toenails

I did my toenails the other day, using pieces of scotch tape cut into a point. They turned out really well. I think next time I'll go with a darker nail polish, because then it will be easier to see the design!

What do you think?!

my deep dark secret

I'm a nail biter.

Ok, maybe it's not deep and dark, but I do like to keep it a secret as much as possible. This might explain why I wear so much nail polish, and obsess over it! 

I've found that pretty much the only thing that keeps me from biting off all my fingernails is having them painted up all nice. (Sometimes a coat of clear will work, but sometimes I pick it off or bite them anyway.)

It's a terrible habit, and I tend to do it subconsciously when I'm nervous or agitated.

Proof of my most recent biting spree: (These don't look too bad, because it's a couple weeks later...but before they were so long!)

nail stickers - take two

I bought some zebra/jeweled nail stickers and tried them out in this post.

In that post, I concluded that having the whole nail covered by the sticker was just too much. So, I tried again, but this time only use pieces of the sticker. They stayed on much better, and were easier to deal with since I cut them with a knife before applying them to my nails, instead of trying to file the excess after sticking them on my nails.

I tried a different size/shape sticker on each nail. Which is your favorite? Do you like them all being different, or would they look better if they all at the same shape/size sticker piece?

the $150 shopping spree - nails...again

Alright, obviously I have a problem with compulsively buying nail decoration. My next purchase in my shopping spree was more nail polish! (Notice as part of my shopping spree, I also bought nail stuff here, oh and here.)

I found a coupon for $2 off any Revlon cosmetics product, so I went to Target and got this nail polish! It was originally 3.99 so I got it for $2.17 after tax.

This is Revlon’s number 915 – Crème Brûlée. I love this color on my nails, because it's a nice color, but will match anything, and is low key enough that I can wear it anywhere.

$$ left: $126.13

the $150 shopping spree - more nails

As part of my $150 shopping spree, I bought some jeweled nail strips and some purple nail polish. The jeweled nail strips are stickers, meant to stay on your nails for up to 10 days.

Nail stickers: $5.97

Purple Polish: $1.92

As you can see, the stickers look like they are a little see-through, which is why I got the purple nail polish. So, I painted a couple coats of the purple nails polish onto my nails, and waited for it to dry completely.

The instructions say to apply the sticker that best fits your nail, fold the extra over the end, then file the end of the nail to get rid of the excess sticker. 

Since my nails are much shorter than the stickers, I ended up cutting off the end of the sticker after putting it on my nail. I saved the extra end, just in case I can find a use for it later.

Challenges:

·         Trying to fold the stickers over my nail when there was a jewel in the way meant they had to be cut, almost exactly to the size of the nail. (I mostly failed at this)

·         With the un-exact cut of the sticker, the nail strips were much more likely to peel off. (They started peeling the same day, and most of them had peeled off more than halfway by the end of the next!)

·         Painting the nails before putting the stickers on meant that when they peeled off, all the nail polish came off with them. I’m not sure if it would be better to just not paint the nail first.

Because the nail stickers peeled off so quickly, I never got to take a picture of the finished nails! Here’s a picture of the one lonely little nail that was left after a long day today:

I’d like to say that they looked good while they lasted, but they were a little too much for me. It was just a little bit too much bling on my nails. (Although, the girls I coach had a competition today, and the 6 year olds really liked them!)

$$ left: $136.90

the $150 shopping spree - part 1

Since I’ve been really, really craving shopping lately, Alex and I discussed using some of our extra income this month for me to spend however I like.

It may take me awhile to spend the whole $150, since I'll want to hoard it, so I’ll post as I spend it and what on!

I started with a package of glitter, and some clear nail polish. I saw a tutorial awhile back that said that you can make your own glitter nail polish by adding glitter to clear nail polish.

Clear nail polish: $1.80

Glitter: $3.41 with a coupon

After doing this, I’m not sure I’d recommend it. I let the polish sit for awhile, and the glitter settled at the bottom of the bottle. I had to shake it a bunch to make the glitter disperse a little. It was also really hard to get the nail polish to go on evenly, and I didn’t really like the look.

My conclusion was that I’m better off spending the extra money on actual glitter nail polish.

Stay tuned – maybe I can figure out another way to use all this glitter!

$$ left: 144.79

colored tips manicure - no purchase necessary!

I did this manicure yesterday, using a grayish/blue nail polish as the base and dark purple for the tips. They were both nail polishes that I already owned, so no hit to the budget here! My husband would be proud, not that he noticed on his own that my nails were even painted differently!


I was experimenting with how color on color would look on my nails, and I think it turned out pretty good! I painted my nails with a couple coats of the ‘gunmetal’ nail polish a couple days ago, so it would have plenty of time to be nice and hard. 

Then yesterday, I put manicure stickers (you know, the ones you get with the French manicure sets, they come in straight across and curved), the straight across kind, on the nails and painted the tips purple. (Yep, I already had the stickers too!) I let them dry and finished up with a clear top coat. It’s a little bold, but I’m really liking it!