Category: Uncategorized

Nail growing project: after 4 weeks

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A month has passed since I started my nail growing project. The tear on the thumbnail has now grown out and and the index fingernail finally grows healthier and doesn’t peel and break constantly. There’s still some acrylic damaged part left and some green spots that the green glitter acrylic dyed on the surface of my nails. For some reason my right hand nails were and still are in a better condition than my left hand nails so I’m using the left hand for the photos on this project. The right hand nails can be seen on the polish swatch photos.

I think that the green parts are gonna grow out during the next two weeks and there will be very little of the damaged part left. I hope I can soon start growing more lenght on my nails too.

To help my nails grow healthy and strong I’m still taking Biotin pills and using a lot of lotion and oils on my hands and nails. I keep my nails polished all the time cos that protects my nails and makes them stronger.

I still want to say this again.. acrylic nails don’t do that much damage to your natural nails if you remove then correctly, not as I did ;) My nails are naturally very thin and removing all the acrylic at once wasn’t very good for them.

 


Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine Nail Color – Glow

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Once again, green :D Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine shade Glow lives up to it’s name. This one truly glows! Amazingly beautiful light green polish with a lot of gold shimmer. Pretty, pretty, pretty!! This also stayed on my nails without chipping.

Glow is thin and quite well pigmented. Two coats was enough for my nails. SH Lacquer Shine polishes have a thin and long brush but even with that this polish was easy to apply.

In this mani I used: OPI Nail Envy Soft & Thin x1, Glow x2 and Seche Vite.

 

Nail growing project: new products

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I have bought a few new products to help me with my nail growing project. Everything is going well at the moment. My nails are growing quite fast and not peeling at all. I still can’t grow lenght until all the acrylic damaged part has grown out. I’ll take another photo of my nails next sunday so you guys can see how the project is going.

First new product I have is green Depend nail polish remover. You can buy this at least from the Kicks stores in Sweden, Norway and Finland. It’s marketed as enviroment friendly option. It leaves your nails and cuticles feeling oiled and moisturized. It works a little slower than the acetone free Maybelline remover I normally use. The scent on this is also very mild compared to the usual nail polish removers. For my nails and cuticles this is surely the most sensitive polish remover I have ever used.

I also bought Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme. I love how well this product works and after just few days my cuticles are softer and look much better. I will definately buy some more of this from my trip to USA in august. I rub this to my cuticles every morning and every night. This is a very rich feeling cream that absorbs to my skin quite fast. I also rub this all over my nails after I remove the nail polish. The lemon scent is quite strong but it disappears from your skin fast enough.

During the day I use Cesars Secrets Cuticle Oil to keep my cuticles nice and moisturized. This product has a brush and it’s easy to apply. My cuticles get so dry so easily that I need to use something on them a few times a day. I apply a very small amount of this oil on my cuticles. Using the brush means I don’t have to mess up my fingertips with oil and this goes into my cuticles so fast I can use it in a hurry too.

Next I’m going to buy the Creative SolarOil and Cuticle Eraser. I’ve also been hearing a lot of good things about NailTek Foundation I ridge-filling strengthener basecoat. I’m still looking for new product to help grow and maintain healthy and beautiful nails. I’ll be happy to look into any suggestions you guys might have :)

 

Random gel-nails again

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Here’s a photo of gel-nails I did for my customer last week. Just though I’d share it with you guys :)

 

First Konading

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I bought my first Konad stuff quite a while ago and they have been collecting dust ever since. Now I got this little Konad set as a gift and I decided to try it out. There’s only two patterns on that plate and they are small enough for first time Konading. The set also included a stamp with a little white Konad nail polish bottle and a small scraper.

So… last night I got an inspiration to give this thing a try and I used it on top of Color Club Flair mani on yesterdays’s post. Using the Konad was surprisingly easy with those small patterns. I know they are all over the place but I’m happy with them since it was my first try. The little finger looks different on purpose.

I got a little Konad fever now and I think I’m gonna order some plates with small patterns and some more polishes next ;)

 

Nice camera reflection on the Konad plate ;) 

Nail growing project: first two weeks

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Here I am, first two weeks in to my nail growing project and I can already see some results. Tear on the thumb nail is now much smaller and I’m hoping that it’ll grow out completely during the next two weeks. The nail on my ring finger broke and is now really short. I had a little accident when I was a kid and they had to stitch back the fingertip and now it looks totally different than my other fingers.

My nails are still short, of course, but the healthy part is now closer to the nail line. Though at work I have scratched the nails on my index and middle fingers with a sandpaper file for a few times now (I really need to learn to use gloves). I don’t think I did a big damage to those nails yet.

