Jammin' Iris Dust

This week I had the opportunity to try a product I've been wanting to for a long time - Jamberry Nails. Thank you to Amy Smith (the link goes to her web site), an independent consultant for supplying these fabulous samples. Let's go through the process, and I'll show you how they worked for me.

I started out with Amy's samples, and then Nubar's "Iris Dust" and "2010" for the nails that weren't getting "jammed out". In order to apply the Jamberry Nails, a hair dryer is also needed. Jamberry Nails are basically a plastic nail shield with heat-activated adhesive on the back that are very easy to apply as long as you follow the instructions. They come in all different designs and colors - I really like the patterns on these black and white samples.

Now because I wanted to follow the instructions exactly and my camera isn't all that great at video, I didn't record my own nails, and I didn't take pictures because I wanted to focus on correct application. But watch Amy's video - it explains the process very well. I assure you, it does work exactly the way she explains.

I applied four nails worth, and my only complaint is not a fault of the product, but rather a by-product of my ultra-curvy nails. Here's what one hand looked like just after application:

Where the curvy nails come in is the edges - because the design is flat, and my nails are...not, the edges would not lay flat against the nail surface when I used the proper size shield. I used the hair dryer to heat and press, heat and press, heat and press, and still just could not smooth out the edges. I ended up making tiny cuts in the edges with nail scissors in order to give the material room to flatten out, but it didn't completely alleviate the issue.

When I used a shield that was too small, it flatted out just fine...but of course that's not the ideal solution.

Just tonight my genius husband suggested that before application, I cut them down the middle lengthwise, and then apply one side at a time so it would be easier to flatten out. He also suggested cutting them into strips and tips to use over nail polish for accents - and I'm going to order some more to play with doing just that. :-)

After I finished these, I sealed the tips/sides with top coat, and then did a coat of Seche Vite base coat on the unfinished nails followed by 3 coats of Nubar's "Iris Dust". It's a nearly sheer formula, so it doesn't really cover well enough in 2 coats, and really probably could have used a fourth to be absolutely opaque.

I topped that with a coat of Nubar's "2010" top coat...which is just amazing with the iridescent pieces in it, and then a coat of Seche Vite top coat. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and botched the top coat by applying quick dry drops too soon...but it was kind of one of those nights.

My only real complaint with the Jamberry Nails is the difficulty with the edges, but like I said, that's more due to the shape of my nails. I dare say that if you wear your nails shorter, or square them off so they naturally grow flatter, you'll have no problem at all with them - and the patterns are super-cool. A great way to do your toes, if you don't want to worry about them for awhile! The hair dryer is noisy, which is problematic if you do your nails between 12am and 2am like I normally do, but I seriously doubt many people actually do that. ;-)

I should mention that even with the lifted edges, the nail shields are very tough, and I haven't even dislodged them at all yet through warm showers, hand washing, lotion, and snagging my fingers on things (as usual). Lots of typing too, with no tip damage. So they're very sturdy, and from what I understand they come off as they went on - apply heat, and peel them off. If you'd like to try them, please contact Amy for ordering since she was kind enough to provide samples.

Until next week, happy polishing!

Wearing O'The Green

It's still Tuesday here. ;-) I'm afraid I don't have a tutorial for you (because I've been a total slacker), but I have three green manicures to share for St. Patrick's Day this week...

All of these designs were done with 1 coat Seche Vite base coat, 2 coats base polish, and the stones set in two coats of Seche Vite top coat. I should buy stock in Seche Vite...

First off, we have my favorite green polish, China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle", tipped with OPI's "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow" (which looks black, but is really very dark green). I added light green rhinestones to the center for interest. I love this manicure - super simple to do, yet casual/elegant. 

 

Next up, I used a base polish of Rimmel's 60 Second polish in "Camouflage" - a lovely color, but as you can see I had some trouble with tip pull. Gotta remember to wrap the polish at the nail edge, peeps! Then I put a swoop of white diagonally across the nail, and a glittery gold Sinful color as a base for some large and small light green stones. It was really much more subdued than the picture shows - apologies for the flash. 

 And of course this week, it's back to my favorite Emerald Sparkle, with more of the light green rhinestones arranged into shamrocks on three nails each hand. Aside from my thumb (which I tried to make 4-leaf), they turned out nicely, I think.

Larger rhinestones compliments of the Born Pretty Store, and I purchased the smaller stones from Nail Delights. 

Finally, I saw Nail Art Tuesday mentioned in a blog round-up recently, but I can't find the post again. :-( Whoever you are, thanks so much for the mention! I appreciate it. :-) 

Next week, back to tutorials. Until then, Happy Polishing - and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Green Marble

I missed the Tuesday post again - but I have a good excuse! I was up until 3am experimenting with my first water-marbling attempt...I need more practice, but it was pretty fun (and super-messy). I took a lot of pictures (more than I'm posting), so it's taken me awhile to get them all cropped and posted for you. I'll warn you though, this is just as much a "what not to do" post than a tutorial...

