Nailed It

 Do you have "good" fingernails?  I will admit that I always notice people's hands and nails.  And I love it when people have nice hands and a pretty manicure.  

The morning security guard at the building where I work always has a variation on this kind of manicure, which fascinates me:

This is not something I would like for myself - for one thing, I'm 99.999999% sure that I would not be able to carry out my normal daily activities and functions, but as I said, it does fascinate me.

My mother used to have gorgeous hands and nails even when she was older.  They were really strong, too - she would change the color, etc. because she got tired of it, not because it ever chipped!  And she used a typewriter all day at work, besides just the normal activities of her life.  My oldest sister Nancy seems to have gotten her genetics in that regard.  My other sister and myself seem to have missed out.

My nails are not overly strong, but I have been making an effort to get them to look better and be stronger.  Not just because it's always something I notice on other people, but if I pay attention to nice nails, I am less likely to pick or chew at my cuticles.  Which yes, is really gross, but when I am really stressed or nervous, that's my downfall.  Over the past few years, I have been extremely conscientious, and I have to say that where my hands used to have gross cuticles on most fingers, now it usually only happens on one or two when things get tough.  So that is progress.

I used to work with someone who used nail wraps, and her nails always had really cool designs on them, which was fun.  But she did say that when she took them off, her nails were kind of a mess, so that was a no-go for me.  

Anyway.  Sometimes for whatever reason I end up getting to work much earlier than I need to, so I'll poke around YouTube and watch a podcast or a movie/TV show trailer.  Today I came across this podcast episode from a channel called "Our Time of the Month," which is a couple of women who are in Baltimore, and mostly seem to talk about beauty and wellness.  This episode was them trying some press-on nails from Olive & June, which is a really great company.  I have to tell you, I laughed really hard because it was so much fun to watch/hear their commentary!  It's not that long - a bit over 20 minutes - so if you need a chuckle, give it a watch.  

Enjoy!

Pampering Myself on a Dreary Day

Today it is dreary, damp, and chilly.  I had some plans in my head, but when I woke up this morning, I just wasn't feeling them.  So I decided to pamper myself.

Now for a lot of people, this involves many products, many spa-like activities, etc.  However, I have neither the time nor the desire (or the $$$) for any of that, so I guess when I pamper myself, it's more low key.  But I'm the one doing it, so who cares what anyone else thinks?

I have been doing pretty well lately with my diet - meaning the food I am eating, not that I am on a diet, mind you.  I had gotten off track big-time, and it took me a bit to both motivate myself and also actually do what I wanted to get back to doing.  But I'm making progress, and I'm really proud of myself for that.  Now I need to be more regular with moving.  In that vein, I've signed up for a Beginner Pilates class next Saturday morning.  Hopefully that will get me back into the swing of things and I won't be as lazy.

Anyway.  After breakfast, I took a shower and washed my hair, and actually blow dried and styled it (as much as my hair ever  has a "style").  I usually air dry it, with mixed results - as in, sometimes it sticks up/out, and other times it's fine.  That was a boost.  While drying off, I realized with disgust that my feet were a mess!  Not that I have foot model feet, but it was clear I'd neglected things too long.  Then I thought about my hands, which are in sad shape as well.  When I get bored or nervous, I pick my cuticles, even to the point of bleeding - unless I've been taking care of my nails, and then I tend to leave them alone.  For the last month, I have filed any ragged nails that caught on things, but done nothing else.

The verdict:  I would let a professional handle things.  So I walked up the street to a nail salon, and was lucky because when I got there (with no appt), they had an opening.  Since I knew I'd still be wearing socks for the near future, I asked for a pedicure but not polish.  Which puzzled the person working with me, but she was very nice and thorough nonetheless.  It was pretty gross, and I gave her a big tip for her efforts.  My feet once again look like they belong to a human being.  Then she gave me a really good manicure, and hopefully I'll be back on track taking care of that again now, too.

(I tried to take a photo to show you how nice my hands look, but that was a no-go.   So you'll just have to take my word for it.)

The shade I chose for my fingernails is Essie Nail polish, Chinchilly (not my hands here):

I must say that now I feel quite glamorous.  :-)

On my way home, I decided that I wanted something else to treat myself.  So I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts and got a coffee and a Boston Kreme Donut.  Was it good?  You bet!  Did I need it?  Nope.  But it was a wonderful treat.

