They stayed at my parents’ home, about 30 miles inland. (And up to 60 minutes away, in traffic) I drove out there after work, long after Sophie had been put to bed, and spent several nights on a leaky (read: deflated halfway through the night) air mattress, just to wake up and spend time with this little darling.

In direct contrast to the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes too big over those two weeks and I was completely devastated when they packed up their suitcases and went home.

*

My husband could see this “dark cloud” coming and in his own inimitable way, made sure I had numerous reminders of my little niece. He bought and loaded a digital photo frame with images of our time together, setting it to a constant slide-show that played whenever I wanted to see her smiling face. He bought me an identical stuffed turtle to one we had purchased for Sophie when we took her to the aquarium. (Yes, I have stuffed animals. Moving on…) He also made sure I had a copy of the film “Up” which he knew would give me another excuse to cry, and distract me from my woes…

His tactics worked, better than either of us imagined, because not a month later, I found myself  “in the family way.” It was not planned, but was welcomed, and I have been scrutinizing many of my pre-pregnancy activities with the intention to give this child the best chance at a healthy start.

*

Now considering that you are reading a nail polish-centric blog, I should stay on topic by mentioning my prior tri-weekly manicure habit. I have had to pare it down to once a week, in an effort to keep the fume exposure, to me and the baby, to a minimum.

As much as I would ideally like to stop polishing my nails altogether, it’s not going to happen, so I’ve been sticking to the Big3Free brands. As a former nail-gnawer of 30+ years, my nails are one aspect of my appearance that I can take pride in. When my belly becomes so round that I can’t see my feet, at least I can admire my swollen fingers with their perfectly painted tips.

*

What I never knew about pregnancy hormones, is that, in addition to making you sick most mornings, they also increase your sense of smell. Exponentially.

*

Now, let me be perfectly clear. I love the smell of nail polish. After a week, I used to suffer withdrawal symptoms if I hadn’t done my nails. (Okay, maybe I just had a hankering to change colors, but the odor was never a deterrent. Except to my husband, which is why I only did my nails when he wasn’t around.)

Suddenly, the fumes wafting from my nails are waking me up at night. This, after using a supposedly “toxin-free” polish and top coat, and even several DAYS after they have cured. If a previously pleasant fragrance now offends my nose, I reason that our little baby (never having had the joy that comes with a perfectly executed manicure) will most likely not enjoy the odor either.

Furthermore, my hands and nails will be in close proximity to the child’s face and may end up in his/her mouth. (Especially considering that babies are like sharks- they explore with their mouths first and ask questions later.)

*

Now, it wasn’t just the fumes keeping me up. It was the possibility that I could make my own child sick with a hobby that I love. What is a mom-to-be, who loves nail polish, to do?

I recalled having read a review or two about water-based polish and the lack of toxic chemicals that make them kid-friendly. I also clearly remember that those reviews were not especially favorable.

I decided to do some research of my own and have found exactly 8 reviews of water-based polish on nail polish blogs, and another 3 on Mom-based blogs. About half the available brands are represented here and the results vary widely.

These are the reviews I was able to locate:

Sula Paint & Peel:

• All Lacquered Up (Michelle reviews Modern Mauve and Metallic top coat)
• Chrysanthemum (Caitlin reviews Slate and Merlot)
• Vampy Varnish (Kelly reviews Slate, Dove, Moss, Azure and Royal)

*

Suncoat:

• Beauty Judy (Judy reviews #21 green and #13 orange)
• Look at this polish! (Kaybee reviews #14 steel gray)

*

Various brands:

• Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss (Andrea reviews Honeybee Gardens in Vintage Merlot)
• Amberski: A Day in the Life (Amber reviews Go-Natural in Chocolate Raspberry, Jewel of the Nile and Midnight Skies)

*

Piggy Paint: (the last three are not polish bloggers per se, but Moms who have tried the brand with their daughters)

• Nani’s Nails (Natalie reviews Ice Cream Dream, Tea Party for two and Forever Fancy)
• Mom Gadget (Susan reviews both the polish and remover)
• Moms Love $hopping (Melanie reviews Girls Rule and their remover)
• Mom4Life (Heather reviews Girls Rule)

*

I was hoping for comparisons, both of the polish and its treatment counterparts, topcoats/basecoats, if needed, and any proprietary removal products. Now that I know no comparison like this exists, I take on the task myself.

