The Monthly Nail Review

I got my first nail mail today and I was so EXCITED! Last month I decided that I wanted to join a mail order nail box so I looked around for one that suited me. I finally settled on The Monthly Nail for a couple of reasons.

First, they ONLY ship polishes. There is a reason this blog is named what it is; I am not a 'beauty'-ful person. I'm not into the newest skin cream or make up color. I have a drawer full of stuff I don't use already, so I didn't want to join a box that included a beauty product that would just sit on my shelf and never get used.

Second, your box is completely customizable. I opted for the premium package which allows me to get 2 big name polishes (essie or OPI) and 2 of their indie brand, Eugene Malibu. You have the option of choosing any of the current or previous essie or OPI polishes, even if they aren't listed on their website, as long as the color hasn't been discontinued. For the Eugene Malibu colors, this is where the fun comes in, and my number three reason so:

Third, YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN POLISH! I was so excited over this. You have the ability to completely customize your own polish creation. You can choose the base, the color, if you want glitter or shimmer and on and on. There's even a note box so that you can get even more specific.

Finally, the price is unbeatable. For $23.99 a month I get four polishes. I figured it up and if I had bought them retail at Wal-Mart, even, I would've paid at least $9 for each bottle, so I'm saving over $10 this way. Plus they don't charge any shipping on the box subscriptions.

So, here's what I got in the mail today:

The box wasn't anything fancy. On their website it says that the monthly subscription can be gifted and it will come in a pretty box. I'm hoping that if you request it you get gift wrap.

I ordered 2 essie polishes (blue: strut your stuff, pink: haute in the heat) and I created the two Eugene Malibu colors myself. For the first one, I asked for a clear base with purple, black and green glitter and I must say it is PACKED with glitter  (called Beloved). It's really awesome and I can't wait to use it. For the second one (swatched below) I ordered a white crelly with red and black glitter (called Black and White and Red All Over).

Another cool option is that you get to name your creations. So on the bottom of my two custom bottles is a stick with MY polish name.

Now, onto the review of the actual polish. I used the white one and I really do love it. The formula was very smooth, and for a white crelly it covered pretty well. I have three coats on in the photo, but I could've gotten along with just two. It dried pretty quickly and there wasn't any streaking when adding the additional coats. The glitter wasn't as packed in this one as the purple, but it was still easy to get a good amount on my nails.

The red is a Shany polish that I've had for a while. It doesn't have a name (sorry). What do you think?

My only complaint so far with The Monthly Nail is that their website hasn't been updated since may and it doesn't look terribly professional. I was worried that it might be a two-bit run operation, but I'm very pleased with the actual product. Can't wait to get my email to customize September's box!

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Polka Dot & Zebra Print Nail art

Today was our big outing with the Cub Scouts. As the Den Leader for a pack of 8 year old boys, the planning and execution wore me out. Unfortunately, 0400 this morning found me wide awake going over every last detail to make sure the event went off without a hitch (which it did, if you were wondering). I played on Facebook and surfed Instagram trying to get back to sleep with no avail. I finally gave up and decided to peruse YouTube for nail art. It never fails to relax me. While I was looking around at random doticures and gradients, I came across this video from Selina's Nail Art and I KNEW that I had to recreate
this look.

Orange & Black Polka Dots with Zebra Print

I am not a pink kind of girl, but I have an Orly polish that I love and I knew immediately it would go great with this look. What do you think? I am quite proud of how it turned out. I have never used the striping polish until tonight and was actually rather nervous that I would screw it up terribly. Lucky for me the zebra stripes are much easier than they look!


Below is a list of everything I used, in order from start to finish.

• Sally Hansen Hard As Wraps
• I really love this as a base coat. It feels (and smells) like a thinned down acrylic liquid and functions similarly. Once applied and let to dry it gives my nails a very strong base for which to apply other layers. I have noticed a HUGE decrease in broken nails since I started using it, and it has become almost impossible to bend my nails like they used to do.
   
• Orly Bonder Rubberized Base
• I have heard mixed reviews on this one, but I swear by it. It looks orange in the bottle but I haven't noticed any skewing of the polish colors because of it. It goes on and dries to a clear, tacky surface. It never feels completely dry because of the rubbery texture. I use it, along with Hard as Wraps religiously under every manicure and I have gone from chipped nails the day after my manicure to wearing the same polish for four or five days without touch up. The last mani I did (here, with the broken nail) lasted five days.
• Shany (white, no name)
  
• Orly Goth
• This is a really pretty black shimmer in the bottle, but once applied to the nail it loses much of the glittery look it has in the bottle. Also, even though it's black, it still takes 2 coats to cover without streaking. Even though it loses some of its shimmer, I still love this polish and would gladly recommend it to anyone who wants to try black but is scared of the flat black that is so common.
  
