Wednesday, February 29, 2012

GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!!

OK everyone!  It's winner time!  :)

I assigned each comment a number in the order they were posted, then I used www.randomizer.org to choose random numbers.


Research Randomizer Results
3 Sets of 1 Unique Numbers Per Set
Range: From 1 to 12 -- Unsorted
     
Set #1: 2


     
     
Set #2: 12


     
     
Set #3: 3

This means the giveaway winners are
Barb A,
Lindsay, and
Hillary

Congrats Girls!!  Email me your address via the Contact Me link on the right sidebar and send me your address.  I'll mail these out Friday or Saturday, if I get your addresses.  You have 3 days to contact me with your address.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

SOGAA

What is SOGAA, you ask?

Soak-off Gel Addicts Anonymous, of course!  LOL.

For all you lovers of SOG polish, please come and join us on facebook.  In addition to stalking the Purse Forum's SOG threads, I started a group for us DIY Soak-off gel polish lovers.  :-)

I think we encourage the addiction more than we help it though, so be forewarned.  :)

If you would like to join us in our addiction, please click on the logo below.  Happy Polishing!  :)



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

TKB Trading pigment givaway

This is my first Giveaway EVER!  :-)

So, I moved all my pigments in baggies into jars today (well, at least until I ran out of jars, LOL).

The baggie I had of TKB Trading's Zirconium Cluster yeilded FOUR jars - this is way more pigment than I will ever use for doing my nails, and that is all I use these pigments for.  So, you guys get the benefit of all the extra!

This pigment is a white powder that is super-shimmery.  It has sort of a multi-colored shimmer to it.  I like mixing it into clear gel and then applying it over a dark color to add shimmer.  I'm sure you could also mix it into regular polish for all the frankeners out there.  :-)

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post.  Next Wednesday, February 29th, I will use a random picker to choose 3 people to receive one of these jars of pigment.  The winners will be posted, and then will have 3 days to send me their address via email (there is a link to contact me in the sidebar on the right).

Here is a picture of the three jars.  Each winner will receive one jar  (click on the images to enlarge them)

Here is what the zirconium cluster looks like when mixed into clear and applied over a black base.  

Here are a few other pictures.  The zirconium cluster is the one on the far left of the photos.  You can see it fits right in with the Sparks! Collection, even though it is not part of it.  It's about the same particle size though




Good luck everyone!  :)

A different (and maybe better?) way to patch a split nail

So, a day or two into my valentines day mani (wasn't even Valentines day yet! LOL), I got a split in my usual wayward thumbnail.  I abuse this poor nail (I know, nails are not tools, LOL) and unfortunately it splits more often than I would like.

So, after a long day of work where I tore it, I came home, ate dinner, put on my jammies and went to repair my split....... only to discover I could not for the life of me find my nail glue buried somewhere on the mess I call a kitchen table!  LOL.

So I decided to try something else.  I soaked off and carefully removed my SOG from that nail and prepped the nail as I normally do.

I cut my silk wrap to fit over my tear (a bad one too - nearly halfway across my nail) and stuck it over it.  I used Gelish basecoat over top of it instead of glue.  I scrubbed just a tiny amount over the silk wrap and cured it.  I made sure the silk wrap was completely covered with the gel, and that it was scrubbed into all the little silk fibers.

I had a small wrinkle in the silk wrap at one corner that I'd not been able to flatten out, so I removed the sticky layer with alcohol and buffed the wrinkle a little with a 240 grit buffer to smooth it out.

Then I applied Gelish basecoat over the entire nail, cured it, and continued on with my SOG manicure as usual. Because it was late after I'd worked all day, and I had to work again the next day I didn't bother applying structure.  I'd fully expected the nail to break completely after a day or two, which is what usually happens when I have splits this bad.

The finished repair and nail felt surprisingly sturdy!  I think I did this last Monday, so today would be 8 days on the repair.  It's still fine, the only reason I'll be changing up the manicure tomorrow is because I'm ready for a change and the growth is bugging me.  :-)

I'm very excited about this and I think everyone should give this repair a try.  I absolutely plan on repatching it this same way tomorrow when I redo my manicure.  It just seems like the gel layers bond together with the silk wrap so much better than with the nail glue.  I've been doing the repairs with the glue as I have shown before for a year, and was a firm believer in that system.  This type of repair might work better for everyone, but I think this will definitely be my new system!

This next time I will probably go ahead and apply the structure on that nail, as I'll be doing something with regular polish and I won't have the support from the gel layers.

This was the valentines day manicure.
Two coats of Gelish A New Sunrise Sparkle, then a single coat of Gossip Girl on the tips, then Artsy Fartsy Crafts "Valentine Multi-mix" glitter on the tips, and faded up the nail.

Update: 
While I don't have a video tutorial to add, I did take some pictures today when I redid my mani, and thus the repair.  (click on the pictures to see them larger)

After removing my old gel and prepping  my nails, I cut a piece of silk wrap to make a patch.  The ones I use are still the same as those I used in the previous method's video and are self-adhesive.  I applied the silk wrap piece as a patch over the split.

Next I applied Gelish Basecoat gel, making sure to really scrub it into the silk wrap, and cure.  This is what you should have.

It wasn't completely smooth, as I often have a corner of the wrap that folds over and I cant' get it to unfold.  No big deal - remove the sticky layer with alcohol and use a 240 or 320 grit buffer to smooth it out where it's bumpy and at the edges.

Apply Gelish basecoat over the entire nail as usual and cure

You can now go about finishing your manicure the same way you always do.  Because I was doing something with regular polish this time, I chose to just do a clear manicure, so I followed this with a layer of Gelish Structure and then Top It Off.  You cannot see the repair at all, even though a completely clear manicure.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

EZ Flow TruGel Review

I only have one TruGel color (Greystone) and I have to say I LOVE it!

For one, I love the color!  It's an awesome color and not like anything else in my large collection.  It's so nice to find a unique color!  As soon as I can upload some pictures (hopefully I'll be able to get my Google issues straightened out soon and be able to upload pics again - fingers crossed) I will come back and edit this post!

Application was easy.  I did use my Gelish base and topcoat, as I refuse to buy each different brands base/top.  I applied two coats of the Greystone.  They applied smoothly, gave me great coverage, and I experienced no shrinkback or streaking at all.

I wore this for 11 days, which is pretty average for me.  I had no reason to take it off really other than I wanted to do something new (I was super excited about a custom color I whipped up recently and just had to try it).  I could've definitely gotten at least two weeks out of this, if not more.

After about a week I had added some spectraflair on top, which was mixed into a little Gelish Simple Sheer, with a fresh layer of Top It Off (TIO).  So I had on base coat, two layers of Greystone, TIO, a layer of simple sheer with the Spectraflair, and new TIO.  Oh, and I didn't buff the original topcoat before I did the spectraflair.

Today I removed the mani (as I said, because I was dying to try out my other creation), and it removed LIKE A DREAM!  Even with two layers of topcoat.  After a mere 8 minutes most of it slid right off, with the exception of a few stubborn tip spots where I use bonder that I had to soak an extra minute or two.  Had I waited the full 10 mins I wouldn't have had to do that I'm certain.

I would definitely recommend the TruGel to anyone.  I loved it and can see adding more colors from their line-up.

While my google issue is not fixed, I have (as always) found another way.  :)   Sure hope Google gets my stuff fixed soon though - this process would likely be faster if you could CONTACT Google in any way, but apparently you can't.  ;-/



Greystone in the sun

Greystone with Spectraflair topcoat