Pretty & Polished

I had no idea there was such a huge network of nail polish lovers out in the world - at least not until I became one. I was a little overwhelmed at first but then so excited to see all of the ideas and creations. One of my most recent discoveries is indie brands. I first encountered them with Lynnderella polish. These amazing glitter polishes that come with a high price tag and now are almost impossible to get your hands on. (I joined the party late so I'm not sure of the story behind Lynn closing up shop.) Through Lynderella I discovered Leah Ann who has a wonderful shop full of nail polish gems. Once I discovered Llarowe on Facebook, my eyes were opened to a huge community.

Facebook is where I found Chelsea of Pretty & Polished. Pretty & Polished was my first indie purchase. And I could not be happier. I have a long wish list for Chelsea's shop but fortunately, she is very popular and her polishes go very fast once she opens the shop. I say this is fortunate because it allowed me to pace myself, which I, and my wallet, appreciate. Last week (just a mere 4 days after ordering) my shipment arrived.

I picked up Valentino, Chelsea Chelsea Bling Bling, and Hello Dolly. Aren't they just perfection in a bottle?

I immediately stripped off my current polish and got to work with Valentino. (This is the one I was most excited about - who doesn't love a black and white glitter?) I wanted it to pop (and I have a penchant for red, black and white - Go Dawgs!) so I chose Essie Long Stemmed Roses as the underwear.

I was even more excited by the outcome on my nails. This is one coat of Valentino over two coats of Long Stemmed Roses, topped with Essie To Dry For top coat. The polish is smooth with a good consistency and great coverage. I did shake the glitter quite a bit before applying because it looked as though the larger glitter had settled on the bottom. I was able to paint the nail as normal - no dabbing, stabbing, or swishing glitter around. It came off the brush just as you see it.

I love the variations in glitter size leaving the nails looking like a splatter effect. I can't wait to try the others and for her shop to open again on Saturday. I have no shame when it comes to stalking Etsy shops :)

If you're new to the nail polish world or if you're looking for ideas, there are some great women out there sharing their gifts and their love of polish. Here are a few blogs I love:
Christina - Let Them Have Polish
Crystal - Crystal's Crazy Combos
Jen - The Polishaholic
Traci - The Trace Face Philes

Nail Nail Boo Boo

Sometimes in life, your lemonade turns out to be too sour. No matter how good your intentions, some things just don't work out.

I have a newly acquired addiction hobby with nail polish and painting my nails. I paint them every few days trying new color combinations, polish brands and new nail art ideas. Sometimes I knock it out of the park (water marbling) and sometimes, I strike out. My latest nail art adventure was a big miss.

If you don't already, you need to follow thebeautydepartment.com. It's a great site from Lauren Conrad and two friends who blog about beauty and fashion. There are some great ideas and even greater tips and tricks from hair care to work wear. I have gotten a ton of manicure ideas from them. And they have always worked out. Until now.

Over the weekend, I gave one of their more recent ideas a try - gold leaf manicure (except I used copper leaf because it was more exciting and summery to me). This looks SO cool. Even better than how cool it looked was how easy it sounded to do. Of course, after water marbling, almost every nail art project sounds easy.

I got everything set up and decided to go bright now that spring has sprung. I decided to go with Essie One of a Kind - a bright orangey-red as my base color with the copper leaf on top. (I bought this from Michael's.) Honestly, doing the manicure was pretty painless. After I cleaned and filed my nails, I cut the sheets into small triangles. Then I readied my Q-tips, water, and polish remover so everything would be in place once my nails were polished and ready. I painted one coat on all 10 nails and let that dry well. Then I painted the second coat on my left hand and let it dry to tacky before placing the triangles on top. I repeated with my right hand after my left was fairly dry. I then painted all 10 with my Essie top coat. I was pretty pleased with the result.

A few hours later, I had a sewing project I wanted to finished up. So I sat down at my machine, threaded it and started sewing away. At one small point I forgot to adjust the tension and had to rip out about 2 inches of sewing. As I was placing that piece back in the machine to redo, I noticed my thumb and pointer finger on my right hand were badly chipped. But not just chipped, rubbed off as if the polish hadn't been dry even though it had been at least 3 hours since I completed the manicure. As I continued sewing the polish job got worse. I got so mad, I immediately got out the remover and the cotton balls and took it all off. (In my haste and disappointment, I completely forgot to take a picture.)

I don't consider sewing the kind of activity that would ruin a manicure, especially after it had a few hours to dry. I've never had that problem before. I don't know if it was the leafing product, the top coat on top, or just not enough drying time but this awesome manicure turned out to be not to awesome. I haven't given up completely - it's too awesome to do that - but I need to rethink the process and the materials before I attempt this one again.

Baking Soda Bestie

There is a wonderful woman on the web named Jillee who posts One Good Thing every day. And let me tell you - she is a genius. She has so many wonderful ideas that I have implemented all over my house. A while back she posted about microdermabrasion in a box - the cheapest and easiest microderm treatment I've ever tried (and believe me, since turning 30, I've tried a lot). Her recipe and instructions:

2 Tbsp Baking soda

Distilled Water. 

Start with a clean face (very important, as you don’t want to rub any dirt back into your skin). Make a slightly soupy paste with the baking soda and distilled water. Working in small circles, rub the entirety of your face very lightly. Do this for five minutes. Do, of course, avoid the eye area. Rinse very well.

When I tried this myself, I was much less exact. I didn't measure the baking soda and I didn't bother to bring distilled water into the bathroom. I simply sprinkled a bit of baking soda into a small tupperware container and then added bathroom tap water and mixed by hand until I had a good consistency. Of course, I didn't really know what a good consistency was so I simply felt for what I thought felt like the sand paper like substance the aestheticians use. It doesn't have to be exact to work. With baking soda being so cheap you can afford to have a few misses on the mixture - I sure did. 

I had a great experience with baking soda microdermabrasion. I figured there had to be more to do besides deodorize my fridgeand remove the dead skin from my face. I started scowering the internet for other uses for this tiny box of beauty tricks. Let me tell you - baking soda is my new bestie. Keep reading after the jump for some more wonderful uses for this tiny box of magic.  

Too much good stuff

I have a freaky weird memory. Have since at least the 9th grade. (Could have been earlier but the first time I noticed my memory was freaky and weird was a 9th grade biology memory test.) My brain stores the most random things - some of it useless knowledge and some of it valuable tips and tricks for life. It is the latter of this storage that has lead me to this blog. Well, that and several friends pushing me down the road toward a blog.

So here I am. A girl (can you still be a girl at age 30?) with a brain full of stuff just waiting to be dropped on unsuspecting strangers in the blog-o-sphere. I have beauty tips and tricks, and secrets I've scoured the internet for that every girl (and some guys) should know. I have a nail polish obsession hobby so please do not be alarmed by the pictures of my nails and random bottles of nail polish. I pretend to sew and sometimes it works out for me so I plan to share those successes (and failures) here as well.

It's a blog of too much good stuff that you can do yourself. Because let's face it, when does life ever give you the lemons free of charge and effort to make the lemonade?