Cuticle Transformation

Transform your cuticles!

I found I was gazing longingly at the lovely cuticles of The Polish Addict. She has beautiful hands! Mine looked so dry and calloused, so I decided it was time to do something about it. This was two days after I started my experiment, which was showing little to no effect. (I'll still review it, as promised.)

I noticed a difference in my fingertips and cuticles after doing this only once, and saw a wonderful difference after several days. See the before and after pictures at the bottom of this post!

To transform, you will need:

1) Soaking agent
2) Scrub
3) Moisturizer
4) Some kind of oil (I suggest using safflower or cuticle oil.)
5) Consistency

1) Good Soaking Agent:

To transform my hands and cuticles, I used a lot of products made for feet. My hands were not as rough as feet tend to get, but I had it on hand (Haha! Get it?) and figured if it works for feet, it surely must work for the softer skin on hands.

Bath and Body Works: True Blue Spa Collection

This soak is very nice, in my opinion. It is the color of blue raspberry Kool-aid and has a pleasant, fresh scent. BBW often runs a buy two, get one free sale, and that's when I snagged it. It claims "This super-fizzy spa bath is like champagne for your feet." I don't know that I'd go THAT far, as it doesn't fizz at all.... The granules dissolve quickly and leave a thin white froth at the top of the water, reminiscent of the foam on a latte. When I think of something that is "effervescent," I think of Airborne. This does not fizz like that at all.


I soaked my hands in this for as long as my attention span allowed (so, probably about 2-3 minutes).

Rinse.

2) Scrub

I used another BBW product here. I have several sugar scrubs that I like a lot, but I decided to go more hardcore and use a walnut concoction. Why not?

Bath and Body Works:
True Blue Spa Collection

I picked this up at the same time as the soak above. It doesn't feel as coarse as some of my "gentler" scrubs, surprisingly enough. I like the consistency of this, and it has a bright peppermint scent to it.

Scrub hands, especially around cuticle areas, for at least a minute.

3) Moisturizer

There are tons of great moisturizers out there, so I would just use whatever you prefer. Plenty are marketed specifically for softening hands and cuticles, and have received fantastic reviews. I didn't have any of those, though, and didn't want to spend money on them, so I used a very floral souffle I got on sale at Victoria's Secret last summer.

Victoria's Secret: Summer Freshes
Vibrant Peony

I like how soft this makes my skin, but it is a bit too smelly for me so I usually reserve it for body parts that are FAR away from my nose, like my calves and feet.

It kind of gave me a headache.

4) Some kind of oil

Safflower oil is great for your skin. I always use it post-waxing and am thrilled at how soft my legs are once it is all soaked in/rubbed off.

Cuticle oil is made with a variety of things, depending on what type you buy. It often has avocado, tea tree, almond, or jojobo oil in it. Manufacturers may also add vitamins.

Massage oil onto cuticles, nailbeds, and tips of fingers throughout the day.

Keep in mind that topical oil often merely acts as a barrier, locking in moisture. A good way to use this strategy is to do this before bed, put on a pair of cotton gloves, and go to sleep, essentially soaking your hands overnight.

5) Consistency

As with any beauty or health regimen, this is the most important ingredient. You can vary your beauty products, diets, exercises, etc, but if you are not consistent you'll see little to no results. Anything worth having takes work!

I suggest, depending on the harshness of your product choice, doing this 1-2 times a day.

• You probably don't want to exfoliate more than once a day max, though. If you have sensitive skin, don't exfoliate more than a few times a week. 
• You should moisturize several times a day.  I live in Colorado and it is very dry; I use lotion and oils as often as it crosses my mind. Sometimes I put on lotion 15-20 times a day. 
• It will also help to take B12 vitamins, drink plenty of water to keep your skin hydrated, and eat your veggies! :)

Before and After Pictures:

Before! Ahhh!

Bit blurry, but you can see definite improvement.
This is after one session.

Happy Painting!

Day 2: Silver

Day 2 of the 31 Day Challenge is silver. I couldn't resist putting a little pink in my creation, though.

I just put on some cuticle oil, so my fingers are a bit shiny!

This is China Glaze: Concrete Catwalk beneath CG Tinseltown and a touch of CG Fairy Dust. I also used a little bit of a Shany silver nail art striper, but that takes FOREVER to dry so I didn't use much. I love how Tinseltown shines in the sun! So lovely. It is much more sparkly in real life; my camera just doesn't do the shine justice.

This one is blurred but shows the sparkle better.

These are admittedly NOT nearly as cool as yesterday's, but they're not bad. They actually look much nicer in real life than they do in these pictures. The rhinestones should be fun to get off...! 

