Alright you guys, I am a gross amateur when it comes to applying nail polish, forget gorgeous nail art! (I’m in constant awe of my friend Kaitlyn who manages to pull out some insanely beautiful nail art on her gorgeous nails!) However, for whatever unknown reason, my nails have gotten long and strong recently, so I find myself wanting to do *something* with them.

And the easiest thing I know is a French tip because it’s basically fool proof since I use the nail stickers (I buy them for like 99 cents on Ebay!).

I’m personally not interested in the usual French tip colours of nude and white, so I opt to switch it up and play with colour. Since Halloween is around the corner, I wanted to stick with a seasonal orange and black nail. And since I did this just for me and wasn’t planning on doing a post about it, I really don’t have a step by step guide for you guys, but I can tell you about some of my favourite products for nails!

I don’t know how I did any nail polish whatsoever before I discovered Seche Vive/Seche Vite back in August. Seche Vive is the new gel-like fast drying finish, but I think a lot of people are already aware of Seche Vite (the original). This stuff dries so freaking fast and makes my manicure last at least 7 days (but really it’s usually closer to 10-12 days). I wish I’d gotten on the bandwagon a lot sooner because in the past my nails were always chipped by day 2!

The black nail polish I’ve been using for years is China Glaze‘s Liquid Leather. It’s not a single coat black, but it’s pretty darn close. (And if you watch Simply Nailogical, you’ll know that this one was one of the better black polishes in her recent roundup. It’s also one of the easiest to get your hands on that’s for sure!) One of the reasons I like this so much is I’ve probably had it for 4-5 years and although I can’t tell how much I’ve finished in the bottle, I can say that the formula remains just as fluid as the day I got it. No gunking up in this bottle!

Although not available in Canada, Julie G‘s nail polish line is one I look forward to buying whenever I’m in the US and have access to a Rite Aid. Julie G is one of the original YouTubers I remember watching when I first got into the beauty world. When I first spotted her line while on vacation, I was happy to support her… and then even happier to discover that I really, REALLY liked her shimmery polishes (I’ve only tried one cream polish and I didn’t love it as much). This particular shade is Albuquerque and I’m drawn to it because it’s not only a stunning shimmery metallic orange, but it’s also the city Julie lives in as well as being the city that Breaking Bad took place in. (God I miss that show soooo much!)

In short, how I got this nail look is first by coating my nails with the Seche Base. Waiting five minutes, coating with one layer of black polish. Waiting another two minutes and then applying a second layer of black polish. I then coated my nails with a thick layer of Seche Vive so I could use the nail stickers soon thereafter. Thirty minutes and a load of laundry later, I then applied the French tip nail stickers, did two coats on the tips of my nails with orange polish, peeled off the stickers and re-coated them with Seche Vive.

This is the easiest time I have ever had doing French tips! In the past, I always had problems with the stickers yanking off the base layer polish. This time Seche kept my base layer intact! As you can maybe see from the ridiculous sheen in the photos, Seche Vive adds one hell of a glossy topcoat to my nails. It’s really, really nice to look at in person, but it’s hell on a camera lens!

Although this post was accidental and I hadn't actually done my nails with a post in mind (seriously, I think this is my first ever nail post), please note that the Seche Base and Seche Vive products were sent to me for consideration.