Tuesday 28 February 2012

problems with nails

I figured I'd post a few hints on what to do when your nails go a bit shit because after getting my acrylics off, I was stuck with these short, brittle nails that seemed to bend just by looking at them. So this is just really a list of helpful lovely hints for what to do to keep your nails in tip top shape and still be able to paint and play with them without as much damage :)

  1. Use a good cuticle oil and make sure to massage it in
    I personally cut my cuticles back because I do keep my nails short, but by using a good cuticle oil, you're keeping the cuticle and the area around your nail softer and less likely to end up dried out and flaky because of nail varnish remover damage. I go for the Andrea Fulerton one (available in SuperDrug) or OPI Nail Treatments Avoplex Cuticle Oil To Go. Both are really great and smell lovely. :)
  2. Go for acetone-free nail polish remover
    Acetone damages. It also helps to dry your nails out and make them brittler than 100 year old China plates. Since getting my big plastic talons removed, I will ONLY use acetone-free polish remover. I go for Cutex Acetone Free Nail Polish Remover or Cutex Nourishing Nail Polish Remover which is formulated for nails that are already weak.
  3. Use a strengthener/nourishment treatment for your nails
    I go for QVC Nail Drink, OPI Nail Envy (any one of the brand) or Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Natural. I put it on underneath my base coat so my nails are always having a bit of a treat before I lacquer them up again :) I used to think they were basically a load of crap, but after using them constantly along with the right nail varnish removers and cuticle oil, together it really has made a difference.
  4. Moisturize your hands!
    It's something you wouldn't even think you'd need to do to help your nails, but it does. Plus, there isn't really a downside to it. You get softer hands and nicer nails. :) I like Garnier 7 Days Daily Shea Butter Hand Cream or any of the Jergen's Naturals range.
  5. Acrylic nails will RUIN your own nails!
    I am not even joking. When mine were soaked off and my natural nails began to grow again, there was an actual DENT where the acrylic nails had ended by my nail bed. Imagine that, growing your nails with thick grooves in the middle of them. Your nails get no air at all and the acrylic is a lot of the time too thick and isn't actually meant to be used on human nails. If you want to grow them, seriously, just treat them well and be careful. It isn't worth the ridiculous amount it costs to completely destroy what your mama gave you. This message also goes for gel nails and, depending on who you speak to, hybrid gel nails.
  6. Don't bite.
    Your nails are not food and do not offer nutritional nourishment, so stop biting them. All you're going to do is end up risking infections with the open cut bits of skin on your fingers and lets be honest, overly bitten nails aren't attractive. Chew gum instead or something.
  7. Short short short.
    I've found that by keeping my nails short for a longer time, they actually seem more inclined to grow and stay stronger. I know that's obviously because they aren't long and getting caught in everything, but it actually does help quite a lot to keep them shorter while you're trying to grow them. From my experiences, anyway.
  8. Your nails will get damage from every day tasks.
    Such as right now, I'm typing this on a computer. I touch-type now because I've been typing for so long, but it still causes damage to your nails. Just like washing the dishes, gardening, operating machinery and heavy lifting. It all causes damage. Just be careful, it's all you can do. Lets be honest, you can't walk around with your hands covered in bubble wrap, so if you are nail conscious, pay a little extra care when going about your day.
  9. I've only just got a manicure and managed to get pen on my nail! GET IT OFF!
    I've only done this twice, and because I do my own nails now, I simply re-do the nail when I have chance to. If not, other than nail varnish remover (which you obviously won't want to do if you've just got your nails done) then the other two remedies I've been told work are: hairspray and lemon juice. I personally haven't done either, so I'm reporting the tales of friends here, but apparently, by spraying a little bit of hairspray on to the nail and giving it a few seconds, the pen marks will simply come off if you then wipe your nail with a slightly damp cloth. With the lemon juice, you're supposed to soak it for a little bit longer but I personally don't know how much I'd trust a method that involves soaking your nails in citric acid, it doesn't sound like a great idea to me.
  10. How do I correctly use a nail pen?
    As you'll see in my previous photo of my vampire nails, I have not correctly used a nail pen while doing a previous design. To use a nail pen, make sure you have a solid base-coat on underneath. I know that the pens already advise this, but trust me, they mean it. On my last design (olympics) I used a clear-glitter polish on top of a relatively cheap clear polish base-coat and now I am paying for it. Sadly, this isn't the first time I've done it. Be careful when using a pen, especially if it has a hard nib. If you apply too much pressure, you'll end up pushing your base-coat or polish out of the way and will end up pretty much drawing with nail pen onto your actual nail. This isn't a problem with cheaper nail art pens as they tend to be more liquid-y based and more likely to come off anyway. My Nail Star ones are great for coming off with no effort when you use nail varnish remover. The OPI ones are obviously better quality, but they are the culprits that have stained four of my nails. The stains do eventually come away with more nail varnish remover and daily use of your hands, but it really pissed me off when it first happened because it meant any sort of pale coloured lacquer was off the cards until these bloody stains went away. To avoid that hassle, seriously, just use a good base-coat you can rely on and don't go in too heavy handed. You're decorating a nail, not going hunting.
I hope any of that will be of use to somebody wanting to do their nails any time in the near future. It's just a few points I wish I'd known about before I started doing my own nails quite as frequently as I do. :)