The next one is gold. Hmm...

Happy Painting!

Day 1: Black & White Mani

I have decided to jump on the bandwagon with Crumpet's 31 day nail challenge. I realize I am behind everyone else, but it looks fun so I want to play too.

Day 1 is a black and white mani, and I've never actually done one of these so I was excited to try it out. I really struggle with leaving out pink and glitter!

I used China Glaze: Liquid Leather for the black and the world's crappiest white polish ever (a very old bottle of some Sally Hansen Nearly Nude: White). On top is Seche Vite. Thank goodness it has the magical ability to hide streaks in the white! Here's my base:

I decided to go with a little bit of everything: some stamping, some fimo canes I would probably never use otherwise, AND some rhinestones! I know it's not perfect (my manis NEVER are), but I am very pleased with the results! As usual my hands are different because I couldn't decide.

The first theme is cards. I was surprised that the set of Bundle Monster plates I have doesn't have a single gambling pattern! I decided fishnet would fit it closely enough.... I had Poker Face stuck in my head while I was doing this hand.

I would never choose to put cards on my fingers, (I'm not much of a card player) but hey, they are black and white! I couldn't resist the urge of just a little bit of red sparkle.

The other hand is heart themed. I struggled with the text stamp (this is the second try showing here). I've used this stamp before and had trouble. I don't know what it is about this design, but I love it anyway!

Very exciting! I might even keep these for more than a day! I keep looking at them and getting all excited so I know they're a win. :)

Happy Painting!

China Glaze "Wicked" 2012

The reason I started doing my own nails was to SAVE money. I was tired of having to go to the salon every few weeks to drop at least $40, just so that my hands wouldn't look they had gone through a shredder. (I am terrible about picking at my cuticles if my nails aren't done!)

That was $40-$50 every 3 weeks, on average. Now that I paint my own nails, I spend about $30 a week on nail polish! I am not saving money! It is way more fun, though. :)

Most recently I purchased a small set of China Glaze polishes called "Wicked." It's from Halloween 2012 and has four colors in it:

Rougish Red, Glitter Goblin, Bizarre Blurple, Ghoulish Glow 

These all go on very nicely with no problems. It is China Glaze, after all. :) I had a white base on underneath all of the polishes today.

We'll start with the glitter. "Glitter Goblin" is a coppery glitter that reminds me of fall leaves. It is small, round cut, and set in a clear base, with copper and silver rainbow holo glitters. It goes on pretty sparsely with only one coat, so you'll need several if you want it opaque.

Formula Overview

• True to color on the bottle.
• This glitter can go from sparse to opaque, depending on number of coats. Great for Fall! 
• I would not stamp with this, but as usual, if you do something neat please show me.
• It would go nicely over warm colors (such as the included "Roguish Red").

"Roguish Red" is not really red at all, in my opinion. It is the perfect Halloween orange, though! It looks like the color you picture when you think of orange and black together for the holiday. 

Orange is one of my least favorite colors, (red is my least favorite) so this automatically takes a hit. Not fair, but that's just the way it is for me. I will probably only wear this if I'm excited about Fall, or around Halloween.

Two coats each, over a white base.

Formula Overview:

• True to color on the bottle. 1-2 coats, depending on color desired.
• Thick enough to stamp with.
• Definitely more of an orange than a red!
• Very creamy and glossy. No shimmer.

The purple color is called "Bizarre Blurple." It is a deep purple with blue shimmer, as it should be for the name. It shines nicely and has a lovely sheen to it. It is a common but very pretty color, and I will definitely wear it. It would be fun to gradient with, I think, and is great for colder months. It's nothing special, but a good staple to have.

Formula Overview:

• True to color on the bottle. 1-2 coats, depending on color desired.
• Thick enough to stamp with.
• Lovely shimmer and shine, even without topcoat.
• A good, solid purple. 

The lightest bottle is a glow-in-the-dark polish called "Ghoulish Glow." It goes on pretty much clear (it is over a white base in the picture). It glows really well, actually! I tried to get a picture for you, but it just wasn't working out. I need to work on my picture-taking skills...! If I had a more active night life, I would probably REALLY like this, because it's fun without ruining the color you have underneath. I'm pretty much a homebody with an early bedtime, so this won't see much use. 

Formula Overview:

• Clear, or very close to it. It seemed to dry clear.
• IF you're in the market for a glow-in-the-dark polish, this is a good one. Big IF, though.
• You could stamp with this, but you'd only see the design at night. (That could be really cool, actually.)
• It glows a plastic-y yellow/green, like those Halloween skeleton toys or spider rings.

Happy Painting!

China Glaze: Velvet Bow

I love China Glaze.

