Nail Care: How I care for my nails

Hello!!

I've had several requests for a post about how I care for my nails, and I've finally been able to put that together.

The simple answer, and I apologize in advance, is that I don't really do much. For the most part, I'm fairly lucky with respect to my nails--they are mostly strong enough and have a pretty decent shape. So, before I begin, let me say that just because I do or don't do something, that doesn't make it right! I know I'm lucky with my nails and may not have to do things that are important for other people. And, there may very well be better products out there than the ones I use--I'd love to hear about it if you think so, I'm always looking for what works best. So my recommendations are purely based on what I've managed to find, and like. Please do not take anything I say here with anything other than a huge grain of salt. :)

That said, I do have several problem issues. One is, especially on my right hand, I tend to get splits and peels, and once they start, it's hard to stop them, and it can be very frustrating. The second is, I'm a bit of a germ-o-phobe, so I tend to wash my hands a lot, and that makes my cuticles a bit dry and tough. Finally, when my nails get longer, they curl at the tips. I'll talk about all of these issues below.

Complete manicure:
When I do a complete manicure, here's what I do:

1) Remove polish.
Back when I did my nails only 1-2 times a week, it didn't matter what sort of nail polish remover I used; I honestly couldn't tell the difference. But since I discovered Konad and started blogging, I remove my polish almost every day (except on rare occasions), and sometimes more than once per day. Since doing this, I've found that I can tell more of a difference, and need to use something a bit more high-quality on my nails. My solution has been Zoya Remove Plus Nail Polish Remover, Which you can find here. A side benefit of this polish is that it comes in a pump bottle, which is a life-saver around my highly destructive kitties and my highly clumsy self--no open polish remover bottles to be knocked over:

You can also buy a bigger refill bottle which makes the remover a bit more economical. It's not cheap regardless, but if you change polish frequently, it's worth the money, imo.

2) Cuticle remover. 
I'm not going to recommend a particular one for you, because I'm currently looking to switch myself, because my old brand is owned by a non-cruelty-free company. But, this is a crucial part of my complete manicure and pedicure routine. I apply the remover gel, let it sit according to the directions, and then remove, while pushing my cuticles back with an orange stick. If you don't know what an orange stick is, you really do know, you just don't know that you know (did you follow that?). It's one of these guys:

You can get these just about anywhere, including Sally Beauty and any drugstore...but I get mine on eBay, where they run about a dollar per metric crap-ton (which translates to about 50 in my own personal language). I use the slanted side to push my cuticles back and simultaneously remove the cuticle remover gel. I constantly wipe the end clean on a paper towel while I do it. You can buy plastic ones that can be reused, if you clean them carefully. I just use the biodegradable disposable type. :)

3) Wash your hands thoroughly. 
I do this by using a sugar scrub to further exfoliate the cuticles and surrounding skin, and then wash with soap and water. You can use any exfoliant, but I got some Qtica Grapefruit Surprise Sugar Scrub free with an order I placed with Zoya, and I've fallen in love with it. It smell great, works great, and you don't really need much, so it lasts for a fairly long time:

You can find it by clicking here. You want to make sure to wash your hand well, because if you leave cuticle remover on your skin, it will not end well for you.

4) Cuticle oil!
I finish up with cuticle oil. I love California Mango Magic cuticle oil, which was recommended by Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures. I agree with her that it smells great, and I love that it absorbs quickly--I hate to have oily fingers, yuck!!

You can find it at Sally Beauty by clicking here.


Routine maintenance
Whenever I think about it, I will toss on some cuticle oil, and some Hard As Hoof. I am mentioning the Hard As Hoof to be completely honest about what I use, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. I can't say that I've seen a ton of difference since I started using it, but I also don't use it as often as it says you should, so I haven't given it a fair test in that respect. But, I do love the way it smells, and it makes me feel pampered, so I'll use it up and then decide if I want to get more.

I file my nails 1-2 times a week, depending on how fast they are growing (mine seem to grow faster in summer, but maybe this is just my mind messing with me, lol). Here is the exact file I use; I got it at Sally Beauty but can't find it on their on-line site:

I've been told to file my nails in only one direction, and to 'bevel' them once I'm done--but neither of these things does a darn bit of good for me, I can't tell any difference between when I do them and when I don't. So, I don't. I file my nails straight across the top whichever direction strikes my fancy at the moment (such a rebel!), parallel with my nail cuticle; I then file the sides of my nails so they come out from the finger straight, and then finally I round the edges slightly, just enough so they don't catch on anything.