vampire!

I did the fangs at first on a fake nail and loved how simple yet effective they were. But then there was never really a good time to paint them back on. You'll notice that this is actually my right hand instead of my usual left. That's because I only just pained the lighthouse nails this morning as well and don't want to take either design off! So as of right now, I have a beach and a lighthouse on one hand, and fangs and a cross on the other. Variety is the spice of life :)

I used:
Essie in Cocktail Bling
Ciate in Dangerous Affair (beautiful colour and hardly chips)
Essie in Pure Pearlfection
Nail Star art pens in black, white and red


PS-
ignore the sort of dark mark on my middle finger nail, it's a stain from the OPI blue nail pen that I used for the Olympic nails and I can't get it off!

lighthouse :)

So, I've been getting pretty excited for summer lately and when I think of summer, I think of the beach. And when I think of beaches, I think of lighthouses. I know, it's a pretty weird thing of mine haha. Even though it's only a day off March, I've really got a craving for summer so I brought a little bit of sunshine for now :)

I used:
Stargazer nail polish in 205
Essie in Shine of the Times
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Leather Boots
Barry M nail polish in Spring Green 290
Sephora by OPI in Havana Dreams (one of my favourite colours ever, but it's a two-coater sadly!)
Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in Sunshine
OPI in Fiercely Fiona
Nail Star art pens in black, white and red.
Sephora by OPI nail art pen in gold.

Sunday 26 February 2012

the olympics!

These are my current nails. I'm getting ready for the olympics and couldn't resist doing some nail art in honour of them :)

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Sweet New Ride
GOSH nail polish in Metallic Blue 566
GOSH nail polish in Magic Star 562
GOSH nail polish in Midnight Blue 593
Nail Star pens in black, red and white
Sephora by OPI nail pens in blue, green and gold/yellow

the weather :)

Also, please ignore the state of my natural nails. They're improving a lot more now but these pictures are from earlier days.

I used:
Nail Star pen in white
Sephora for OPI pens in blue, gold, purple and pink
Essie in Fiji
Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in Sunshine

stars and stripes, first attempt

Another rushed job by me and one from my earlier days of practice (which is why the straight lines aren't straight at all).

I used:
Essie in Aruba Blue
Sephora in Sweet New Ride
Nail Star pen in white

heart monitor

These were also for Valentines, but I took a bit of a grim approach to it.

I used:
Sally Hansen Nearly Nude in 1 Natural White
Sephora by OPI Red Blasted
Nail Star pens in red and black

playing with shatter

I tend to just paint one colour under and then shatter on top, but then this time decided I'd do half-n-half and see how it looked. Overall, I was pretty happy with the result.

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Chic and Rebel
OPI in Rainbow Connection
Essie in Cocktail Bling
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Curacao
Milani Nail Lacquer in 507 Pink Hottie
OPI Black Shatter

Swan

These were for Valentine's :)

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Curacao
Sally Hansen nail art pen in bright pink
Sephora for OPI nail pen in dark pink
Sephora for OPI nail pen in blue
Nail Star art pens in white and red

Simple stripes

A few lines to break down an otherwise simple polish.

I used:
Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in 420 Aqua Cool
Nail Star pens in white, black and glitter

Strawberry :)

I did this one after the girl who used to do my nails did it, except she used CND Shellac to do it.

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Sweet New Ride
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Curacao
Barry M polish in 290 Spring Green
Nail Star pen in white

christmas pudding!

These were also (obviously) a Christmas design. I loved doing this one but this one also took ages to dry.

I used:
Leighton Denny polish in Caught Red Handed
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Leather Boots
Nail Star art pens in white and red

pirates!

