How I Paint My Nails

Hello my dear friends,

I truly do hope that you are staying safe, healthy and staying home if you are able to during this very scary time we are all finding ourselves in right now with this global pandemic. This past Monday I started working remotely from home. I did have to go feed my horse on Thursday like normal since my sister is still working due to her being an in home health aide. Her job is essential. In our state of PA all schools are closed, all non essential businesses have closed and quite a few counties are on "shelter in place" orders. Our county is not under that order but it does appear most people are being responsible and staying home. It was really eerie passing all these closed businesses on my drive out to Mom's Thursday. Then I did have to stop at the grocery store and all day long I was so stressed about having to do that. It was not too bad and I was able to get everything I needed except for Lysol spray.

I've been feeling pretty depressed the last several days for obvious reasons. It's been tricky to not keep the news on all day and find other normal stuff to do to keep my mind off of things. I did paint some rocks with messages on them that I did hide down by the river on Friday afternoon when Casey and I did take a brief walk (which we are allowed to do) to get some fresh air and exercise. I also painted a bunch of rocks that I am going to be gifting to our neighbor camps next time we get to go to camp, whenever that may be. We were going to go my birthday weekend in April, don't think that is going to happen now, sniffle, sniffle. Maybe by May we will be able. I miss our bus and camp.

It was very nice though being able to see my horse, the cats and dogs on Thursday when I went to feed. They were some therapy I desperately needed. I am loving being home with our cats and they are too, it's just being stuck home in this is working on my emotions in different sad ways, sigh.

I also did my nails for the first time in two weeks this morning when I decided I had to do them to try to make myself feel a bit better through my nails.

I decided to make this post one that I had been wanting to do for quite a while now, like a couple years, lol, on how to paint your nails and a few words on how I do it. Hope you enjoy this post and that it can take your mind off of this time we are in for a few minutes.

In this picture I have the items that I use when painting my nails. From left to right, the cuticle trimmer I use only for shaving off the little jagged pieces of skin around my nails to keep them smooth. If you use one of these be extremely careful as you can go too deep and cut yourself. Use a very light touch. The next is a flat edge cuticle pusher. I don't use this for pushing my cuticles though. I use the flat end to scrape any polish that I get on my cuticles or the edges of my nails as I am painting my nails. I find that if you do this as you go then any clean up at the end is way easier. Next is my clean up brush that I dip in the dappen dish (above the brush) that I put acetone in for any other clean up that needs done. I have tweezers that I do put to use quite often since no matter what I do I still get a cat hair or two that I need to pull off, ha ha. If I am doing any stamping I use the cosmetic applicator q-tips to clean up the polish that gets on my fingers.

To remove my old polish I use straight acetone with cut up pieces of felt that I get from the craft store and cut myself. I also use a felt pad with acetone to clean my stamping plates. After I remove my polish I do scrub my hands and nails with a super simple homemade hand scrub made with plain white sugar and coconut oil. I use a nail brush with some liquid soap to scrub my nails and cuticles to get the oil residue off my nails prior to painting. If you don't do this the polish will not adhere to the nail as it should due to the oil.

The base coat I use is always Orly Bonder, then I do two coats of whatever creme color I am using, then I will do my nail art if I am doing any, glitter on any nails I might be and then a shimmer/sparkle top coat on whichever nails I may be that particular mani. My top coat I use is Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

The process of painting my nails is simple. I use pretty much the same technique as shown in this photo that I snagged somewhere off the interwebs (sorry I can't credit since I don't know who made this). To start I brush the excess polish off the back of the brush on the inside neck of the bottle probably two times. Doing it this way usually leaves just enough polish on the front of the brush to evenly polish my nail with the three strokes. I start with the middle stroke then each side. I wait a few minutes between the first coat and then repeat this same process for the second coat, again cleaning up as I go if needed. I also do prefer to leave the bit of a gap between where I start my polish and the cuticle itself. I just prefer the gap. Some people do not and polish the whole way down to the cuticle. There is no right or wrong, it's truly just about personal preference. When my mani is completely dry I moisturize the heck out of my hands and spend extra time rubbing my lotion into my cuticles. I moisturize many many times during the day and always rub lotion into my cuticles very well. It's what keeps them looking so nice and keeps them super healthy. Remember to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize :)

There you have my basic nail painting routine. Hope you enjoyed this little bit of how I do it.

Here's my nails I did this morning. I think they are super pretty and we all need some pretty in this time we find ourselves in.

