Nail Art: Parabola

Another Tool inspired manicure. This time by the songs Parabol and Parabola :D

It kinda looks like shooting stars... lol Sorry for the crappy photos, it's really hard to capture chrome/holo/silver all at the same time while the sun is setting :)

For this bundle of joy I used:

1. Two coats of OPI Black Onyx.

2. Used Devotion with a Konad tip design (will find out which when I get back home)

3. Used OPI's DS Shimmer over three quarters of the tip. I was going to use Sexagon instead but I tried both over blakc and Sexagon is much more dense.

4. Stamped little umbrellas on the right side of each nail. I was a little unhappy with some of the results as you could totally see that it was an umbrella... so...

5. Used that lovely swirly design right on the edge of my nails, covering the spikes of the umbrella!

6. Applied little stars with some top coat, then applied top coat over the whole nail n_n

And here is the awesome video of Parabola, the song doesn't start until 1:05 :D 

OPI Be Mine, You're Fine! Over Don't Think, Just Pink!

I finally used Be Mine, You're Fine! n_n

This is just one coat over Don't Think, Just Pink.

Now the trick to getting the hearts out of the bottle... You can do it my way or the toothpick way :D

My way: Stick the brush in and pull it out ASAP!! Don't give those pink beasts a chance to let go! Once you get the desired amount of hearts, apply to your nail n_n Simple.

Toothpick way: Grab a few toothpicks, stick them in the bottle, fish for some hearts and Bob's your uncle.

After using this polish I decided, I need the red version. 

Here is where I have bought the Glitters from: All Polished Up on eBay. She is a very nice lady and extremely helpful! She packaged mine and mums polishes up excellently and even threw in a few freebies! They are selling out fast and are limited Juicers! n_n

400th POST!!!

So you want beautiful/rock hard/never seem to break when you bend them by accident nails?!

If so, please carry on reading. If no, what the heck are you doing here?!

TREATMENT/BASE COAT:

Ok so it took my nails from being in their bitten for 17 years state to good/hard nails a good year and then they just keep getting better. I started off using Sally Hansen nail care products, this was because they were extremely cheap in Australia and they promised miracles. 

Now these miracles only happened when I actually wore the treatment. I don't want this, I want rock hard/healthy nails even when they're naked! D:<>

My nails always broke or split on the sides where my tiny nail had just started to grow a tip. I was very proud when I had little white tips, even if my nails were in the most horrendous state you had ever seen. So I was very distraught when they kept breaking at the sides, which caused me to bite them off... which led to gnawing them down again and I would be very un-happy with myself.

So I set out for my favourite nail polish company's treatment system. This was OPI's Nail Envy. No matter how many times I tried to persuade mum in the chemist, she wouldn't let me buy it at it's $40 price tag. If only I had known about the e-tailers then...

So I stopped using Sally Hansen's Growth Miracle Cure and moved on to Diamond Strength I think it was... This made my nails super hard, but of course only when I was wearing it. But this time, I was hard on myself, I always tried to keep concious about putting my hand near my mouth. I did this when I was bored/nervous or busy at school work. When my hand slowly krept up to my mouth I would stop, look at it and tell myself in my head "I want beautiful long nails like Danielle (my sister)". 

So a few months after this and when little tips began to arise I was extremly happy with myself and luckily found the etailers at this stage, I think it was 8ty8. I bought Original Nail Envy and used it religiously. Nail Envy made my nails hard when they were painted and naked, I was very happy :D But beware: NAIL ENVY YELLOWS, my nails are still yellow from it.

So now I was growing tired of Nail Envy because of it's yellowing skills. Then I moved on to OPI's Maintenance, which is for nails that are already strong and you just need to keep them like that, they don't really need any miracles at this point :)

Ok Maintenance is working great, my nails are keeping their strength but they were now peeling at the 'moons' or near the cuticle. Now I am at the stage where I have found my holy grail treatment. Nailtek's Citra 3 for Dry and Brittle nails. It has stopped the peeling, isn't yellowing, my nails are super strong and healthy and it doesn't contain Formaldehyde! It also makes the nail polishes glide on really smoothly and doesn't chip straight away.

CUTICLE CARE:

Alrighty, so another thing that really bothered me was all the peeling skin around my cuticles. These annoyed me so I usually bit them off which caused more to peel and then bite my nails. UGH! So while in Australia, I bought Sally Hansen's Cuticle Exfoliator. This was really good at getting rid of all the little bits of skin but I could only do it once a week.

