De-Glitterize

I mentioned here that removing glitter nail polish was not exactly the best part of my fun, sparkly manicure. After some good ol' fashioned web research, the consensus is (drumroll, please...) :

Step 1: Saturate cotton with acetone or polish remover (a remover with acetone works best).
Step 2: Place the cotton on the nail and wrap each finger in aluminum foil. Press down.
Step 3: Leave on for 5 minutes.
Step 4: Pull the foil off and your glitter polish will glide off, too!

The above text was snaked directly from the Refinery29 website, which is a great beauty site that tends to always offer the best summations of info. So there you have it - A little time consuming with the 5 minute wait time, but I say wrap 'em all at once, and it will be nearly time to take them off again by the time you finish the prep work on the 10th digit.

Better than taking a granite sander to your fingers, anyway.

Image courtesy of favim.com

Sparkle & Shine... Some More.

Another ...Love, Maegan inspiration - The accent nail!

Because let me tell you : Scrubbing off glitter polish from every nail made me want to just drink the polish remover and hope for a quick demise. I'll be working on researching a better method and if I find one will be posting it here pronto!

Anyway, using the same two colors from the previous post, here's what my digits look like now :

 

I gave my ring finger on my right hand the same treatment. Fun and subtle, and definately not tough to execute. Winner!

Check out Maegan's original post about rockin' an accent nail here.

Sparkle and Shine

Don't know about you, but I seem to have a hard time not being attracted to anything coated in glitter during the holidays. So you can see why when I saw ...love Maegan's Maegan Tintari take on a neutral nail with a hint of sparkle I had to try my own hand (haaaaaa.) at it.

Glitters-but-not-too-much and goes with everything? Yes. You can see her tutorial here.
 For my own digits, I used Revlon's Sheer Cotton :

Image courtesy of tinroofnails.com

  ...And a swipe of Sally Hansen's new Gem Crush line in the color Big Money :

Image courtesy of AlisNailNews.blogspot.com

Those colors together along with Maegan's single-swipe idea turned out looking like this on my hand :

Excuse the Instagr.am quality, but you get the idea. I'm thrilled with the outcome. The glitter is uber-durable, and a chip in nude nail polish isn't very noticeable, which combined are making my life easier.
Grab the Revlon Sheer Cotton here (on sale for $3.99) or at your local drugstore for around $6. Pick up the Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Big Money (or any of the other DELICIOUS colors) in person only at this point - Not available anywhere online that I can find including the Sally Hansen website, which is currently down. Regardless, I think it will run you right around $6 too.
I plan on quite a few more spin-offs of this mani in my future... Stay tuned.

Color Run Of Gem Crush Line ('Big Money' 3rd from left)

Image courtesy of AlisNailNews.com

Mani-cure

Trouble making your at home mani-pedi look pro? Check out this step-by-step image via one of my all time fave blogs ...love Maegan

I find it handy even without reading the text, but Maegan has a larger copy on her site, along with some dreamy nail art inspiration shots. Dig in.

Making My Own Sunshine

In my corner of the world, Old Man Winter will just not unclench his miserable, waterlogged grasp. As of this May 13th, I could see my breath as I walked into work swathed in my fleece and pashmina. Unacceptable!

 Image courtesy of IndependentTraveler.com

So what's the remedy? Well, as jetting off to some island locale is off the table at the moment, I'll settle for sunny, flashy nails.

 I recently discovered Savina nail polish at Nordstrom Rack, and it - Like Mary Poppins herself - is practically perfect in every way. I picked up "Golden", and the perfect metallic that is coating my digits right now is almost as good as seeing a break in the clouds.

Almost.

Image courtesy of VeganGoods.com

 But to boost my morale, Savina also ticks these must-haves off the list:
*Has the ever-coveted perfect application brush (only a couple swipes to evenly coat the entire nail)
*Only two coats necessary, and a quick dry time on the first.
*Earth (& human) friendly formaldehyde and toluene-free formula (say that five times fast.)
*Under $4/bottle for almost 100 colors on VeganGoods.com

Now if only Mother Nature would catch up to my sunny mood.

Follow-Up (5/19/2010): Although this note will force me to come clean on a bad habit, this nail polish (paired with OPI's Chip Skip and Wet n' Wild topcoat) was a dreamy peeler - Came off in sheets when my picking fingers got to it. What fun!

Midas Touch

I love yellow.

It's a tough color to wear, but get it goin' in the right accessory and you're, well, golden. My current choices: A crinkly summer-weight pashmina-style scarf from one of the best gift-givers I know (MBM, this means you!), and my manicure.

Image courtesy of Walgreens.com

Not surprisingly from Sinful Colors Professional, this one has the catchy lil' title of "Let's Meet". We did, and rather than being the day-glo banana it appears to be, it went on a sheer, semi-shimmery deep gold. After two coats, here's what I came out with:

It's thisclose to blending in with my fingers, but has just enough of a orange-y base and shimmer to stand alone without overpowering.

New fave!

Anchors Aweigh

For my mani/pedi's, base coat is even more important than that pretty gloss of topcoat.

My favorite: O.P.I. Chip Skip

Image courtesy of Buy.com

It's rough to shell out the $9 for a bottle of what looks like water, but it will last ages, and it really does extend the life of those at-home spa treatments.

Here's how it works: The formula acts as kind of a primer rather than traditional base coat. It leaves a bit of a whitish, dry looking residue after just a second or two. Chip Skip comes in the same form of bottle-and-brush as traditional polish, and with a couple swipes over each nail, you're ready for paint.

I picked mine up at Walgreen's around 2 years ago (told ya it lasts!), but any retailer who carries O.P.I. will most likely have it.

Keep the chips in the bag, not on your nails.

Color Your World

Nail polish runs the gamut from the chippy $1 check-out line variety, to the - I am not kidding - $55,000 per bottle made-with-platinum-dust sort. I try to keep it somewhere in between, and a little more towards the former.

Since nail color is a notoriously flighty trend, I tend to not want to invest too much. And plus, who among us has ever truly used up an entire bottle? If this rings true for you, I've got your brand.

Sinful Colors Professional.

Available at every Walgreen's around the country for $1.99 a pop, these full-sized bottles have a decent brush, and with a little topcoat, your pedicure will make it through a couple weeks at least. My current fave for my summer tootsies: Mint Apple.

Image courtesy of Walgreens.com

A drastic change from my tried-and-true terra cotta toe hue, this color gives a nod to the blue family with just enough of a white base to keep me looking tan.

The Sinful Colors branch of the Mirage Cosmetics line was launched in 1996, giving the company ample time to perfect it's formula and develop it's 300+ colors. From glitter to metallic, midnight blue to ballet slipper pink, they've got'cha lacquered. 

At two bucks a pop, I may just try 'em all.