Nails

What’s the Longest Your Nails Have Ever Been?

May 22nd, 2019 by Karen 20 Comments

I keep my nails super short and stubby nowadays, but back in the day I had me some eagle talons! 🦅💅

I’ve been thinking about Wolverine-like nails lately because I started watching this show on Hulu called Claws…

It’s about a group of ride-or-die Florida friends with criminal ties who work in a nail salon. There’s fierce female bonding, salon gossip and — oh, yeah: murder, money laundering, booty shaking and betrayal! (Of course.)

I mostly watch it for the nail closeups (well, it’s also pretty amusing)…

The characters wear elaborate, intricate nail designs on what literally look like claws.

The nail art is amaze-balls, but there’s absolutely no way I could have nails that long at this point in my life. I might have been able to swing it back in college or in my early 20s. That’s when my claws were at their longest, which was between half an inch and an inch beyond my fingertips. They were my natural nails, too, and pretty strong. And they grew fast.

I think something changed when I hit my 40s because my nails don’t grow anywhere near as fast now, and the sides split, which never used to happen.

So now I keep ’em short and sweet.

Anywho, what’s the longest your nails have ever been?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Budget Beauty for $10 or Less: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel in Mauve-olous

April 17th, 2019 by Karen 8 Comments

sally hansen mauve-olous — After four days, this drugstore mani looks just as fresh as day one.

Hooray for budget beauty! In this new series, we talk about sweet finds you can get for $10 or less.

GAH. I’m getting really antsy to paint my nails with the Chanel Cruise colors. (That purple? It’s just calling my name.) So I’m gonna do that tonight, but before I go there, shout-out to my current nail polish situation, Sally Hansen’s Miracle Gel in Mauve-olous, which is indeed marvelous.

OK, this is… I painted my nails on Friday night after one of those epic bathroom sessions that El Hub makes fun of me for, because I literally can spend almost two hours in the bathroom after I put Connor down to bed. He’s like, “What are you DOING in there? Did you fall in the toilet and get stuck? Now you can’t get out?” (Side note, no, that only happens to my Velvet Teddy Lipstick, ha! 🤣 ) And I’m like, “Dude, I’m just living my best life in here, OK?” I was so happy to have some time to myself, so in celebration of that, I did a hair mask, a face mask, and I also painted my nails. 💅🏽

I did two coats of Mauve-olous on top of bare nails, and then the Miracle Gel Top Coat on top, which is the process Sally Hansen recommends, and look! — after four whole days, there’s only a little bit coming off at the ends of my nails (as to be expected). But really, no big chips. Sure, the shine has dulled, but the polish still more or less looks like fresh paint. I’m betting this could easily go six or seven solid days.

I’ll be wearing it again, for sure.

By the way, Mauve-olous is one of those colors that looks very different in different lighting. Like, I’ll go into the bathroom, and it’ll be peachy pink, but it’s mauve-rose in full sun. I think it’s really beautiful, and it’s affordable, too — about $8 a bottle.

Oh! — and another bonus of the Miracle Gels is that they dry relatively quickly. You don’t have to sit there for 45 minutes while you wait for your nails to dry. For two coats and the top coat, I’d give them 20 minutes to completely dry down.

It’s good stuff!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Pondering Pastel Polish and Painting Nails After Coffee: Talk to Me!

March 21st, 2019 by Karen 34 Comments

sally hansen mega strength boss gloss swatch — This is the *good* hand.

Unsolicited life tip #546: If you’re going to paint your own nails, DoNt dO iT rIgHT aFeTer yOUvE haD A MaSsIVe AmOUNt oF CoFfeE. ☕☕☕☕☕ Like, if the cup was as big as your head, refrain! — because sure, one hand may turn out OK, but the other one? Wonky-wonk.

I did it the other day, LOL! I was telling my friend Tatiana about it in the comments like, “Yeah…I just painted my nails high on coffee.” My left hand looked great because I’m right-handed, but my right hand? Whole ‘nother story.

That pic at the top are the good nails, HA HA HA! On the other hand, the middle nail is all patchy, and there’s a big lump in it.

I don’t even know how it got there. 🙄

Trust me — you don’t wanna see the other hand!

But you know, I was just happy to have my nails painted, because, believe it or not, once upon a time, I was the person who always had her nails and her toes done. If I were going out, I wouldn’t have dared to go without having my toes painted. Bare toenails used to be MORTIFYING for me, but time flies, life happens, things change… You pop out a kid, things happen. Now I’m overjoyed whenever I actually sit down and paint my nails, so I was absolutely thrilled (despite the wonky right hand) to have my nails did.

sally hansen mega strength shades — From the front to back: Top Coat, Boss Gloss, Her-Oine, She-Ro and Strengthener

The shade I’m wearing here is called Boss Gloss, from Sally Hansen’s new Mega Strength line. Side note: Did you know that Sally Hansen was actually a real person?! For the longest time, I just thought it was a name someone made up, but no. She was a businesswoman and led a *very* colorful life.

Anywho, nails… I did two coats of Boss Gloss with layers of the Mega Strength Base Coat and Top Coat.

