I am SO SORRY! As many of you know I have a Spinal Cord Injury and Connective tissue disease so I am often under the weather and even typing or staring at a white computer screen is painful.
SO if I am gone for a while without blogging, I apologize!
I have lately been rocking the French Manicure almost exclusively. But here are my Best buys of 2010.
My Manicures have been the following changed every three days:
Base: Instant Artificials by Salon Sciences available at Sally Beauty Supply.
Note: This is by far one of the BEST strengthening, quick drying, and non peeling bases for my thin, ridge riddled, peel prone nails. I use only one coat (it gets thick at the bottom of the bottle) and it provides a great base layer and my nails have gotten less stained from nail enamel.
Anchoring layer: CND Stickey By Creative Nail Design.
Note: I have tried Sally, Orly, Borghese, OPI, and other "Bonding/Anchoring" bases and found this one not only actually works the best but it doesn't get thick and difficult to use when you get to the dregs of the bottle. I have had one bottle and used it for 7 months and change my nail color FREQUENTLY and still have 1/8 bottle left. It is GREAT.
Top Coat: INM Out the Door Fast dry Top Coat. Available from Sally Beauty Supply.
Note: I tried Poshe, Seche Vite, Sally Mega Shine, Sally Insta-dry,and Opi RapiDry Top Coat and Borghese Presto. But I found that even though they dried fast the shrinkage was majorly ticking me off and tip wear was TERRIBLE! Plus the price was almost double that of a single small bottle of INM Out the door. I even went so far as to try Nubar Diamont Seal and Shine my friend had and was not impressed enough to pay the same amount of money for a .5 oz bottle when I could get a 2.5 oz bottle of INM for the same price.
Note: Sally French Tip Manicure Pen I have shakey hands. I tried to do my tips with an off white french manicure color by Orly but needed three passes and 5 minutes drying time. I am not that patient, nor do I have that steady of hands. So when I saw this I thought "Eureka!" I patiently tried it out and it works out great! One caveat I do have to mention is that unless you layer a a few coats of top coat on your tips you will have to do touch ups in 2 days because this white does chip unless you use a stickey base coat.
I actually change my nail color every three days anyways to clean, file and inspect my fingers (I am strange) but to the people who want 10 days of coverage be ready to use a stickey base, a good top coat and do touch ups and seal your edges well.
Still for 6 dollars and I have used mine for almost 7 months, its great.
Best Staying power colors of 2010:
I was expecting that when I got my expensive OPI, MAC, and Nicole polishes that I would be blown away by their staying power. I was expecting that because cheap polishes like Maybeline, Revlon, and a few 1.99 Sally polishes has given me some terrible chipped, blotchy manicures.
So imagine my surprise when I found The best polishes in application, drying time, coverage turned out not to be the pricey brands!
LA Colors Color Craze: These polishes are Big 3 free and I found them by accident in a dollar store. I got the bright polishes and took them home. They are the smoothest application, quick drying, longest wearing and brightest colors. I looked online to check out non dollar store prices and they are still only around 3-4 bucks a bottle! I was Seriously surprised and pleased by these. So much that I ended up buying and sending bottles of polish to friends in California, Texas, and Canada.
Misa Nail Lacquer: This is a polish that my friend the nail tech who goes "Ghost hunting" and "product shopping" with me swears by. He is the one who told me if he saw me using Sinful Colors again he was going to cut of my thumbs (He says they turn your nails yellow) Misa is Big three free, huge is Korea, and the laquer is a 2 polish full coverage beauty that comes in a huge array of colors and cost about 5 bucks a pop. It is Super long wearing (I wore red on my hands while making two birthday cakes and cupcakes and went to a party that evening didn't have a chip for two more days). Have to give it props. It can be a little wonky finding all its colors, a lot of nail salons have it and will sell bottles of color, but you have to ask, and also they will let you try it out on a piece of paper, but I bring a plastic nail wheel.
And my final favorite manicure aids for 2010?
Hydrogen peroxide and a q-tip for whitening your natural nail tips.
Sugar and warm water for a natural hand scrub.
Eucerin Healing Ointment on cuticles (Hands and feet knuckles) at night (I use it on my lips and eyelids too)
Hope that this update finds you all in the holidaze spirit.
XOXO
KJ
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