I loved doing these, so much that when I ended up eventually taking the rest of them off, I left the skull and crossbones on for a few extra days! Be warned if you want to go ahead with these, they're effective but they take AGES to dry. I was literally sat at one point with a hairdryer on medium heat at them for a good ten minutes (not good for my nails, I know, I know) but they still didn't totally dry! Well, you'll know exactly what that is when you see the list of products I used (bare in mind there was a top coat, base coat and strengthener to dry under these!)

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Chic and Rebel
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Leather Boots
Barry M polish in 294 Cyan Blue
Barry M polish in 290 Spring Green
Miss Sporty nail polish in Coty Paris
Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in Sunshine
Claire's Accessories nail polish in silver glitter
Claire's Accessories nail polish in gold glitter
Claire's Accessories nail polish in green glitter
Nail Star pens in black and white

NY

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Sweet New Ride
Sally Hansen Nearly Natural in 1, Natural White
Nail Star art pens in black and red

Nautical :)

I seen these on the internet so I don't take any credit for them, but I did find them to be a really nice design that'd be great over summer. :)

I used:
OPI in Dating A Royal
Leighton Denny polish in Caught Red Handed
Nail Star pen in white

leopard :)

I absolutely love leopard print, so it wasn't really a surprise that this one happened. This was the first time I've tried it and I decided to try and keep it more natural looking than some of the brightly coloured designs on the net. I'll maybe try one of those next though. :)

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Chic and Rebel
OPI in Bling Dynasty
Nail Star art pen in black

Japanese inspired

The symbol apparently means 'friendship'.

I used:
Sally Hansen Nearly Nude in 1, Natural White
Nail Star pens in black and red

iPod nails

These were the result of me coming back from Canada and overcompensating because I hadn't been able to decorate my nails for over a week!

I used:
Sephora Nail Lacquer in Let's Dance
OPI in Rainbow Connection
Nail Star art pens in white and black

glitter! 2

This is my left hand :)

I used:
Claire's Accessories nail polish in silver glitter
Claire's Accessories nail polish in green glitter
Accessorize Nail Polish Illusion in Gold Dust
OPI in Last Friday Night (Part of the Katy Perry collection)

glitter!

This was another Christmas-time creation. I have a load of glitter polishes, so I decided to put a different glitter on each nail. This is my right hand, I'll upload my left hand next.

I used:
Accessorize Nail Polish Illusion in Molten Copper
Sinful Nail Enamel in Thrill
OPI in Rainbow Connection
OPI in Absolutely Alice
Claire's Accessories nail polish in red glitter

the all-night city lights.

I loved doing these nails. I was oddly enough inspired by watching CSI: Las Vegas, which is the reason behind the dollar sign.

I used:
OPI in Your Royal Shine-ness
Nail Star nail art pens in black and white (you can pick them up on eBay or Amazon real cheap)
Rimmel Lycra Pro in 291 Urban Princess

chocolate covered strawberry :)

This was done in a rush, which is why the green leafy bit of the strawberry is smudged to bits haha :)

I used:
Sephora nail lacquer in Chic and Rebel
Sephora nail lacquer in Sweet New Ride (this is one of my favourite polishes ever)
Sephora nail lacquer in Leather Boots
Nail Star nail art pen in white.

breakfast :)

Please ignore the state of my natural nails underneath. That's the result of years of gel/acrylic nails and incorrect maintenance.

I used:
Sephora by OPI nail pens in white and blue
Sephora nail lacquer in Leather Boots
Sally Hansen Nearly Nude in 1- Natural White
Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in Sunshine
Barry M nail polish in 1A, Red Wine

black cherry and gold glitter

I did these for the run-up to Christmas because I absolutely love the glitter. It looks even more effective in real life than it does on the photo.

I used:
Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in Black Cherries 193
Accessorize Nail Polish Illusion in Molten Copper

hello :)

Hi all :)
This is my new nail blog, which you can thank Amy for haha. I'm just going to update with designs and what I used to achieve them. Bit of banter really isn't it.
Peace out.

A few points:
- I always keep my nails short after having acrylics on and destroying my own nails.
- I ALWAYS use a nail strengthener, base coat and top coat. My favourite strengthener is OPI Nail Envy or Nail Drink from QVC. My base/top coat is Sephora nail lacquer in clear or one I got from a French manicure set a couple of years ago.
- I moisturize my hands once I'm finished painting my nails (and they're dry, obviously) with Garnier 7 Days Daily Shea Butter hand cream or Jergen's Natural.
- I use Cutex Nourishing nail polish remover.