Saturday, August 4, 2012

I made a mess

I wanted to emulate the new caviar manicure. I went to a Michaels store looking for those tiny beads. I couldn't find them. But I found tons of glitter, tinsel glitter and embossing powder. Even though it is not intended for nail application, I ended up embossing my fingernails and I am here to tell you my experience.

I did not called this post "I made a mess" with no reason. There is stuff to improve before you try it.

Let's see. I started with a layer of a blue nail polish from Essie (sorry, I don't have the color name). Then, I applied the glacier opaque embossing powder from Recollections over a second layer of nail polish before it dried using a spoon. repeated this with all my fingernails.


When I was done with it, I had embossing powder everywhere and it kept falling off of my nails. So I applied a layer of top coat to keep it in place. Bad effect! The nice embossing effect was gone.


Even worse, the next morning I had lost whole pieces from my right hand. I am not sure why this happened only in one hand. I did the same process on both.

*If you are thinking in the disaster on my pinky... well, I always do it this way. All that nail polish on my skin will go out after I take a shower. Shh, don't tell anyone my secret.


Things to improve?

1. Instead of using a different background color, use the same to get less of this messy appearance.


2. Instead of applying a mountain of embossing powder (left), you can try to sprinkle powder to get a... 'galaxy' effect (right).


3. Instead of applying dry powder, you could mix it with nail polish before applying. Not sure how this would work. Let me know if you try it!


OK. It's time to remove the mess and try something different.


Cheers,




Wednesday, August 1, 2012

How I take care of my nails :D

Hi internet! Today I want to talk about what I do to take care of my nails/how to deal with weak brittle nails... Just because I think that keeping your hands and nails in good shape is just as important as choosing a beautiful color.

Photo is from here


Ok so i used to have the worst nails, they chipped all the time and broken and it was just awful... until I started to incorporate this habits. Right now my nails are in good shape and so I can paint them and do anything I want!

First of all I ALWAYS use a base coat, this is really important because it protect your natural nails from the polishes you use, and also diminishes the stainig (and nobody wants yellow nails unless is a nail polish!). My base coat changes depending on what i'm trying at the moment and if you want to fill some ridges or make the color pop, etc! But the important thing is to always use one... I cannot stress this enough, seriously! Good options are Sally Hansen, China Glaze, OPI and Essie.

Second I use a non-acetone nail polish remover. I've heard that acetone weakens your nails and the skin around them (and of course your cuticles!), and I don't like oily nail polish removers... I just really hate the texture! I've been using the Sally Hansen Fast&Gentle Nail polish remover (the pink one!) for dry and brittle nails and I just LOOOOVE this product!!! It removes the polish fast enough but i doesn't leave your hand and nails feeling uncormfortable, the smell is no too strong and... is pink! I've tried the blue and the green ones also from Sally Hansen and still prefer the pink one, I just think it works better. It works even with really dense glitter polish... If you ever tried to remove glitter polish you know that is really anoying and i think this nail polish remover does a great job!



My third tip is always use a file to smooth the edges of the nail but put special care on smoothing the sides of your nail ONLY on the direction of grow... Someone once told me this helps growing your nails faster and stronger and since then I've been doing it and seems to be working for me! I like the Sally Hansen Handle me with care nail file, because i tend to prefer fine nail files and this one is perfect for me... is fine and it last a really long time without falling apart like other nail files do.

 I also use a hand cream every night and when needed during the day. Right now i'm using the RoC ENYDRIAL hand cream for the night and the Vichy essentials hand creme for the day. The first one i use it only at night because is a really rich hand cream and I hate the smell. The Vichy one on the other hand is a really moisturizing cream that does not leave my hands feeling greasy and it has a subtle rose smell that i really like.

On days when i'm feeling like needing extra care i apply the Sally hansen cuticle cream with apricot oil on my cuticles before bed. I'm not crazy for this product, i still prefer the Lush Lemony Flutter cuticle treatment but i'm trying to finish the Sally Hansen one before buying other product.



Finally, when I'm doing everything, and i still have an episode of brittle nails i try to eat jelly, and it always do the trick for me :) I think that's everything that i do for my nails... I also try to take multivitamins at night but i must admit that i'm not the most consistent person with that...

I really hope this post was helpful for you ;)

Love

Camila
@Kamo_Valenzuela