[Tutorial and Review] The Trend: Jelly Sandwich (Essence 'Ticket to Paradise')

The Trend

To the nail art newbie, the jelly sandwich may just be a yummy type of food, but to the nail art connoisseur, the jelly sandwich is a fun nail art look that is easily achievable with the right products. You may have heard of the term ‘jelly’ thrown about by nail art fanatics and wondered what they were talking about… well we will demystify it in this post. This trend has been around for awhile now and has grown in popularity recently with a major increase in the jelly sandwich polishes available from indie brands.

What is a Jelly?

In all its simplicity, a ‘jelly polish’ is any polish that has a semi-transparent look to it, as opposed to a ‘cream polish’ that applies fully opaque. 

In the comparison above, on the left is one coat of an orange jelly and on the right is one coat of an orange cream. You can see that the nail line is visible with the jelly polish and that it has a semi-transparent finish.

The Look

This is a typical ‘jelly sandwich’ that can be easily re-created with a good plain jelly polish and some loose glitter.

This polish is Essence ‘Sun Said Red’. It is the jelly polish I have used for this look and comes from the new Essence ‘Ticket to Paradise’ collection. It is described as having a ‘semi-transparent gel-like texture’ and is available in a range of 4 colours. The whole collection that includes a shimmer powder, eyeshadows, lip glosses, hair mascara and lip liners are exclusive to Priceline stores and will be available in December.

This is one coat of the jelly polish.

This is two coats of the jelly polish. You can see that it is such a beautiful polish with two applications. The finish on this polish was very glossy and the drying time was not too bad at all. The formula was excellent and the colour pay off is well worth the $2.95 price tag. I wish I had a bigger bottle! Highly recommended!

The Jelly Sandwich

Now to the fun part…with such a transparent application, jelly polishes can be used to make the humble jelly sandwich. It involves an assortment of glitter sandwiched between layers of the polish!

1)      Paint one coat of a jelly finish polish.

2)      While the polish is still wet, add any combination of loose glitter on top. I used pink, dark blue and silver hex glitters.

3)      Apply another coat of the jelly finish polish on top.

4)      Add more glitter.

5)      Apply another coat of the jelly polish.

The possibilities for this look are endless! The trick is to apply multiple sandwiched layers to get the effect that the glitter is actually embedded into the polish. With the finished nail there should be some depth to the look, with some glitter looking deeper than others.

*The products were sent to me in a press release, but I maintain that the views in this post are my most honest opinions.*

[Tutorial] The Trend: The Floral French

The Trend

Floral tips per se have not yet become a nail art trend, but I thought I’d do a tutorial and make it one! Its two components, the floral design and the ‘french manicure look’, are trends in themselves and work nicely together to make a simple yet elegant design. 

The Look

This is the design that can be achieved in this tutorial. I’d like to call it the 'Floral French'! The flowers were completed using a dotting tool and a thin paint brush.

The Technique

The colours I have used are from L-R: OPI ‘Alpine Snow’, Essence ‘Ben & Cherries’, OPI ‘Elephantastic Pink’, Ulta3 ‘Soft Hydrangea’, Sally Hansen ‘Blue Me Away’ and The Face Shop ‘GR502’.

I also used a large dotting tool and a very thin paint brush, but you can also use a bobby pin and a tooth pick.

1)      Paint your nail a base colour. A white base will make the flowers pop out more.

2)      Using a large dotting tool, paint some light pink blotches.

3)      Repeat this with a light blue.

4)      Blob a bit of dark pink nail polish onto a scrap piece of paper, dip in a thin paint brush and carefully paint thin ‘C shaped’ lines onto the light pink base.

5)      Repeat this step with a darker blue onto the light blue blotches.

6)      Finally, add some green leaves with the paint brush.

With those simple steps you can achieve some pretty floral French nails. Try this with any combination of colours and tag @nailsbynikkih on Instagram to show me!

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Inspiration and Suggestions

This design was inspired by @liana_riches on Instagram. She did half florals and paired them with some simple stripes. You can find her here (she does a killer one-stroke floral)!