• Orly Melt My Popsicle
• I can't say enough about this one. It is probably in my top five favorite polishes right now. The picture doesn't do it justice (I'm still struggling to get a good photo set up). It is a very bright neon orange, reminescent of the construction cones you see on the highway. It goes on very smooth, and as you can see over the black nail, its pretty opaque on the first go.
  
• Stiping Polish (black)
  
• Seche Vite
• I put a coat of SV over the base coat before adding the dots, and then again once the dots had dried. On the zebra nail, I also added a layer over the gradient to protect it in case I messed up the zebra pattern. It was then coated with a final layer.
  
• Pure Acetone (for cleanup)
  
• Essie Apricot cuticle oil (after any completed manicure, I always make sure to massage cuticle oil into the entire 'U' of my nail bed. The acetone tends to dry my skin out and I am terribly prone to dry and cracked cuticles so this step is mandatory.

That's it! What do you think?

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Repairing a broken nail

So, I would imagine this is something that plagues us all - a broken nail. That's what this post is about - repairing the break. This is a trick I learned back in my days training to be a nail tech and it's proved its usefulness again and again.

This week I kept my manicure simple; just polish, no art. If you don't already know, my mom duties including being a Cub Scout Den Leader for my son's pack. This week we did bike safety and I brought the mini's bike to our meeting. Somehow during the load and unload of his bike I managed to rip my nail almost half-way off. My son thought I was crazy to be upset about it (!!!) but instead of cutting it off, I decided to repair it.

Broken thumb nail (black spot is some glitter I missed)

The first task was to take the polish off my nail. As you can see, there's a tiny black glitter left, but it managed to get into the break and I didn't want to damage the nail any more by digging it out, so I left it there.

I use cotton cosmetic pads (from Ulta) to remove my polish, so I tore a tiny piece off the top layer off to give me a faux-wrap.

Cotton pulled from a cosmetic pad

Then, using nail glue, the kind that comes with acrylic nail kits (Superglue works, too), I glued the cotton down to my nail, making sure to cover the break completely.

Patch in place

 After the cotton had dried completely I added another layer over my entire nail. This step is option and for cosmetic purposes only. If you end the cotton application here, your nail will have a very pronounced bump where the patch is. NOTE: It's important to not just apply glue to the nail, but to apply it over the cotton once its adhered. This will form a barrier like an acrylic nail that will protect the fibers of cotton from being filed down in the next step.

After letting the whole nail dry completely, I trimmed off the excess cotton from around the edges of my nail and buffed it with a filing block.

Finished patch

As you can see, I covered my entire nail and then buffed it smooth. It won't look good naked, but once covered with polish only a very close inspection will show the patch.

Repaired and polished

And finally, the completed manicure! I got a mini polish from Sally Beauty Supply. It's their Sally Girl brand but the girl at the counter said they don't sell it in full sized bottles and I couldn't find a name on it anywhere.

Although I love the color, the pale blue and tiny black glitters, the formula was very inconsistent. It was thick, but didn't cover well and I had to let one drop dry completely before applying the next coat or it would streak badly. I used Orly Bonder Rubberized Base Coat and Seche Vite as a top coat over 3 layers of polish.

What do you for a broken nail? Do you clip it off or try to repair it?

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Inspiration is everywhere

So, if you're anything like me, the more you do art, whether on your nails or on a canvas, you begin to see inspiration everywhere. Everyday patterns begin to 'pop' at you; colors seem to blend together or contrast more than normal. It's an amazing experience when you can look out across the world and your mind translates that beauty into something creative in your mind.

This is how I got the inspiration to do this weeks mani. I found this really pretty comforter set in JC Penney (I think) and the colors just spoke to me. So, this week, here's the pattern I tried to recreate:

So, here's the result. I know the photos are horrible; I am still trying to get my whole photo set up established. It's incredibly difficult to get a good shot; I think I'm going to end up setting up a light box. But until then, just know that this isn't meant as a true representation of the polish color, but an example of the pattern.

Supplies used:

• Orly Bonder Rubberized Base Coat
• China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint (3 coats)
• Orly Prince Charming (2 coats plus the stamping)
• Pueen stamp 73. Its one of the round discs, from the 2014 collection, I believe
• Seche Vite top coat

So what do you think? Where have you gleaned inspiration?

