manicure

Mani Monday: Neon Stripes and Easter Aftermath

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I love holidays, and I thought that having a holiday blog would be amazing. However, there’s a catch. A blog about holidays should have amazing pictures of holiday celebrations, and I never remember to take pictures during holiday celebrations. I’m always too busy having fun to stop and take pictures. I sometimes wonder if all the faux-celebrities on Instagram actually ever get to enjoy any of the soirées that they attend because their pictures must take a lot of time to get right.

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Jono bought me these Easter candies after Easter, which made them more delicious because they were half off. 

Here’s my short Easter weekend recap: lunch in Augusta with college friends, The Carolina Opry in Myrtle Beach, birthday party in Charleston with other college friends, and Easter celebrations. (All of these were fun-filled events, and I have nary a picture to show for them.)

On Easter, I made key lime pie for the first time ever. It is my husband’s favorite pie. I even decided to get fancy and make a delicious pecan crust. It was super easy to make, and even easier to polish off.

c/o NBC.com

c/o NBC.com

Easter Sunday also kicked off the mini-series A.D. The Bible Continues. I wasn’t excited about watching another Biblical series because they can get a little stale. However, this production is very well-made (not just tolerable). Jono and I actually look forward to watching this show every Sunday. Check it out at Sunday nights at 9:00 on NBC.

c/o NBC.com

c/o NBC.com

Also, Downton Abbey fans might enjoy seeing Kevin Doyle, AKA Mr. Molesley, as Joseph of Arimathea.

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Okay, I think we’re all caught up now. Wait, I forgot to tell you about last weekend. That can wait for another day. Let’s talk about my nails. I can’t quite get the neon colors to show up quite right. The base color is the highlighter yellow color pictured with my Easter candy. A sweet friend gave it to me. It was quite sheer, so I had to layer it over white. Unfortunately, I only have a cheap Wet n Wild white, which is quite streaky. I decided to paint stripes over it to hide the uneven color. It looks better in real life.

I hope that you had a blessed Easter.

P.S. My husband makes the best deviled eggs.

Mani Monday: Impressions of Spring

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In honor of the lovely spring weather we have been enjoying, I give you my own interpretation of blooming flowers. I was going to actually paint flowers on my nails but did not like the stark contrast of the white nail polish I had painted as the background color. I randomly decided to dot different hues of pinks, purples, and nudes on my nails and found that I enjoyed the results.

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It feels rather impressionistic, right? If only someone paid me to do my own nails. Then my life as a nail artist would be complete. <Insert dramatic sigh here.>

I have really been loving my new Butter London basecoat and topcoat. I believe I did these nails on Thursday, and I only have one chipped nail today. Usually, I would redo all of my nails when I get a bad chip, but this mani is easily fixable. I added more colors to the chipped nail, and now no one will be the wiser.

It is important to look my best tonight because we are going to a film screening, and I am hoping to meet the funny star. I’ll update you about it tomorrow.

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For now, I’ll leave you with this disturbing stuffed animal/goldfish bowl combo. It can hold your pets or your snacks! What an amazing invention.

Mani Monday: Four-Leaf Clovers on Butter

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Artsy, right?

It’s a very exciting time of year for makeup hoarders lovers of America. It’s Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty Sale. For 21 glorious days, there are special flash sales on high-end products. Last Thursday, Butter London nail polish was reduced to a mere $9. I was in a panic all that day, worrying that my store (which is always out of everything) would run out before I got there. However, they had plenty of bottles left when I arrived.

I bought Hardwear PD Quick Topcoat, which is way too long of a name for a topcoat. I really needed it because I used up my CND Speedy Topcoat on my glitter nails from last week. Hardwear usually retails for $19, so I got it for more than half off. Plus, it is 0.1 ounce larger than Speedy, which sells for $8.50. I also decided to buy a mate for my topcoat, a basecoat called Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat.

