Green fungus ... Not really

I came across a Sinful bottle of green polish. It made my fingers look pretty and then it made them look gangrenous. First, let's oooh and aaah...

Sinful - San Francisco


A warm tone deep green with a shimmery jewel type finish. I love this type of finish and want one in every color!

I was hoping it would look like the bottle color... sadly the duochrome was not visible on the nail.

*sigh*

Still awesome though!

In the shade... 
This is my other hand. My nails are shorter on this hand because I had a nail break. :(

If you can't tell, I have a nail fix on my middle finger. This will come into play later.






How to for nail fix using Shellac here.

But basically, this polish made this happened. Holy freaking jaundice fingers!!

So that nail fix.... it got beat in the face and turned GREEN! On the bright side, the break had already grown out and I could remove it.

I discovered the nail fix protected the nail from turning yellow! Thanks Shellac! Which is more than I can say for the 2 coats of regular basecoat. Watch out for this beauty!

See that white spot I circled in red? There is a reason I have it and I will tell you about it soon.

Remember that time I had yellow nails forever?

I love to laugh ... especially at myself.  I would like to share the giggles.

A while back I had yellow nails for what seemed like forever.  I was dancing around that topic here and here.

Finally, I buffed so that I could do a video *see below* and not look like I had jaundiced smokers fingers.  I am not so sure it really translated on film ... this is your first giggle.

Second, and perhaps this will result in a more hardy laugh ... just look at my face.  Snooki was on set and I borrowed her face powder.  My face usually always matches the rest of my body ... LOLOLOL.  Anyway, enjoy ...




You guys know I love and have used DermaNail for many many years.  I have a written review here, as well as a my original video on the topic here.

I will do a full review of the Cutemol at some point because although stinky, it has great ingredients I would like to emphasis.

Which one is not like the other?

I have been waiting to "unyellow" my nails.  I'm going to continue to be secretive about why, but I want to show you why I prefer to buff versus other options, such as lemon juice, backing soda, peroxide, etc. 

First let us take a look at the horror that is my yellow nail bed ... you might want to get a waste basket just in case you start to regurgitate at the sight.

There are uglier pictures here.


Ewwww ... there are no words.

DUDE ... I love my buffer.  The transformation is just wowza!

I personally love my square buffer that I showed here and here.

As I have discussed in previous posts, buffing should be done in moderation.  If your nails are thin you may want to just skip it altogether or be very light handed and use a very high grit strength buffer. 

My favorite buffer has a grit strength of 400 - 600.  There are even higher grit strengths out there and should be used for thinner/weaker nails.

The results are amazing.  

Look at that ring finger!

I can never achieve results like this with lemon juice, peroxide, etc.

My hubby said, "Oh look, now your nails don't look like you've been smoking for 20 years"

... jerk ... then I scratched him across the face with my newly stain-free nails. 

Bonus picture: OPI - Bubble Bath (2 coats)

Mama Mia! That's red alright.

Red is classic, but I always feel strange wearing it on my nails.  Maybe because it feels a bit loud or a bit scandalous or maybe because it can stain easily.   Either way I achieved it with this mani ...

Sunlight
China Glaze - Italian Red

I would say this is a warm toned red, but definitely not dominated by orange.  I really like the way it looks against my warm skin tone even though the picture is a bit over exposed and makes my skin look really white. 


The formula was a sweet sweet jelly.  I did two coats and loved every minute of it.  Although the pictures show some visible nail line, I
1. don't care and
2. couldn't really see it in real life. 

The hubs really liked it, so that's always nice to hear. 

Indirect light

Again, every time I wear red I am always reminded of Jennifer from the two fat ladies ... click here ... they make me hungry.   

Anyone want spicy garlic wings? ...

I shoved my face full of these last weekend ... mmmmmm














Back to the nails.  OH the stains .... shield your eyes!

Although I did a double coat of base it still stained a bit.   However, this is nothing compared to what Rodeo Fanatic did.  More on that another time. 

Do you ever feel like a hooker wearing red?  What is your favorite red?

:P

Skid Marks

Don't you hate it when you take off polish only to discover your polish has been working on an art project on your nail bed.  Here is what my polish has been working for the last couple of days ....

A masterpiece no doubt, but my nail beds are never this pink/red.  My nail beds are naturally pretty grey.  My mom is always asking me if I'm ill LOL.  Um, no mom sheeeesh.

I guess if I'm wearing darker colors no big deal, but eventually I need to straighten this business out, because every time I take off polish I frighten myself a little bit.

A few more pictures if your interested ...

 ....
 










Now what?  How do you deal with the stain-age?  I have a very standard way of dealing with these kinds of stains ...
Buff that Motha Out!!



First I need to preface buffing:
Buffing is NOT for everyone AND like all wonderful things, must be done in moderation.  Occasional buffing can be done on generally healthy nails.  I buff because I am a good candidate.  First, my nails are not super thin and are fairly healthy.  Second, I don't use a rough file nor do I use it manically.  Everything in moderation is okay (except high fructose corn syryp lol)!  Third, I have ridges that only buffing can eliminate.  Polish looks way better when I get rid of them.  In my personal experience, ridge fillers are not as good as light buffing.  Ridge filler instead gives me more problems than solutions (bubbling, crap dry time, extra steps with each mani, etc).  Lastly, I have found light buffing is more effective vs. other chemical treatments.

With that said, if you have thin problematic nails you can avoid buffing altogether.

What I do and use:
I love my buffing blocks and this is the baby I used to fix my stain-age problem.  The grit strength is about 400.

If you are interested in my Nail File Series, that can be found here.

Here is the before and after picture of the buffing and as you can see the pinky is no longer stained.

The technique:
Lightly run the block vertically from cuticle to tip.

What is your method of choice for skid marks? :P