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A Polish Problem |
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Megan Williams (A Polish Problem). Powered by Blogger.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Testing out the "Sticky Sandwich"
Okay, so that sounds reeeeally pervy. LOL. However, in truth, the "sticky sandwich" is a NP techinique to lengthen the wear of your manicure. As I change my NP more often than my 4 year old girl child changes her clothes, I never really concern myself with wear time. It does kinda bother me when my NP chips after a nano-second, but on the whole, wear just isn't a big issue. NP just doesn't seem to wear all that long on my natural nails, anyway, so if I worried about it, I'd drive myself bonkers.
However, in 11 days we are heading to the airport, staying a night there, and then flying to Orlando for a week at Walt Disney World! I am beyond excited, though we tend to go to WDW every 2 years (and were there in March to see the resorts... no parks).
Yet, as excited as I am... I've been driving myself mad thinking about how I'm going to handle my nails while I'm down there. I hate taking NP with me on vacation. Something always has a tendency to leak everything and then I'm left with a huge mess (just ask my OPI Extravagance bottle that looks more than a little worse for wear).
I've thought about getting Shellac'd, as there's a salon down the road from me that offers the service, but 1. given my past experiences with nail techs, I'm pretty much a devoted DIYer, 2. now that I'm a natural-nails girl, I hate feeling something thick on my nails, and 3. it's almost $40 for a CND Shellac manicure. I even bought stuff to do my own gel nails, but I still haven't perfected it, so I don't think that's going to happen. I still plan on working on it, so maybe look for that in an upcoming post.
But, for the time being, my options are either nekkid nails or dealing with changing my polish every 1-2 days, with neither option sounding like a good option. Then I remembered reading about the "sticky sandwich". I've never tried it, so I figured I'd give it a shot to see if I could get a whole week's worth of wear (or at least 3-4 days). Tonight, I tried it for the first time. I used (in order):
1 coat of nail dehydrant (ASP Prep n Clean)
1 coat of sticky base coat (a cheapy, Amore, from TD, but if it works, I'll be more than happy to shell out the dough for CND Stickey)
2 coats of NP (I went with Jessica Scarlet, but if I had to do it again, I would probably go with a 1-coater. This was 2)... Love, love, love Scarlet, BTW.
1 coat of sticky base coat
1 coat of quick dry TC (I used Rush)
It looks great and took about 30 minutes to fully set. No pics yet as my camera battery is dead (off to charge now), but I will take some soon. I did have a few bubbles, but I think that's because my bottle of Rush TC is half-empty and a little on the thick side.
I plan on keeping this on for 3-4 days, so you probably won't see any new polish posts from me this week, but I will try to update you on the stickey sandwich progress.
Anyone else tried the "sticky sandwich" (gah, I hate typing that. LOL) ? If not, what products do you use to get long wear? If this doesn't work and if I have the time, I'll be more than happy to give them a shot. I just don't want to be worrying about my nails while riding Splash Mountain. :P
However, in 11 days we are heading to the airport, staying a night there, and then flying to Orlando for a week at Walt Disney World! I am beyond excited, though we tend to go to WDW every 2 years (and were there in March to see the resorts... no parks).
Yet, as excited as I am... I've been driving myself mad thinking about how I'm going to handle my nails while I'm down there. I hate taking NP with me on vacation. Something always has a tendency to leak everything and then I'm left with a huge mess (just ask my OPI Extravagance bottle that looks more than a little worse for wear).
I've thought about getting Shellac'd, as there's a salon down the road from me that offers the service, but 1. given my past experiences with nail techs, I'm pretty much a devoted DIYer, 2. now that I'm a natural-nails girl, I hate feeling something thick on my nails, and 3. it's almost $40 for a CND Shellac manicure. I even bought stuff to do my own gel nails, but I still haven't perfected it, so I don't think that's going to happen. I still plan on working on it, so maybe look for that in an upcoming post.
