3-Day Naked Nail-A-Thon Day Two

WOW.  After 24 hours of applying oil, rubbing it in periodically until it absorbs, then repeating, my cuticles look better than they've looked in a LONG time!  The extremely dry area on my right middle finger was also really hard and calloused, as well as areas near the free edge of my nails.  Those areas are now softer and, amazingly, the cracked skin on my thumb is healing thanks to the oil.  I normally just slap a band-aid on when my skin cracks like that, and leave it on for a couple of days, but since using this cuticle oil, it won't be necessary.  It's worked much better than I thought it would, especially on my dry, peeling, breaking nails.  Thanks Winter, my nails love you too ;-).

I can absolutely say that I will be using Pure Oil ONLY from now on...on myself, and my clients.  It's only Day Two and I'm so impressed!  This is better than CND, Sally Hansen, Deep Sea Cosmetics...better than any and every brand I've ever tried before.  And for just $24 for the starter kit and refill kit, and $10 for the pen, this is an excellent deal!  She's got a sale going on right now, so be sure to like her Facebook page to get the coupon codes!

Here's the Day Two photos of right and left hands.  I can see, in real life (I think my camera is set to "Expose all flaws), where the discoloration of my nails has majorly faded.  That's what I get for wearing polish almost all the time, lovely yellow nails.  Take a look and judge for yourself!

Come back to check out Day Three's photos!

The 3-Day Naked Nail-a-thon

I am ten kinds of excited right now.  I received my Starter Kit from Anamarie of Simple Nail Art Tips.  This is Pure Nail Oil, created by Ana as an alternative to the almond-based cuticle oils out on the market, because she is allergic to almonds.  This is an excellent idea, because for my clients who are allergic to nuts, this will be an alternative.  She's got some awesome tutorials and tips, as well as terrific advice on nail care and also goes into some nail disorders and how you can take care of your nails.  I totally recommend her site, she's a sweetheart and really knows her stuff!

www.simplenailarttips.com

I've seen at least one review on this cuticle oil by Erica of Erica's Nails and More blog, and it received a rave review.  I admit that my nails may look great, but the skin around them...not so much.  I spend so much time working on making others' nails look good that I neglect my own.  On top of that, I'm really picky about what I use on myself and my clients.  I wanted a stellar cuticle oil that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg from some big name company.  I put in an order for the 3-day starter kit from Ana, it shipped out Friday, and came in today!  I'm also entering her Get Naked Challenge and crossing my fingers to win, and I'm about to tell you why.

As a public service announcement, I want to give you a little info about the cuticle.  The skin that you push back is not the cuticle, it's the eponychium.  The cuticle is the colorless dead tissue UNDER the eponychium.  It's dangerous to cut the eponychium, because it and the cuticle are seals against bacteria.  It's totally okay to push the eponychium back and GENTLY scrape the cuticle off, as long as the eponychium stays intact.  I recommend a plastic or even rubber cuticle pusher, because the metal ones can damage the nail plate if too much pressure is applied, and the wooden ones, well, those can have sharp points and I just don't want to poke my clients!  So this is your public service announcement for the day :)

On with the photos!  I cringe every time I see my pointer and middle fingers on my right hand.  They nail folds are so dry because of the acetone sapping the oils out of my skin. 

The "Before" of my left hand:

The "Before" of my right hand (YIKES look at how dry those fingers are!)

Here's a shot of the bottle of oil:

 And a closer shot of the horrible right hand:

Shot of the Nail Oil pen:

She also included a sample bag of up and coming scents!  Pure Summer has me in love:

I've already applied the cuticle oil to my nails.  It smells DIVINE!  It's not overpowering, unlike the pineapple-scented cuticle oil used at school.  I am really sensitive to scents, and this is absolutely perfect.  My nose just loves it, I'm constantly sniffing my nails and getting strange looks from my husband.  I'll be posting daily as this progresses, because I believe that will be helpful in case any of you readers want to order this.  I always prefer to see photos of something that's being tested as it goes along, rather than just a "before" and "after".  I always think that the "after" photo may be touched up to look better, and the "before" photo is of course made to look as terrible as possible.  All my photos are 100% NOT Photoshopped or retouched in any way at all. 

That's it for now, I'll see you tomorrow with the update for Day Two!