I have contacted every water-based polish company for which I can get any information online, and will report my findings, if and when I receive samples. (The only brands I have been able to locate in brick-and-mortar locations are Sula at Ulta or Anthropologie and Hopscotch Kids at This Little Piggy Wears Cotton.)

Here is the list of companies I have sent messages to:

• Sula
• Acquarella
• Honeybee Gardens
• Safe Nail Polish
• Go Natural
• Piggy Paint
• Hopscotch Kids
• Toe Shades
• Suncoat
• Polished Mama

*

I will keep you posted on the quality, appearance, wear and durability of any polish that I am able to test. I have received very favorable responses, and am optimistic that while this is a relatively small blog in a vast sea of nail blogs, a side-by-side comparison will provide another method for spreading the word about this unique product.

I hope they will see value in being compared to other products of their caliber for the many other expectant polish fanatics, polished Moms and their fashion-forward children, and anyone else who refuses to compromise their health for a mani/pedi fix.

*

I welcome your input as well! If you have any experience with, or feedback about, these types of water-based polish, please feel free to contact me: wixology@gmail.com.

And after receiving several pleas for such a dupe once the Lippmann site had sold out, I embarked on a quest to locate some similar hexagonal glitter, as well as some smaller square glitter, to mimic the general appearance of HB.

Before setting out, I had a look at my inventory of polish to see what I could utilize “as-is.” (Turns out, polish that already contains glitter will best be able to sustain the addition of more glitter, and well, maximum glitter saturation is the goal…)

As luck would have it, Love My Nails, a line I have only been able to locate in certain (read: ginormous) Walmart locations, has several clear-based glitters, one of which,  “All That,” is mainly tiny purple and silver holographic square glitter.

Bingo. We have our base! Now, to find a ton of rainbow-hued hexagonal glitter. The pink glitter comes into play later.

I have a handful of discount beauty supply stores that I frequent. Each one carries different brands, a varied selection within each brand, and random nail art materials.  (I have even gone so far as to make a chart with a corresponding map to keep track of which store carries what. What? You’ve never done this? Did I also mention that I am the daughter of a German engineer? Well, in any case, if you ever find yourself in Little Saigon, looking for a specific polish, I’ll totally hook you up.)

I was able to acquire a vast array of diamond-shaped holographic glitter from one location, but since HB contains no diamond-shaped glitter, we’ll save that for another post. (Two of my variations of Ruby Red Slippers have this style of glitter, but I have already said too much.)

From another shop, I found purple and teal holographic hexagons, but no multi-colored variety. From yet another, a location I had long-since written off, due to its over-priced polish, I stumbled into a display that had an entire rainbow’s worth of holographic bar glitter. (Even black! So gorgeous layered over a solid black polish, but I digress. Again.)

What stopped me dead in my tracks was this little container:

(It is much smaller in person. 1 1/4 inches by 1 1/4 inches to be exact.)

This tiny jar of glitter held the building blocks for my project, since it embodied most of the colors used in the original. Orange is the only color missing, and frankly, no one will be missing it when all is said and done.

Once I started adding scoops, (I bought my measuring scoop from Aromaleigh) one at a time, and a few extra balls, for better mixing, I added a bit of another Love My Nails glitter, Pretty in Pink, to the mix. This seemed to balance out the warm-to-cool color ratio somewhat.

I played around with several different colors, sizes and shapes of holographic glitter, adding some here and a little more there.

Here is a group photo of the ingredients I experimented with:

(Simultaneously, I was trying to make a version that was by demand, er, request. Nixxy, of Nixxy’s Nails fame, has an allergy to formaldehyde/ formaldehyde resin, in addition to living in Australia, where certain polish brands are prohibitively expensive. All the base polish I used were f. and f. resin free to accommodate Nixxy’s allergy, and her custom versions have both more purple/blue glitter as well as silver holographic bar glitter in an attempt to replicate this in polish form. And, to avoid a nutsacking.)

Here is a bottle shot of my interpretation of Lippmann’s Happy Birthday, which I have been calling, “Hapy Birfday” but will gladly send a bottle to anyone who comes up with a better name (anything would be better than mine!) …just leave a comment with your suggestion, and an email addy, so I can contact the winner.

And a little closer…

I have yet to try this as a manicure, but I will post the pictures when I do.

What do you think? Is this a passable dupe for the $18 Lippmann?

(Feel free to contact me on MakeUpAlley if you can’t wait for Deb to get hers back in stock…I have some up for swap and am willing to customize the color combination, within reason.)(Please note: I do not have any orange glitter to add, nor will I be attempting to locate any. Hope this isn’t a deal-breaker. =D)

I will continue this series on my interpretations of another Lippmann- Ruby Red Slippers, as well as my version of OPI- Creme de Menthe. Stay tuned!

• My sketchy intro to scary movies… at age 7!

When my parents had some office party to attend, shortly after moving the family to California from Canada, they hired a couple of neighborhood girls we didn’t know, as babysitters. I don’t remember anything about them other than they let my 4 year-old little sister and my 7 year-old self stay up late and watch some black-and-white horror movie, while they raided the pantry and ate all the chocolate my paternal grandmother sent from Germany that Christmas.

While the devoured chocolate was saddening, it was the monsters that continued to haunt me in my dreams and nightmares for years to come. If ever a teacher assigned a creative writing paper, the extremely vivid images always made their way into my storytelling, as though I was trying to purge myself of their very presence by exposing them to the light of day, as often as possible.

It wasn’t until I happened to catch an evening news broadcast, several years later, that announced the “colorization” of a film called, “Night of the Living Dead” and they showed a side-by-side clip in both black-and-white, and color, that I put the pieces of my nightmares together, and was finally free of their tyranny.

• I still LOVE scary movies, just not gory movies…

For some reason, that episode had little impact on my intense love of being frightened. Some of my favorite scary films are psychological in their nature, leaving much to the imagination…And I have an unbelievably active imagination!

One in particular, though, The Ring, had me terrified for months due to the horrifying realization, during the sequence when Samara climbs through the television screen, that our television was big enough to accommodate her. I would wake in a sweat, imagining her standing next to my side of the bed, just waiting for me to open my eyes. I never did. I just waited for exhaustion to pull me back into slumber…or daylight, whichever came first.

• My most memorable German lesson took place after playing futball in the mud.

My parents thought It would be educational for my sister and I to travel to Germany the summer before I started high school. Kris was 12 and I was 15. We were so excited to spend time with our father’s family, who all still live in Germany today.

Since our aunt Monika (my namesake) worked during the day, she signed us up for the same day-camp her son, our older cousin, Nico, was working as a camp counselor. We joined the game in the middle of the day, when it started to rain, which made for a fun game of  mud soccer, but left us filthy.

As everyone made their way off the field, some of the girls waved us over to a building and said, “douschen?” Now I was a bit of a late bloomer, and while I more-or-less knew what that word meant in English, I had yet to take classes in German. My sister and I were very confused, to say the least.

(Little did we know, my dad had given specific instructions to his family, that even though they had been taking English classes since Kindergarten, and were perfectly fluent, they were to speak no English to us whatsoever. Period. Thanks, Dad!)

Luckily, the girls had pity on us, and explained that “douschen” is the German word for “shower,” but what a shocking first impression of Germany (and those risque German girls) we had!

• When I turned 18, I joined the Army.

I was looking for adventure, an interesting  job, travel, job security and, much to my parents’ dismay, thought I’d found it in the Army. I had taken the ASVAB in high school and done well, so the local recruiters kept calling and “selling it” to me until I finally made an appointment to talk to one in person. Talk about “adventure”…

Little did I know that this particular recruiter was less than honorable and told me a lot of half-truths to get his commission. Ultimately, his sales pitch worked and I signed up on a Friday to be flown off to Fort Jackson, SC the following Thursday. (They are efficient, if nothing else!)

It was a culture shock, to be sure. Beside the 4:30am wake-up calls, there were 45 girls in a platoon and the odds of several girls experiencing their “monthly visitor” at the same time were high. (This fact was especially chilling when we got to the point in our training where we were handling “live” weapons and certain girls, known for their “instability,” were also handling loaded M-16 rifles in the barracks.)