Oh, and I *always* use a base coat. Always. No matter what. Don't actually care which one--I have about 10--but I always use one to prevent staining and to make polish removal easier.


Breaks, splits and peeling
I keep my nails fairly short, but even so I do get some breaks. And once I get a break, I tend to get a never-ending cycle of splits and peels coming off of that break...the break causes some peeling around it, which weakens that part of the nail, which then breaks or peels, which weakens the nail around it...you get the picture. Luckily, I have found a solution, again from Colette at My Simple Little Pleasures. She has a tutorial on patching your nails (You can find her updated tutorial here.), and the products and technique she recommends have been brilliantly successful for me--and have had unexpected side-benefits. I originally tried her technique to try to grow out a break on the side of my nail, and I discovered two extra benefits...first, the patches also allowed the nail to grow out to the point where the peeling/splitting stopped too. So, I tried it on a second nail that had been caught in the never-ending peeling cycle, and wore it until my nail grew out about 1/4 of an inch. While it was growing out, I filed it and treated it otherwise as normal...and when I finally took the patch off--no more splitting or peeling! The patch had given the nail a chance to grow out enough so that the weakened area no longer sabotaged the nail below it, and it's been beautiful and strong ever since. The second benefit was that the patch, when worn on the tip of my nail, almost completely eliminated the curling; I'm not sure why, but my guess is that the extra strength kept the edges from curling under. I have not tried wearing patches solely to keep my nails from curling, but every once in a while I'm tempted to do just that. I'm also not sure that this would work with longer nails, I just know it works with mine, so I thought I'd mention it. :)

UPDATE: My friend Dina of Secretary's Nail Art has suggested to help my curling, I soak my nails once a week in a warm bath with a bowl of argan oil or almond oil. I'm definitely going to try this!

What I don't do
Here are a few things I don't do, just so you don't wonder if I just forgot to mention them. I don't take any sort of special vitamins for my nails. Maybe I wouldn't get the curling if I did, but I've never heard of that helping anyone else in that respect, so I don't bother. I also don't buff my nails unless I have some unusual problem going on (a bump due to smashing my nail or something like that); I don't like to do anything that can weaken my nails, even a little bit, and buffing takes off part of the top layer of the nail. Nor do I use ridge-fillers on my fingernails (I *do* use these on my toenails at times, because my toenails are tragic beyond understanding). Most polishes work well enough to fill out imperfections on my fingernails in my experience, and the few that don't, I don't need to own.  Let me say again that this doesn't mean these things don't work great for other people! I just haven't found them that helpful for me. :)

So there you have it, that's my routine. I'm sure I've forgotten something, so I'll probably need to update later, lol! I'm not sure if I covered everything that people wanted to know, so if I didn't definitely ask me. :)

I hope this wasn't too too too boring for people...Thanks for reading if you made it this far! :)

M.

Review and NOTD: Ludurana Admiravel

Hello!

Earlier this week I showed you a manicure that used the saran-wrap technique to make a pretty background texture on the nail, and I promised you I'd do a separate post on the base polish. I did that because Ludurana Admiravel is so pretty it really needs a picture-heavy post all its own to explore all of its multichrome magic.

It's not surprising that I think yet another Ludurana multichrome has caught my eye, nor is it surprising that they did a great job with this one once again. Admiravel is a green-purple-brown-rose multichrome that shows 2-3 colors in a given type of light, but shows very different colors in different lights--this is a bit different from some others that just show more/less intense versions of the same color sets.

Unfortunately, I was not able to capture all of these on camera, but I will walk you through what I can't show you. :) All of these pictures are three coats over bare nails; These colors would be more intense if layered over a dark polish, and you'd need fewer coats.