About that, there are three Mega Strength colors on my desk right now — Boss Gloss, Her-Oine and She-Ro.

sally hansen she ro — Sally Hansen Mega Strength in She-Ro, along with the Mega Strength base and top coat

I wore She-Ro last week, and I loved the wear time (more on that in a sec), but the color didn’t really do anything for my soul (because that’s important). It’s a mid-toned purplish mauve… I like it just fine, but generally speaking, if I’m gonna wear purple on my nails, I prefer either an Easter-egg pastel purple, or something super intensely bold.

There’s no in-between when it comes to purples with me. Are you like that too with any colors?

Back to She-Ro again — the wear time was awesome! I had it on for a full seven days, during which time I only saw the smallest of chips at the tips until the evening of the seventh day…

Wow, that sounded like the start of a very foreboding tale! 😨

And so it began… She was in the shower washing her hair when the edge of the polish at the base of one of her nails kept lifting up and catching on her wet hair…

GIRL, it was all downhill from there. I stood there under the water for gosh knows how long, peeling my nails off. (YOU KNOW YOU DO IT, TOO.)

sally hansen mega strength boss gloss her oine she ro — $5.99 each

Anyway, I’ve got those three colors on my mind right now, and if Boss Gloss and Her-Oine do well, then I’m gonna go back to get some more colors, because they also have some dark colors that look really pretty.

Other things nail polish related… I painted the Boss Gloss mani in the morning before going to my HIIT class later that night, which I think is one of the biggest tests for nails. If a polish can survive a workout with weights, that nail polish is LEGIT. I walked into the class that night thinking, “Aw, man, I just did my nails,” because, on any given day, there are barbells, dumbbells or kettle bells (ALL THE BELLS) involved, and handling weights will chip your nails quicker than you can say, “No way, lady, Keanu is MY BOYFRIEND.”

That evening, we used sandbags, which are the worst for chipping. We did this funky move called “the sandbag clean and press,” where you take a heavy sandbag, flip it over, and do a squat. So now I’m bruised all up and down my arms.

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Desperately Seeking Persistent Polish: 7 Days With Sally Hansen Color Therapy Bronze Reflection

October 26th, 2018 by Karen 15 Comments

sally hansen bronze reflection — Sally Hansen Color Therapy in Bronze Reflection ($7.99)

In the Desperately Seeking Persistent Polish series, I wear a different nail polish for seven days, and take before and after pics to document the condition of my paws over the course of the week!

I keep thinking that I’m going to run into a dud one of these days from Sally Hansen Color Therapy, because, hello! — when do you EVER find a nail polish line where every. single. polish. you try consistently delivers the goods?

This week was definitely NOT that week, because Bronze Reflection was one of the best-performing shades I’ve tried from Color Therapy so far. I feel like I say that every week about Color Therapy these days (hey, Karen broken record much?), but when something’s worth raving about, I’m gonna rave about it!

Bronze Reflection, which lists for $7.99, is all the things I’d expect to find in a Chanel cult nail color (except for price, of course). It has finer-than-fine micro-glitter, and it’s startlingly complex. Just like *that*, it shifts from pinkish bronze to a cranberry tinged with rose gold to a buttery yellow brass. It’s like all of the colors of autumn leaves squeezed into a bottle. And to top it off, you can wear it sheer — and it’ll look purposefully sheer, and not patchy or poorly pigmented — or you can go completely opaque like I did in these pics. It’s SO flexible.

Here’s how it held up throughout the week:

Day 1

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How Young Is Too Young for Manicures and Pedicures?

October 23rd, 2018 by Karen 37 Comments

Out of the blue the other night as I was getting Connor Claire ready for bed, she pointed at her fingers and said, “Mama, paint my hands. You paint my hands and my feet, mama, okay?”

LOL! I’m pretty sure she was asking for a mani/pedi from me. ?

I’m not exactly sure where she got the idea, because I usually do my nails when she’s asleep, since it’s the only time I have to sit still long enough for my polish to dry. She doesn’t ever see me actually doing the nail painting part. I guess she must’ve seen it on TV or heard about it in preschool.

It was both endearing and a little shocking at the same time, because the first time I ever got a manicure was in college.

COLLEGE.

I was 19, and I remember picking out a soft, creamy pink for my nails, and when the nail tech was done, I pulled a twenty out of my wallet (which was the bulk of my paycheck at the time) and said to please keep the change.

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to questions like this, because every child and every family’s different (plus, I’ve been dressing up my cat and calling him a kitty supermodel for more than a decade, so I’m not one to judge), but I am curious. How commonplace are mani/pedis among toddlers and kids these days?

I’ve overheard a few moms at the playground talking about how they like to take their two-year-olds to get manicures and pedicures at the salon, and now I’m suddenly recalling having seen many, many pictures of toddlers and slightly older children on Instagram and social media getting their fingers and toes done with their moms.

I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t go to my first nail salon until I was older, but I’ve always thought of it as a grownup thing. Am I alone in this?

Not to say that I don’t plan to paint Connor’s nails before she’s out of high school. I’m sure I will, but she seems to have forgotten about it for now. If/when she asks me again, I’m going to tell her that we can do it for special occasions, like her birthday, and we’ll do it at home.

And when she’s older, like maybe in middle school or high school, if she expresses an interest, I might take her to the nail salon… Or she can just get a job and pay for it herself like I did. LOL!

What do you think? How young is too young for manicures and pedicures?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen