My top 10 Favorite Must Have Items

Hello all. I hope everyone is having a lovely day!

Today I'm going to review some of my favorite products.  We all have a special list of special nail products that we can't seem to live without. Please keep in mind that the items listed here are in my experience and opinion only. I'm not affiliated with any of these companies.  Each person has a specific body chemistry and each of us will have different reactions to different products.  It's best to test all your options and eventually your favorites will stand above the rest, here are mine...

(remember to click pictures if you would like to see it closer up)

1. Mar-v-cide for disinfecting.  Okay I admit I'm a germaphobe BIG TIME!! Kinda of like Howie Mandel but sometime even worse lol :) This is probably one of the main reasons I stop going to have professional manicures to begin with, and why I now do this all myself.  My Last manicure the manicurist cut me (clipping my cuticles) and I was deathly afraid I would get an infection and lose my finger :p Yup, it was going to get green and fugly and just fall off - I was sure of it hahaha! I picked up both these items at Sally's Beauty Supply.  I soak all my tools up to 25 minutes prior to using them and I do soak them after using them as well.  I even soak my glass nail file (which you will see  later on in this post).

2. My Cuticle removers.  One thing I have learned along this journey of doing my own nails is that cutting your cuticles is not the greatest of all things.  It does provide a quick fix, and I think this is why Salons practice it so much.  You come in with frazzled cuticles and leave looking perfect.  What you don't realize is the more you cut, the tougher and more the cuticle grows, so overall it's not a good fix.  I only use cuticle removers, and I get much better results then when cuticle trimming was doing for me.  Most important, NO MORE CUTS! Now there is less of a chance for the fugly green finger incident I so badly fear :) My favs are CND clear Cuticle Remover and my NEW fav is CUTIQUE from Orly. This works great for during the middle of a mani when you can't push back as much.  The cuticle just melts away and I'm loving it!

3. My Cuticle Pusher.  Without this my cuticles would look frazzled and crazy.  I picked this little beauty up at transdesign.com and it was only $2.50 USD.  I was using an older one that came in one of those cheapy all in one tool kits and the difference is unreal.  I would have thrown my old one out long ago if I knew what a difference this one would make! Cuticles watch out, this baby packs a serious punch and knocks cuticles right out.  The pointed edge is great for getting the yuckies that collect under the nail.

4. Nail Treatments - Spinach for the nails.  Here are the two products that I rotate between.  Barielle Nail Rebuilding Protein and Barielle Growth Activator for Natural Nails.  I like to always have a treatment of some type under my basecoat and this help keep my nails strong and free of peelies.  Peelies have to be my worst problem and I continue to experiment with new treatments, but for now these are the winners!

5. Basecoats.  I have tried many of these including Sally Nail Quencher that seems to be a favorite among many.  Unfortunately the NQ discolored my nails and dried them out very badly.  I know that seems odd but each of us has a different body chemistry and every product reacts differently on different people.  Here are my favorite ones so far....

6. Top Coats. I am also in experimental stages with this but here are my winners for this category.  This is the best combination I have found so far.  I do not get shrinkage (when polish pulls away from the free edges and shrinks so to speak).  I put on one layer of Sally Hansen Mega Shine and Top it with my Poshe.  Sometimes I leave out the Poshe and just use the Megashine and get great results.   

7. A Good Glass file! This is really important.  A Glass/Crystal file should be your new best friend.  I find that I get the least amount of Splits and problems when I use this versus your traditional emery board or metal file. I also only file in one direction, and so far so good. 

8, 9 and 10. Cuticle Cream: Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter, Mango Mend and CND SolarBalm.  These are all my favorites, I can't decide on just one lol.  To me they all work equally well for my skin. I love rubbing these on my nails and cuticles throughout the day.  I actual alternate between them all.  It's like shampoo for me.  Once you use a product over and over it stops working, and it's good to switch off to something else and then go back.  The products work better this way.  

11. (I went over 10 - ooops lol) Is Polish Thinner.  I use these often, more often then most I'm sure. I use the Poshe formula to thin my Poshe Topcoat when it starts to get thick.  I also thin most of my nail polishes that I use. For whatever reason I tend to like my polish formulas thin.  I rather thin and do more coats then globby and thick single coats. Also, thinner can save an old thick nail polish.

Well that's it.  Phew - a lot huh? lol.  Well these are my Must haves.  If you have must haves that I haven't list please add them down in the comments section.  I will try them out as well and let you know what I think. 

Thanks for visiting

Goody Goody Gumdrops

I finally got around to using my Orly Gumdrop polish.  I totally love this color!  When I first started collecting these type of minty colored polishes I was worried they wouldn't look good on my skin - but wow was I wrong.  It's PURE LOVE! I was hoping for a pretty outside sunlight picture but I have been pretty sick today and missed what little sun we had.  I had to do this under florescent lights. 

On a side note: I'm not sure if you can see this in the photo, but there are serious drip marks down the entire bottle.  I have to admit today was my first major polish spilling accident *YIKES*.  The worst part was it was on my new bed comforter. A pretty expensive Steve Madden set.  Let's put it this way, umm I wasn't thrilled it happened.  I ended up getting pretty lucky and spilling most of it on the white parts and with a lil polish remover and a ton of elbow grease I got most of it up, and averted major comforter death lol.

