Dark Blue Glitter
• 1400 - Gold/Silver Glitter Mix
• 1472 - Bright Blue
• 1420 - Dusky Purple
• D235 - Chocolate Brown
• C174 - Grey Shimmer
• C135 - Bronze Shimmer

These are not the actual names of the colours, just my description - the bottles only show the number or the colour. As I use each colour, I will post photos - although as each one is supposed to last 2 weeks+ it may take me a while to get through them all! The first colour I used is 1420, which can be seen on my nails in a few of the photos above - my next post will show you this colour, as well as step by step photos of how I applied it.

I really hope this post has been helpful, and thank you for reading!

Steph X

An Introduction

Hi, and welcome to my blog :) this is a place where I will be sharing my passion for pretty fingernails, as well as my journey towards hopefully becoming a qualified nail technician!

I'm Steph, and I really can't remember a time that I didn't love nail polish - My first ever nail polishes were a christmas present as a kid, I'd been bugging my mum for ages to let me have some but I wasn't allowed as she thought I would make a mess - turns out she was right, in my excitement that christmas the carpet had an unfortunate dose of bright pink nail polish hehe. I've never looked back though and my collection has been growing ever since!

As a teenager I loved painting my friends nails, I saved up all my pocket money and bought a set of nail art pens, and am always excited to try new and inventive ways to get different types of designs. Some methods more sucessfully than others of course - I will of course be sharing the less successful designs so you can learn from my mistakes!

For a few years I followed a more academic route, but my heart wasn't really in it, so I currently work in a shirt factory whilst I save up for a Nail Tech course. Naturally my saving would go a lot quicker if I didn't keep getting tempted by new polishes and nail art bits and bobs, but I will get there... eventually!

Anyway, this post is just a quick introduction to me, and what I am hoping to achieve here, I hope I have caught your attention! Soon there will hopefully be many photo's of pretty manicures here, starting with my recent purchase of a gel nail kit, and the gel mani I did today - for a first attempt it seems to have been surprisingly successful, though who knows it may all be peeling off tomorrow, will have to wait and see how long it lasts!

Anyway, as much as I would love to take and edit a load of photos for you right now, I am shattered after a long week (big shirt order!) and it is somehow already midnight! I have 3 hungry rodents to feed and cuddle before going to bed, but tomorrow I will try to show you some actual nail stuff instead of just chattering away!

Thanks for reading :) Steph X