A few weeks back I received an unexpected, beautifully presented package in the mail from Jamberry. Don't freak out, I'm not becoming a consultant, but I am still a firm believer that there is a market for good quality nail wraps which can bring nail art to people that for whatever reason, can't do nail art.

I've tried Jamberry wraps before and the truth was I actually found them really excellent. I've even worn a few more that I'm yet to blog about. They always apply neatly and smoothly, they last well and they remove cleanly without any damage to my nails (unlike those nasty NCLA ones I tried last week).

This package arrived with the official Jamberry heater.  What a difference this made, not so much to the application of my wraps, but to my comfort as I applied them.  My previous experience was standing in the kitchen next to the toaster and warming up each wrap over the element.  This time I was able to sit comfortably and have this mini blow heater gently warm my wraps and fingers.  I also received a little manicure kit that provides all the tools to get a perfect Jamicure.

Of course the package also included all four of the new nail wraps designed by fellow Australian blogger So Nailicious.  The Geo French Twist design, with black and gold was by far my favourite and the one that I chose to put on.  The other three wraps are exactly the same design in other colour combinations.

I really like the design that Maria created, it's funky and chic and it is most definitely true to her style. But I would love to have seen four different designs, rather that four colours of the same design. Gosh, I can think of so many designs I'd love to see on a set of Jamberry's it not funny!






Jamberry products provided for consideration.

And now without direct light to see the reflectiveness.


Which is which you ask? The index and ring finger are the chrome powder and the middle and pinky fingers are the mirror polish.  Let's analyse them.  The chrome powders were done over black polish and seche vite top coat, not over gel.  They also show the slightest speckling.  The mirror polish is over an aqua base and is without top coat.

My verdict, the mirror polish is shinier, but the chrome powder produces a less fuzzy reflective finish. I'm sure both of these look better over a gel base (in fact I prove that with the polish below), but I wasn't up for another gel set to soak or peel off this week after the damage those NCLA wraps did to me.

If you actually want to wear these for any length of time, they need to last.  The new chrome powder does last, especially when you put a layer of gel top coat over it, it also doesn't lose it's chrome finish.

But the mirror polish, well that is another story. I did these tests and swatches of the Born Pretty store mirror polish a while back, and it seems like the perfect time to share the results.

First up, here is the chrome polish over an aqua base.


Here are some tests with different top coats, including the one that comes with it. But they all significantly effect the shine.


Here is the mirror polish over a gel base. Wowser!  I think this polish over gel easily bets the chrome powder for reflective finish and shine, but again this is still without top coat, so it just rubs off.


What about with gel top coat?  The answer is no.  You can tell the nail that didn't have gel top coat, and you can see how sharp that refective image is too, even when compared the reflection image near the top.


Then I added another layer of mirror polish, to create a mirror gel sandwich, hoping that would last better.


After just a few hours of wear the mirror polish had worn off and it was back to the gel top coat over the mirror polish, and it's not reflective at all.

Chrome nails are THE it thing at the moment. Every second video you see on Instagram is someone rubbing that silver powder into their polish.  Of course there is a good reason for this, it's freaking cool! Not just the finished product (which looks awesome) but the application process is fun and magical.

After getting my chrome mirror powder in the mail I realised that this rubbing or 'burnishing' technique, where you polish some sort of powder into your polish, could be used with a whole bunch of things. So I pulled out a whole bunch of things that I had in powder form and played.



Let's look where I started.  First up, the chrome powder. This is the one from Daily charm.  I like it a lot, this is the number 03 one, which is the finest particle size with the least shimmer and most mirror like finish.

The next three fingers have three different chameleon pigments.  Specifically the ones that I sold in little one gram jars about 5 years ago. (No I don't have anymore to sell so please don't ask).  I kept a few grams of the powders for myself because I knew I'd want to use them for something, and here you go.  Middle finger is the red to green powder (which had the best effect in my opinion). Ring finger has the green to blue and pinky has the gold to green.  All these show one rubbing of the powders into the gel. No top coat on the chrome, but a layer of seche vite over the chameleons.




Next I tried some glitters.  Middle finger has the silver flake glitter that is used in all those really reflective polishes.  Ring finger is gold holo glitter and pinky and silver holo glitter.  These are the ultra holo glitters from Glitter Unique. The silver flake didn't work so well, but I did love how flat the gold and silver glitters were.  They would obviously be much better over a closer matching base rather than dark blue.



Next I wanted to try holo. Because the next thing we are going to start seeing in about a month, is everyone rubbing holo powder into their nails.  Yes, I caved. I forked out the ridiculous $40USD for a single gram of the holo powder from Daily Charme, which is currently on sale as a pre-order only. I hope to have it in my hands in about a month.

But in a effort to try create that effect now, I pulled out some stuff.  Firstly Spectraflair. I've still got a little stash of spectaflair in powder form, again because I used to sell the stuff before JDSU changed their requirements so that it could only be sold pre-mixed in suspension base. So using as much caution as possible, and noting that the product is not cosmetically approved, I tried rubbing some into my gel.  FAIL. I could not get it to adhere. I got a tiny bit on there, but it kinda sucked. Note that I'm not using a wipe free top coat, so I don't know if I'd get better results with Spectraflair if I were using that sort of top coat.


Next I pulled out a product that I've barely used.  It's JOSS Holo Flake from the Nail Super Store.  I always considered it the poor cousin to spectraflair, because the results when mixed into polish never seemed as good. How wrong I was to consider this the poor cousin.  Firstly, as I rubbed it in, magic happened, holo amazing magic. It adhered perfectly and the linear holo was intense.  Plus, let me just add, this IS cosmetically approved, and it's is cheaper.  Way way cheaper than the $40USD for the gram of the holo pigment from the Daily Charm.  This beautiful powder is only $10AUD a gram. Downside for those outside of Australia is that international shipping is not available. *Edited to add - JOSS Holo flake has been removed from the Nail Super Store site due to low stock levels*


After doing all that experimenting on gels, I peeled them off (cause I cleverly remembered to put on a layer of Picture Polish peel off base coat).  I then applied a full mani in Emily de Molly Iridescent Skies. Here's a bonus swatch photo of that!


I applied a layer of Seche Vite and let it dry to about 80%.  It was still dentable but wouldn't leave finger prints. Then I gently rubbed away, and I didn't have to rub hard for it to adhere to the top coat. OMG just look at it.  I'll edit a video at lunch tomorrow and upload my rubbing to instagram.  So make sure you are following me there! This first photo is straight after application. with no top coat.


Below is my final mani. You do need to apply top coat otherwise the powder does eventually rub off.  I applied Seche Vite.  I found it did reduce the holo intensity a little bit, but nothing too major.  I then rubbed in another bit of the holo flake and made a holoflake sandwich with the top coat.  This lasted really well and the holo was strong.  I didn't apply a gel top coat because I didn't feel like doing the whole soak off thing, as I hadn't applied the peel off base.  But I'm confident that a gel top coat would keep the holo just as well, if not better than the Seche Vite does.