So today I ventured out into the ick and spent money and you know what?

I regret nothing.

Overhaul Time

I had no intention of disappearing for so long!  Sorry about that.  I would like to say it was because I was jet-setting, but it was really just a combination of being stressed out, depressed, and way too busy at work.

Enough of that though, it's time to regroup and start fresh, and do my best to control the things that I can.

Did you see this article?  It confirmed some things for me that I had always wondered about, but had been too chicken to look into in any depth.  I don't get I manicures and pedicures very frequently, and certainly not nearly as much as a lot of people I know do.  I do like to get them every once in a while, or for special occasions, because it's a real treat, and also because I can't "clean up" around my nails as well as a trained person can.  Like everyone though, I usually would go for the less expensive option.  But after reading this article, I decided that unless I found out otherwise, I would only go to places that I could feel sure were well run and where the workers got paid and were  not slaves.

So last Friday, since we had the day off from work, I decided to treat myself to a pedicure (I am really bad at painting my toenails!), and made an appt at a salon attached to a beauty salon/spa place.  It cost more, but it was really wonderful, and I left without wondering if I had contributed to a bad situation.  Not that upscale places are automatically perfect, but I felt a little more comfortable with going there.

Also now that summer has truly arrived (read: heat and humidity), I wanted to overhaul my makeup for the daily routine before work.  I read this post/tutorial and got some great ideas.

I had planned to get organized this past weekend, but at the last minute, we decided to go to Baltimore and stay with my niece and her husband overnight on the 4th.  A lot of other family and friends were there, and we had a blast, which included some amazing fireworks.  I figured that, since I had also taken Monday off, and was supposed to have jury duty today, I could still organize even though we'd been gone.  However, it's gonna have to wait, because yesterday I woke up with a cold and sore throat that have knocked me out.  I had to reschedule my jury duty first thing this a.m., and after many doses of cold medicine and a ton of sleep, am just now starting to feel some semblance of normal.  And so, my reorganization/overhaul will happen this weekend.

One thing I did buy last week to start trying was this:

This is a tube of MAC Cosmetics lipstick in the shade Ruby Woo.  I've read/heard a lot about this lipstick, and how it works on everyone.  I love red lipstick, but usually can't find a shade a like.  I was convinced to give this a try when I saw a friend who wears no makeup whatsoever except lipstick wearing it.  She looked great with only the lipstick, and her coloring is very similar to mine.  So I'll keep you posted on that.  Feel free to let me know in the comments if you have tried it and how you do/don't like it, or to suggest other good lipsticks for a pale person like myself.  :-)

That's it for now.  I promise you'll hear from me again sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, stay cool and try to look your best! 

Well, I Didn't Mean For That to Happen!

As in, I didn't intend to post early in the month and then not again until the last day!  I mean, not that I have anything terribly fascinating to report, but I was very surprised when I saw that my last post here was on May 10 - what's that about?

May was a weird month.  Not a bad one, just weird in that lots of things were going on, but not necessarily exciting things.  There were some highlights - a trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool at the very beginning of the month, and a trip home to West Virginia over the Memorial Day weekend - but it was mostly going to work and not killing anyone there, coming home and being lazy, and running errands/cleaning on the weekends.

However, one of the things I do every single May, usually the week before the holiday weekend, is get my first pedicure of the season.  During the rest of the year, I treat myself to a manicure now and then, but other than, er, "maintaining" clean feet and trimmed toenails, I never polish or pamper them.  Most of the year I wear socks, boots, etc., and if I'm paying someone to do my nails, I want to see them regularly, you know?

Anyhow, I have lately been going to a place around here that I'd heard about off and on, and finally decided to try for a manicure.  For anyone reading this in the Philadelphia area, it's Mi Cumbia, and it's really a great place.  Very small, and you do need an appointment, but I think it's worth the effort.  They use all non-toxic polishes, and it's really a place to be pampered.  The cost of a manicure or pedicure is only about two dollars more than at the in-and-out quickie places, and for me at least, the manicures have lasted without chipping for five days or more!

So I decided to try a pedicure there, and it was an incredibly decadent experience.  I opted for the basic one, but with the time they took and the way I was pampered, I felt like I'd been to a spa when I was finished.*  And my pedicure was really pretty too!  The people are all very nice and friendly, which is also a plus.  You never feel like a stranger, or that they are rushing you.

