I went to Sephora today to buy powder and eyeliner... I got them, as well as five bottles of nail polish and three eyeshadow palettes. One of the polishes I bought was new from Ciate - the velvet manicure. Obviously, I had to try it immediately:
I did my left hand first, and as you can see, wasn't very good at it. My ring finger is cropped out because it looks that bad!
My right hand was going a little better - I was faster and knew what to expect.
That's my right ring finger; the best in my opinion, and shows the texture with and without the velvet applied. (I used tape to do the French style.)
A couple comments immediately. 1)It is MUCH darker than I expected. Here's the box I bought:
2)I was worried about the texture, but I can't stop petting my nails! Even after washing my hands it feels great!
I was surprised I hadn't heard about it, since I work full time doing nails, do more nails at home, and generally breathe all things nails... I'll edit this post in a few days to comment on how it wears.
*Edit* After a day, (and washing my hair with the velvet on) the velvet stopped showing, and my nails just looked lumpy. I found velvet fuzz on my face for three days, possibly because I rub my eyes a lot.
I tried it on a coworker with Shellac base and top coat - I did the Shellac base (cured), then two coats of the color -which was very difficult to apply over the gel base- and after it dried, did a Shellac topcoat, sprinkled the velvet on that before double-curing it. I cleaned the inhibition layer off the top, and the velvet still looked good, but she also complained that the velvet got everywhere. Even with the gel, her manicure was ruined in two days. I did end up returning it, but it was fun for a minute!
Here is the manicure I did on my coworker:
And she also complained that it doesn't photograph very well, but with the Shellac we thought the color was not so dark.
*Edit* After a day, (and washing my hair with the velvet on) the velvet stopped showing, and my nails just looked lumpy. I found velvet fuzz on my face for three days, possibly because I rub my eyes a lot.
I tried it on a coworker with Shellac base and top coat - I did the Shellac base (cured), then two coats of the color -which was very difficult to apply over the gel base- and after it dried, did a Shellac topcoat, sprinkled the velvet on that before double-curing it. I cleaned the inhibition layer off the top, and the velvet still looked good, but she also complained that the velvet got everywhere. Even with the gel, her manicure was ruined in two days. I did end up returning it, but it was fun for a minute!
Here is the manicure I did on my coworker:
And she also complained that it doesn't photograph very well, but with the Shellac we thought the color was not so dark.
Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat, Ciate Velvet Manicure (color shown).
