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?

Mani Bombs, Moisture Goodness for Nails & Cuticles!

Happy Tuesday Love Bugs,

Hope you are good, I am good!  Today I finally have my promised mani bomb post for you.  A mani bomb is basically a bath bomb for your hands and nails.  If you don't know what a bath bomb is, it's a product that has a bunch of moisturizing oils, such as almond, jojoba and coconut oils, in them that you toss in the bath and they fizz from the citric acid in them and as they fizz, they dissolve and release all the oils so that as you soak in the tub your skin soaks up the oils and you end up with super soft, silky and moisturized skin.  Mani bombs work the same way, but, have a bit more added oils usually for extra moisture for your nails and hands.

Mani bombs also may be called mani melt, mani fizz(y), mani shot or mani soak, but, they are all the same thing.  I have mani bombs from three different places, Pretty & Polished, Forever Polished and Paw-Some Natural Bath & Body (their shop tho' is currently not up on Etsy where it always was which sucks cuz' I love their products so much, hopefully they will open shop up again soon).  I will include links to these shops and a couple other shops that have mani bombs that I do want to try out their products at the end of this post.

To use a mani bomb you fill a bowl full of hot water, drop the bomb in then soak your hands in the water for 5 to 10 minutes or so.  I usually soak for at least 10 minutes and periodically during my soaking I will take my hands out and rub the oils into my hands and nails then put them back in the bowl to soak some more.  Once you are done soaking, pat your hands dry and don't wash them for at least a half hour to give the oils plenty of time to absorb into your hands and cuticles.  They really are quite luxurious and do make your hands really soft and they do feel so nice after you do a mani bomb.  I do them about twice a week.  I will do them either with polish or without polish on.  I also will break a bomb in half to get two uses out of one bomb for the larger size bombs. I love using a mani bomb, it gives me some me time and a bit of time to just relax a bit too.

Here are all my mani bombs and how I store them.  The basket contains all mani bombs and the purple basket contains some of my mani bombs and some bath bombs too.  I LOVE my mani and bath bombs, that is for sure :)

Here are the three different brands that I have both fronts and backs of the bomb packages.

Pretty & Polished mani melts, these come in a pack of three, I use one at a time, Paw-Some Natural Bath & body, Forever Polished, both the Pawsome and Forever Polished bombs, I break in half for two uses. 

Here is the bowl I use.  I love this bowl, it's the perfect size for mani bombs and it was also my Grandma's who passed many, many years ago.  I loved my Grandma so much, she was a great lady, so this bowl means a lot to me and makes me think of her and smile when I use it :)

Here you can see how big the bowl is, you want one that will allow you to submerge both hands in it. 

The bomb broken in half in the package and the half of the bomb I used for this soak.  The other half I just keep in the package until my next mani bomb.

Here is when I first dropped the mani bomb into the water and how it looks as it fizzes and dissolves. 

Here is the water after the bomb has completely dissolved, see all that oily goodness there and the pic below this one is the residue of the oil left, you can see there how much oil they do pack in the water. 

Here is a pic after using a bomb, see how nice and moisturized my hand, nails and cuticles look. They really do a great job pampering your hands and nails.  Don't mind my horribly stained nails, I never ever remove stains from them as I don't care about them being stained since I always have polish on anyways :)

And, there you have it, mani bombs.  I love using these and I love the way they make your hands, nails and cuticles feel and look.  I definitely suggest incorporating mani bombs into your own nail care routine.  They are so worth it.

Here's links to some shops where you can buy them from:

http://www.shopprettyandpolished.com/collections/mani-melts

http://foreverpolishedbyashley.bigcartel.com/

http://charminghandmademagic.bigcartel.com/category/mani-bomb

http://www.paintboxpolish.bigcartel.com/product/mani-fizzes

https://www.kbshimmer.com/product-category/hand-care/mani-shots/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Wimzy?section_id=10199462&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LOLITALACQUER?section_id=17195309&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

https://www.etsy.com/shop/GrimAndGlamorous?section_id=17421472&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

That's it for today.  I leave you with more of Miss Gypsy, Casey's cat, she's settling in very nice and everyone is getting along now and it's nice to see.  The second pic is of her with some catnip, she's a cute and nice little cat.  I am happy to have her as part of the cat crew in my home and she's so pretty too!

Talk to you all soon and have a great rest of the day and tomorrow is the middle of the week already, yay :)

Polish & Purrs,

Melly

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Let's Talk Moisture & Snow, No, Did Someone Say Snow!!!

Happy Sunday, 

Where do the weekends go?  I don't get it, how does Monday get here so fast, aye, yi, yi and we don't even have The Walking Dead on Sundays either now until Feb. 8, One-Five.  It's okay tho'.  I hope everyone had a groovy weekend and has a fantabulous rest of the night. I have Miss Betty sleeping at my feet on the couch and we have the movie, Heathers, on, so I am  cozy, comfy & happy.  I haven't watched Heathers in forever.  I've always loved this movie, it came out my senior year in high school.  I truly am an old Fogie, lol.  I did my nails today, didn't do snowmen, still did Crotchety Old Man Winter nails.  I didn't feel like painting the snowmen today and doing much art, so, I did decals.  My nails are towards the end of the post today.  