First of all, in shade, Admiravel is a grassy green that goes a bit darker at the edges, and has a brown flash in the center, as you can see here:

Ludurana Admiravel in the shade

Ludurana Admiravel in the shade, downward angle

If you look at the first picture above, you can see a brown flash with a little rose flash in the center of it, near the white reflection areas in the polish. When Admiravel is in intense direct sunlight, the polish is that color brown almost completely, with a strong rose flash in the middle, and olive green at the edges. I couldn't capture this on film, so you'll have to trust me. :)

When the light is a little less direct in the shade, or when indoors, the green becomes a little more intense, and starts to get purple at the edges:

Ludurana shade

Ludurana shade downward angle

When indoors, the green and purple become extremely vibrant, much more so than even the picture above. :)

When in a less intense direct sunlight, the green becomes a little darker, and the whole polish becomes glittery:

I love that this polish seems to shift palates completely depending on the intensity of the light. With more scattered light intensity (like morning light), you get grassy greens and purples, with some light browns. With more intense light (like afternoon light) you get olive greens and browns with rose.

As a last comment, I have to say that of all the Luduranas I've tried, I'm least impressed with the opacity of this one. Even with three coats, you can almost see bald spots in my last picture, with the direct light coming down at a straight angle. I don't think I'll wear this alone again, but will put it over a dark polish, and that's the first time I've felt that's necessary with a Ludurana.

Also, this reminds me of Nubar's Wildlife, but I remember that one being browner. I can do a comparison post if anybody wants me to...:)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

M.

NOTD Before & After: Surfin' USA!

Hello!

Today's theme in CNT is Surfin' USA! I had a bit of manicure-block on this, and wasn't quite sure what to do...well, that's not exactly true. I wasn't sure what to do that didn't involve freehand of some sort. Everything I came up with that didn't require freehand was just plain lame...so I decided to say 'what the heck' and freehand it.

I started with Sinful Color's Ciao Bella, which is a gorgeous deep blue with lighter blue glass flecks in it. You should click on this pictures to enlarge them, because they don't do it justice in this smaller size:

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella!

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella!

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella in direct sunlight (sort of)

I decided I wanted to do a glitter sandwich for my ocean, and I wanted to make a surf board on my accent nail. So I removed the blue from my ring finger, and put on a neutral beige. Then I put Orly Mermaid Tale over the remaining blue fingers:

Sinful Colors Ciao Bella! + Orly Mermaid Tale

At this point I started to wonder if something was wrong wit my camera, because I could not get a good picture of the glitter on top of Ciao Bella. I took these at a different time of day than I normally do, but still, it seemed odd that I had a problem with the focus. If this keeps up, I may have to get a new camera...:(

Anyway. My next step was to put a coat of L.A. Color's Radiation over the blue nails, to create the glitter sandwich. This made the blue a little less deep, and made it more sparkly like the surface of the water (or, that's what I'm telling myself). Then I freehanded the surfboard and the wave tube...Here's how it came out:

Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learning how

Come on and safari with meeeeeeee

To make the surfboard, I put a stripe of Spoiled Pumping Gas down the middle, and then four thinner stripes of Sally Hansen Night Flight, two next to the first stripe, and two down the edges of the nail (barely visible here). To create the wave tube, I started drawing parts of the wave with Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess, and then tried to put accent white caps on with Sally Hansen White On.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out...I'm clearly still learning how to freehand well, but you can tell it's a wave tube, and it's kinda cool. I love how the glitter sandwich came out, and if you ignore issues of proper perspective, that part is very cool. And yes, if you're wondering why my surfboard is standing straight up in the air? Well, we're not all very good surfers even here in California, and sometimes we just wipe out...hee  hee hee.

Thanks for taking a look, and please check out the other surfing manicures done by the other participants, linked below. :)

M.

MSMD Monday: Saran Wrap nails

Hello!!!

I am very excited today about my MSMD because I was finally able to try out a technique that has intrigued me for quite some time. I've seen a couple of manicures done with the saran wrap technique, but it was one done by Manicurity that finally sent me over the edge. You can see the original manicure here.; I really love the colors she chose and the texture was visible enough to get me thinking.

I started with a mystery base polish that I'll feature in its own post later in the week; it's a duochrome that shifts from green to purple to olive to brown to rose. Green is the predominant color, and purpple is the second most common, so I decided to play up this combination.

