Oiling Peelies

I've spent the past four days without polish, oiling like crazy, five or six times a day, rubbing it in for at least ten minutes each time.

Alright, I'll back up, since I don't think I've explained oiling yet. The consensus used to be that one should dehydrate nails before painting them, but recently MUA's Nail Board has taken to doing the opposite. The recent trend has been to remove polish, wash the acetone off, and then massage with oil before applying more polish. Many girls use Solar Oil, though any oil will work, including vegetable oil, coconut oil, olive oil, etc. (I've been using something I found at a thrift store called T.I.P.S. along with some cuticle oil I bought from Northern Star.) After rubbing it in for about thirty seconds on each nail, the excess is wiped off with a cloth or paper towel, and polish is applied as usual. Many girls have seen a great reduction in peelies using this method, and many now swear by it.

I've had pretty good results, too. I don't do it every mani, but when I do, it seems like my nails really appreciate the extra moisture, soaking it all in. So when I got a really bad peelie, I wondered if I could do any extra good by keeping polish off and oiling as much as I could. I don't have a before pic to compare, but here're my results (we're looking at the middle finger on my right hand):

Not "healed," per se, but definitely healthy looking! I think the only way to really heal it is just to grow it out, but it seems like keeping it well oiled in the meantime certainly helps.

And~ just for the heck of it, here's my left hand. Loving my nubs and my healthy, pretty cuticles!

Indecisive Sugar

The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: InDecisive Nail Lacquer - Sugar, three coats
TC: Seche Vite

Just a note before we get started here: as similar as Sugar is to Milani - HD, which I wore recently, they're definitely different enough that I can own both. Sure, they're both scattered holo silver microglitters, but Sugar's holo is much stronger, as you can tell by the pictures. No regrets! :)

Sugar is super cute, totally my style. My mini bottle has a bent brush, which makes application a bit tricky, but it's totally worth it. Here's a blurred picture to show the holo better. <3

Wear: Four days.

Fairy Milk

The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: China Glaze - Fairy Dust, two coats, over Wet n Wild - 2% Milk (Megalast line), two coats
TC: Seche Vite

Aaah, this is much more my style. It felt so nice to take off that bold creme and put on these sheer, delicate colors.

I'm not sure where my application skills went, but they're definitely not here anymore. Maybe they're on Spring Break. I think they took my photographing skills with them. Enjoy your party, guys. *sigh* :(

Wear: Five days.

Bikini So Holo

The Polish:
BC: Sinful Colors - Base Coat
Color: Lacquerhead Polish - Make Me Holo, two coats, over Essie - Bikini So Teeny, two coats
TC: Seche Vite

What? A creme? How unusual. Yeah, yeah, I know. I never wear cremes because I suck at applying them and because they're just not as pretty as shimmers. I have two cremes that I can't bear to let go of because they're just too darn cute--Bikini So Teeny and Zoya's Blu. I wanted something that would show off my new spectraflair polish off nicely, and this definitely does it, but I think I've decided to use these colors only on toes. I like them a lot, I just feel better with something sheer and shimmery on my hands.

Wear: Three days.

My Triple T Pointe

The Polish:
BC: DIY Glue base coat
Color: jelly sandwich (two coats, glitter, one coat) of OPI - My Pointe Exactly (NYC Ballet collection) with Jeffy'sMom - Triple T, two coats on middle finger
TC: Seche Vite

Jeffy'sMom, a regular on MUA's nail board, recently sent me a mini bottle of a franken she made based on her kitty, Tycho. (A "Teeny tiny tortie," hehe.) Here's a breakdown of the glitters:

"The black hexes and fine glitter represent her beautiful black fur. The black bars represent her black whiskers and the very few white bars represent her single white whisker and the white stripes on her tail tip. The white hexes and hearts represent her white fur. The orange hexes of varying sizes represent her orange fur, with the largest ones being her front paws.
The orange bars are the stripe down her nose that gave her her name and the orange stripes on her tail tip. The light pink hearts are for her little pink tongue and the sandpaper kisses she loves to give anybody who comes within range. And the silver hexes and fine glitter represent the water that she loves to play with in Jeffy's jacuzzi sink."

It's very much a Halloween polish, but I just couldn't wait until then to try it. I can't imagine wearing it much outside of October, but I just love that it was made after a kitty-kitty. <3 In the full sun, it looks less sandwiched and you can see the glitters better.

Also decided that this would be the perfect time to try out the glue base coat method that's been going around for a while now. It's made with school glue mixed with just a little water, and it's mostly used for easy-removal of glitter. I've been avoiding it because I've been concerned that it would be ultra drying on my nails, but since we know about the oiling method (rub naked nails with any oil 10 minutes prior to polish), I thought it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Some people have said that they get a full 3 or 4 days out of a glue base coat, but you know me. I like to peel. So when the polish started to come up on one nail less than 24 hours later, the whole mani lasted another thirty minutes before I had everything pulled up. Everything came off clean and satisfyingly, and my nails weren't even too bad, though I definitely wouldn't want to do it too often.

HD

The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Base Coat
Color: Milani - HD (3D Holographic collection), three coats
TC: Seche Vite

Okay, I'm uploading many pictures of this mani. Apologies. It's just so super pretty! When I told the nail board that I bought and was excited to wear it, I was warned that wasn't quite as nice as the swatches made it out to be. After putting it on, I think it's safe to say that I disagree! Or maybe it just exceeded my low expectations after the warning. Maybe I should be warned away from polishes more often! (Oh, and maybe I'll actually remember to wrap my tips, one of these days. Hah!)

HD is a silver scattered holo glitter. It almost reminds me of TV static... but way shinier! I love it layered on its own, but a friend tried it over another color, and it looked adorable that way, too.

Here it is in artificial lighting.

And here it is in the shade. Cute in any lighting!

Wear: Oops, I forgot to record this one. So I'll estimate my average of 4 days.

Ain't No Sunshine

The Polish:
BC: Revlon - ColorStay Basecoat
Color: Contrary Polish - Ain't No Sunshine, two coats
TC: Seche Vite

Ain't No Sunshine is one of the polishes I put on my wishlist to try in place of Raindrops. I never got around to getting it, but when I saw it on a blog sale, I went ahead and caved. Turns out it's not at all what I wanted, and it definitely wouldn't have sufficed for Raindrops itself, but it's kinda cute. It's got a nice color, and the glass flecks are nice, but... well, it's a creme. And I don't really do cremes. *shrug* Oh well, I'm sure I'll wear it occasionally.

Wear: I DID get 5 good days out of it, though, with only minor tip wear. I'm always so afraid to wear darker colors because chipping shows so prominently with them, but I didn't get any chips at all. I only had to remove at day five because the basecoat started to peel.

Blue with Envy

The Polish:
BC: OPI - Nail Envy
Color: Sally Hansen - Something Blue (Diamond Strength line), two coats
TC: Seche Vite

So... Did you know that Nail Envy is not actually a base coat? I found that out when, unfortunately, this mani lasted less than two days. *sigh* Lesson learned, I suppose. When using Nail Envy, remember to use an actual base coat over it.

No pictures today, but you can see some really nice ones of the last time I wore it here. Nice soft morning light, too. Probably some of the first nice pictures I took. *pats self on the back*

Pale Cashmere

The Polish:
BC: OPI - Nail Envy
Color: Revlon - Pale Cashmere (ColorStay line), two coats
TC: none

Oh, another streaky pale pink. Yeah, I have enough of these. This one wasn't as sheer as I wanted, didn't have a good enough formula, and was too similar to others I already have. So away it goes immediately. Sorry, Cashmere.