Red Carpet Manicure

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#1,501
FLmermaid said:
Everybody is different .... some people are luckier than others. Lots of people get less than 12 pretty regularly while some lucky girls can get 3 weeks. Not me. I can often go a full 2 weeks, but most usually get in the 9-12 days range when I get a finger or two that starts to lift. And if I had been scrubbing fish tanks it would be closer to 9. ;) I hardly ever get chips tho.

It looks like you are leaving a nice neat margin, so I can't think of any obvious reason why you'd get the same lifting at the cuticle side except that maybe you just have more left behind on those fingers that you're not fully getting off before your mani.
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Thanks guys. When I do my fish tanks I wear gloves but because my hands are dipping in the water the gloves fill up so my hands are wet for at least 2 hours each time I do them. It's the exact same two nails again, the others are perfect. I think I'll ad a tiny bit of bonder just where those two lift and see how I go next time. I'm pleased to have gotten over week out of it to be honest what with housework and the fish tanks I have to clean once a week.
 
#1,502
Is it better to just buy a bottle of accetone, a roll of kitchen foil and some lint free pads for removal? I need to buy the removal kit with the sponges and foils again but I've found the erase doesn't remove it that well. It takes some off but not all of it and I am left having to re apply it and wait again and still I need to scrape a bit.
 
#1,503
Hi Marie! I've tried it all and I've found the best way to remove it is: cotton balls, acetone, foil. Tear the foil into 10 strips. I lay everything out on the desk. Soak 10 cotton balls in acetone and place one ball on each strip of foil. I start with the pinky on my right hand and start wrapping each nail, saving the thumbs for last. I leave it on about 30 minutes. Remove from fingers and peel, scrape.. and it should all just fall off. Good luck!
 
#1,504
marieukxx said:
Is it better to just buy a bottle of accetone, a roll of kitchen foil and some lint free pads for removal? I need to buy the removal kit with the sponges and foils again but I've found the erase doesn't remove it that well. It takes some off but not all of it and I am left having to re apply it and wait again and still I need to scrape a bit.
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I like to make my own "Hands Down" soak off nail wraps. After I buff the shine off, I cut a three cotton round pad into quarters and then soak the pad with whichever remover I have (usually Erase or Mally Beauty remover) and then place the pad over my nail and wrap my finger with a 2.5 inch peice of self grip tape that I get at the dollar store (the white stuff that looks like mesh). I wrap all fingers and place both hands underneath a microwaveable heating pad for 15-20 minutes. I then take each wrap off one at a time and push any little bit off that might still be stuck with a cuticle tool.

The only other removal experience that has rivaled this for me is using the finger tip nail soakers plastic soak caps with a cotton ball soaked in remover. Everything came off that way. I just felt these were awkward and dug into my skin abit after 15 minutes.
 
#1,505
me.jane said:
Hi Marie! I've tried it all and I've found the best way to remove it is: cotton balls, acetone, foil. Tear the foil into 10 strips. I lay everything out on the desk. Soak 10 cotton balls in acetone and place one ball on each strip of foil. I start with the pinky on my right hand and start wrapping each nail, saving the thumbs for last. I leave it on about 30 minutes. Remove from fingers and peel, scrape.. and it should all just fall off. Good luck!
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30 minutes, I've been doing 15 and found it still on then I've been re wrapping. Thanks for the advice I'll try that next time
 
#1,506
Michellena317 said:
I like to make my own "Hands Down" soak off nail wraps. After I buff the shine off, I cut a three cotton round pad into quarters and then soak the pad with whichever remover I have (usually Erase or Mally Beauty remover) and then place the pad over my nail and wrap my finger with a 2.5 inch peice of self grip tape that I get at the dollar store (the white stuff that looks like mesh). I wrap all fingers and place both hands underneath a microwaveable heating pad for 15-20 minutes. I then take each wrap off one at a time and push any little bit off that might still be stuck with a cuticle tool.

The only other removal experience that has rivaled this for me is using the finger tip nail soakers plastic soak caps with a cotton ball soaked in remover. Everything came off that way. I just felt these were awkward and dug into my skin abit after 15 minutes.
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Thanks I might try a heat pad to speed up the process. I had a look at soakers on ebay but wasn't sure on them.
 
#1,507
My fourth attempt with RCM. This time I used It's Not A Taupe and loose holographic gold glitter. I haven't left much of a margin this time so I'm worried about lifting. I did leave a margin with the polish then got carried away with the glitter lol.

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#1,511
marieukxx said:
Thanks I might try a heat pad to speed up the process. I had a look at soakers on ebay but wasn't sure on them.
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Yes the soakers work very well but I can't do anything else while I am waiting. The hands down wraps are like bandaids so you can do something else while you are waiting. I also figured out that I wasn't soaking the pads with enough remover and that was making my soak off take longer. I have noticed when I use a large amount of remover and really soak the pad and then add heat, the polish "pops" of in a sheet!!!:D
 
#1,512
Michellena317 said:
Yes the soakers work very well but I can't do anything else while I am waiting. The hands down wraps are like bandaids so you can do something else while you are waiting. I also figured out that I wasn't soaking the pads with enough remover and that was making my soak off take longer. I have noticed when I use a large amount of remover and really soak the pad and then add heat, the polish "pops" of in a sheet!!!:D
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That may be the case with me, I don't put that much remover on the pads. Will soak them and add heat and see if they come off any easier. I'll report back when these need taking off. I only have a hot water bottle for the heat though.
 
#1,513
marieukxx said:
That may be the case with me, I don't put that much remover on the pads. Will soak them and add heat and see if they come off any easier. I'll report back when these need taking off. I only have a hot water bottle for the heat though.
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I did a soak off yesterday with the hands down nail wraps and really saturated the pads with the Erase remover this time. After 15 minutes with the microwaveable heat pack, I was able to twist off the bandages and all of the polish came off with the bandage. No stubborn bits and no nail damage. YAY!

A hotwater bottle shouldn't be any different from my microwave heat pack, it is full of liquid and you pop it in the microwave for 35 seconds. A hot towel might work too. Good luck!
 
#1,515
Thanks to the advice here, I purchased the RCM starter kit and have done 2 manis so far. The first lasted about a week before I started getting some lifting at the base on a few nails; maybe this one will last a bit longer! It is 2 coats of Red Carpet Reddy + 1 coat Award Winning (picked up on clearance for $2.50!). In some lighting the gold on top makes the color a bit orange looking for my taste, but otherwise it's an ok layering combo. I would have never picked up Red Carpet Reddy on its own, but I was surprised at how nice it looked--probably not the best red for my skin tone, but not bad either. I wish I had a true burgundy to try, but looking at the RCM swatches I couldn't really find one--anyone have any burgundy SOG recs? I was thinking possibly Gelish Black Cherry Berry or ACG Fab.

Definitely need to work on my technique a bit--capping the ends gives me trouble, and on my thumbs I got too close to the base of the cuticle. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with how it looks considering I don't even really have much experience painting with regular polish! [It would never last more than a day with the way I treat my hands so I never bothered.]
 

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