The Foil Method - Get rid of glitter, not your nails!

Have you ever looked at that beautiful glitter polish and longed to wear it, but cringed at the thought of taking it off? I know I have. There's only so many times you can scrub and scrape at polish before removing a layer of your nails and losing your sanity. This method (which isn't mine by any means - it's all over Google and beauty blogs) is easy, fast, and works wonderfully!

You'll need a few simple supplies... 10 cotton balls/cotton pads, 10 small squares of aluminum foil, and polish remover. Acetone works the fastest, but any will do.

You'll also need a glitter mani. This is Nail-Venturous Floam after 4 days of wear. How great is that??

Soak a cotton ball in remover and place it over your nail. Wrap the foil around tightly. You want to hold the cotton ball in place and keep it from drying out too quickly. Repeat this process 10 times. Your second hand can be rather tricky, so you can do one hand at a time or enlist an assistant.

You'll end up with something like this. :) Let it sit for a few minutes. I let it stay on for 10 minutes, and removed by twisting the foil as I slid it off of each finger. A tiny bit of glitter was left at the sides of my nails, but it was easy to get rid of. My nails are still in great shape. Acetone can be drying, so I used a heavy dose of cuticle oil to moisturize after.

I hope you find this technique helpful. It really is quick and easy!

Fixing breaks with a teabag (And damn you, Pinterest and A Game of Thrones!)

*Let me start by saying my inner 14 year old boy wanted to use "teabag" a little differently in the title, but didn't want to get those kind of hits on the blog... :)*

So I haven't been around nail blogs for a bit because I have been splitting every ounce of free time between Pinterest and reading the Game of Thrones series, with a day of bridesmaids dress shopping. My last few posts were ones I scheduled shortly after Christmas, so I decided to tear myself away from Pinterest to see what was up and post something. :)

I broke one of my nails while Bestie was visiting, which was heartbreaking for two reasons. 1) My nails were growing out nicely rather than wonky like they usually do, and 2) it broke off into the nail bed and was super painful! I've heard of people using a teabag to mend breaks, so I decided to play with it and see what happened. As you can see, I also decided to play with Diptic and see what happened...

Top: the break, Bottom Left: the break with a teabag patch, Bottom Right: finished effect.

This was actually my second patch. The first lasted as long as The Black Knight, which was 3-4 days. the first step is to empty a teabag and cut a piece slightly bigger than your break. Apply a coat of base coat and carefully lay the bag over the break. I used an orange stick to push it down a bit. Cover with another layer of base coat, and continue with your mani as usual. I used my Sally Hansen strips over this patch and got another 3 days or so before it completely broke off taking the top off of my Tim Hortons travel mug. :( I was able to grow it out past the nail bed my a fraction, so it didn't hurt when it came off completely.

This is a great idea for those unfortunate breaks. I hope you found this post helpful! I think I'll go check in on Robb, Arya, and that little ass Joffrey...