Wowza!

I just have to say the nail blogging community is amazing.  There are sooooo many awesome people and everyday I am amazed by their kindness.  Thanks to their kindness and loud mouths (errr fingers?) lol, there has been a large influx of new followers, yay welcome!

I want to take a moment and give out some serious love.  I am sorry I am not monogamous so let the orgy begin :p lol

I want to take a moment to say thank you to the following gals.  Please take a moment to browse their blogs! :D
















Vonnie from socialitedreams - Lots of interesting beauty info. Makeup, looks, nails and beauty products.  She entertains me :)

ForMeItWorks - What a sweet gem! And hello! some of the nicest long nails out there. LOVE THEM!

GothamPolish - A fairly new New York based blogger, whose blog is growing fast. Go visit and you'll see why.  The girl cracks me up.  She has fantastic tidbits about New York incorporated in her swatch posts.  You've never seen nail polish bottles behave quite like they do on her site :D

Jbrobeck from PolishInsomniac- A "pro nail blogger" lol with the nicest oval shaped nails this side of the Mississippi. Seriously, there aren't too many bloggers out there with a true oval and I LOVE hers! And since she's a pro you know you'll get the goodies you're looking for.

So THANK YOU girls for the recent awards and mentions.  I truly appreciate it. <3

Boozing Breaks Nails

Ahhh yes as promised another adventure from happy hour ...

This story involves less story and more arm flailing.  So if you like to see carnage read on browse the pictures.

That very nice Revlon mani you saw in the last post (found here) was viciously ruined weeks ago.

The night started out well and good.

The BEFORE picture.
Sorry for such a crappy pic. Who would have thought this would have been the ONLY before pic.

And the AFTER picture
... the ring finger people, look at the ring finger.  I actually didn't realize how uneven I filed them altogether.  So in reality maybe it was a sign that I needed to even them up woman!

There was no fixing this one like I normally do with Shellac.

So I grabbed my favorite nail file and went to town.

UGH SO SHORT.

Damn, now the others look weird.  They too got a trim.

Darn it I'm back to square one like I was a few weeks back!

*note to self ... less flailing lol



If you missed the last boozing episode, click here.

Like an old pair of jeans

If you're looking for a sheer white, I will hook you up. I have enough for all of us and I just keep buying them, because darn it, it's my favorite.

Today I will show you Revlon - Sheer Pink (006)
WARNING - Crap load of pictures ahead because I love my nails with the color :p

Ahhhh, life is complete.
If you're looking for that "classy old rich lady" look ... look no further ;)

I can not express to you how much I love this look.

It's neat, put together, and just makes your nails gorgeous!

I feel like this is the sheer white version of OPI's Bubble Bath.  

Certain polishes make my ears hurt, this one is quietly understated.


All of the pictures above are with flash. It photographs much more white with flash and the visible nail line (VNL) is much more visible than in normal light. 

In real life and in normal lighting Sheer Pink looks just a bit pink, but still white.

This polish is sheer, which can be good or bad, depending on your personal preference. Personally, I love how the VNL peaks through, but it is definitely build-able.

All of these pictures are with 3 coats.

I find Revlon works pretty well with Seche Vite, so even a fourth coat to reach opacity is no biggie.

I really love how just about any length of nail will look like pure hotness with the type of shade.

The formula on this one rocks my socks.  I have no problem with streaky-ness or uneveness; it self levels really well.  I love Revlon's brushes in general and it makes working near the cuticle a breeze, as well as around my C-curve, which is often difficult with short fat brushes like from Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure line, ewww ugh.  Anyway that's off topic.  

Below are a few links to other brands with Sheer Whites:

Essie
Sally Hansen
Round Up - OPI, Essie, Revlon, Sally Hansen

Nail Hardeners - Dimethyl Urea based treatments

Okay enough laughing people, lets get back to business!  Today's post is a continuation of the Nail Hardener series.  This series is miles long and the other posts are linked below:

Categories of Hardeners and Formaldehyde Based Treatments
Are Formaldehyde Hardeners right for you?
Protein Based Hardeners
Formaldehyde + Protein Based Hardeners
Formaldehyde or Protein Based Hardeners + Moisturizers
Fluoride Based Nail Treatments Part I  
Fluoride Based Nail Treatments Part II
Nail Conditioning Treatments and DermaNail Video Review

If you are too lazy to read the other posts (tisk tisk) here is a short summery to make this post make sense.