Now, I just need a nice pair of sandals to show it off ...


*No, I've never actually been to a spa.  But I feel like it must be an experience similar to what I had when getting a pedicure.  Work with me here, people

A Little Bit of Beauty for Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Day, and to be honest, we are still enjoying Christmastime.  It's always nice to have a day to just be together, and enjoy the feeling of the holidays.  In our house, that usually includes a fire in the fireplace, which makes it just seem that much  more cozy.

Many lovely gifts were given and received as well.  The Tim and I were somewhat more restrained than usual in our gifts to each other, as we decided that the major part of our gifts would be new chairs for our living room.  (We have identified the chairs we like, now we just want them to go on sale ...)

My sister Nancy who lives in California has had issues over the past few years sending packages through the USPS.  For whatever reason, the packages never arrive, or arrive damaged, etc.  So this year she decided that she was sending our gifts directly from Nordstrom.  As it turns out, hers were the only beauty-related gifts I received and they are wonderful as far as I'm concerned.  My box contained two small bottles:

This nail polish, called Piece of My Heart.  I've heard of Deborah Lippmann nail polishes and products, but have never tried them, so I am excited to both receive and try this.  (Though not right away, since I currently am wearing OPI A Ruby for Rudolph, since it's Christmastime.)

She also sent this:

It's a topcoat, called Addicted to Speed, which is supposed to be a quick-drying, setting coat for your manicure.  Nancy and I agreed that neither of us would be likely to buy this for ourselves, due to the cost, but that it was great to receive as a gift.  She knew about it after receiving a bottle from a friend for her birthday.

My hands and nails are not particularly great-looking, but I try to take care of them, and I love nail polish.  I have even found a system that keeps the polish on and - most of the time - not chipping for as long as 5 days, so I try to polish my nails somewhat regularly.

The fact that my sister even bothers to send gifts is gift enough, as she has kids of her own, and grandkids to buy for.  Getting something fun like this is just an extra treat.

I'll let you know once I use the polish how I feel about it.  But it's looking like even if the rest of me doesn't look much different in the new year, my hands will!

When Worlds Collide

It's a happy day when two of the things you love are somehow combined.  Long before I started this blog, I started a knitting/reading/whatever blog, which you can see here.

Then, last Christmas, I became aware of a single product that combined two of my very favorite things:  knitting and beauty.  They are called Soakboxes, and they combine a skein of yarn and pattern for a pair of fingerless mitts; a small bottle of Soak, which is made to clean your knitting projects when they are finished, or need a wash, a bottle of hand cream, and a bottle of custom-dyed Essie nail polish.  The have great names, such as Elvis Paisley and Grape Gatsby.

I'd only ever seen them online, until I visited one of the local yarn stores, Hidden River Yarns, owned by a friend of mine.  At the time, I'd been really in love with one of them, but couldn't afford it, even though they were marked 20% off.  But she was kind enough to put one aside for me, and last week I finally got to pick it up.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lace Kelly:

And here is a photo (from the Internet, I'm not there yet) of what the finished knitting project looks like, while wearing the nail polish (which is a shade called Incognito):

I just think this is so cool!  There are colors enough for everyone, and I think it would be a lovely gift if you know someone who loves to knit, and is also likely to (or does already) paint their nails.

Fun, right?  And proof for those still following outdated stereotypes, that knitters are not just little old ladies knitting baby booties.  (Though I admit to both being old and having knit baby booties for a friend's baby.)

These can be found both online and in yarn stores, as well as through Amazon.  So you really have no excuse if you want to buy one for yourself or someone else.  :-)

About My Dad

On Father's Day, I always wish my father was still around so I could call and wish him a happy day.  I'm sure he knows I'm thinking of him, but it's not the same as the person being physically around.

Anyway, the reason I thought I'd write this post, was because my dad was as much responsible for my persnickety-ness about appearance as my mom and/or sisters were.  In photos of him as a young man, he is slim and quite handsome; in later photos, he is plump with a crewcut, and the way I remember him.  (He looked a lot like Drew Carey in the very first incarnation of his show!)  He was always well-groomed and nicely dressed, and though he was not an executive or anything, he did have an office job, so wore suits to work every day.  I do remember his "cookout" outfit, which just sent my sisters over the edge:  tan shorts, a bright orange and white plaid shirt, and matching orange socks, with the kind of sneakers men wore back then.  He absolutely loved this outfit, while my sisters were just appalled by it.  I think my mother probably had just given up thinking about it.