My base is China Glaze "Funky Beat". The glitter is Color Club "Get In Loser" and on the rest is China Glaze "Don't Mesh With Me". I had actually just bought both Funky Beat and Get In Loser a couple weeks before everything went crazy. I think they are both really pretty polishes and love this glitter mix.

Funky Beat, this is out now from the Trolls Spring Collection, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this purple! 

Here are the rocks I painted and then hid down by the river on our walk. I really hope that people see these and it helps at least a little bit. I'll be painting more this coming week I am sure since I have so much time to paint right now. I am not a hoarder but do hoard back up paint, acrylic spray and rocks. So happy I do hoard those now. 

Here is my home work set up. I don't have a desk so a camp table and kitchen chair it is. I got up the first day and came back to this, Princess Pebbles taking over for me! Isn't this set up so fancy :) :)

Coworker Miss Betty!

Coworker King Dino.

That's all for today. Please, please, please stay safe and healthy. Please take this virus seriously also. This is such a scary uncertain time but we can get through this together but only together, so please do your part and stay home if you can, together we can flatten the curve. Talk soon my love bugs.

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

The Gold, The Gold....It's All Mine!!!!

Happy Saint Paddy's Day my friends,

It's the day of green. I hope that today finds you healthy and safe in these crazy uncertain times we find ourselves in currently. It's really scary seeing how this pandemic is playing out. Here in our state the government has asked all non-essential businesses to close for the next 14 days. My work is still open as we are considered life safety being fire and security company and our customers need us now more than ever to make sure that their fire, security and camera systems are working as they should. I've been taking the extra measures to keep myself, Casey and my Mom safe. I've been doing all her grocery shopping for her as I do not want her being possibly exposed to the virus at 77 years old or some crazy person running into her with a shopping buggy and knocking her down. I'm taking no chances with her with that so between myself and my sister she will have her groceries that she needs until things settle down and get under control with this. It's really scary and I've been trying to keep myself educated on all that I can on this. I've got the cats and bunny stocked up on food, medicine and litter. So, if we are put under a temporary stay at home quarantine we will be okay. It's just crazy how just like that our world changed so fast!

Please take the guidelines they are advising us to do seriously and please do your part to help lessen the spread of this. We all need to do this together.

Well, enough of that, onto my nails. I did some leprechauns, gold and rainbows again for this year's St. Paddy's Day edition. I love these, they are cute and happy little nails I think. I hope you like them too and that it takes your mind off of the virus for a little bit.

My base is Color Club "We Liming". I did the leprechaun,  gold and rainbows with many polishes I was too lazy to keep track of. On my pinkies and thumbs is a coat of China Glaze "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Starfish" to finish.

We Liming on it's own, love this shade of green! 

That's it for today. PLEASE be safe and stay healthy my friends. Talk to you this weekend when I post my first nails for Spring, yay! I leave you with my view on the couch from this past weekend. I love my life with my babies :)

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Evergreen Boughs

Happy Sunday,

Hello my friends, it's been a couple weeks since I posted. Last weekend I did do my nails but put them in my nail draft of nail spam to post at a later date. So, no post last weekend. I hope you are doing good and that life is good. It's great my way. We did have to turn the clocks ahead an hour last night for daylight savings which I absolutely hate and wish they would do away with. It takes me about a week to acclimate to the time change and the cats of course have no idea the clocks changed, lol.

Spring is almost here and I haven't done a whole lot of Winter nails this year, maybe due to the fact that we have had no snow or really any Winter like weather. We've had a bunch of rain but no snow. I don't really like snow too much but do find it pretty and so quiet and peaceful when it is snowing. It's been pretty warm here all season. Today though I did decide to do some Winter nails. I did some stamped evergreen boughs on white to look like the boughs lying on some snow. I kind of really love the way these turned out, I think they are super pretty and hope you like them too. It's not often that I do a white base and today doing one it made me remember how much I really do love white nails :)

My base is OPI "Alpine Snow". I stamped using Finger Paints "Ball Gown Glamour" with Lesly "Winter Mood 1" and Lina "4 Seasons Winter 01" plates. The green glitter is a snowman no name polish and on my pinkies and thumbs to finish is a coat of BaronessX "Esmeralda".

Alpine Snow on it's own. This one is a great basic white if you are looking for a nice white.

Have a great Sunday and an even better week. Talk to you next weekend with whatever nails I come up with doing then!

I leave you with another picture of my Mom and sister's cat, Scoot Too, in the basket I took out to the house for him. He loves his basket so much and I love that he does :) He's such an awesome kitty and so happy they adopted him late last year :) I love him!

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?