Nailed It!

Today I'm here to tell you about an amazing product if you wear any kind of nail polish at all. (Well, I guess not if you have gel nails or whatever, but anyway.)

This stuff. It. Is. Amazing.

I don't quite remember where I heard of Londontown nail products, though it may have been on a podcast somewhere, where the person showing her knitting mentioned she was wearing some of their polish (which is great, as are their Nail Veils, but those are other posts). Anyway, I had to go down the rabbit hole of finding out about the brand, etc., because a) I remember loving the color of the polish the person was wearing, and b) I'd never heard of the brand and was curious. So I tried a couple of their products, and liked them a lot (as I said, some later post, OK?). 

Now, I don't always wear nail polish, but I have noticed that when I make an effort, and have something on my nails - even clear nail polish - I tend to leave my cuticles alone. Which is a good thing, because my poor cuticles have suffered so many indignities in my life. When I am bored, or anxious, or tired, or who knows what, I tend to pick at my cuticles, which of course causes them to bleed, and makes my hands look like small battlefields. But if my nails have something on them, I'm more likely to not practice that habit.

The problem for me has always been getting the polish off without problems. Nail polish removers with acetone make me break out in a rash. So I was getting non-acetone removers, which were fine. But getting all of the polish off was the problem. I would use so many cotton balls, and so much of the product, and later in the day, still notice polish I'd missed. 

Anyway, one time when I was perusing the Ulta website, I noticed they carried some Londontown products, including the "Lacquer Remover" shown above. It was a whole lot more expensive than the others, but when I read the different reviews, they all said that very little of the product was necessary to get off all of your nail polish. So I was intrigued. And I realized that I spent a lot of money on cheaper polish removers, mostly because I used so much all at one time, so I was always running out. I bit the bullet and ordered some of this.

All I have to say is, if you have had the same problems getting nail polish off of your nails, buy this stuff. It's worth every penny! Usually I get a cotton ball and soak it, not drench, but get it wet, and then I place it on each fingernail for 10 seconds. (Some of the cotton ball comes off when you take it off your nail.) I do that for each nail, and then I go back and sweep the cotton ball over the nail using a bit of pressure. Voila - polish gone! Completely, and your nails don't feel dried out like sandpaper either. I couldn't believe how well it worked, and have tried it even with darker polish, and had the same good results.

And in the end - the bottle lasted me for a whole year, making it well worth the price! As a matter of fact, when I went to buy a new bottle, I happened to hit a sale (I don't remember if it was at Ulta or on the Londontown site itself), and got two bottles for only slightly more than the price of one. 

Needless to say, this product knocked it out of the park with the BMST, and now I don't go through a whole decision process of whether or not it's worth putting on nail polish due to the hassle of removing it.

This is my opinion only, of course - I'm not sponsored by anyone or any company, I just wanted to share something I really love and think others might appreciate as well.

If you decide to give it a try, let me know. I hope you if you do try it, you have the same kind of success.

Nail Polish Love!

Hello all - Happy First Day of Fall!  Hooray for leaves turning, cozy clothes, and all the good stuff fall brings.  (Or will someday - it's still 85 degrees and humid here.)

Moving on, I have to tell you about a nail polish color that I found and have fallen in love with - Essie Demure Vixen.

(Not my hands, trust me!)

I do like nail polish, but frankly when I give myself a manicure, the results are usually not that great.  Well, or at least not reliably great.  Sometimes, the planets are aligned, and my nails are painted and that's it.  Most of the time, my nails, knuckles, and other parts of my hands are painted ... but I digress.

Before we left on vacation, I used a gift certificate I'd gotten from a friend for taking care of her dog to get a gel manicure.  A few years back I got one, with disastrous results when the polish was taken off; but said friend (who gets manicures regularly) said that they were much better now, and the place where I had the gift certificate did not use toxic materials.  I figured what the heck, it would be nice to have a nice-looking manicure and not worry about chipping while on vacation.

She was correct - none of it was as I had remembered, and though I was happy with how it looked, etc., I do wish I'd chosen another color.  (I really got sick of it by Day 3.)  So last Sunday, I decided to get rid of the gel nails and since I would have to pay for that anyway, just get a regular manicure.

And that, my friends, is when I met Essie Demure Vixen.  I wanted some color, but nothing dramatic.  This ended up fitting the bill EXACTLY.  It is one of those shades where your nails look nice and clean and fresh, but you can't necessarily tell if a) the person is actually wearing nail polish, and b) if it has chipped, unless you are up close.

I liked it so much, that I poked around online to see where I might be able to buy a bottle for myself.  Apparently, it is from a few "seasons" ago, and the only place around here that had it was Ulta.  So yesterday, after work I stopped and bought myself a bottle of my very own.  :-)

My Sunday manicure was mostly chipped off, so last night I removed all of the polish.  But I got a pretty good run out of it, given the amount of stuff I had waiting for me at work that would have messed up my hands and nails regardless.

I shall give myself a manicure with this shade again soon, and can see it becoming my "go to" shade.  Now that I have also figured out a way to give myself a manicure that will generally last at least 4 days before chipping, it will be worth the amount spent on the bottle of polish.

So - if you like to polish your nails, but don't want a lot of color, etc., look for this and give it a try.  I think you'll be happy you did.

I just hope you can find the color if you are looking ... sigh.  Why do they get rid of some colors and others that are just butt ugly stay around forever??? (rhetorical question)

OK, that's it for now.  Have a happy upcoming weekend, and let me know if you find/try this shade.

Maybe It's Just Me, But ...

when I saw these pictures from the recent New York Fashion Week, I thought to myself: "Um. NO."

I mean, if I want to look like this, I'll pet one of the cats or Dug right after I've applied nail polish.

Not that I have EVER been considered a fashion plate ... :-)

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!

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.