Summer Fun: Bees; Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

It's that time! Day 1 of the Summer Fun challenge, hosted by Red Hair and Black Nail Polish and Glitter Obsession.

Day one is Bees.

Bzzzz...

For my base on this, I used the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Just in Lime and Lightening. There's two coats of each, though in retrospect I probably could have used just one of the green since it mostly got covered up, and the yellow (especially on my right hand) would have benefited from three. I wish I'd remembered to take pictures before adding the flowers. I always forget to snap in-progress photos.
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Can someone tell me what the heck is up with the Insta-Dri brushes? I love the formula. Can't stand the brushes.

The brush I have for Blue By is nearly triangular. It holds way too much polish and tends to flood my nail, even when I scrape of the excess, and it's such a weird shape that it's nearly impossible for me to get a good, neat, line with it.

Lightening is slightly better, but I still had some difficulties with the application and flooding.

Then there's Just in Lime, and it was nearly perfect. The brush is almost flat, and gave me a similar application to my Wet n Wild On a Trip--1-2 strokes is all it takes to cover the entire nail, and it went on nice and clean.

Is this just a batch thing? A color thing? Or did they realize how screwy a triangular brush is and decide to fix it?
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For the flowers, I used Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Fucshia Power and White On, and Insta-Dri in Blue By and Lightening. I used Pure Ice Touch Me Here for the stripes on the bee, dabbed some White On for the eyes, and used my nail art pen for the stripes. I topped it all off with my quick dry top coat.

I love this manicure; I think it's my favorite one in a while. I thought about taking it off because my right hand was chipping pretty badly, but the left still looked really good. I'd just stare at those flowers and think, "Well, I can leave it be for a little longer." (Ha. Bee. I slay me.) I got so many compliments on it at work, and at least three people asked me where I got my nails done. It was very satisfying to be able to say that I did them myself, and they weren't all that hard!

Stay tuned for the next installment of the challenge!