Mani Monday: Jelly Sandwich

I used to hate jelly polishes, but I have seen the error of my ways. In fact, I recently mentioned one in a post about Julep polishes. For those of you who have lives that revolve around things other than nail polish who aren't familiar with this polish finish, it describes a translucent polish that looks a bit squishy on the nail, for lack of a better descriptor. Certainly, there are bloggers out there who have scads of swatches you can google to see what I'm talking about. Go ahead, go look, I'll wait.

Okay, moving on.

Generally, I found these sorts of polishes a bit annoying, as one of the primary reasons I started doing my nails all the time was so I didn't spend the entire day cleaning out the stuff that accumulates under my nails, and being able to see through a polish kind of defeated this goal. This, however, was before I became aware of the what is called a "jelly sandwich." Basically, you do a coat or two of the jelly, then a coat of a glitter polish, and then top it with some more jelly polish.

The effect is intoxicating.

There are some nail looks that make me want to grow witch nails just so I can have more space to paint and then look at the pretty effect. This is definitely one of them. Unfortunately, my former aversion to this finish means I don't have a wide selection in my absurd collection. The drugstore brands also seem to largely stick to opaque cremes or shimmers, as well. I can't blame them, they do sell, and I have more than a few. Still, it's awfully annoying that I can't just run over to CVS and pick up a new jelly shade with which to experiment.

Have you ever tried a jelly sandwich?