Konad Cloudy Sky Nails

Hi everyone!  Here’s the cute lazy-day Sunday mani that I came up with today.  It’s been very cold here lately, but today feel more springy and the birds are all chirping outside- so I think this happy cloud design seems fitting.  My base color is Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-mint.  It’s totally blue so I don’t know why they call it ‘mint’!!  Then I stamped some clouds on using my Konad M79 plate and some white Konad Special Nail Polish.

I added some matte topcoat by MASH to finish off the look.  This MASH matte polish is so great!  I bought it because it was cheaper than most other matte toppers.  Turns out that it dries super-fast and I’m really happy with the smooth formula.  I guess my cheapness paid off with this purchase!

Hope you all have a happy end to your weekend!  I’m going to go back to watching Breaking Dawn Pt1 now.  I recorded it a month ago and I’m having a hard time deleting it because I love it so much.  So I’m watching it again to get my twilight fix.  Maybe that will make it easier for me to delete it from my DVR box later!?

Nail Savvy brand?

Today I’m wearing a brand of lacquer that I really don’t know much about.  This unnamed shimmery baby blue polish by Nail Savvy has silver micro-glitter and it claims to be long-wearing.  I’ve had it on for 3 days… no chips so far, but a little bit of tip wear.  I like this polish…the tiny silver flecks are subtle but really pretty. I bet it would look great with some snowflakes or winter nail art.

I’m not sure where I got this bottle of polish and I can’t find this brand on the web.  It seems like it’s high quality- or maybe I’m just falling for their packaging ploys! LOL.  Their bottle brags of a special formula: Patented ceramic microsphere formula enriched with minerals.  Helps to strengthen, protect and xtend polish wear.  Now I’m curious – does anyone else own any bottles of Nail Savvy?  It says distributed in New York, NY & Wokingham, Berkshire RG…

The real cost of nail addiction?

Do we really save money by doing our nails at home? That’s the question of the day!

My initial argument is YES, of course we save money!  Why pay a salon when I can do the same thing at home!?

But… (there’s always a big but) now that my DIY nail art addiction has spiraled a teensy bit out of control… I’m really wondering if I spend more dough than someone who goes to a salon a few times per month?!

I have a growing stash of polish, an array of stamping plates, topcoats, treatments, glitters, stickers, and the list goes on.  As I’m sure most of you bloggers do too!  So what do you think?  Are we saving money by applying all these nail products ourselves, or are we spending way more than the average salon patron?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!  And since we all like to looks at pictures… here’s a quick mani I whipped up yesterday morning before I attended a family function- I stamped konad M35 on my tips and topped it off with a glittery topcoat.  Quick and easy- only ten minutes from start to finish.  Hmmm…. so if TIME IS MONEY… maybe we are saving cash then??  What do you think?

10 minute mani – white konad m35 on tips and sparkle topcoat

my financial aid fingernails!

Demure manis are not typically my style….but I need to look professional this week! I flew JetBlue to Orlando FL on monday for a work conference. I am a financial aid advisor and every year my university sends me to the big Federal Student Aid conference to hear all about the upcoming changes to aid programs. One new 2013 initiative for US financial aid is a streamline of their websites! They are retiring the many, many pages for finaid….and created a new one called studentaid.gov  (they’re also on twitter, storify, and youtube). I am loving this! Apparently President Obama created an executive order for the US Dept of Ed to shape up their outreach and digital presence. The new studentaid.gov site is a great solution…. students and parents should check it out!

Moving on to my mani… I decided that OPI’s Don’t Pretzel My Buttons would be nice n professional-looking. (However the girl sitting next to me right now has a rad black n gold crackle mani…and on the other side there’s a lady with a wicked glittery purple mani). Oh well….it’s good for me to go neutral sometimes! Lol. I am really growing to looove this polish too. It sorta looks like creamy putty melted onto my fingertips 🙂

OPI Don’t Pretzel My Buttons

I had to apply three coats of Don’t Pretzel my Buttons to get it completely opaque. I used Orly Bonder as a base coat and Seche as topcoat…so I figured this mani would last me for the whole conference. I hope so cuz I despise traveling with chips! Oh yeah- I also stamped some Konad M57 on my pinkies just for some extra flavor! Hope you like it!

