She Bangs

At least my fingertips do! ;) Today's nails are simple (even though they were a pain to do because the design would NOT stick to the matte- which I finally top-coated) Today has been a less ambitious day with my sister, we went to Trader Joe's - her first time!! We also went to REI and one of the outlet malls, tonight we are going to the other outlets, Casa Don Juan, and either the Eiffel Tower or Stratosphere tower at night. :-D



I used OPI for Sephora What's a Tire Jack? Matte as a base, with China Glaze Millennium applied with Konad Plate s5. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat because the stupid gun wouldn't stick to the matte. I had to redo them in the 5 minutes it took to find my camera. *argh*

Gives a whole meaning to 'finger guns', eh?

I also thought that I'd show you my toes, even though I abhor my feet. (I have wonky feet, the scar(s) you may see are from surgery I had as a teenager- fun fact, I still have a screw in my foot! I just thought the idea of bacon on my 'piggies' was funny. Please don't judge my hideous foot! lol



:-D

How to: Happy Cuticles!

Hi everyone! I've done a lot of swatching today, but my MacBook failed on me AGAIN :-(. I got it up and running again but most of my recent files are gone. I've been swatching some great colors by American Apparel, Diamond Cosmetics and Eyeko. So expect those soon, after I redid them, lol!
Since I don't have anything nice to show you, I figured I'd write about another subject I'm getting a lot of questions about, cuticle care. I've always had awful looking cuticles and after trying a lot of things, this is my routine now:

1. To cut or not to cut? A lot of people pick, or bite or cut their cuticles, using clippers or scissors. Please don't! I'm a firm believer of the no cutting regime, and I'll tell you why. Cuticles are a very important part of the nail growth cycle, when you tick them off, you're bound to see this reflect in your nail growth. Cuticles serve as a natural barrier to bacteria and fungus. If you fiddle with this too much, you'll lose this protection. And not too mention the risk of nasty infections that can lead to permanent nail damage. Yikes. If you insist on doing this, make sure you use sterile tools. As you can see in this very old picture, I, admittedly, used to cut mine too. You can see how annoyed they look, but I just didn't know how to care for them.	Sad cuticles :-(
Nfu Oh Cuticle Remover	2. Get rid of it After soaking in warm water, simply push back your cuticles with an orange stick or cuticle pusher. Be careful though, or you'll end up with damage anyway. Now, I've raved about this before, but I love love love Nfu Oh's Cuticle remover. I use this religiously and it makes a huge difference! There are different kinds of cuticle removers out there, the ones that just soften your cuticle and the ones that actually work. The latter are the so called A.H.A removers. Alpha Hydroxy Acids are natural exfoliators that dissolve and slough away dry, dead skin. Some other A.H.A. cuticle removers are CND Cuticle Eraser or OPI Avoplex Exfoliating Cuticle Treatment. Just apply the stuff on the cuticle and move an orange stick along the cuticle and watch the gunk come off!
3. Moisturize! Another huge part of taking care of your cuticles, is hydration. In order to keep them supple and healthy, you need to keep them hydrated. If I'm slacking, I'll notice this right away. There are a lot of products out there that promise moisturized cuticles, but I'm very picky. There are balms, oils, creams, butters, you name it. I think we're seeing oils the most and funnily enough I like these the least. They often contain mineral oil and they seem to dry out my cuticles even more. The product I'm using a LOT is Lemony Flutter by Lush. It does contain oils but probably in the right conjunction, because this stuff is miraculous. Every night before I go to bed, I slap this on and I wake up with super soft cuticles.	Lemony Flutter by Lush
Happy cuticle :-)	4. What do you do? So, that's all there is to it actually! Step away from the clippers & nippers, get a good cuticle remover and moisturize like there's no tomorrow. Some lovely Brazilian readers told me it's common for them to cut the cuticles, so I'm really curious to see how many of you are doing this: Do you cut your cuticles? No! Yes! Yes, but I'm not going to anymore    pollcode.com free polls

So now you know all about how I keep my cuticles happy, I hope this was helpful! Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon!
- Michèle

Oh La la!

Hey all!! Today was the first day my sister was in town, and boy did we pack it in!! I introduced her to In N Out for lunch, Grimaldi's (best pizza ever) for dinner, we saw the BODIES exhibit, the CSI Exhibit, and the Shark Reef, she won $21 on a Star Wars slot machine, and we went to Anthony Cools (so funny I had tears running down my face and my throat and face hurt from laughing so hard). Anyway, the final stop was the Anthony Cools show at Paris, so I did Paris themed nails!! I wanted to do a loose interpretation of the Eiffel tower...



I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the Eiffel towers and 'Bonjour!'. For the red stripe, I used China Glaze Salsa and for the blue, I used Pure Ice French Kiss. Topped it off with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

à bientôt! :-)

Cherry Punch Manicure

Hello Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
I really like the way this manicure turned out, very alluring. I think the base color is gorgeous - this is one of my favorite nail polish shades ever. It is Zoya "Demi" fall 2009 collection "Dare".
I also made a matching ring to compliment this manicure.
The pedicure is not the exact match however it also has cherries, just played out little differently .