Anyway, one Saturday when I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade, my mom and sisters were going downtown to do some shopping, and my dad was in charge of me.  He told me I could go with him to run some errands, and if I waited for him while he went to an appt at the barber shop, then we could go to lunch.  Sounded great to me, plus I would have my father all to myself!

We got to the barber shop, and that's where the shocker happened.  I was assuming that he was getting his hair cut (though with a crewcut, it always looked the same to me ...).  However, that wasn't the case.  No, my father - who was not particularly macho, but was also not anyone I would ever describe as girly - was getting a MANICURE!

Even to this day, I can remember how shocked and surprised I was.  For one thing, it just never occurred to me that men would get manicures.  And secondly - my father????  I didn't say anything to him, because I didn't want to act surprised, but when I told my mother later, she told me that yes, he got a manicure about every two weeks!  I'm guessing that it wasn't overly expensive, since a) we had very little money, and b) it didn't involve nail polish, only shaping and buffing, but it was still one of the big revelations of my life.  My mother had gorgeous hands and nails, and always did her own manicure.  She was a secretary, and her polish usually got changed not because it had chipped, but because she was tired of the color!  (Unlike me, whose manicures - DIY or professionally done - seem to start chipping as soon as I take a breath.)

So as I think of my dad today, I am grateful that he showed me something that was very different for the time.  And helped to give me the sense that it does make a difference to be well put together, whether you are wearing designer clothing or hand-me-downs.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  Here's hoping they will always have a surprise or two for us.

Beauty Bit - "Stickey Sandwich"

One thing I always notice about people are their hands and nails.  I think this is largely because my mother had beautiful hands, and her nails were always clean, shaped, and painted.  She was a secretary at a time before computers, when you had to pound on typewriter keys, and rifle through paper files in a cabinet rather than on a drive on the server.

And you know what?  She seldom got chips on her nail polish!  Besides her work, she cooked, did dishes, etc. - all of the things most of us do, and she would usually change her polish because she was tired of it, rather than because most of it had chipped off.

My oldest sister is the same way.  My middle sister has only started wearing polish on occasion in the last couple of years, and she wears clear or light polish like I do, because her nails chip quickly too.  I could paint my nails one afternoon, sit for an hour to make sure they were dry, and by the time I would go from one room to the next, there would be a chip in the polish. AAAACCCKK!!

A few years ago, I got my very first manicure at a salon, and it lasted about the same amount of time.  Which was even more annoying, since I'd PAID for it.  One of my nieces, who has been getting the new gel manicures, convinced me to try one.  It did stay nice for about 2 weeks.  But when it was removed, my nails were a mess, really flaky, and took about a month to recover.

Now don't get me wrong.  I do not always have my nails painted.  But I like my nails to look nice, and when they actually are painted, I tend to not pick at my cuticles like I do otherwise.

Among the many blogs on several topics that I read, one introduced me to a concept that I'd never heard of:  the "Stickey Sandwich."  Huh?  Well, it's outlined in this post, once you get past the review of the Chanel nail polish.  (Which is interesting in and of itself, but not what I'm talking about here.)  Recently, a Beans Beauty store opened here in Philadelphia, and I thought maybe they would have some of the products.  Sure enough, they had the CND Stickey base coat.  They also had the top coat, but since I had just bought a new bottle of something else a couple of weeks before, I decided to just give that a try.

Well, guess what?  Even if you don't use Chanel polish, the Stickey Sandwich seems to be a success - at least it was for me!  I mean - YAY!!!  I've used the process with inexpensive polishes as well as a couple of the pricier ones that I have, and each time, I've had my home manicure last with few or only very tiny chips for four days.  For me, four days was not even a remote possibility as far as a manicure was concerned.  Ever.

As they say, your mileage may vary.   But if you have always had trouble with your nail polish before, I would say give it a try.  Few beauty-related tips have really turned out to be true in my experience, but this is one that has.

So, polish away!  And let me know if you have any luck if you give it a try.