Tag: Manicure

beauty ho

Glitter on glitter action, baby

Shannon

I wasn’t planning on blogging about every manicure I get I swear.  But I just received so many compliments on this one that it begged a mention.  Christina and I went and got Christmas manicures on December 17.  This is what it looked like 3 weeks later!  It’s hard to see in the picture but the polish is super sparkly.  Glitter on glitter action, baby.   Of course after 3 weeks the new growth has pushed the polish out to the ends of my fingers and the situation has turned pretty janky, but I’m still very pleased with my Gelish manicure!

adoption, beauty ho, crafts

November Wrap Up

Shannon

Well, my nails have almost all broken since the Shellac came off.  That stuff is amazing but unfortunately we aren’t rich so I can’t afford to be Shellac’ed all the time.

In other news, meet Hank.  My friend Christina has a daughter Ella.  Ella always wants to go out with us so I promised her one day we’d have Ella day.  We went to a paint your own pottery place.  That’s where I painted Hank.  I love him.  He’s going to guard our house.

In adoption news we received some bad news recently.  Some of our paperwork was misfiled by someone working on our case and it has cost us about 3 months.  Now we’re playing catch up.  We have 1 more set of fingerprints to get then we’re finally done!!!  And the matching can begin.  I’ve been checking out the websites looking for suitable nuggets but no one is jumping out at me.  I’m still convinced that our perfect kidlet is out there somewhere!

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beauty ho

Shellac…the end

Shannon

Well, it’s been 18 days and my Shellac manicure (a UV light cured gel manicure that I got for free but goes for $25 in my salon) still looks great!    Click to enlarge.  My nails are still shiny, hard, and shimmery.  There is the slightest bit of wear noticeable on the white tips (really more on the corners).  Mind you, I haven’t worn gloves and I’ve been doing all the regular life things like washing dishes, typing, etc.  The only real problem is that my nails are growing and the growth has become obvious in the nail bed.   From arm’s length my nails don’t look too bad but I’m ready for a change.  So tomorrow I’ll soak them for 10 minutes in acetone, wipe off the gel polish then paint them with a regular nail polish.  I am thoroughly impressed with the Shellac manicure and I will definitely get it again.  Especially for  special occasions like our upcoming Disney cruise!

beauty ho

Shellac day 14

Shannon

I am amazed at this manicure!  It is day 14.  You can see where my nails have grown.  There is minimal wear on the tips of my fingernails.  Other than that my nails are still shiny and hard and (besides the growth) look great!  I can’t wait to get this manicure again for the cruise!  I’m sold!

beauty ho

The premature death of the red carpet manicure

Shannon

Things were going along really well between me and my Red Carpet Manicure.   I’m pretty sure it could have stuck around for a good while longer if I weren’t so fidgety.  Right at day 8 I was up in Blowing Rock with a bunch of girl friends.  I was waiting for some of them to finish shopping at the Mast Store Annex.  Next thing I knew I was peeling my polish off.  That stuff came off in sheets!  It was amazing.  There were a couple of nails that were chipping around the cuticles and I couldn’t help myself, I kept picking at it.   See, those look pretty nice!  Sorry about the picture quality.  I took this using my old iPhone 3G.  Anyway, surprisingly, my nails were in decent shape under that polish.  I’d definitely use the Red Carpet Manicure again.  And next time I won’t mess with them so much.

beauty ho

Fit for the red carpet

Shannon

Last weekend was girls’ weekend in Valle Crucis.  One of the very girly things we did was give ourselves manicures.  Christina bought the Red Carpet Manicure system from Ulta.  I bought 2 new colors to try.  Gigi went with a deep purple.  Christina and I both went with …And the Winner Is, which is a sparkly teal (not sure why it doesn’t look very teal in the picture).  The Red Carpet Manicure is supposed to be very similar to the new gel manicures you can get in a salon, like Shellac.  I totally forgot to take a picture of my nails on day 1.  Or 2- 3 for that matter.  But here I have for you day 4.    My nails are still super shiny.  There is no discernible wear on the tips of my nails.  Please keep in mind I painted my own nails after a few cocktails that include the wickedly delicious whipped cream vodka.  That stuff is NOT YOUR FRIEND.  Sure, it smells delish.  It tastes fab.  But then you wake up the next day with a furry tongue and nail polish all up in your cuticles yo.  Anyway, so far I’m really loving this manicure.  My nails feel thick and strong.  Besides cuticle oil there’s no upkeep.  They just stay shiny and sparkly!  This manicure is supposed to last around 2 weeks.  Stay tuned for updates!