Contest Winner & Manicure Tips

Hello, dear readers!

I am happy to announce that the winner of my latest contest is Roxy! I've emailed her to let her know and get her mailing address. Thank you to the rest of you for subscribing and entering. I'll have another contest soon. 

Also, my friends over at Sephora asked me to share with them my best tips for a DIY at home manicure. You can check out all of my tips over at their blog today, Sephora's Beauty and the Blog.

I am headed home to Michigan for Christmas soon. I am going to try post a few more times in between now and then, but due to the lack of sun here lately and rain that might not be possible. I also still have shopping and packing to do. So I apologize in advance!

I also want to wish everyone the happiest of holidays and hope that you all have a very safe and enjoyable few weeks of festivities ahead. 

xoxo,

Katee

Inspirational Post for Girls Trying To Grow Their Short Nails

Good morning, Dear Readers!

Today I have a different kind of post for you because I don't have any new lovelies to share with you. Don't worry though, that isn't for long. I am expecting lots of new goodies from the UPS and Fed Ex Men both this week and next. I am also driving up to The OC (Orange County, LOL) today to visit the CHANEL Boutique in the South Coast Plaza to look at/buy the new Moscow Collection nail polishes. Right now the red and blue ones are callling to me but I might just end up with all three... we shall see! I am also hoping that they have that new purple color called Vendetta. 

Anyway, on to today's subject. I receive a lot of lovely compliments regarding my nails (some of them make me blush) and also a lot of questions. This post is for all of those girls out there with short nails that are longing for longer nails.

This is a picture of my nails back in May of this year:

I took this picture right after a manicure. I was wearing OPI Lincoln Park At Midnight, I think. This manicure was probably several weeks or maybe even a month or two after the manicure before. Look at my nubby little nails! This is right when I was starting to make the correlation between wearing nail polish and nail length/strength. I was always on and off the manicure bandwagon. I would go a few months getting regular manicures and then something would happen where I would miss an appointment, then another appointment, etc. Pretty soon any length I had managed to grow would be gone. My tips would break and peel off one by one.

Fast forward to July, when we moved from Michigan to California. After all of the moving madness was over, and things settled down, I had a lot of free time on my hands. One of the things that I found time for again was manicures! Once a week manicures. After a few weeks of weekly manicures, I really started to notice the difference that nail polish makes again. I could feel my nails getting harder and they started growing again. At one of my manicures, I ended up choosing a color that I didn't love. I forget what it was now, but as soon as I got home I wanted to take it of. When I repainted my nails, I realized that this was something that I really could be doing at home and that there were better things I could do with the cash. So I headed out to my local beauty supply store and picked up all of the essentials I needed to do my own manicures at home. **side note: little did I know that my at home manicures would spur a full blown nail polish obsession and that I would be quickly be spending more on nail polish than I was on manicures**

Look at this picture of my nails in September of this year (wearing Essie Decadent Diva): 

HUGE difference in both nail length and overall condition of my nails and cuticles. What a difference 4 months makes!! I swear, it is mostly due to keeping my nails polished at all times. Nothing will protect your nails more. Want long nails? Keep them polished. Sure, you should follow my other tips too. But nothing will make more of a difference than nail polish. Heck, wear clear if you have to! 

Once you really get into a good nail polish routine, your nails should grow like weeds! I mean just look at the difference between my nails in this September picture and then my nails now, in more recent posts. I practically have claws now! They are dangerous! 

Well I just really wanted to share with all of you that picture of my little nubbies back in May, in hopes to inspire some of you girls that think you can't grow your nails. 

That is all for today!

xoxo,

Katee

Katee's Nail Care Tips

Hello, guys and gals!

I have had a few questions lately from readers about how I’ve managed to grow my nails to a long-ish length (not too long, I personally don’t want to have talons or claws LOL, I wear contacts and that would be dangerous) and keep them that way. So I’ve assembled a list of tips and tricks to help you! I am not a nail expert but these are things that I have found helpful and that have worked for me.

1. Your nails are jewels, not tools! This is my most favorite saying ever. Do not use your nails to pick sticky price tags off of things and do not use them to open things like pop cans. Do not tap your nails on hard surfaces, do not scratch them against anything, hopefully you get the idea. Just chant “jewels not tools” in your mind, hundreds of times, over and over again, until it sticks.