I chose Sally Hansen Lovely Lilac for the saran wrap portion of the manicure. If you don't know this technique, it's extremely easy. Take a drop of polish and put it on a piece of paper or a piece of plastic. Take a ball of scrunched up saran wrap, and dip it into that drop of polish. Then tap it on the paper or plastic a few times to get off the excess polish and spread the polish out a bit. Then gently tap onto your nails. Start gently--you can always tap again, but can't take it away if there's too much. Here's how mine came out:

(sorry for the messed up cuticles! I tried to re-take the pictures after cleaning them up but for some reasons the colors in that second set came out washed out.)

In the sun

Up close in the sun to show the texture :)

It was pretty on its own, but it clearly needed something. So, I busted out mah Konad m60 and stamped some pretty little green flowers with Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime, and used a dotting tool and SH Pronto Purple to make the centers of the flowers. I Seche Vited it up, and was good to go!

This is one of those manicures that no matter how I tried, I couldn't capture it well on camera...the duochrome and sparkle of the underlying polish played really well with the creme finishes of the texture and stamping. It comes through a bit in the sun pictures, but is so much nicer in real life (I'm still wearing it, couldn't bear to take it off yet to do tomorrow's challenge!)

I really love the texture you get from this technique. It's quick, easy, and doesn't use much polish. As you can see from my first picture, it doesn't mess up your cuticles anymore than regular stamping does most of the time (Hey...yeah...*that's* why I left the cuticle mess there, so I could show you how not messy it is...yeah, yeah, that's it!). This one is definitely going into my repertoire of often-used techniques--you can expect to see it again soon!

Hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to check out the other MSMD manicures done by the lovely ladies of CNTs, linked below!

M.

NOTD Before & After: Orly's Smolder (Or, Fall Is In The Air...)

Hello!!

A little while back I reviewed two colors from Orly's Fired Up collection, and liked them so much that I ordered a third color from the collection, Smolder. When it showed up, I couldn't wait to try it out, especially when it turned out to be more of a red than it looked from the promo materials, which made it look a bit more like a wine color.

Smolder is very similar to Flicker in the type of color and finish it is; it has incredible depth and intensity, and I want very much to call it a duochrome, but it doesn't quite shift as much as flash--it's sort of in between a flash and a shift. In the shade, you see deep red with orange/copper flashes and winey flashes. In the sun, more of the wine color comes out. And like Flicker, Smolder is true to the name of the collection in that is seems to be lit from within:

Orly Smolder--shade

Orly Smolder--shade, different angle

Orly Smolder--direct sunlight

I had been wearing this for a day and wasn't sure what to do with it because I didn't want to cover it up, when my AIS group announced the challenge theme, and solved my dilemma. The theme for today is 'Can't wait for fall!', and this color screams fall to me, so I knew I'd be using it as my base.

I personally love fall and fall colors, and while I don't want summer to end, I'm really jazzed about putting together my first official 'fall' manicure, so one fall color was certainly not going to be enough. So I grabbed a rainbow of fall colors in a bottle--Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell. If you've never seen it, it's a stunning holographic duochrome (don't know where holographic came from!) glitter that's sort of like the rainbow flakies out there:

Orly Smolder + Kleancolor Chunky Holo Bluebell

It's like a spray of fall leaves in a bottle...

Honestly, at this point I almost decided that this could no longer be a part of the weekly theme, because AIS is a stamping group, and I almost couldn't bring myself to stamp over this combination. I wore it like this for a day, and then finally decided that a little spray of leaves would be a nice touch to stamp on top:

For the stamped image, I used Cheeky XL plate E, and stamped with Revlon Varnished, a greenish gold that I thought would be perfect for fall. However, if I had to do it again, I think I'd go with a straight gold polish, which would have a bit more of a warm feel. :)

So there you have it, a NOTD, review, and theme challenge all in one. I loved this all so much I wore it from start to finish for 5 days, which is crazy long for me these days! And I should mention, not one chip until the last day. :)

Thanks for taking a look, and have a great Sunday!

M.

NOTD Before & After: Gamer Geek Chic FTW!

Hello!

Up to a couple of weeks ago, I would have thought that the intersection between nail polish lovers and gamers would have been non-existent group, or a tiny one at best. But in a short period of time, I've found several fellow bloggers who also love to game. One of them, Dina of Secretary's Nail Art, and I found out that we both share a love for World Of Warcraft, and we decided to do a twin post of WoW-themed manicures! I'm presenting mine here, and you can see hers by clicking here..