The goal of healthy strong nails is a balance between nail hardness and flexibility. Hard nails are great, but there is such a thing as over hardening the nail plate. The harder that your nails get the more brittle they become. The nail plate must balance both characteristics, hardness and flexibility, to retain health, stability, and length. We can balance the hardness with nail flexibility by moisturizing and taking a break from nail hardeners intermittently if needed.

Your nail bed is comprised of a protein called keratin. This protein has naturally occurring cross linkages in the filaments which give nails their hardness.  However, not enough cross-links and the nail is very flexible and lacks strength.  One way to create more cross-links in keratin is with the use of formaldehyde (see links above). However, formaldehyde is not for everyone for several reasons (again see links).  A good replacement for formaldehyde based nail hardeners is Dimethyl Urea (DMU) based treatments.

Dimethyl Urea works exactly like formaldehyde in that it creates more cross linkages in the keratin, but has two main advantages:
1. Does not excessively create cross linkages
2. Is not likely to irritate skin

Apparently the cross linkage mechanism is much more controlled and fine tuned and therefore does not excessively harden the nail plate.  You do not need to take intermittent breaks like with formaldehyde (but you be the judge of that).  Always evaluate and re-evaluate your nail situation periodically.

Products containing Dimethyl Urea (DMU):
1. Creative Nail Design (CND):
   Toughen Up

2. Dr. Lewinn's:
   Revitanail Apricot Nail Strengthener
   Renunail Sensitive Pink Nail Strengthener 

I am sure there are smaller brand name companies out there containing Dimethyl Urea as the active ingredient, but I have not come across them easily.  Please feel free to comment if you know of another.

Who should use Dimethyl Urea based treatments? 
People who want an alternative to formaldehyde. Click here to find out if you would be a good candidate for formaldehyde based treatments, hence DMU based treatments.

 And I'm going to leave you with a few words of wisdom ... 

... moisturize your nails like it's your job <------another moisturizing post ... with VIDEO :D

Next Up: Nail Conditioning Treatments DermaNail

A color good enough for a crack whore

I generally really like China Glaze - Sky High-Top, but I wore it recently and had a run in with a crack whore wearing something similar ... it came straight off.  Darn you!

Remember that one day "jerk face" made some comments (if not you can catch up on that discussion here), well that prompted some serious nail cut down, but China Glazes Sky High-Top lifted my spirits ...

What was even better was my nubs (and they are not even that nubby I know) + Sky High-Top were noticed by the front desk lady who made a nice compliment.  Yay love her!






In the shade.

 

Sunlight!

Indirect sunlight.

It's a delicate bright blue with some secret shimmer.

The formula is boss!

However, I just wore this again recently and unfortunately a lady of the streets which no doubt is a freak in the sheets, that I mentioned in the beginning of the post, was rocking something very similar. She was so dirty it made me dirty, so I have to put this one in the back for a while.

Now that I think of it this polish name is very fitting for her. *sigh, now I'm just trying to be silly ... ignore  :p

Sorta holo blue franken

I hesitate to post my frankens because I make them so haphazardly. As such, I hope to give you only a very loose guideline for inspiration purposes only, so don't hold your breath for exact measurements.

Darn, I'm sad this picture came out blurry (so I made it small :p), but I still like how its half with sun beam half without :)

This is not color accurate, it looks more like the picture above. 

I say this franken is only sorta holo-y because obviously the effect is weak. Sun is required to make it look super special ...

... otherwise it just looks blue, I mean a really cool blue, but still just blue.

Here is a picture with flash. :)


















And now for inspiration purposes only:

1. Sally Girl- Mean Streak #812152. (Thanks to For Me, It Works for the name!) There are plenty of dupes though, including -
a. Essie Midnight Cami
b. Sally Hansen - Navy Baby  (Salon)
c. Sally Hansen - Blazing Blue (Insta Dri) - this has some green micro stuff though

2. Color Club - Worth the Risque

3. Clear



Have fun!

I smell

you smell, we all smell together.  What shall we do??  How about we all shower together?!  That's very scandalous, so instead how about we paint our nails?!