*Actually, this story should be a post unto itself. I could go on for pages and pages about my 5-week-long experience in Boot Camp, but will save the bulk of that for another time…*

Very long story, short, it turned out I was a “conscientious objector” (otherwise known as a pacifist) at the time, and the recruiter had glossed over that part of the interview in a very deceptive manner, so I had to work my way out of the training based on a fact the should have kept me out in the first place.

It was very difficult and I was made a bad example of, lest any other soldier think this was their ticket out, too. I was humiliated, ridiculed, disciplined physically, and financially, and given the lowliest duties until such time as they figured out a way to expel me. When they finally did, they sent me home on a bus. From South Carolina to California. It took 5 days, which were some of the longest I can remember, but I was never happier to see my parents in my entire life.

• Validation from an unlikely source…my grade-school teacher…

As a short addendum to my abridged Army tale, I went to visit my favorite teacher, Mrs. Judy Newhoff, from 5th (and 6th) grade several months after my stint in the Army. I was happy to see her as it had been at least a decade since the previous visit, and as she asked about my life after her class, I shared my experience in the Army, half-expecting to be chastised for not attending college right away, which was the line I’d been fed by my parents ever since my return from training.

Instead, she encouraged me for taking time to figure out who I was, and gave me the highest honor by “wishing that her kids had done that kind of exploring before diving in to college.” From what she told me, it seemed her kids had both gone to college directly after high school and had changed their majors so many times, it felt like a waste of time, and money.

Her words still make me feel validated and a lot less like the failure, that by all appearances, I was, riding home alone on that bus, a mere 5 weeks into training. Thank you, Mrs. Newhoff!

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I hope I have not bored you to tears with my lengthy entries, since my 5 are longer than some entire blog posts!  I have a few more stories to tell, of more recent traumatic entertaining events, that I will share in time…Thanks for reading! =]

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Blogs I’d love to see randomness from, in alphabetical order:

Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss

Dr. Frankenpolish

The Edge of Sanity

Felineliza

Iceomatic’s Nails

Kronicles of a Konad-er

Lackoholic

MisaMasa

Nevertoomuchglitter

Preposterously’s Nail Blog

Pretty Perfect Beauty

Similar Addiction

The Polish Addict

Vampy Varnish

After reading and re-reading Jen’s gradation tutorial, it dawned on me that I had something similar to what she described as “a sort of watery chemical solvent that fades out the polish.” My bottle of Orly Smudge Fixer is watery and seems to dissolve the polish when repairing smudges, so I figure I’ve got nothing to lose by trying it out as gradation liquid.

Turns out, when she says, “If you have gradation liquid, it’s still not that easy to do a gradation,” she’s not kidding.

The runny nature of the liquid makes it hard to control, but the bottom line is: it works. The instructions Jen reads off her gradation liquid recommend using, “a medium-toned pearly polish. Creme, glitter, etc. won’t gradate well.”

I beg to differ.

In fact, I found just the opposite to be true: glitters works best, shimmer second best and pearly/frosty shades just  look streaky. (In the interest of full disclosure, I did not test creme polish in my experiment.)

Misa Confection Section glitter- This looks so cool- almost like those acrylic nails with the glitter gradation embedded within the nail tip itself. Very forgiving for us beginners.

OPI Star-ring the Rockettes shimmer

Misa Dance Fever silver glitter

Misa Disco Queen gold glitter

China Glaze Romantiques= frosty, streaky FAIL

Now, I hesitate to post the pics of my nails in all their stained glory, but the effect is hard to fully appreciate on the polish wheels alone, so brace yourself…

First coat- french tip.

Second coat- thicker layer on top half of french tip. (to increase opacity)

Third step- Orly Smudge Fixer over entire polished area.

Then, I brushed a little SF from the bare nail up over the line, to break up the distinct border.

Next, drag some of the polish down toward the cuticle, depending on how much gradation is desired.

Finally, I would use both topcoat and basecoat, but I used neither for these swatches in my haste.