First, I started with Color Club's Voodoo You Do, which is a deep evergreen that reminds me of pine needles. The color reminds me of some of the saturated colors in the game, and is very earthy, which fit in with what I wanted to do:

Voodoo You Do in shade

Color Club Voodoo You Do in indirect sun

Color Club Voodoo You Do in direct sun

Sigh...I can't wait to do some Christmas manicures with that...

Anyway, back to my WoW manicure! My favorite class to play is druid; I love this class because, among other things, it has a strong base in appreciating nature, and can shape-shift forms to use different abilities. I decided to represent my druids by doing a manicure where each nail celebrates one of the forms that druids can take; these are: 

Thumb: Tree form (allows the druid to heal friends)

Index Finger: Flight form (allows the druid to fly fast!)

Middle Finger: Moonkin form (aka Boomkin form cause it blows up enemies very effectively)

Ring Finger: Cat form (allows the druid to become invisible to stealth past enemies; you only see glowing eyes and a faint outline, while your enemy sees nothing, muah hah hah)

Pinky Finger: Bear form (allows druid to take a lot of damage)

Here is what I came up with:

World of Warcraft Druid manicure

If you're interested, here is what these forms look like in game; it might help the manicure make a bit more sense, lol:

So here's how I did it.

Thumb: To recreate the Tree Form's crazy branch-and-leaf hair, I used Mash plate Mash-37, stamped with Revlon Varnished and China Glaze Passion.

Index finger: To capture Flight Form, I used the eagle from Konad plate m28, and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.

Middle Finger: To make the feather decorations that the moonkin wear, I used a feather image from plate OB40, stamped with Silver Mercedes, and used a dotting tool to make the medallion, using Varnished and Passion.

Ring Finger: To make my glowy Cat Form stealth eyes, I used the pearl white from my Migi nail art pens

Pinkie: To make my bear tracks, I used Passion and stamped with Shany plate SH11.

If you are a WoW fan, I hope this captured the spirit of the druid for you. If not, thanks for reading this far! Either way, please check out Dina's take on the WoW theme by clicking here. :)
Thanks for looking!

M.

NOTD Before & After: Abstract fruit salad

Hello!

Today's theme in PCF is Fruit Salad, which gave me a great excuse to bust out my new awesome find, Revlon's Fig Jam! I saw this a couple of weeks ago in the new Revlon display, and just fell in love with the color (and the $1 coupon next to it). It's very unique, at least among the polishes I own:

Revlon Fig Jam in the sun

Revlon Fig Jam in the shade

Revlon Fig Jam in the shade

I included the second shade picture because I couldn't get a good shot of the lovely micro-glitter in this...This is a golden peach color with a gold shimmer and gold micro-glitter that I had a horrible time capturing on film. It goes on like a dream, and is opaque in two coats. And if that wasn't enough, it's scented--in a good way. It smells gently of Jolly Rancher candies. :)

Anyway...I thought this color made a good base for a fruit salad, because it reminds me of the color of the fruit salad mix a friend of mine uses for her 'sauce'. I didn't want to do the obvious fruit salad thing tho, with stamps of strawberries and oranges and that sort of thing...I felt like going a different way. So I decided to do an abstract fruit salad!:

Over my base of Revlon Fig, I sponged Pure Ice Siren in with a bit of sponge that I cut into a wide rectangle, to mimic watermelon chunks. Over that, I sponged Sally Hansen Lightning with a sponge I cut into a square shape, to look like pineapple chunks. Then I used a narrow rectangle sponge to look like little slices of kiwi, when used with Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime. It felt like it needed something, so I threw on one traditional fruit stamp, an orange slice on the accent nail, using Cheeky plate CH-20, and Sally Hansen Orange Impulse.

While I didn't plan it, I love the way the sponging allowed the gold glitter to come through the red polish, keeping some of the bling of the basecoat.

Plus, I don't know about you, but...this is kinda what all my fruit salads end up looking like after I cut and mix them, lol!!

Thanks for stopping by! Please check out the other fruit salad manicures by my fellow bloggers, linked below. :)

M.