China Glaze - Shower Together

2 coats

K, so first lets talk about how awesome this color is.  This teal blue green beauty is just pure love.  I can't get enough.  I am not a big big fan of green, but you add a splash of blue and that makes me a happy girl.

How about a picture with less greasy fingers, lol. 

It has a tendency to look a bit blue with direct flash.  Still gorgeous though.

This picture is in natural (indirect) sun.  You can see it's back to being blue green.

As with most China Glaze cremes, they really come through on the formula.  Application was so easy with this smooth formula.

I look forward to wearing this one again soon.

If you slant to the left you may be cray cray

As a kid I wanted to be left handed so bad.  I used to practice all the time.  I would get caught and feel weird, lol.  In 4th grade we were rewarded with the ability to use pen if the teacher deemed your handwriting neat enough.  It took a while, but I loved using those erasable pens even if the eraser was complete crap.  Another thing I loved was getting books about handwriting analysis from the library, so when I got this handwriting tag from Olivia I WAS STOKED.  Thanks girl!  There was a similar one going around a while back that I could have snagged, but I wanted a personal invite :p

Here are the rules and questions:

Rules: Get a piece of paper and write the answers to the following questions:

1. What is your name/blogger name?
2. What is your blog's name/URL?
3. Write,"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
4. What's your favorite type of food?
5. What are some of your favorite makeup brands?
6. What are some of your nicknames?
7. What are some pictures you like to doodle?

Choose a couple of blogs to tag and have fun! 

You can click on the picture to make it larger.  First off, I was so excited to do this tag, I spelled my name wrong, LOL.

A few things I remember from the handwriting analysis books:

1. Dotting "i's" - All I remember is if you dot your 'i' right over the top you pay attention to detail. There was one about crossing "t's" too, but  I don't remember how that goes.











2. The height of your "d's" - apparently the higher your little "d's" the more confidence/self esteem  you have.  Actually I remember reading this as a kid and noticing mine were pretty short, I made a conscious effort to write them taller, lol.  Whether I have self esteem or not I don't know, but I now prefer higher "d's" for esthetic reasons. 

3. g's and y's - if you close off the tail loops you are a giving person, if you leave them open you are selfish.

4.  If you sentence slants upward you are optimistic.  If it slants down ward you are pessimistic.  It your sentences are straight you're balanced ... writing on lined paper helps.  

5. If your letters slant to the right you're happy, if they slant to the the left you may be a psycho.

Anyway moving on ....

I sketch molecules by default, but in my free time I like to sketch faces, hands and weird abstract stuff.  I like to sketch things I can see and I always have my hand to look at, lol.  The abstract things start out with a name ... then I decorate it.

 She didn't help things.

Other random doodles ... (click to enlarge) when I am sitting in a really boring seminar (usually bio related) the doodles start.

You may be able to see my name in both of those abstract ones ... and of course TRAY hands.

I am tagging ...
Gotham Polish
Red Lip Gloss
The College Student's Nails
Phalanges Files

If you have already been tagged, ignore me :)

Two is better than one

Usually that phrase is reserved for brains, but in today's post I will show you it's also true for nail polish coats :p

First, let's all love on China Glaze - Grape Pop.  I really love China Glaze cremes.  Very rarely do I get disappointed.  OH and it's purple, heck yes!








I think most people will agree that more often than not two or more coats of polish are required to get full coverage of color.  Or perhaps the formula is streaky and requires a few extra coats to even it all out.  However, I find there is one other advantage of doing two coats.

First, please excuse the dry fingers in the pictures.  As part of my mani prep I use acetone to remove old polish and oils and only moisturize after the mani is done since a clean, oil free nail surface is required to make mani's last.

The finger on the left has one coat and the one on the right has two coats. I always think of the first coat as a rough draft and the second one a way to perfect the whole deal.  You can see I applied it like a monkey the first go around; it's quite uneven at the cuticle.  No biggie,  I then use the second coat as an opportunity to get even closer to the cuticle and get a really nice smile line at the cuticle.

Here is a picture of the whole hand with one coat.

Not too bad, but it could be better since I like to criticize myself.




This picture is with two coats. The coverage near the cuticle is much more even and now moisturized :D 

Moral of the story ... why do we do two coats even with opaque polishes ... because it's a habit AND because it looks prettier!