Milani - Pool Party!

With sandal weather fast approaching, I started my regular routine of pedicures at my favorite salon. I usually skip the manicure, because I like to do that myself during "unwind time" at home, but NOTHING beats an hour in a massage chair being pampered! Going about once or twice a month, truly keeps your feet and toenail beds healthy and neat. I highly suggest finding an inexpensive/experienced nail tech in your area and give yourself the gift of "me time." YOU DESERVE IT!

I like to bring my own nail polish to the salon, because... well... I have more colors than the salon! Also, nail salons tend to be a little community, where everyone converses about anything from favorite recipes to beauty tips to local news. Often I'll have another patron borrow my polish for their mani/pedi and for a moment in time I become the nail salon hero! *Takes off nerd glasses and puts on polish cape!*

On this particular day, I had gone to Target to pick up my weekly list items and (of course) trolled the polish/cosmetic aisle to scope out any colors I didn't already have. I spotted the fun and iridescent Milani Pool Party. Having an affinity for blues and at a pocket friendly $4.99, I picked it up and brought it to my pedicure appointment.

The nail tech at this particular salon loves doing cute designs and really keeps up on nail trends... she brought out a board of designs for me to scope out. Now, I'm not normally a "design" girl, but I feel that toes are supposed to be painted cute and fun. Since designs can last two, sometimes three weeks, it seems more "worth it" to me to get them on the toes. As I looked through flowers and glitter... *GASP* HELLO KITTY FRENCH!!!! I had her use my Milani Pool Party as a base and you can see the results at the bottom of this post (there will be some foot in the picture - you've been warned!).

The pedicure inspired this manicure. Like I said, I'm not normally a "nail design person" and I don't normally like colored frenchies on myself, but Milani Pool Party definitely changed my mind! I applied three coats to my tips, using this technique posted by fellow polish enthusiast ValentinaDang. Try it out! It's super easy and I know you'll love your results.

 

Three coats of Milani Pool Party

These are the tools/polishes I used to achieve this particular manicure. I love Nail Tek Foundation II, it's a great nutrient packed ridge filling base coat that tames even the most unruliest nails! Wicked Fast top coat by Cult Nails ALWAYS pays out in the shine department and I find that the shine lasts about four days; that's pretty intense considering how hard I am on my nails most of the time. For the brush to clean up the french manicure, I just used a 99 cent eyeshadow brush from the drug store!

R to L: Cult Nails Wicked Fast top coat, Milani Pool Party, NailTek Foundation II base coat

Three coats of Milani Pool Party achieves full opacity, making it a more brilliant blue that reflects greens, golds and even some pinks. I used two coats as the base color on my toes and you can see how easily this can be used as a versatile summer shade, as a light iridescent sky blue or as a bright aqua beachy blue.

Pool Party was neither gloppy nor watery. Milani really got this formula right! It evened itself out as it dried and even with three coats on the tips it dried fairly quickly, even before the top coat was applied. GREAT buy at $4.99!

Now for the super cute Hello Kitty pedicure!

You can see the lighter (two coat) blue and the AWESOME Hello Kitty! There are lots of Youtube tutorials to try your own Hello Kitty french manicure at home.

If you're not usually a "nail art person" either, I encourage you to give it a try, anything from a pearl mani to an easy/classic frenchie. Play around with it and definitely add a bottle of this cool and versatile blue by Milani to your summer staples!