But, for the time being, my options are either nekkid nails or dealing with changing my polish every 1-2 days, with neither option sounding like a good option. Then I remembered reading about the "sticky sandwich". I've never tried it, so I figured I'd give it a shot to see if I could get a whole week's worth of wear (or at least 3-4 days). Tonight, I tried it for the first time. I used (in order):
1 coat of nail dehydrant (ASP Prep n Clean)
1 coat of sticky base coat (a cheapy, Amore, from TD, but if it works, I'll be more than happy to shell out the dough for CND Stickey)
2 coats of NP (I went with Jessica Scarlet, but if I had to do it again, I would probably go with a 1-coater. This was 2)... Love, love, love Scarlet, BTW.
1 coat of sticky base coat
1 coat of quick dry TC (I used Rush)
It looks great and took about 30 minutes to fully set. No pics yet as my camera battery is dead (off to charge now), but I will take some soon. I did have a few bubbles, but I think that's because my bottle of Rush TC is half-empty and a little on the thick side.
I plan on keeping this on for 3-4 days, so you probably won't see any new polish posts from me this week, but I will try to update you on the stickey sandwich progress.
Anyone else tried the "sticky sandwich" (gah, I hate typing that. LOL) ? If not, what products do you use to get long wear? If this doesn't work and if I have the time, I'll be more than happy to give them a shot. I just don't want to be worrying about my nails while riding Splash Mountain. :P
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8 comments:
This sounds really interesting! Can you tell me what a sticky base coat means? One that dries slightly gummy rather than shiny??? xxx
Nic, yep, the sticky base coat dries kind of tacky or rubbery so the np has something to adhere to. In addition to the Amore I use and the CND Stickey I mentioned, I'm pretty sure that Orly Bonder is a sticky base coat, though I never had any luck with it.
I like to use incoco nail adhesives wheni go on vacation. They last forever. I found mine on clearance at walgreens for 1.25! Good luck
I do the sticky sandwich a little different. I put the sticky base coat, then one coat of polish. I let that dry completely and then I do another sticky coat and another polish coat and then my TC. The key is to use thin coats, so it doesn't look or feel thick. But it works. I use CND Sticky, my friend does this with Orly Bonder and she can get a week & a half with just tip wear. By the way, do consider trying Shellac, it is as thin as polish. But I would do a test run first. Shellac lasted 3 1/2 weeks on my toes, but only 5 days on my hands. go figure! Good luck! Enjoy your vacation, the weather here is perfect right now!
I get a good 6 days or more by using a simila method. 1 coat Nailtek Foundation II, 2 coats color, 1 coat SV, and then the following morning adding another thin coat color topped with another coat of SV. I got 11 straight days with OPI Green-wich Village and the teensy nik I got at the tip of my right index finger on the 11th day was pretty much done on purpose (lol, bare handed scrubbing in the kitchen) so I would have an excuse to change my polish. That's the only one I ever got 11 days out of. The rest give me on average 6 to 8 days.
I wouldn't recommend Orly Bonder for this sort of method. I couldn't find my Nailtek the other day, so subbed in Bonder under Color Club Who Are You Wearing?. I had a chip within an hour. :( The following day, I remembered where my Nailtek was, and used it under CC Best Dressed List (same collection), and 3 days later it still looks perfect ...
It's been almost a day since I started and the one thing I've learned... be sure to wrap your tips. I wrapped my left hand, but not my right, and my right hand is definitely showing signs of tipwear.
I've heard a mixed bag regarding Orly Bonder. It didn't work at all on me, and I know some people swear by it. Honestly, this Amour (sorry for the type above) is great. I just may stick with it and not worry about CND Stickey.
It's interesting to read all these other "sandwiching" methods.
UPDATE: My sticky sandwich only lasted a few hours after my last comment. :S So I decided to give up and just take a bottle of np with me and plan on using Jessica Critical Care if nothing else.
I love the Orly bonder. I put on a thin layer thne while still tacky in put on a thin layer of color. I repeat these steps then I add Orly Wont Chip top coat and finish with Orly Flash Dry drops. This process works great....try it!
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