Thanks for visiting guys!

My First Franken

I'm so excited to show you all my very first Franken! I finally convinced myself I can do this! I love it :)

(click the image below to see a larger version w/ names listed)

Supplies:

 - LA Colors Clear Coat purchased at Dollar General for 1$

 - Loreal 231 purchased at Dollar Tree for 1$

 - WnW Black and Red purchased at CVS for .99$ each

 - Franken bottle purchased at Big Lots (Originally a Revelon Sweet Thing) 1$

Recipe:

I started with 3/4 of the clear coat and added 1/4 of The Loreal.  After I added a few drops of the red and a few drops of the black.

I haven't named it yet...but I'm going to sleep on it.  If you have any suggestions for a name please leave it in the comments!

Thanks for visiting

A Major lemming, frustration and FLY FISHING???

Hi Ladies :)

I have a hysterical story to share with you all regarding a serious lemming and Fly Fishing. You are probably asking yourself, FLY FISHING!!!?? What is she talking about lol. Let me explain....

I have been lemming Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Trick or Treat for months and months now, ever since I first laid eyes on it's glorious beauty. I have searched high and low for it, and have had nothing but frustration and dead end searches. During my search I hit Yahoo search engine and typed in 'Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Trick or Treat' and what do I find? A Fly Fishing site with instructions on how to create a homemade fishing fly?? In the instructions the gentlemen explains that he uses Sally Hansen Trick or Treat to coat the bottom of the fly for reflective purposes - WHAAAAAAT!! I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry over this - I think I did both lol. Here I am killing myself (losing sleep) searching for this polish, and here this guy is off painting his fishing lures with it - NOOOOO!!! HAHA. You just have to laugh at this.

What is funnier than this? I actually emailed him and asked if he had additional bottles I could purchase LOL!! He's probably calling the police to report me (hehehe) or just deleting my email as 'Whacko alert' lol!!!

:)

Nail Tip #1: A Quick Mani Scrub for on the go - A Mini Spa Mid Day!

I posted this on the MUA Nail Board, but I wanted to add it here for those of you that may have missed it or do not frequent the Nail Board.

As I was sitting in my office last week, bored to near death lol, I came up with a great idea for a quick Mani scrub for all of us that are trapped in offices all day or just trapped away from home. This can also be used on the go too, when you are out to eat, at the movies, anywhere really.

Sometimes sitting in an office or out in public I get to looking at my cuticles and they look so haggered. I know we have all been there, I over examine :) I always wish I was home were all my products are cuz I want a quick pick me up, outside of using just oils and Flutter Butter which are tucked away inconspicuiosly in my desk drawers or in my purse. I'm not wanting anyone to see the amount of products I lug around with me on a daily basis HA!

Well here's the solution. SUGAR PACKETS. Yes, you heard me right, good old fashion sugar packets.

Every office I know usually has a coffee area. If you are out just keep packets handy in your purse or most eating places/movies etc have sugar packets somewhere. If your on a long drive pull over at a McDonalds and take a mini spa break. Grab yourself 2 or 3 of the disposable sugar packets, but use real granulated sugar, no diet sugar ladies (hehehe). Your going to make a scrub not eat it - I promise!

Go into whatever public bathroom you're at and dump the sugar in the palm of your hands, mix in whatever generic pink (or blue) soap is in the dispenser lol. Leave it somewhat dryish. This will create an awesome nail scrub. Scrub your cuticles and nails for 60 seconds, and then rinse with warm water. When your done just look down and you should see nice fresh cuticles. Any and all lose dry skin or over polish etc that was there before should disappear. Now, proceed on your way smiling and refreshed and rub in whatever creams or oils you have tucked away in your purse and enjoy :)

I have used this several times this week at my office and WOWzers big difference. I pretty much skip cuticle remover mid week now and use the remover less frequently. Hope you enjoyed this. If you have any of your own secret tips please post them in the comments. I love learning new secret tips too!

Thanks for visiting!

NCAA Konad Design

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but my household has been glued to the NCAA Basketball March Madness Tournament the last several days. Like faces nail glued to the TV screen :P

Speaking of Basketball, here is my Konad design I created for Basketball this week. I only just started Konading and this is just my second attempt and I wanted to do something Basketball oriented. The base color is Nicole by O.P.I. Fresh Squeezed which is part of their new 2010 Spring release that just came out. I came across this at my Shopko, but they can also be found at Walmart. Make sure you check the core line racks at Walmart - I don't believe they have the special display.

This was done on a 4 day old Manicure so it's not top notch. It's pretty much faded and grown out but I think this is the best way to test Konad when you are new at it like myself. Instead of removing the manicure I Konad on it, and get one more day of wear. If I mess up the practice Konad, then I take everything off as originally planned. So far the method has worked the last two times with no fails :)

(Nicole by O.P.I.: Fresh Squeezed, Orly: Shine and Konad Plate M7)

I now have Basketball Sneaker Nails :)

Thanks for stopping by!