Velvet Bow is one of the darker colors from their most recent Holiday collection. It is a very deep red/maroon color in the bottle. Once on your nails however, it is EXACTLY the same color as the velvet bows all over the place at Christmas time! I mean exactly!

As usual with China Glaze, good application means one coat. This is a thick, creamy polish with no glitter or shimmer, and very high gloss. I can see my face pretty clearly in my nails. While this is technically a jelly polish, one coat was pretty much opaque. It's actually really interesting because each coat gives you a deeper red, but they're all the colors of velvet bows. I settled with three coats, which turned into a very nice burgundy, and reminded me of wine, or dark wood. Expensive things.

One coat in the sun!

This is a very "grown up" color. It reminds me of something a woman would wear on an expensive date, or maybe a normal rotation for you vampier ladies. I don't usually wear a lot of red, but I think I will wear this because it is not as bright or "hot." This color also seems like the nail polish vampires would wear. You know, when they cycle out the black.

As usual with MY manicures, I need two or more coats. :)

It's a dark color, so without adequate prepping (petroleum jelly) you may find yourself having to do a bit of clean up.

I could see this being a popular color in the Fall and Winter, because it is dark and reminds me of blood or Christmas bows. Haha!

Formula Overview:

• This would be great to stamp with. Hmm...
• Creamy "jelly" polish; no glitter.
• High gloss.
• One coat is possible, depending on what color you want to achieve.
• Great for colder months and toenails!

Okay so after I was done writing this up, I decided to do some stamping. This is Liquid Leather over Velvet Bow, with Seche Vite topcoat. I used a Bundle Monster plate; one with fishnet and one with lips (not pictured).

Happy Painting!

Finger Paints: A Tale of Two Teals

Teal is one of the few colors I usually overlook. I'm not sure why that is. I have decided it's actually a really beautiful color and it looks nice with my skin tone.

I picked up a bottle of Finger Paints: Avante Garde Green and some matching glitter: Art You Wondering? for a teal mani. I couldn't decide what design to do, so as usual, my hands look different....

Bokeh nails holding Finger Paint's Art You Wondering?

Finger Paint's Avante Garde Green

These pictures made me realize two things:

1) My cuticles are very dry, so I'm doing an experiment.
2) I need to try to take less blurry pictures!

The Avante Garde looks like a teal metallic in the bottle, with an almost holographic quality and undertones of purple.

When I put on the first coat I was horrified. It was an ugly, dull gray metallic color that looked nothing like the color in the bottle. It was streaky and magnified any minute imperfections on my nails. I would definitely NOT recommend wearing only one coat of this, unless you want to look like you have some kind of fungal growth. Yuck.

One coat vs. three coats. Is that even the same polish?! (Please excuse my french tip peeking through there. Old acryllics. It does show how sheer one coat is, though.)

The second coat really made this polish! I couldn't believe the difference one coat made. However, now that I know this about the polish it makes it more fun to paint with it for some reason. Maybe because it's like the ugly duckling turning into a swan.

Teal nails and comfy pants!

Overview of Formula:

• You will definitely need more than one coat. Plan on using 2-3, depending on thickness of application.
• This polish is thick enough to stamp with.
• This polish is a glossy metallic.
• This polish takes a little longer to dry, but that might be because of how I applied it.
• It highlights imperfections.

Onto the glitter. Art You Wondering? looks exactly the same in the bottle as it will on your fingers, provided you use 2-3 coats. It is a beautiful shimmering jewel-tone teal. It reminds me of a color a mermaid princess would wear. The glitter sparkles in turquoise, teal, and a touch of kelly green. It really is a beautiful polish. It has a lot of dimension once you put it on, appearing to have more depth than many other glitters I have used.

The glitter is finely cut and set in a clear base. While one coat will give you non-opaque glitter coverage, if you're going for a lighter look, this probably is not the polish for you.

The glitter is much more sparkly in person.

As is the case with most glitter polish, it can be a little trying to remove if you don't hold acetone or remover on your nail Deborah Lippmann style. (Make sure you press hard and push from the base of your nail out when you do this, by the way.)

Thumb and middle: 1 coat; Index and ring: 3 coats; Pinky: 3 metallic/2 glitter
No topcoat.

Overview of Formula:

• If you only want partial coverage/light glitter (light..glitter? Is that an oxymoron? Maybe for me.) one coat should be sufficient. If you want opaque glitter, you will need to use 2-3 coats.
• Fast drying and a fairly smooth surface for a glitter polish!
• I would not recommend stamping with this polish. If you are able to stamp something amazing with it, please show me!
• It is a very beautiful glitter with a nice sheen, even without a topcoat.

Happy Painting!