Ivy League (L), Emerald City (R)

Ivy League (L), Emerald City (R)

I honestly wasn’t expecting much because I sometimes feel like topcoats are like shampoo. You can find one that you really love, but one day it just stops working for you. However, I am really loving this combo. After my Piccadilly Green manicure flaked off, I painted my nails with cheap $3 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polish in Ivy League. This color is shimmery and semi-sheer. I then painted four-leaf clovers on my thumbs in Emerald City.

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Making a four-leaf clover isn’t that hard. First, make sure that you have a minimal amount of paint on your brush. Then make four dots in a circle on your nail. Try to make the dots kind of uneven to make the leaves look more realistic like my first attempt.

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Jono’s attempt at being artsy at the mall. The lighting is too icky for good pics there. 

My left thumb was my first attempt. I made the dots too round and close together. It looks like a schoolkid painted it for art class. The right thumb’s dots are spaced farther apart and are more free-form. This makes the clover look more natural.

My new topcoat and basecoat have really made this manicure last. This Sally Hansen nail polish usually only lasts a couple days on me. I didn’t notice any chipping until after I cleaned the bathroom today, which is day four. Four days is double my usual wear time for these greens. So far I give Butter London two green thumbs-up.

Mani Tuesday: The Wearing of the Green

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope you are all celebrating St. Paddy’s Day in style. For me, that means having a sparkly green manicure. This is not just any green glitter nail polish. It is the fairest in all the land.

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Isn’t it lovely? The color is from Nails Inc. and called Piccadilly Green. I actually thought the name was Emerald all this time because of this odd sticker on the cap. I only noticed it’s real name yesterday.

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(Why does it say “Emerald” on the cap? Did the people at Nails Inc. think that we might not be able to see what color the nail polish is? Is this a blue/black or white/gold situation?)

I’m definitely not confused about how much I love these myriads of green glitter on my nails. The glitter comes in various sizes and is full coverage. It’s everything I wished Deborah Lippman nail polish to be and with a 50% smaller price tag. Unfortunately, it only lasts one or two days. I think it’s worth it, and I wear this color every March 17 and around Christmas time (with the red version of this polish). However, I have some bad news. Nails Inc. has revamped their nail polish and no longer sells this color on their website. I bought this at Sephora a long time ago, so you might check around to see if they have any bottles still loitering on the shelves.

How did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Did you eat corned beef with boiled potatoes and cabbage? Did you call your husband “Seamus” all day? Did you get a free frozen lemonade from Chick-Fil-A? Did you watch half of an Irish film on Netflix and then not finish it so you could watch The Mindy Project?

I did.

Let me know how your day went already!

Mani Monday: The Thrill of Brazil and Lots of Hearts

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I apologize for my lack of “themeing” this month. I had many more Valentine’s Day-themed things planned, but I have been preoccupied celebrating my husband’s movie and trying to watch all of the Oscar nominees before the awards show (which did not happen).

Speaking of the Oscars, wasn’t Lady Gaga’s Sound of Music tribute well done? Lady Gaga is not only an amazing singer, but also a lady who loves a theme. Have you seen her engagement ring? It’s heart-shaped of course.

As another lady who loves a theme, I pull out my heart-patterned purse every February. I bought it for $5 from J.C. Penney when I worked there one summer break from college. This purse was in the bottom of a clearance bin, and a customer brought two over to my register in another department. When I told her how much I loved them, she hurried over to the bin and fished the last one out for me so that I could buy it on my break. Working retail was fun, but it was not that great for my savings account.

My classic red nails are The Thrill of Brazil from OPI, which was the first bottle of OPI I ever bought. I have a theory that the old nail polishes had longer lasting power due to all of the chemicals in them that were bad for the environment. I’m glad nail polish is now more eco-friendly, but sometimes I miss the good ol’ days of long wear time.

What old things do you miss? Beanie Babies? Milky pens? Ignorance of how bad processed food is? Let me know in the comments!