Here’s a before-and-after: Luckily, the gradation covers the yellowing effectively and disguises the dreaded VNL (visible nail line) enough that I might be willing to do a whole manicure…It’s a nice alternative to the traditional french.

That said, even with extreme patience, this is no easy feat.

I only swatched on three fingers, using my right hand to do the smudging/grading. I’m not as confident in the ability of my left hand to achieve similar results, at least with this polish. (With the forgiving nature of the Misa glitter, I am less apprehensive.)

Since I do not have any gradation liquid, I can’t offer any sort of comparison, but I am glad I did not spend the extra cash considering the level of difficulty involved in the process, which doesn’t sound any easier with the actual liquid.

I bought my Orly Smudge Fixer at a Beauty Supply for under $5, and would definitely recommend having a bottle on hand for polish smudges. As for its potential as gradation liquid, I am impressed with my initial results and will try again, when I am in no hurry, and in a very good mood.

What about you? Have you tried a gradation manicure, either with or without gradation liquid? Any tips for the uninitiated among us? Any helpful hints are welcome…=]

Last month, I celebrated my 36th birthday. For my birthday, my sister decided to surprise me with “some really old, but very cool, color-changing shades that she never wore because they were too sheer.” I was intrigued by the description, but didn’t want to get my hopes up…

This is what I saw when I opened the package. Okay, a pretty purple, a limey green…

Hear that? That is the sound of my hopes exploding into fireworks! Hallelujah!

This is what I read on the bottom of the bottles, just to make sure the boxes weren’t toying with me.

They don’t look very sheer in the bottles, do they?

The color-change, as she put it, is evident only along the edges, or so it seems.

As it turns out, “sheer” is an understatement. Look at the 1st coat at the bottom of the swatch.

Ah, but after 4 coats, look at the depth, and duochrome-ability, as I put it. =]

I couldn’t choose which of the two to wear first, so I didn’t choose. I wore both!

Here is my big thumb, the way the polish looks most of the time. Except for the blurriness.

Turn a little, and you can see the amber side of the purple and the teal side of the green.

Here’s the rare double-sided duo, where the light hits both edges at the same time.

Not much more to say, other than…

Best. Birthday. EVER.

(Did I mention how much I love my sister? She is my best friend in the entire world and I’m not just saying that because she’s an enabler. She is THE enabler!)

Thanks, Kris! <3  I love you!  <3

Enter my first giveaway- that’s what! (But, hurry, it ends Wednesday, June 3rd at 11:59pm PST.)

I was lucky enough to go on a polish shopping spree with the lovely Kathleen, owner of OC Nail Art, and her youngest daughter, Anna, but to top off a wonderful afternoon, at our last stop, we found these long discontinued Orly Satin Hues.

Now although these are not perfectly matte, that is, without shine whatsoever, they are very unique. The shades with a strong flash are unlike any of the mattes currently available, and from what I can tell from the promotional images, nothing like the mattes about to be released, either.

They most closely resemble the finish of the ManGlaze line, in that they have a bit of a sheen, but the best part is that they can be transformed with the addition of a topcoat. (I was testing the wear as a matte without topcoat, so I will have to update later with those results.)

satin gala- a deep burgundy

satin luxury- a plum

satin perfection- cornflower blue

satin society- pearl white

satin vision- a terra-cotta shade w/ slight shimmer (thought it was brown)
satin elite- a sheer peach w/ pink shimmer
satin attitude- a golden neutral w/ beige shimmer
abstract satin- an off-white w/ gold shimmer

satin finesse- deep cool-toned purple w/ purple shimmer
uniquely satin- a dusty blue w/ violet shimmer
satin illusion- a dusty blue w/ antique green shimmer
nouveau satin- a dusty purple w/ pink shimmer

Here, you see a manicure done with satin finesse, using satin illusion as an accent on ring fingers.

natural light- this seems to represent both colors in a bluer tone. You can really see the muted shine in this pic, not completely matte, but definitely not glossy.

with flash- now, the colors are a true representation of the actual shade.

At this angle, you can see the blue undertone of the green color.

Now, since these are discontinued, they are a bit hard to find, even on ebay. I just grabbed colors I thought I might like, but there were several more in shades of pink and coral, if I remember correctly.

Good neighbor giveaway

With the way the economy has gone, I know not everyone can afford to pick up the newest collection by this brand or that, and I want to do my little part to make someone’s day a bit brighter.

I would like to know if there is someone out there, someone you know who could use a pick-me-up. Someone who for whatever reason, is having a hard time, whether it be financially, emotionally, physically, you name it, and would just love to get a bottle of one of these discontinued colors.

If you wouldn’t mind telling me their story in the comment section, I would love hear it and to send the lucky winner a bottle of Satin Hues (in their choice of what colors are available) and the reader who refers the winner will also get their choice of color. (If you do not feel comfortable sharing in the comment section, please send me an email at wixology (at) gmail (dot) com.)

(My initial thought was to offer the Satin Finesse purple, but even I realize that purple is not everyone’s favorite, as evidenced by the number of bottles of that particular color available.)

To enter, tell me the story of someone you know who would love nothing more than to own a bottle of this hard-to-find, discontinued polish, but can’t justify that expense, for whatever reason.

Make sure to leave your email address, so I can contact you to get the mailing address of the winner and your own address, as well as the color choices for the both of you.

I would be thrilled to hear from my international readers also, and am happy to include all our friends from across either “pond.”

Thanks for your entry!

I look forward to hearing from you by Wednesday, June 3rd!

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Stay tuned for next week’s post on two HTF MAC polish I received from my sister for my birthday!

Here’s a teaser pic:

I had the privilege of spending several hours with Kathleen, Emma and Anna at the Orange County Marketplace where OC Nail Art used to set up a booth during the Swap Meet.

(Definitely follow Kathleen’s Twitter feed here or text or call Kathleen at her contact number from her new website, to keep up with new product launches!)

Now this is a family-owned and operated business, which had its beginnings while Kathleen and her husband, Daniel, were on vacation. She was approached by a vendor at a mall kiosk who impressed her with the ease of the Konad application.

When she wanted to purchase supplies, Kathleen found no retailers in Southern California. After she realized that they are based out of Orange County, she decided to become a vendor herself and the rest is Konad history. (OC Nail Art remains one of the select few Konad retailers, due to Konad’s desire to avoid market saturation, even online.)

Pre-Konad

Kathleen may look like the typical soccer Mom, but looks can be deceiving.  The longer I spoke with her, the more intrigued I was by this fascinating lady. First of all, she is from Winnipeg, Canada, which earned big points since I, too, am Canadian.

As she shared her passion for the Konad system, I noticed Kathleen had no adornment on her own nails. She brushed it off, mentioning her hands were always in wet gloves and usually covered in soot. Considering that no soccer Mom I know deals with soot in her gloves, I was curious about what she meant.

She explained that she is a firefighter, a Captain, in point of fact. She said she started out as an EMS in Canada, which translated to an EMT here, only in the States, the pre-requisites were different.

Once Kathleen had met the requirements for the EMT position, she figured she might as well become a firefighter, because the qualifications were similar.

One unfortunate soul told her she “couldn’t do it.”

She not only proved him wrong, once she became a firefighter, another naysayer said she “wouldn’t last long.” Neither of these men is around, 20 years later. She has not only outlasted them, she has outranked them as Captain of her station.

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*UPDATE*

Kathleen’s strike team was sent up to Santa Barbara, California, to help with the fires.

She had plane tickets to go to Winnipeg, Canada Friday to visit her Mom for Mother’s Day, so being sent up to Santa Barbara was not ideal, but she takes her job very seriously and hopes for the best.

You can see, Kathleen keeps up her sense of humor, even as she fights fire…Her current manicure, made with, in her words,

“I’m wearing M25 design in pearl blue with a “dirty French tip” (aka dirt & soot under nails), holding my portable radio, since I don’t have a polish bottle to hold.”

Here is an iPhone photo of Kathleen’s truck, E21, at the mission in Santa Barbara, California.

They were greeted by this ominous cloud of smoke when they got their assignment…

Please keep Kathleen and her fellow firefighters in your thoughts and prayers.

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Allow me to introduce Kathleen, the amazing woman packing and shipping your Konad purchases to you.

