Nursery Tree Nails Did

So I was waiting all week since my last nail art to do this art after I went to get my special mani and pedi with paraffin wax - and then it turned out to be pretty much the worst manicure I've ever had...EVER. You'll see the girl literally hacked at my cuticles. The paraffin was neat, but I won't be going back to that salon. I pulled out OPI's Banana Bandana, and they put two coats on which looked like 1 coat it was so streaked. It was so bad I should have taken a picture, but I asked that they not waste a top coat and by the time I got home most of it was smudged off and I replaced it anyway. Bah. So anyway I was still feeling yellow so I put on China Glaze Lemon Fizz and did some nail art with a black, white and green art pen. I thought I would do a design to match the decal that Ben and I just put up in the nursery of a really funky/modern tree! Hope you like it!!!

Confessions of a Cuticle Cutter

Okay, I'm writing something a little different today but I promise to be back at 'cha tomorrow with some new nail art because I'm thinking of doing something fancy for the wedding of my friends Michelle and Amy and I know it'll be ruined if I do it the night before.

Anyway - I'm coming out of the closet everyone. I'm a cuticle cutter. That's right. I openly confess it. 

For the last two months that I've been actively blogging I've tried NOT to cut my cuticles. I've been reading up on cuticle care and everything I read tells me not to cut them, so I've been doing the good girl thing and pushing and cuticle oiling and pushing...and pushing...

I even told Tammy at the nail salon not to trim them. She looked at me like I was crazy. 

This is what I've read on EHow.com: 

 
Step1: Moisturize your cuticles by applying a hand creme, lotion or oil and rubbing it into the cuticle. The delicate skin on your hands needs moisturizing daily. Keep a hand moisturizer with you to use several times daily.

Check! I use Lemony Flutter from Lush Cosmetics for my moisturizing needs! It smells great but seriously I almost passed out on the floor from all the dizzying smells in the store. I thought I was getting gassed at one point.

Step 2: Purchase a good cuticle remover (to soften, but not actually remove the cuticles). Apply the cuticle remover and allow the cuticles to soften. Using a cuticle stick (also called an orange stick), gently push back the cuticles, being careful not to damage them.

Check! I use Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover. Is it good? Sure? But...am I the only one that thought that "cuticle remover" meant it was literally gonna dissolve off my cuticles leaving me with some awesomely cuticle-less hands? Seriously...what did it do? Exactly how overgrown do your cuticles have to be before you're like: "HEY! It's working!!!"?

Step 3: Remove dead or flaking cuticle skin by moving the orange stick in tiny circles around the base of the nail. Remove the whitish residue from the nail as well. Repeat this process on each nail several times

Check! I do this like...every night when I'm sitting in front of the TV. But I use this nice plastic one that Sapporo won't chew on. It also has this CRAZY scraper thing on the end that Ben likes to use but it RIPS your cuticles so I refuse.

Step 4: Use a sharp cuticle clipper to trim any remaining hangnails. Make sure that this tool cuts cleanly.

Check! Now...what constitutes a hangnail exactly? Can I count my overgrown cuticles as hangnails now? This is too much grey area. I'm gonna say...yes.

Step 5: Wipe the nail clean with a cotton ball and moisturize again.

Bah! By now I've considered this too many steps...

Tips & Warnings: Don't cut or trim your cuticles. They act as barriers to keep bacteria out of your body, so try to keep this skin intact.

UGH! I triiiiied! But I just can’t stand it!!! Leaving my cuticles the way they were was like having eyelids on my nails.  Let’s look at the difference, it’s totally noticeable to me (click pics to enlarge...if you DARE):

 Before (ewww)

After (yay! snip snip)

So I mean, with results as quickly satisfying as that how can I complain? I mean, I'll never have cuticles as some of you do out there I think I've faced that...but is snipping so wrong to come close? 

Granted...maybe I'm not the only one. Or at least I'd like to think that I'm not! So to this I say - Cuticle Cutter's unite! I'm thinking of printing T-shirts...

In any event, I leave you with the cuticle guru's I look up to. Every time I see their mani's a little part of me whines that I don't have those cuticles for myself! 

  Deez Nails 

 

 Lacquerized's

Emerald Sparkled's 

Forever Jealous,

Niki*

Its Definately Not Easy Being Green Nails Did

Okay so in my last post I was super excited because I just got my hands on two Zoya polishes which I had been coveting ON SALE! So tonight I thought I'd try Zoya Veruschka since it was eying me tantalizingly from its bottle.

Here it is with nothing on it. It was actually really surprising to me. Usually I check out a lot of polish sites and swatches before I grab a polish but this one caught my eye right off the shelf and I didn't do any further research into it. So who knew it was going to go on almost like Emerald Sparkle...but then it went matte/shimmer...and then just matte. It was kinda dissapointing that with all that application shimmer that it would kinda just fade away :( So now its just a really dark matte green. But I can work with that.

Oh and before I continue - holy long drying time batman!! I must have smudged my right thumb like two times before it finally set. SO FRUSTRATING!

So I wanted to keep it simple, mostly because I'm not feeling too well and have the sniffles :( So I decided to use a Konad plate and Nubar Wildlife which I haven't gotten a chance to use yet. So this is plate M51's flower design. And then I put a rhinestone in the middle which involved me somehow getting super glue on my tongue! I don't know how these things happen I'm just awesome like that :S

By the way these had to be one of the hardest things to photograph to date! But as you can see the Zoya polish is hardly shimmery and the Nubar polish is just meh. I think Wildlife would be awesome as a base but not so much Konading...or perhaps i just have to find the right base for it. I consider this a mani-fail. So not in love with it but it'll have to do for one day until I find the strength to change it tomorrow. Boo.

Oh and here is a swatch of the Gosh Golden Dragon polish I bought yesterday too. This is two coats. It's kind of a blue/green with a hint of gold. I think it definately would need more than 2 coats if it was going to be your base. But the colour is super!

Sparkles and Lace Nails Did

I did this a couple of days ago but didn't get around to posting it.

I feel like this is a definite Konad fail, but I guess all in all it didn't come out TOO bad. I really need to get a better black nail polish (but OCnailart is shipping my package now!!!). I was trying to do a 1/2 lace look, 1/2 sparkle thing...and for some reason this manicure took me almost 2 1/2 hours. Why? Because I kept getting my f'ing thumb stuck to cotton pad whenever I was cleaning the Konad plate.

Konad tip #1 learned the hard way: do not clean the plate with a cotton pad - use a folded tissue!

Seriously, I think I redid the thumb like 3 times.

So this is China Glaze Platinum Silver as a base, Sally Hansen Black with KP M66, black nail art pen for the line and Sally Hansen Disco ball for the glitter on the other 1/2 of the nail.