I got bored of that and stopped using it as I wasn't seeing a long term result. So me and mum decided to try CND Cuticle Eraser that was raved about on MakeUp Alley. 

WOAH it works! I haven't had my cuticles grow out since I have being using it or peely/broken cuticles! Excellent stuff, mum is so impressed she has bought tubes and tubes of it.

Next up, CND's Rejuvenator. This stuff is also a tru miracle worker. A little different to CE as it is more moisterising and hydrating compared to exfoliating. So I use Cuticle Eraser in the morning and Rejuvenator just before I go to bed or whenever my cuticles are feeling dry or irritated.

FILING:

Throw away those crappy emery boards and buy a glass/crystal file. Why do I say glass/crystal like that? Because they are pretty much the same thing :)

I own a random one brought from Farmers. Not OPI, Essie or anything. These babies are wonderful. They soften the edges of your nails when you file them so you are least likely to have your nails splitting and your nail layers splitting. They also get the job done much quicker than an emery board.

Ok so you have the right file... now what shape?!

Some people might say "follow the shape of your cuticle" or "just file it straight across so they look fake". We don't really want the second one... and the first one, your nails would all be different shapes. Bleh. 

I personally file mine square. So I file them straight across, going from both sides. I don't stick to the "only file in one direction" rule, I honestly have not found a difference other than it being easier and quicker to do it going from both directions. 

So after filing across, I gently round the corners. Not a lot, just enough to soften the harsh square corner. You don't want your nails looking like fakies do you? :D

TOP COAT:

I have tried Sally Hansen, OPI, Zoya, Nailtek, Nailtek Hydration, Seche, Poshe and god knows what else.

I have found that OPI is best for lemming wheels and things like that, also good for manicures if you can wait a day or two for it to dry :D and that Poshe is the best fast-dry top coat. I felt that Seche's bottle/brush design was crap. The brush is tiny and hardly reaches the bottom. Poshe has a nice wide brush and thick formula which is great for protecting your polish.

That my dear Juicer, was the story and experience of finding my way to how I care for my nails now n_n

Here is a quick list of what products I use religiously:

Treatment/Base coat: Nailtek Citra 3 for Dry and Brittle nails.

Topcoat: Poshe Fast Drying

Cuticles: CND Cuticle Eraser, CND Rejuvenator, Home brew that mum made for us all.

Hope this all makes sense :D If you have questions, ask away!

OPI Don't Think, Just Pink!

Oh boy... A barbie pink that I can wear!! :D

Don't Think, Just Pink! made me so happy to see that it was a wearable barbie pink. I think this is because it is more blue toned than ChG Pink Underground and Mom's Chiffon.

This is just two coats here. It applied the nicest out of all 3 Ulta Valentine pinks. It is slightly jelly-ish, but that disappears with the thicker you apply it and how many coats. I limited myself to two because I don't want it to run out! n_n

I think I may wear this for my 18th... who knows! :D

Wait til you see what I added to it later...

OPI South Beach Skittles

Mum surprised me today with a phone call to say that Farmers has the South Beaches in and that it was 3 for 2 :D So she bought 9/12 haha

I was very impressed with these as most took 2 coats to be completely opaque and they dried fairly quickly.

Corals, from thumb to pinky:

OPI On Collins Ave.

Sand In My Suit

Clubbing Til Sunrise

Conga-line Coral

Paint My Moji-toes Red

Pinks, from pointer to pinky:

Party In My Cabana

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

Naked

Cherry Much In Love (not a south beach)

Then I compared Collins Ave with Cajun Shrimp. The only difference, Cajun is less opaque.

EDIT: Oops! I wrote Moji-toes instead of Collins >_<

OPI Gotta Get Pink! & Konad M44

Oops! Forgot to show you these :D

OPI's Gotta Get Pink! was the base colour then I used Konad's white polish with plate M44 and used the star tip design.

I kinda messed up the middle finger a bit but I am quite proud of the other fingers :)

OPI Kiss Of Peach

And here is the gold from the Valentines Glitters :D

Reminds me of the same sort of gold as the Yokohama, Penny For Your Thoughts. This shade if gold compliments olive skin well. 

I used three coats here and two coats of Poshe, to make it smooth. It applies quite nicely, but just like Love Will Blossom it is a pain to take off.

The sun was behind clouds so sadly you can't see the little sparklies and gold shimmer :( *shakes fist at sun*

Don't forget to enter NJ's First RAOK! :D (scroll down a few posts)