Review: Incoco Garden Daydreams Spring 2014 collection

(Press Sample)

Hello!

I'm back with two very sweet sets of nail appliques from Incoco's Garden Daydreams Spring 2014 collection. The collection features pastels and watercolors and subtle florals; it's feminine but not sickly sweet the way some floral collections go. I wore each of these for a few days, and then added some nail art when I was ready for a change (so you'll see a little tip-wear on the nail art photos).

Here is the lovely Tea Party, a very soft pink background with a spray of pink and peach roses, amid faint polka dots:

Incoco Tea Party

Incoco Tea Party

Incoco Tea Party

These applied with Incoco's characteristic ease. One of the things I liked about these sets was the flexibility to choose the look I wanted for each nail, and how each nail related to one another; for my index, ring, and middle finger, I have several wraps to choose from, and each one is double-ended; this let me have one nail with no flowers, and to place the flower sprays in what I found to be a pleasing array; if each nail wrap had been the same, I wouldn't have been able to do that. Also, another benefit of this particular set is the multiple colors within the flowers, something that's hard for me to do with stamping, and time-consuming with freehand.

Possibly my favorite set from the collection is Garden Path, an off-white background with a very light green-gray textured effect, topped off with a selection of pink, yellow, and blue flowers:

Incoco Garden Path

Incoco Garden Path

Incoco Garden Path

Incoco Garden Path

These speak directly to my heart because they have a very impressionist feel, like little Monets on my nails. And, if you like the look of those little dried flowers that people do nail art with, but you don't want the hassle of messing with them, these give the same effect. :)

For my nail art, I wanted to add a little bit of extra without detracting from the original design; with Tea Party, I added a little distressed mesh look to the pattern with Sally Hansen Mint Sprint, using Pueen 54 (this is from their new collage-style set, and I'll be reviewing it soon):

 

For garden path, I was so inspired by Monet that the only logical thing in my mind was to throw up a little Japanese bridge running through the flowers...you'll notice that on three of the four nails I put the sprays near my cuticle, because I knew I wanted to do this when the time came. I freehanded this with acrylic paints:

 

Because I'm happy

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

Because I'm happy

Clap along if you know what happiness means to you

These appliques are playing a bigger and bigger part in my personal nail-art repertoire, in their own right, and as a spring board for my own nail art. :)

Happy Saturday!
M.