Frost Bitten Toes

I don't want to feature only manicures on this blog, I want to feature pedicures too.  I know, I know, feet can be gross, grody, and generally unattractive (save to a select few people heehee).  When I started my classes, I was bound and DETERMINED not to do a pedicure.  I hate my feet with a passion; ever since I cut  my foot and severed two tendons, I've hated the sight of not just my feet, but feet in general.  To actually TOUCH another person's foot gave me the heebie-jeebies.  I couldn't run away from the fact that yes, I will have to give pedicures even though I prefer just manicures.  The day came when I had to do a pedicure on a classmate...and I ended up LOVING it.  Our feet carry us everywhere and need TLC, just like our hands do.  The more pedicures I've done, the better and more confident I've felt.  My favorite part is the foot massage; I've practiced and done my best to perfect what I do so the client will feel extra-relaxed. 

With all this in mind, for Hanukkah I decided to give a friend and "big sis" a pedicure.  We were at her house for a party and after telling the kids to hush up, sit down and watch a movie, I gave my friend her gift.  She's one of those "do whatever you want" people (a dangerous thing to say to a nail art addict!), so I decided to do blue toes with a snowflake.

She ended up loving it and was relaxed by the end of the pedicure, so I figure I did well!  Here are a couple pictures of what I did using China Glaze "Frost Bite", a GORGEOUS blue that's easy to apply and won't stain your nails.  It dries a bit matte, but some top coat makes it perfectly glossy.  I used white acrylic paint for the snowflake, and Orly "Tiara" for some nice silver sparklies on the snowflake (which didn't turn out quite like I wanted).  For the other nine toes, I used a silver holo glitter from Claire's and added blue to the top.  The idea was to keep with the silver, blue and white theme for the Hanukkah party.

Hope you like and have a wonderful weekend!

My First Manicures

I know I've been absent for quite a while; I was busy doing work study for school and forging ahead to complete my 50 required manicures/pedicures for school, as well as preparing (mentally) for my foot surgery.  I had a bunion removed last Thursday (January 3, 2013) and from how my podiatrist sounded, he thought I should have gone with orthotics.  It turns out that the bunion was bigger than what the x-ray of my foot had shown, so he did agree that I made the right decision.  I should be feeling relief soon, but for now, my foot is throbbing and feeing sore up to the ankle.  The numbing started wearing off around midnight on Friday, so I was glad I started taking Vicodin beforehand.  I also understand why the prescription was for TWO every six hours; this puppy felt like it was being squeezed in a vice while a nail was hammered into my foot.  It got to the point where I was about to cry, it hurt so much.  Having a nerve removed was a cakewalk compared to this!  I'll probably be on crutches until this Friday, when I have my follow-up with my doctor.  I hope that afterwards, I'll be able to go back to doing my work study and services.  It's been nice, though, having a little break :-).

The following photos are from the first manicures I did when I was still in the theory part of class.  Our teacher showed us how to file nails properly (in one direction only; doing the "sawing" motion when filing causes microscopic serrations on the free edge), and also showed us the best way to apply polish.  She directed us to begin practicing on friends and family, and to send her the before and after pictures so we got credit.

A friend had a get-together and invited some ladies over from our congregation.  I had spoken with her and she let them know I needed practice for manicures, so they more than kindly agreed to help me out.  Her daughter is into nail art as well; she's a ton of fun to do nail art for and comes up with such neat ideas.  I'm including her manicure in here as well, it's too bad her rhinestone-eyed smiley face didn't turn out well in pictures :-(.

These are all "before" and "after" photos, and I'll do my best to remember what brands and colors I used.

Hope you enjoy!

Number One:

Before:

After:  Using a Funky Fingers purple holo (PURE gorgeous polish!)

Before:

After:  Using a Hot Topic red glitter polish, Stripe Rite striper in white, and rhinestones

Before:

After:  Using Sally Hansen Crackle in Antique Gold, and some nameless glitter polishes.

I loved being able to do this, because it gave me so much more practice in applying polish on nails other than my own.  I don't care if I get a bit of polish on my cuticles, but I am SUPER picky about my clients' nails.  I can't stand the thought of doing a less-than-satisfying job on them; I think I'm more picky about it than the clients are!  It also gave me practice in dealing with clients who just won't relax, and how to move their fingers around to be able to polish their nails.