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Polish Review - China Glaze, SinfulColors

As promised, here's my first polish review!

The colors I used for the manicure in my last post (here) are probably my two favorites right now. The first, the main red, is China Glaze Rose Among Thorns. I love the way it looks. It's a sheer color and took 3 coats to get the polish opaque enough that I couldn't see my natural nail through it, but the consistency is great, no streaking.

On top of the red, I added SinfulColors Pinky Glitter. It, too, takes about 3 coats to become opaque, but even then you can still see a shadow of my natural nail. I love this polish. I'm not typically a pink kinda of girl, but this one is just too pretty not to love. The flecks of glitter are slightly holographic and the polish base does a really good job of showing it off. In natural sunlight it shimmers like crazy. On this mani, I only added one coat on top of the China Glaze, simply to give it a shine and I am really happy with the way it turned out.

I used Seche Vite as a top coat. I love SV, I really do, but its big drawback is apparent with this mani and the reason I'm not 100% happy with it. SV is bad about shrinking cheaper polishes. Even though I wrapped the end of my nail, it still shrunk pretty bad, as you can see. As far as I know, SV can't be beat for top coat shine and fast drying so I'm sticking with it for now.

Let me know what you think! Do you have a top coat that doesn't shrink? Do you have a trick to preventing it?

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Phantom polish troll?

Ok, so I don't know how this happened. I swear to you that my whole was painted last night when I went to bed.

When I got up this morning, I went to pee (TMI, I'm sure) and noticed that my hand looked funny. In the hazy confusion of early morning and it was still kinda dark, I didn't think anything else about it. But when I got out of the shower, and put my glasses on, this is what I found.

I don't understand it! How does my polish disappear from one finger while I'm sleeping?

My only thought is that I scratched it off while I was dreaming. It's still really weird. I've been distracted about it all morning and keep stopping what I'm working on to look at it and ponder. Its absolutely freaky. And the other hand is just fine. I'm so confused.

My husband's theory is that this is my punishment for spending too much money on nail polish. I think there is a nail polish troll out there and he nommed on my finger while I slept.

Have you guys ever had anything weird happen to your nails? What's your theory? Nail troll or is karma punishing me?

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Don't peel your nail polish off...

I know that you know this. I know this. Yet today, my not-so-wonderful manicure (here) started to lift around the edges while I'm stuck at work. What's a girl to do? I can't help myself! I ended up peeling my polish off and then using the emery board that I keep on my desk to get the remnants off of my nails. The result? My nails peeled and are really, super dry. I don't have anything else at work for nail care, but I put some Burt's Bees Nourishing Lip Balm around my cuticles and massaged it in. It really helped!

I went home at lunch and put a base coat (Sally Hansen Hard as Nails) while I downed a bowl of soup. But now I am nit-picking them like crazy cause I can see every little flaw and ridge. On the up side, now the prep is done and I will HAVE to paint them tonight after Cub Scouts. I'm thinking Day 1 of the 31 Day Challenge and going with a nice, classic red. We'll see!


What do you do in a nail emergency? Do you keep supplies with you on the go?

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31 Day Challenge

So, along this journey, I want to enter some 'challenges'. In case you haven't found one of these addicting games, they consist of themes and, generally, time limits to complete a mani with that theme and post it. Most of the time others are completing the challenge, as well, but its mostly for fun - no prizes, just experience. I have found the 31 Day Challenge and am going to strive to complete it. I'm not making any promises that I'm going to do it in a month, simply because my life is too hectic to redo my nails everyday. Also, I think the official time frame has already passed, so I'm doing it simply for my own learning. There are some items on here that are way out of my comfort zone (animal prints!) so the only way I'll likely ever do them is for something like this. So here, is the list. I'll reference this post when I complete one.

If you'd like to check out other entries, try these:

• Nail Art 101 (where I found it)
• Chalkboard Nails
• The Nailasaurus
• Let Them Have Polish

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No longer on hiatus

I am so sorry I've been gone for so long. Real life has interrupted my blogging capability (and my nails were crappy after the acrylics came off).

So, I've been reading up on blogging, nail blogging specifically, and I'm going to sincerely try to be here at least a couple of times a week, even if its only to post my latest manicure. I've got a few new products I'm excited to share and some things in the works that I plan to review.

Don't leave me yet! I may be slow, but I have potential!
 
And one last thing to leave you with - my current mani. It's not the greatest, and I'll review the polishes used in the next, but at least it's pretty!

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