Wednesday, August 28, 2013

How to Remove Gel Polish At Home

Hey y'all! Today I thought I'd do a little tutorial post to help you save a little time and money.  When you go to a salon and get gel polish done, most places are going to charge you anywhere from $5 to $10 just to get the gel polish removed.  This is something that can easily be done at home for just a few bucks.

All you need is Acetone (pure acetone works best), cotton balls, 10 squares of aluminum foil, a buffer, and an orange stick.




Step 1
Lightly buff the shiny layer of gel polish. This helps the acetone to penetrate easier. 
 


 Step 2
 Soak a cotton ball in acetone

Step 3
Wrap the acetone cotton ball on the nail with the aluminum foil. 
Step 4
Repeat steps 2 and 3 on all fingers

Step 5
Let the wraps soak for 10 to 15 minutes. 


Step 6
One by one begin taking the wraps off the finger, gently squeezing the cotton ball as you pull off the wrap.  This helps to wipe the nail clean of any gel polish that has released from the nail.  

Some nails may come out looking something like this. 

To get this off, gently push it off with the orange stick. Be careful not to scrape too hard on the nail plate.  If it doesn't come off easily, put the wrap back on for a few more minutes. 

Next you will want to go wash your hands with soap and water.  Your nails and skin around your cuticle will probably be looking pretty dry. Soaking in the acetone for so long your nails will be begging for some moisturizing.  After washing thoroughly, apply your favorite cuticle oil or cuticle balm and then lotion those babies up.  


There you have it.  Hope it helps you! :)  Thanks for stopping by! XOXO

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Salon Perfect First Look Fall Polish Forecast (Part 3)

Press Sample

Hey y'all!  Today I have the 3rd and final part of the Salon Perfect First Look Fall Polish Forcast collection. (Part 1 and Part 2)   This is Salon Perfect's Matte FX top coat.  Matte is all the rage in the fall polish collections and Salon Perfect was so on point with this collection.  Matte FX is the perfect companion with every one of the First Look Fall Fall Polishes.  

Here is a selection of polish from this collection paired with Matte FX.

 Matte FX over Nautical Nights

Matte FX over Scarlet Enchantment

Matte FX over Pink Taffeta 

Salon Perfect polishes can be purchased at Walmart for $3.98.   They retail for $3.98 a bottle. Follow Salon Perfect on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.

The products in this post were sent for review in return for my unbiased and honest opinion. 


Friday, August 23, 2013

Salon Perfect First Look Fall Polish Forecast (Part 2)

Press Sample

 Howdy!  Today I have part 2 of the Salon Perfect First Look Fall Polish Forecast swatches.  (Check out Part 1)

 Salon Perfect Scarlet Enchantment

Salon Perfect Cafe Ole

Salon Perfect Dirty Martini 

Salon Perfect Nautical Nights

Salon Perfect Pink Taffeta 

 Salon Perfect Tainted Love

The products in this post were sent for review in return for my unbiased and honest opinion. 

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Nail Art for Kids

Hey y'all!  Today I wanted to share a few manicure I did on my daughter.  Like her Mother, she is a recovering nail biter.  I made her a deal that if she would quit biting her nails I'd give her new polish or nail art every week and do regular manicures to keep her hands and nails healthy.  So far she's done really well. 

This first mani was done about two weeks ago, the night before her first day of school.  I did this same design for her last year and she wanted it again.


This one was done this past weekend, her nails grow pretty fast.  She's doing really good. 

One bummer though is that a few nights ago I ended up having to take her to the ER because we thought she broke her hand.  She ended up just dislocating her thumb but she has to wear a soft cast for two weeks.  She's actually really excited about wearing a cast though lol Crazy kid! 

Anyhoo, thanks for stopping by today!  I'll keep you updated on her nail biting progress, I'm sure we'll be having a lot more kid manis on the blog in the weeks to come.  XOXO 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Salon Perfect First Look Fall Polish Forecast (Part 1)

Press Sample

Hey y'all! I don't know about you but I am so over Summer and so ready for cozy sweaters and pumpkins and fall colors everywhere. Today I am sharing the first part of a 3 part series of swatches from the new Salon Perfect Fall collection.  I promise you will be in the mood for Fall when you see these babies. 


Salon Perfect Playful Plum

Salon Perfect Raisin the Roof

 Salon Perfect Red Dahlia

Salon Perfect Royal Knight 

Salon Perfect Ivy League

These are more gorgeous in person too.  Salon Perfect polish have a very nice smooth formula and apply nice and have full coverage in two coats.  

Check back for parts 2 and 3 over the next couple of days.  You won't want to miss the rest!  

XOXO  

The products in this post were sent for review in return for my unbiased and honest opinion. 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Rainbow Water Marble

Hey y'all!  I got some good news to share!  I passed my state boards, yayayayayay!  I'm officially a legit licensed nail tech now.  It's took about 6 months from start to finish.  I went and picked up my license today and it felt really good.  I'm proud of myself and I can't wait to start working.

Anyhoo, it's been a while since I did a water marble so I thought I'd do one last night.  I really wanted to try the water marble using the konad stamper but it really didn't work for me so I did it the regular way.  Just dipping my fingers in.

I have a love hate relationship with water marbles.  Sometimes they turn out great and sometimes they turn out looking like polish snot.  This time it turned out pretty good though.  Yay for not having polish snot.




For this mani I used 5 Precision Nail Polishes; Pink With A Wink, The Next It Girl, Honey Dew This, Surfin In Maliblue, and Pur-Fect FX.  It's also topped off with China Glaze Fairy Dust. 