I'm hoping to have some swatches and reviews up soon.  I initially started this blog to be just about nail art, but because I've relied on other bloggers doing swatches of polishes I want to get, I'm going to follow in their footsteps.  Hopefully I can make a light box so the photos turn out better and more true to life.

Have a wonderful day!

Native American Nails

Today I'd like to share my Native American-inspired nails.  My great-grandmother was Cherokee, something I didn't find out until four years ago.  I'd always wondered why I loved Native American music, regalia, dance, everything about the culture, and now I know why.

These were done in honor of a dear friend who is Cherokee/Pamunkey.  We all call her Mama Eagle Bear; this is one dedicated, hard-working lady.  She and her husband have worked very hard to raise money to help with repair costs on homes in the Pine Ridge Reservation.  Pine Ridge is the poorest reservation in America, and it's heartbreaking to know that the native people of this land are living in the utmost poverty, especially given that the government had promised assistance.  The homes are falling apart and have mold, no heat, no air conditioning, nothing.  Mama Eagle Bear has taken donations of not only money, but supplies, food, clothing, everything that the Pine Ridge people are in need of.  Needless to say, it's going to take much more to restore this reservation, but I believe it can happen.

Thank you, Mama Eagle Bear, for all that you do.  Aho.

Hope you enjoyed these, thanks for stopping by!

Batman Nails

I'm pulling this one from the archive, because lately I haven't been terribly inspired to do any major nail art. I have Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus, which is the virus that most commonly causes mono.  This is the third time I was diagnosed with mono, so I talked to my doctor and found that I have the chronic virus.  Stress causes it to reactivate, which makes sense, because the last two times I had it I was under a lot of stress.  So this is why I haven't done anything too new lately, so I'm going back into the archives.

This was my first major nerdy manicure.  I had painted all my nails yellow, then on a whim free-handed the Batman symbol.  A few days later, I thought hey, why not?  So I did Robin's costume next to the Batman symbol.  I don't think I have any pictures of the right hand, which had Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and The Riddler on them.

This was surprisingly easy for me, and really started me on attempting more intricate nail art.  I can't say how long it took me, but I can say that I was taken by surprise at how well this turned out.  Please forgive any lack of cleanup; it was late when I was done and I was too tired/lazy to really care.

Without further ado, here is my Batman manicure (these were taken with my phone, apologies for the lack of focus):

I wish I had done the Joker, because he's my favorite villain, but I am leaving that for another time.  I want to dedicate a full hand to him.

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Hanukkah!

I love Hanukkah.  Getting to light the candles every night in remembrance of the Maccabee-led revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes and his army, and the victory G-d gave to His people, is a big blessing.  I'm not big on doing presents, or eating lots of latkes, donuts, and other fried foods as is customary.  I prefer to light the candles and thank G-d for watching over His people, for holding onto the promise He gave to Abraham.

Here's a synopsis of the story of Hanukkah:
In Israel, there was this stinkin' mean Greek named Antiochus Epiphanes ("the illumined").  He desecrated the Temple by taking all the holy implements for himself, sacrificing a pig on the altar, and installing a statue of Zeus in the Temple.  The circumcision of baby boys was banned; anyone caught performing a circumcision was immediately put to death, as well as the baby and its mother.  The Jews were no longer allowed to observe Shabbat or read the Torah.  Talk about a tyrant!  Three men, the Maccabees, wouldn't take this tyranny sitting down, so they led a revolt against Antiochus.  Even with odds at one hundred-to-one, the Maccabean army was victorious, and eventually took back the land, cleaning up the Temple and rededicating it.  Legend has it that only one druze of oil, enough to last a day, lasted eight, allowing the people time to get more oil to keep the Temple menorah lit.

The Hebrew letters on the dreidel stand for "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham – "a great miracle happened there".  It's a really fun game to play and is very easy: you start with a pot of gelt (chocolate coins) or any candy (I recommend M&Ms!).  Each player takes a turn spinning the dreidel; if it lands on Nun, you get nothing; if it lands on Gimel, you get everything in the pot; if it lands on Hei, you take half of what is in the pot; if it lands on Shin, you add a piece of candy to the pot.  Very fun!

In honor of Hanukkah, I did two separate manis.  I may  not do any more, because I'm kind of running out of ideas!  It would be cool to do one honoring the Maccabees and those who fought for their faith and for G-d.

To all those celebrating Hanukkah, chag sameach!  Happy holiday :-)