Today I got pics of the hand, nail & cuticle moisture products I use to do this post.  I wanted to get how I do it up as soon as I could since it is Icky Winter time now and that old fart sure does do a number on our skin making us cold and dry, mean old man, Winter, (shakes fist).  Now we get to talk MOISTURE, so very important for healthy and happy nails, cuticles and hands. Ignore my horribly nail polish addict yellow stained nails.  I never ever bother with whitening my nails.  I always have polish on, so, I don't care that they are stained.  On to the moisture talk.  The pic below is my hand and nails after I was finished with my "moisture maintain, I like that "moisture maintain", for referring to keeping it all hydrated.  I'll caption the pics with my moisture maintain.

Happy & Healthy hands, nails & cuticles.

The cuticle oils I use, the one on the left, my friend, Leslie, made for me, I love it :)  Thanks, Leslie, if you are reading this, I love it, CND Solar Oil, this is my favorite oil and the smell, it smells like almonds, yum ;) , California Mango Mend oil, I love this one too, it smells really good too 

The first step I do is a cuticle oil, any of the three above, I use.  Brush it on around the cuticle to apply it.  I always let it sit for a few minutes then rub it in to my cuticles really good, it will absorb nicely as long as you didn't put too much oil on when it was applied. You don't need much, a little goes a long way.  For all of the stuff I use, you do not have to use a lot of product at all, a little really does go a long way.  

This is with the cuticle oil before rubbing it in. I forgot to take a pic of after rubbing it in.

 After the cuticle oil, I apply a cuticle balm. Again, with these, a little goes a really long way.  The balms I have are in the pic below.  

Lush Lemony Flutter, I love, love, love this, finally got it for Christmas, it works amazing, Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, I have been using this for years, it's my standby cuticle balm, I love this too.  My Dollish Polish Cuticle Balms, another one I wanted to try and got these as a gift too, yay.  I got the 12 pack sampler pack and will definitely be ordering some more of these in a couple scents, these are amazing too.

This is the amount of any of my balms that I use, this I use for all 10 nails and even this amount, I could decrease this a tad for doing all nails.

Balm on my nails to be rubbed in.

My nails after the balm was rubbed in.  See how happy and hydrated they are, my cuticles are smiling in this picture ;)

The last step in my moisture maintain is hand creme or hand chap as I call it is applied. The pic below are the hand cremes, butters, etc. that I use.  I do also have some Bag Balm and a couple local beeswax balms and cremes that I didn't take a pic of.
 

Moonlight Path Body Butter, another, made by Leslie, that I absolutely love, it's really nice, J.R. Watkins Hand Creme, C. Booth Body Butter, Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula, Jergens Body Cream, Burt's Bees  Almond Milk Hand Creme, another old standby for me and Mango Mend, this smells great too. Some are lighter than others.  I like to have a combo of heavy and lighters creams, balms, butters for different seasons, day, night, etc.

This is how much product I use to rub into both hands.

All rubbed in, nails, cuticles and hands are all very happy and hydrated, yay!

 And, that's my maintain moisture routine.  Moisture is so important to skin and nails staying healthy and strong.  It's important to drink a lot of water to keep your nails and skin healthy and hydrated as well.  I do this several times a day, not all of them at once all the time, but, here and there depending on where I am at.  At work I always apply hand chap after washing my hands and several other times throughout the day.  In the evenings and on the weekends is when I will do the three steps above several times when I have more time to spend rubbing stuff in.  I have moisturizers at home, at work, in my purse and my car.  No matter where I go I can always put some happy in my hands, yay!  I hope that this was helpful and you got some good tips.  I am going to post about my cuticle removal, hand/nail scrubs in a separate post.  When I started my blog I did do a nail, cuticle, hand care post,  and want to do them again now, but, individually.  Going to try for one a weekend for now.  Hope you dig them.

I didn't do the snowmen nails I was going to today.  I just didn't feel like taking the extra time to do nail art, so, I did snowflake decals and I like them.  I have a lot of decals and do love putting them on still even tho' I am doing more nail art which I didn't before, but, I am so loving doing nail art, it's so much fun to do your own nails, it makes me happy :)  Here's my snowflakes with some white polish dotted on for more snow.  This is the only snow I care to see.  I am so not a Winter lover.  I can't stand being cold, the cold just hurts, shudder. I do love snowflakes tho', they are so pretty. 

I used a base of Bonder, two coats of Essie "Strut Your Stuff" and one coat of ILNP "My Private Rainbow" (linear topcoat), a Melly Mix on my accents) and a coat of Seche Vite quick dry on top of that.  No bottle shots this post.

Strut Your Stuff, way more green, this is more of a bright middle shade of aqua, it's really pretty in real life, wish I knew how to get an accurate color pic of some of these and I am so not technical either, LOL

 That's all I have for today, my loves.  I leave you with some too cute for words pictures of our baby bear Miss Betty kitty.  She's so freaking cute, I love her face so much.  Just look at her :) 

Isn't she just the cutest little cat.  I love her so much. 

Polish & Purrs,

Melly 

Melly's Nails & Hands Care, This is How I Do It...and a Cat pic too!!

Good Afternoon all my loves, today is my second blog entry that will cover what so many of my loves have been asking about, how I care for my hands and nails.  This morning I did get my second epidural for my back issues, need to relax the rest of the day, so, today gives me a good day to do this. Shall we begin love bugs :) 

Of course, a kitty must help Mom