My cuticles are also starting to look a little better and less dry. I’ve been oiling and moisturizing them every day now. I’ve also used cocoa and shea butter to oil my hands every night. I bought new nail polish remover from Kicks (green bottle of Depend nail polish remover) and it’s supposed to be real gentle to my nails and cuticles.

Next I need to order some new products. I have read a lot of good reviews about Creative SolarOil and Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. Those two are on the top of my shoppinglist.

From nail magazines I’ve also read about Duri Rejuvacote nail strengthener. Does anyone have any personal experience on this product?

 

 

I luv green :D

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his has been a great nail polish week for me. Look at all the pretty polishes I got and not so pretty but friggin awesome ManGlazes ;D and I’m so happy to get more polishes to my green collection.

As if my week wasn’t already pretty green I saw these blog posts Scrangie and All Lacquered Up. NUBAR GOING GREEN!! OMG!! I’m so excited about these! Whole collection of greens. That’s a dream come true for me!!

I also have to mention this about ManGlaze. I placed my first order on saturday and the polishes arrived the following thursday. How’s that for fast shipping from USA to Finland!! Great service guys :) I added the link to their store on the right side of the page. Now if only ManGlaze would create a dark, dirty green matte polish and I would love them forever :P

 

I got my new polishes out in the balcony and ready to be photographed. Then I went to get a camera and in the meanwhile this hairy little thing had covered my polish bottles ;)

From the left: IsaDora – Lime, China Glaze – Entourage, Sally Hansen – Glow, Sally Hansen – Emerald City, Illamasqua – Rampage.

From the left: ManGlaze – Fuggen Ugly, ManGlaze – The Death Tar, Color Club – Fast Woman.

 

Nail growing project: the beginning

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So here begins my nail growing project. I just removed my acrylic nails a while ago and now the condition of my nails really isn’t the best possible. My nails are naturally soft, thin, peeling and they break really easily. Now they are even thinner and softer than usual. So growing and maintaining long nails is not the easiest job with my nail quality but it’s not impossible either. This project will take time and patience plus very good products and care. My hands and cuticles also dry very easy so good moisturizing products are much needed.

My job also brings a challenge to my growing project. Using disinfecting solution and sandpaper nailfiles almost daily with some acrylic dust landing on my hands and nails all the time can dry my skin up real bad. And yes, I know there are gloves I can wear but I just haven’t learn to work with gloves on, at least not yet.

In the first picture you can see what lousy condition my nails are at the moment. I have to file off the lenght few times a week cos the paper-thin nails tear real easily. I also have nasty tear on my thumbnail that I’m trying grow out but now it looks like it’s gonna tear more vertically.

The products that I’m using now are in the second picture. Of course I use lotion every day (Erisan is a Finnish brand) and I rub jojoba oil on my cuticles every night. I use the OPI Scrub and OPI Cuticle Treatment every time I change my nail polish, which is every 2 to 3 days. I push back the cuticles and file my nails. As a base coat I use two coats of OPI Natural Nail Strenghtener (=OPI NNS in the future postings cos that is just too damn long to type ;) ). I’ll try and have polish on my nails all the time cos that just makes them a little more durable.

So here I am, on the path towards long and healthy nails. I’m very open to product recommendations, tips and advices. I also hope this project will come in use for other people who try to grow their nails long and beautiful.

 

How’s everyone doing?

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It’s been quite a while again since I last posted something. Life is still quite busy but I really want to start writing more on my blog too. I haven’t had time to take very good care of my nails and they aren’t too pretty for swatching and photographing purposes at the moment. I removed my acrylic nails and I’m going to try and grow my own natural nails healthy looking and long again. I’ll be taking pictures and writing about this process here in my blog. I hope to find new treatments and products to help my nails grow nice and strong. I also wish that writing about this painfully long process might help my readers that have problems getting their nails to grow long too.

I’ll also post some photos of gel and acrylic nails that I have done for my customers. Here I have a photo of gel nails I did a couple of days ago. Again I’d like to remind everyone that I’m a beginner at this nail stuff and my work is still far from perfect ;)

 

 

Long time no see…

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I’m so sorry for the blog silence I’ve been having lately. I’m going through big changes in my life (all good, nothing bad) and I’m so busy I have hardly any free time. Things are gonna calm down a bit in a near future so I believe I can also get my blog posting back on track :)

Here’s a random image of acrylic nails. I was practising using glitter powder. In the future my blog will most likely also have postings about acrylic and gel nails.