I Need a Refresh-Mint

11/23/12–HERE’S A LITTLE UPDATE ON THIS POLISH: This megalast polish lasted forever!  I got a small chip on the 8th day, so I removed the polish on the 9th day.  I was super-impressed with it’s longevity.  This stuff rocks!! here’s my original post:

11/15/12– Isn’t this a cute name for a polish?  “I Need a Refresh-Mint” is part of the megalast line from wet n wild.   I was a little perplexed when I found it at the store- I couldn’t figure out why they named it mint-anything…. it really looked light blue to me under the fluorescents.  Blue or green?  Who knows, but it is sorta refreshing 🙂

indoors it looks greenish

I stamped a Konad M35 bubble design on the tips to jazz it up a little bit!  I used an old AVON color called Foil Aluminum for my stamping.  I’m sure that Konad special polish would’ve stuck better to the surface of the nail….. but a girl can go crazy buying a zillion shades of special stamping polish!  I told myself that I was only allowed to buy the basic colors for stamping- black and white.  So for some silver bling… I just dug through my stash to find something opaque that might work- I think this avon color did the trick.

with flash it looks blue-ish!

Getting back to the wet n wild megalast- this line has what they call a ‘manicurve pro brush‘.  Because the brush was wide- I didn’t have to do multiple strokes to cover my nail.  I got a clean paint line along the base and edge of the nail without having to fuss too much.  On the flipside, I’m not sure if ladies with very petite nail beds would like this broad brush…it may accidentally bump into the cuticles?  But nothing about me is very petite … so I’m a fan of the manicurve!

Thanks for clicking! TGIF and happy nail painting….

I Need a Refresh-Mint

11/23/12–HERE’S A LITTLE UPDATE ON THIS POLISH: This megalast polish lasted forever!  I got a small chip on the 8th day, so I removed the polish on the 9th day.  I was super-impressed with it’s longevity.  This stuff rocks!! here’s my original post:

11/15/12– Isn’t this a cute name for a polish?  “I Need a Refresh-Mint” is part of the megalast line from wet n wild.   I was a little perplexed when I found it at the store- I couldn’t figure out why they named it mint-anything…. it really looked light blue to me under the fluorescents.  Blue or green?  Who knows, but it is sorta refreshing 🙂

indoors it looks greenish

I stamped a Konad M35 bubble design on the tips to jazz it up a little bit!  I used an old AVON color called Foil Aluminum for my stamping.  I’m sure that Konad special polish would’ve stuck better to the surface of the nail….. but a girl can go crazy buying a zillion shades of special stamping polish!  I told myself that I was only allowed to buy the basic colors for stamping- black and white.  So for some silver bling… I just dug through my stash to find something opaque that might work- I think this avon color did the trick.

with flash it looks blue-ish!

Getting back to the wet n wild megalast- this line has what they call a ‘manicurve pro brush‘.  Because the brush was wide- I didn’t have to do multiple strokes to cover my nail.  I got a clean paint line along the base and edge of the nail without having to fuss too much.  On the flipside, I’m not sure if ladies with very petite nail beds would like this broad brush…it may accidentally bump into the cuticles?  But nothing about me is very petite … so I’m a fan of the manicurve!

Thanks for clicking! TGIF and happy nail painting….

Konad nail stamping

I love my konad nail stamping kit!  Most retailers don’t sell Konad… but you can still get all the stamping stuff you need online at Amazon or http://wowsocool.com.  The designs are pretty easy to stamp on and the results look like salon-quality nail art.  To get started you only need a couple items:

1. Konad Nail Art Stamper
2. Konad Nail Art Scraper – if you wanna skip this you could just use a credit card!
3. Konad Stamping Plate – these around $6 ea
4. Konad Special Nail Polish– but you can use your own regular polish if you have a shade that’s very opaque.  I find that very frosty colors work good too.

scraper, special polish, stamper and M35 plate

There are tons of great how-to videos online if you want to know more about stamping.  Here’s a corny (but informative!) youtube vid put out by Konad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzEuVNvE5i0

Below I have posted a few of my past Konad designs.   The camera on my old phone was iffy, but this gives you an idea of the fun stuff you can do with stamping!