I love it!  You may have noticed my new nail shape...I don't love it.  I'm a square girl, I just don't like round.  Hopefully they'll grow out fast so I can shape them back. 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great weekend! XOXO

 Some Products in this post were previously sent for review

Monday, August 12, 2013

Teal French Manicure

Hey y'all!  Today I wanted to share these metallic teal french tips.  This is Orly Sweet Peacock with an outline of China Glaze Glistening Snow.  Simple but cute and it really pops! 




XOXO 

Friday, August 9, 2013

Sephora by OPI Be-Claus I Said So

Hey y'all!  Today I wanted to share a swatch of a new polish I just bought.  Sephora has their Sephora by OPI polishes on sale right now for 3 for $10.  This is Be-Claus I Said So.  It's never too early for a little Christmas spirit lol. 



I'm not usually a huge fan of red on myself but I was really drawn to this red glitter. 



This is two coats of Be-Claus I Said So over OPI Red.

XOXO 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology Manicuring Exam

Hey y'all!  Yesterday was my big day!  I finally went to take my Manicuring state board exam to officially become a nail technician.  It went GREAT.  I am so glad to have it behind me and get started with my career in a few weeks.  I feel very confident in saying that I passed but I won't know for sure for another week or so.  I already have a great job lined up and I couldn't be happier with the opportunity, more about that in a few weeks though :). 


I was never able to find anything like this online so I wanted to do a special post to maybe help other nail tech students and to give my readers an inside look at the whole deal of what I did. 
 

First, let me say, every state is different on what they require for their nail technician licensing procedures so be sure to check with your state board of cosmetology.  This is strictly what I did to prepare and take the Louisiana state manicuring exam.  There is nothing official about it, I am not affiliated with any state board or school, this is strictly MY experience.

In Louisiana the state board of cosmetology offices are located in Baton Rouge so I drove down the night before and stayed in a hotel.  We live about 4.5 hours so staying over night was necessary because I had to be at the testing site at 9 am. 

I did 600 hours at my school so I had 5 months of education.  I prepared and studied as much as I could the weeks leading up to my test date.  I used my Milady books and the tests I had taken during school to help me study as well as a bunch of index cards I made up to help me study the diseases of the nails. 

In LA you have two parts of the exam, practical and written exams.  The written exams consist of the national exam, which is 110 questions all about manicuring and then then state exam which is 25 questions that all revolve around state laws and regulations regarding cosmetology.  The state exam is actually the same for manicurists, cosmetologists and estheticians. 

The practical exam consists of two parts: a basic manicure and acrylics.  Before I packed up my kit to go I did a few trial runs at home.  This was my table set up, this is exactly what my table looked like at my exam.  Everything you see on the table is what I took with me.  We were able to set up our tables when we got seated before the exam started.


The first part of the practical exam was on the manikin hand.  I had it prepared beforehand with the proper nail plates added.  This is my hand before I left.  The manikins don't come with nail plates so I shaped and glued nail tips on the hand.  Each finger I prepped for the certain things we had to do.  You only do three fingers, you have to do an acrylic sculpture with a nail form, an acrylic nail with a tip and a repair with a wrap.  I added nail plates to the pinky and thumbs so I'd have back ups if I had any problems. 


This was my finished product after the exam.  The index finger is my sculptured nail done using a nail form, the middle finger is the acrylic with a nail tip and the ring finger is the repair.  We got 45 minutes to complete this, I think I finished in about 30 minutes or so.  45 minutes is a good amount of time to be able to really take your time. 


Everything went pretty smoothly on this portion of the exam.  The only problems I had were when I was gluing my nail tip on the glue didn't want to dry so it popped off when I started filing it so I had to put a new one on.  (this was also the part I panicked on the inside and said a few 4 letters words to myself) And then my acrylic didn't want to dry.  (more expletives to myself) We have to use odorless products for boards and it's a little different than the odor products.  It takes a longer to cure so it can be difficult.  But it turned out fine. 

The next portion of the practical exam was the manicure.  You have 30 minutes and you have to show your basic work.  Filing, buffing, removing cuticle, massage and polishing.  You have to use red polish and I used OPI Red along with Beauty Secrets base coat and top coat.  You work on your own hand.  I did my left hand since I'm right handed.  I walked around all day yesterday with only one hand painted lol.  It couldn't have turned out any better, I am pretty pleased with the outcome.


That's all there was to it for the practical exams.  Once we were done with that we cleaned off our table and put everything up and got ready for the written exams. 

They handed out both the national and state exams at the same time and gave us an hour and 30 minutes to complete both.  Like I said above, the National exam was 110 questions and the State exam was 25 and they were all multiple choice.  Most of us were done in about 45 minutes.  And that was that. 

I was so stressed and worried but now that it's all over I can say that it was easier than I expected.  It was a pretty laid back environment, everyone we met was friendly and helped us relax. 

I'm glad it's all over, I had the best nights sleep last night than I've had in a month lol.  

My greatest advice I can give anybody that's going to take this exam is RELAX.  I promise, it's not that bad. 

This is a great industry to be in right now, the jobs are abundant and it's FUN!  If you or someone you know is interested in looking into going to school for nails you can check out http://www.beautyschoolsdirectory.com/ to find a school in your area. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you found it informative and entertaining.  Thanks so much to everyone who has been encouraging during my journey this year.  I am so excited about my new career, things are really looking up for me and my family.  This was really the best thing I've ever done for my family and me.  Thanks again for reading. XOXO 

Saturday, August 3, 2013

It's International Nail Art Day!!!!

Hey y'all!  Did you know that today is International Nail Art Day?  What a fun day to celebrate right?  And of course, what better way to celebrate than with NAIL ART?  Duh!!! lol 




 All of my favorite forms of nail art; gradients, rainbows, cheetah print, splatter, and nail polish.  LOOOOOVE!!!! 

Happy International Nail Art Day!!! XOXO