Mani Jami

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Recently, my old college buddy Vanessa (AKA Vee-Booty during the Big Booty cheer) sent me a sample of some Jamberry nails. A couple of days later, my old grad school friend (AKA no nickname) suggested I do a review of Jamberry nails. My friends have good timing.

I decided to spice up my Jamberry review by comparing it with other nail wraps/stickers/whatchamacallits. My sweet husband picked these Essie and Fing’rs wraps up at the Dollar Tree for me. I would love to tell you what each wrap is made of, but I cannot find any information on any of the packaging or websites of all three of these companies. It’s a mystery!

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The first picture is of my nails on Saturday after the wraps were first applied. The Fing’rs wrap is on my thumb and the Essie wrap is on my middle finger. These two wraps did not file away cleanly from the edge of my nail. The Fing’rs wrap looked especially ragged. The Jamberry nails had the shiniest finish (although the Essie wraps were purposefully made half matte as part of the design).

The second picture is of my nails as of an hour ago. The Fing’rs wrap did not last long. The Jamberry wrap on my pointer finger had a wrinkle in it when I applied it, so it went bye-bye during my extra-hot shower today. The Essie wrap is chipped away from nail edge and cuticle.

My friends say that Jamberry nails last up to two weeks for them. I am obsessed with hygiene, so my manicures never last as long as my friends’ do. However, I will say that Jamberry wraps were the best out of all the wraps I have tried. They look the best. (I have formerly used OPI x Sephora wraps. They looked like stickers but had good lasting power.)

If you are a person who does not have time for a regular manicure or believes that the manicures on Pinterest are attainable with a regular nail brush, then these Jamberry nail wraps are for you. Check out Vanessa’s website here. Also, let me know if there are any other things you would like me to try out for you.

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P.S. Did you watch the 40th Anniversary of SNL last night? Martin Short has still got it!

Mani Monday: Another Nail Fail

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This is after less than 24 hours of wear. I must admit that my Monday posts are getting to be quite embarrassing. My nails do not usually look so Lindsay Lohanesque. (P.S. Remember when LiLo made it cool to go get a chipped manicure? P.P.S. Remember LiLo? I heard her name mentioned on the radio today and was honestly surprised that she still exists.) IMG_1340
There are some glitter nail polishes that are so dense that they are made for one night wear. This one was not advertised as such, but it does have an unusual amount of glitter. I may try to wear this one without a basecoat and topcoat like a high density glitter lacquer. Unlike last week’s Deborah Lippman polish, this one actually does looks very pretty on and does not have a horrible formula.

Normally, I would’ve redone my nails after such bad chipping, but I was busy figuring out what I should do with my hair for the screening of the film Old Fashioned, which my husband co-edited. You can watch the trailer here.

Here’s my huge hair before I styled it.
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I’ll let you see the results on the big day since I haven’t figured out what to do yet.

Do you have any ideas for my hair? Do you want to style my hair for me? (Please?)

Mani Monday: $20 Nail Polish???

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Would you pay $20 for nail polish? That’s how much Deborah Lippmann glitter nail polish costs.
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As much as I obsess over nail polish, I couldn’t shell out 20 clams for half an ounce of finger paint. I almost didn’t buy this bottle that I found at T.J. Maxx because it was $6.99. However, curiosity got the best of me. I really wanted to know what made a $20 bottle of nail polish so special. Plus, this color is called “Flash Dance.”

Do you want to know what makes this bottle of nail polish so special? It’s special because the formula won’t even last a full 24 hours.
IMG_1317Isn’t that terrible? If a nail polish costs $20, it should at least last a full day’s worth of wear (and maybe wash your dishes for you).

Flash Dance has a lumpy formula and  a matte finish. It took three coats of topcoat to make it shiny enough to appreciate the different tones of glitter. This is disappointing because I really was excited for my hands to look like the 2015 New Year’s ball.
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Have you ever had a mani as bad as this one? Let me know in the comments!