Vintage Vroom

Hey everyone!! Guess what I got in the mail the other day?! OPI Damone Roberts 1968!! Boy, did this color live up to the hype- its beautiful, and totally reminds me of vintage cars or stoves. :-P Today's nails are based on the vintage car colors and chrome. Not perfect, but it works. :-D Today was fun- I went bowling with some of my old coworkers- I bowled a 129 :-D (and an 88, and an 83, but let's not talk about those ;)) Also- my sister rode into town today on her motorcycle, and is going to be here a few days- I'm super excited to see her and show her Vegas! :)

Swatch of OPI Damone Roberts 1968




I used OPI Damone Roberts 1968 (which you can order by calling 310-271-2100) as a base, then painted American Apparel Cotton on the tip at an angle, then used China Glaze Millennium for the chrome, then mixed with American Apparel Hassid to shadow. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Woo!! It sounds like a hurricane out here! (the wind is blowing SO hard!)

NEW DESIGN WITH GEL PAINT

This client of mine is amazing. She is so creative and thinks of designs that I would never come up with! I absolutely love it. I feel like the best nail designs are always a collaboration. There is a lot going on here, the nails are acrylic with little glitter moons in them. The design on top is done with gel paint.

This is another gel paint design. I learned this technique at the ibs las vegas show. I love it because it is very easy to do but it looks so cool!

These are actually my nails. I had my amazing nail tech do them and then I added the gel paint design on the ring fingers. Hey I have to have a little fun too!

These nails have some little "keys" on them. I didn't have a plan just kind of went for it.

These are acrylic nails. I layered two colors gunmetal and purple pizazz from sparklesnailproducts.com. I added a real dried flower on the ring finger.

American Apparel Extends Nail Polish Line!

Hi all!!I'm sure a lot of you that read my blog know that I'm a big fan of American Apparel's polishes- especially Hassid! Well, I got an email this morning with the news that they are extending their line to include 5 new colors and a base/top coat!



The colors (l - r) are Base/Top coat, Malibu Green, Esprit, Summer Peach, California Trooper, Butter

I hope these new polishes are as awesome as the first round!!! As soon as I get my hot little hands on some, I'll be sure to let you know- a pale yellow!??! I CANNOT wait!

Models Own - Lilac Dream

Hi guys! What's up? I've had a nice and relaxed weekend, I even managed to ignore my inbox and blog, sometimes I just have to, to keep things fun. But I promise you I'll be back with full force this week ;-). And if you emailed me, replies will follow soon, so keep an eye on your inboxes!

I wasn't planning on posting tonight but the fact I hadn't posted in a while was gnawing at me, haha. It is in the middle of the night so I'll get to the point: You're looking at Lilac Dream by Models Own. I love their huge selection of great colors and this pretty lilac is no exception. I was planning on doing a comparison with Lilac Dream, but as it turns out, I don't have anything like it!

Application was alright, only 2 thin coats are needed for full coverage. I did find the formula on the thick side, so it could stand some thinner.
I actually somewhat tested the wear of this polish and after 3 days it was looking as good as it was on day one! It didn't make it to a 4th day, but let's blame my obsessive compulsive need to change polish for that!
I'm not big on cremes, they usually bore me pretty quickly, but I'm really enjoying this color.

What do you think of cremes? Please let me know: Beautiful or boring?

Models Own products can be purchased at www.modelsownit.com.

With Yellow Feathers in Her Hair

Ok, so let me start off by saying that I know that the Copacabana in the song and on my nails are two completely different Copacabanas.... but I was requested by reader Joanna from Brazil to do the famous Copacabana sidewalk, and then I thought, HEY, I'm going to see Barry Manilow tonight... why not, so I combined the two. :-D Before you all judge me for going to Barry Manilow, it was great. Like really great. Did you know that he wrote the jingle for Band-Aids and State Farm?! I had no idea. (I learned something tonight!!) I got the tickets free too, which made the concert even more awesome! For today's nails, I took a lyric from the song 'Copacabana', 'with yellow feathers in her hair', and combined it with the sidewalk pattern at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. :)



I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the black design, as well as mixed with China Glaze Sun Worshipper and Color Club Volt of Light to make brown for the hair, since I didn't have any brown polish with me. I used American Apparel Cotton again applied with Konad Plate m77 with a mix of China Glaze Sun Worshipper and Color Club Volt of Light on top to make the feathers yellow. :) Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to make it super shiny, like Manilow's lapels.

Oh Margy, You came and you brought me a turkey.

Red Rose with Black Leaves

Hello my Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
Today's manicure turned out really great, however all the pictures ended up king of faded.
The idea of this manicure is stolen from some picture that i found online.
Unfortunately can not find the original image any more.
I used stamps to make red roses, and i painted leaves with black acrylic paint. One day i ll definitely make a pedicure with the same design, it will look super cool on the toes.
I apologize for not very nice pictures, and i hope you can still enjoy this manicure. Thanks.