I watched a bunch of videos on water marbling before I started, and gathered a bunch of things for my experiment. I decided to use mostly greens and one yellow-green just so if I screwed up, it would at least be monochrome (I ended up using only four colors). Other things I got included a bowl of cool water, cotton buds, tape, an orange stick, and some tiny little iridescent rhinestones that Sparkly Nails sent me for review. And a strawberry soda, of course. 

Polishes Used

- OPI "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow"

- Sinful Colors "Show Me The Way"

- Zoya "Tangy"

- Zoya "Bekka" 

By the way, have you *seen* the new Zoya winter colors? Between those and Nubar, I may go broke this month...but I digress. 

Anyway. I started by prepping my nails - file, buff and then put tape just under my nails in an attempt to keep the skin cleaner. I've since read that petroleum jelly works just fine, and it's probably easier to take off than tape. I'm going to try that next time - the tape is a pain to get off when you're done. 

I added one coat of base coat, and then decided to use "Bekka" as my main base color. I only did one coat since I planned to use it in the marbling as well. In hindsight, two coats of the base color would have been better. 

That taken care of, it was time for fun. I added a few drops each of "Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow", then "Show Me The Way", followed by "Tangy" and finally "Bekka". Each new color right in the center of the previous colors. 

I used an orange stick to sort of pull the center out to the edges and mingle the colors. The polish texture in the water is kind of like really thin plastic wrap - so you can manipulate it, but it's still somewhat fragile. In hindsight, I'd use a toothpick for mixing the colors.

I sort of wanted a striped design, so when I put my finger in, I laid it flat on top the outer edge of the polish, and pushed down into the water.

I held it there for a few seconds, and used a cotton bud to gently pull all the excess polish away. It was pretty easy, but later I "wrapped" the excess polish back over my nail on accident - be careful not to do that unless you mean to (it creates globs). After I had the excess polish out of the way, I pulled my nail out.

I had enough undisturbed polish to do one more with a similar design...

I'll spare you the long and messy details, but this is what one whole hand looked like after I finished with all the nails. I experimented with pulling the polish in toward the center, swirling it, etc.

At this point, I took the tape off - which was a huge hassle. Then I used the teeny little rhinestones to add just a little bling (and to cover up some little dings & dents). 

I used cotton buds to clean up my fingers afterwards, and my normal "orange stick in the shower" method of cleaning up my cuticles the next morning. 

And there you have it - whew! Obviously I need practice, but it's fun, and I plan to do some more very soon. 

Not sure what I'll do next week - pumpkins or leaves, perhaps? Until then, happy polishing! 

Cherished Chevrons

The green continues this week with China Glaze "Cherish", a lovely green metallic for the base color. I've been having a lot of bubbling problems lately, and I really think it's my base/topcoat that are the problems. Must order new bottles soon...

I started with two coats of Cherish. It's an older polish, but I really just love the color.

Then I drug out my silver Stripe Rite bottle with nearly no polish left in it, and thinned out the mix with some "Renew" drops from Zoya (which work great, by the way, and I'm not getting any kickbacks for saying it). I used what was left in the bottle to draw loose chevrons on each nail.

To anchor the points better, I used rhinestones to each. I think they add a nice bit of shiny "bling" without being too overt. I anchored them in a thin coat of top coat, as usual.

Another coat of topcoat, then some clean-up in the shower this morning, and voila...a nice, calm design to counterbalance the very chaotic week I've got going on.

I apologize, but I wasn't able to get a clean-up video done this week...but it's on my "to do" list, so watch for it coming up sometime soon.

Next week, a St. Patrick's day mani...until then, happy polishing!

Naked Nails - Letting them breathe.

Yes, as promised, those are my naked nails. Last night I took off all the glitter and stones, filed and buffed and then just let them be. As you can see, they're not in very good shape after being slathered in polish for an entire year - normally I let them "breathe" at least every six months, but had too much fun with the nail art last year. I have no idea if it's recommended or not, but I do know my nails seem healthier when I give them small breaks from polish once in awhile.

First I removed the polish -my favorite nail polish remover is Zoya's Remove plus, with the flipper top. If you haven't used one of these bottles, you're missing out. You just push down on the top with a cotton ball, and remover wicks up, so there's no mess or fuss. Super simple. Aside from that and cotton balls, I use my favorite metal cuticle stick to gently pry off any stones or art bits that don't want to come lose. Normally for a good manicure, I'd dip my hands in the paraffin bath a few times and let that cool right after this, but I didn't plug the paraffin in early enough to get it melted. Next week, for sure! After I remove the polish, I wash my hands/nails good, scrubbing over and under the nails with a brush.

 

This is the rest of my nail care "kit" - I have an electric file, my crystal file, cuticle nippers, clippers, and my trusty metal cuticle stick again. I normally don't use the electric file on my fingernails - but it works great for my tough toenails. I did use it to buff my fingernails this time. I use the crystal file on the edges, and when I'm polishing, I use it to rough up the nail surface too.

I broke my thumbnail this past weekend - snapped the tip right off. I had to cut the remaining supportive tissue off with my cuticle nippers to align with what's left of my nail...painful, but it just looked too bad to leave it.

After the edges are done (crystal file), I started buffing the tops. First a light touch with the course sander over the whole nail (I could say filing drum, but really, we all know this is sandpaper for nails, right?).

Then a more fine grit - again over the whole top of the nail to smooth out ridges, nicks, etc.

And finally the smooth buffing tool to shine them up a bit.

Voila, bare, slightly stained nails that are smooth and about as good as they're going to get for the moment.

I'll leave these bare for the week, and will probably break a few (the polish really protects the tips from breakage in my case). I'm going to indulge in a few paraffin baths, keep my hands and nails well-hydrated, and hopefully they'll be looking better next Monday night when it's time for polish again. Before and after photos next Tuesday (and a new design).

With any luck, I'll get used to typing again sooner than that - polish makes my nails "heavier", and when I take it off, they feel incredibly weird for a few days. Makes typing odd. 

Do you ever feel like you need to just let your nails take a break from all the polish? Are you self-conscious about leaving your nails "naked"?

Simple Gold Squares

This week I wanted something with fall colors, and the combination of gold and burgandy always seems "fallish" to me. I recently bought the new "golden" colors that Avon put out for fall/winter (yes, they finally put out some new polish colors!), all of which have golden mica in them to make them shine. This one is Golden Wine, a lovely dark red wine color that has all that nice shiny gold mica and some tiny red glitter that really makes it pop.

I got these great metal gold squares from Dollar Nail Art awhile back, and immediately thought "argyle!". I wanted something simple and classy this time though, so decided to just hint at the pattern, rather than cover a couple nails with it (that's probably coming eventually).

I started with a base of Golden Wine - two coats were opaque, but I used three just to even it out a bit. Love this color, it's dark, but not so dark it could be mistaken for black.

Then I slathered on a coat of top coat, and stuck the squares down along the smile line. I used three squares on my thumbs, two on my index, middle & ring fingers, and one on my pinky. I think I could have bent them to follow the natural curve of my nail, but should have done it before I got started. So this time, they're just straight.
A couple more coats of top coat to secure them - the squares are very flat, so the profile is very low. Clean up the edges, and I had a simple, classy (I think) manicure for the week.
I took most of these photos with flash, to show the glitter. The small photo up in the corner of the blog is what it looks like with no flash.

I'm looking forward to using more of these glittery Avon colors...next week, I need to get the glitter off my toes and do a pedicure too.

So Not Groovy...Suncoat Polish Removal

First, let me just say that I love the Suncoat eco-friendly polish remover. It does a great job, gently, on almost every nail polish I use.

Except Suncoat polish.

Last night (Sundays are my manicure nights), I spent just over 2 hours - 2 hours - trying to remove the Suncoat water-based polish from my fingernails. This was the result when I finally gave up, and "medicated" my frustrated self with brownies and a romance novel:'Twas a work night, or I may well have gone for something stronger in a glass. Those scrapes/nicks you see on the tops of my nails are the result of my scraping the barely softened polish off after the first hour and a half, when it wouldn't come off with cotton balls.

I tried everything. I held soaked cotton balls on my nails for 5 minutes at a time, I actually soaked my nails in the polish remover, and still ended up using the blunt end of a plastic nail file to scrape away most of the polish after it was softened, but still wouldn't come off. As you can see, I still have several tips to get the polish off of tonight, and some buffing to smooth the tops again. Arg!

My three bottles of Suncoat polish are going in the garbage. With any luck, I'll finish the removal job tonight, and finish with a nice new pink french manicure that will come off when I want it to next week. I'm still in a pink mood, for some reason.

Tune in tomorrow for the results...

My Manicure Routine

I've been meaning to do a post like this for awhile, just never found time to take the pictures. I love seeing where everyone does their nails and reading about different routines...so here's mine.

I do a manicure every Sunday night, and I'm generally quite picky about the nail polishes I'll use, because they have to last for 7 days with no chipping and minimal tip wear. OPI, China Glaze, Zoya, and Nubar are my main "go to" polish brands, though I do have some Essie, and just ordered some Misa to try.

First, I pick out polish color(s) from my two bins of nail polish that I keep in one of the veggie drawers in the fridge:Then I pick out my nail art items, and add them to my manicure tray. My nail art "stuff" is all in the top drawer of this dresser in the bathroom (the bottom drawer is for dirty laundry...mostly towels). There's a cutting board on top for slicing clay canes, and two sets of pedicure stones that I haven't used yet, but are supposed to be nice and warm between the toes when heated in warm water.
Next I remove my old polish. Most of my manicure steps are done in this chair, with that tray on my lap - comfy for TV watching!After the old polish is removed, time for a slathering of lotion, followed by a paraffin dip to the wrists:
Then after my hands are all nice and moisturized, I file my nails, and buff the tops lightly (to remove any excess oils from them). Sometimes I use my crystal file, others I use the electric file/buffer you see on the right:Then I polish, decorate and top coat, with half-time drops to help it dry.

Total time spent on my nails is about 2 - 1/2 hours per week. But it's totally worth it, of course.

What's your manicure routine? Do you have one?