Fun and Mental Changes

Ok, so here's my ultra quick homage to the Scream franchise (serious Halloween fun)... and a fun, creepy image for my black Halloween mani!!! Shown here is CND Shellac in black pool with the fauxnad image I got from Beautiful Scratchers , image plate T29.  Word of warning with these fauxnad plates:  the images are much larger than other image plates so in order to actually wear this image, I had to grow my nails out.  Only my ring finger was long and wide enough for this image, which is completely fine since it's quite popular and fashionable to have nail art on only one nail.  And this one sure does look cool!!!  That black looks like glass!  Yep.... I'm heartin Shellac again!!! And more on the image plates from Beautiful Scratchers .... while large, the images are UNIQUE AND AMAZING!!!  I'm going to be getting a few more of these image plates in the future.  You'll definitely want to check them out.  I give Beautiful Scratchers 10 Hi...

Ok, as promised, here's my Shellac manicure after taking great care to use rubber gloves whenever my hands were in water or I was going to be doing something that was rough on my hands.  I'll start with the before pic.... Welp, they didn't make it the full 14 days, but they made it 11.  And to look at the picture you wouldn't know that they didn't make it because they still look shiny and incredible, but TWO of the nails pictured have some lifting of the product (I marked the lifting areas with arrows.  You can sort of see it in the picture on the ring finger).  The lifting is enough that it's catching on my clothes and being a regular pain in the butt.  So honestly, I probably COULD have gone the full 14 days if I didn't mind a couple of chips in the product here or there.  And truth be told, I've never been able to keep anything on my nails for a full 14 days (even fake nails had a hard time lasting that long) so I'm used to continual cha...

Ok, so yesterday was Labor Day and thankfully my Shellac Tropix manicure made it through the BBQing festivities!!!  Today begins another test!!!  What you see here is CND's Shellac Rubble!!!  THIS TIME I'm shooting for a full 14 day wear.  I picked up some lovely (and quite stylish I might add) rubber cleaning gloves.... I intend to wear these babies whenever I'm working with my hands.... for dishes, yardwork, etc.  I also strategically placed Konad nail art from image plate M36 on only ONE nail to see if the Rubble darkens like the Tropix darkened.  We shall see how long this manicure is going to last me.  Wouldn't that be great if I got MORE than 14 days of wear simply by making this one little change??? Hmmmmmmmm.... this might turn out to be quite an economical experiment!!!  I'll let ya know! :)

Welp.... it has been 8 days EXACTLY!!!!  CND Shellac is supposed to wear for 14 days, but for me, it only makes it to day 8.  And that is fine for me!  Honestly, NOTHING else wears that long or that beautifully... check out that shine (click on pic to enlarge)!!! So the pic above is the exact same Shellac manicure that I wore for the past 8 days.  Day one features a white Konad nail art design (Click HERE for deets).  Day four features a black Konad nail art design from image plate M70 and day 8 is shown with all nail art removed using a non-acetone nail polish remover.  There are a few things to mention: 1)  The Shellac color DID darken over 8 days.  The color variations in the pictures is not a lighting effect.  I don't know why this occurred.  My first thought was it was just because the darker nail art on day 4 was just making the color appear darker.  But once I removed all the nail art on the final day, I did notice the...

Yep.... I am in manicure HEAVEN!!!  I got my nails "Shellaced" yesterday with CND's Tropix Shellac and I LOVE IT!!!  Now I've had Shellac manicures before, but I didn't realize how WONDERFUL this product was until I grabbed my Konad nail art, messed it up, then removed the nail art entirely with non-acetone nail polish remover, reapplied the nail art and NEVER ONCE messed up the nail base Shellac color or lost an ounce of shine!!!  Honestly folks.... isn't that INCREDIBLE????  Now I do want to add for those of you who tune in here on my blog and for those who have not tried a Shellac manicure, this product does not wear the full two weeks (as advertised by the company) on me.  I typically get about 8 good days of wear with Shellac and then it peels and my edges chip a little.  But for me, THAT IS OK!!!  My nails look FABULOUS for 8 solid days and because Shellac has sort of a rubbery feel to it (being a hybrid of polish AND gel), it is very comforta...