2. Which brings me to this tip, wear rubber gloves AT ALL TIMES when doing dishes or chores around the house, especially when using any cleaning products. Period. Have you ever broke or chipped a nail while srubbing something and you jam your fingernail into a hard surface? Exactly. Ouch!

3. Do not cut your nails with clippers unless it is an emergency or something. Using clippers puts a huge amount of unnecessary pressure on your nails and can cause splitting. Use a crystal nail file when you need to take any length off of your nails. Use only a crystal file, no old fashioned emery boards or stainless files.

4. Keep something on your nails at all times whether it is nail polish or a treatment product like China Glaze Gel Calcium Nail Fortifier. This should actually be tip #1 but I really did not put these in any particular order. If you only take one bit of my advice, this should be it. Followed my #1 here (“jewels not tools”) which should be #2 after this one.

5. Moisture. Constant moisture. Wash your hands? Moisturize. Cough? Moisturize. Breathe? Moisturize. Hopefully you are catching on. I use CND Cuticle Eraser about 3 to 4 times a day followed by CND Solar Oil and then hand lotion. My boyfriend thinks I am an obsessed freak and maybe I am. But take a look at his nails and cuticles and then take a look at mine. Sorry honey, but you don’t read this anyway.

That is all I can think of for now but I reserve the right to update this when I discover something new. 

On to some other stuff:

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Have you seen my OPI 90210 collection swatches yet?

Have you seen the China Glaze Romantique swatches yet? Just want to make sure that you guys haven't missed any of the really good stuff lately.

See you later. Love you, readers!! Thank you for reading e-polishblog. It truly means the world to me!! 

Also, if you use Google Reader or any other blog reader, why don't you take a second and subscribe to e-polishblog? You can at the top right hand corner of my blog. It would seriously mean the world to me. I've recently started using Google Reader to keep up with my favorite blogs and I freaking love it. 

xoxo,

Katee

Do It Yourself: Katee’s Home Manicure Tips

My friend Jen contacted me the other day wanting to know my top tips for a fabulous at home manicure. Her main concerns were polish dry time and how to avoid getting nail polish on her cuticles and skin. So Jen, this post is for you!

First, get a top quality quick dry top coat. I like Seche Vite. I have also heard great things about Poshe Super Fast Drying Top Coat. I will say that Seche Vite is a little thick and might be difficult to apply for a “beginner,” so for that reason Poshe might be a good option. For me, the discovery of the quick dry top coat was like one of those moments where the clouds parted and I heard angels singing. Before this discovery, I could do my nails an hour before bedtime, and still wake up with sheet marks on my nails. Forget doing my nails during the middle of the day, because I would not be able to do anything for hours after that for the fear of denting or smudging my nails. With a coat of Seche Vite over my wet nail polish, my manicure is pretty much dry in 5 minutes; it’s rock hard, and both smudge and dent proof within 15 minutes. This stuff is amazing and has changed home manicures for me forever.

Unless you are ambidextrous, getting nail polish on your cuticles is pretty much unavoidable, at least when you are painting with your “other hand,” for me that would be my left hand. Practice makes perfect, and I have definitely gotten better over time since I’ve started painting my own nails on a regular basis. Since the little goofs are a fact of life, you need to get a nail polish corrector pen. I use the OPI Correct & Cleanup refillable pen. Sally Hansen also makes one that should be readily available at your local drug store. A Corrector Pen is essentially a marker that is filled with nail polish remover. Use this to “write” over the nail polish that got on your cuticles. I like using a product like this better than an orange wood stick and cotton because I like to keep cotton and wet nail polish as far away from each other as possible or else I end up with cotton in my wet polish!

Other tips:
Use a quality base coat like CND Sticky or Orly Bonder. Using a quality base coat and top coat will extend the wear of your nail polish and protect your nails from yellowing.

Get a crystal nail file. Not glass, crystal, and there is a difference. I like Essie's Crystal File which you can pick up at a beauty supply store. A crystal file will prevent nails from peeling and splitting. They also seal the edge of the nail preventing water damage. Don’t saw your nails when filing and avoid filing the sides of your nails. File slowly. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the mantra that you must file in one direction though. But, like I said don’t saw away at your nails, be gentle.
Use cuticle oil or balm, DAILY! I like CND Solar Oil and Solar Balm. Keeping your nails and cuticles hydrated is the single most important step to beautiful and healthy nails.
Well, there you go Jen! I hope these tips are helpful for you and that you’ll give it another go at painting your nails at home.