Kathleen has three daughters. I was lucky enough to meet two of them.  Here, you see Anna, 6 years old, being pampered by Emma, 11 years old, above.

When things get slow, the girls do their own, and each others’ nails, which not only passes the time, but really demonstrates the ease with which the stamping can be done by the younger set.

While I was there, I observed one dad walked over and even allowed Emma to place a pink butterfly on his own nail so he could show his daughter. He was duly impressed that Emma did all this herself, and was excited to tell his family about it.

As you approach the demonstration table, you are greeted by more than 40 image plate choices, a large special polish selection, and a friendly Konad technician named Emma.

Emma is a fearless pitchwoman, calling out to passersby and offering them an irresistible free nail art decoration. Many take her up on the offer.  The ones who do not, have no idea what a treat they are missing.  She remains friendly and upbeat, wishing everyone a nice day whether they respond in kind, or not.

She is the consummate professional and will have a white lab coat (embroidered with her name) to prove it for her next appearance at the fairgrounds.

As you can see, it is not only the women who take her up on her complimentary demonstration. She is an “equal-opportunity Konad artist.” Emma gets to keep her tips and a portion of the sales she makes. Kathleen believes this is a valuable learning experience, not just a creative outlet.

Anna is a willing participant and, from what I understand, is quite the Konad artist herself.

For those of you who cannot visit the Swap Meet in person, here is exactly what you would find.  I just love how the image plates shimmer like so many little “sequins.” (They remind me of those hanging silver discs adorning the back of those old-school “Sparklett’s” water delivery trucks- truly spell-binding!)

Now, I must tell you, the week after I visited, their whole family went on a camping trip for a week. Since Kathleen is SO dedicated to you, her valued customer, she took her entire inventory along, just in case someone wanted to place an order.

She knows how it feels to have to wait for online orders and didn’t want to put anyone through any undue inconvenience, just because they happened to be on vacation! That’s what I call customer service.

You may recognize the “special” polish hanging prettily, but the coral-colored boxes beneath house the “Princess” polish which hold more polish and have a much more shapely bottle with a longer stem, and a slightly flatter (a la OPI) brush.

To the right of the special polish hangs a new Nailart Pen by Konad- it is both a liner brush and a squeezable dotting tool all in one product! Simple and it works like a charm! This is currently available in white, pink and purple.

Upon closer inspection, one might be able to spot the special edition Coraline sets with unique blue, yellow and pink versions of the special polish.  (A bit of trivia: the bottles included in the larger of the two sets, which are still round, but have decorative scrollwork on the face are going to become the standard bottle for Konad polish.)

So now you know exactly who it is you are ordering from when you click that “submit order” button on ocnailart.com.  I hope you feel good about supporting both a small business with an unwavering dedication to customer service and a family that enjoys their Konad hobby even more than we do.

It was a fantastic, eye-opening visit with this incredible family and I have a newfound appreciation for what Kathleen does to make our purchases possible, as well as introduce the Konad nail stamping sensation to a whole new generation.

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One more thing…

(and I know Kathleen will kill me for even mentioning it)

A small, but important issue that I feel needs addressing is the free (domestic and international) shipping that Kathleen so generously offers.

While the shipping is free to you, gentle customer, please remember that this does not make it free for Kathleen.

The shipping to certain countries costs more than double the amount of the order placed.

Since she, too, has experienced the “continental shipping discrimination” while living in Canada, she chooses to extend the free offer to her international customers, despite the often high cost of doing so.

My plea to you, fellow addicts, is that if you plan to order, by all means do so, but consolidate it into one larger order, instead of multiple small orders, mistakenly justified by the complimentary shipping.  This way, Kathleen will be more likely to continue to offer such generous discounts in the future.

Everybody wins!

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If you like the look of the traditional white tip, however, there are many simple ways to make it more interesting. One of my favorite methods include making use of those sheer duochromes that require numerous coats to even remotely resemble bottle color.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, let me break down the easiest way I’ve found to free-hand a french manicure.

You may have heard this described as “moving the finger, not the brush.”

I like to think of it as getting fingerprinted, you know, by the police. Place your finger on the ink pad, then on the form- rolling from extreme right to extreme left (or vice versa) in one smooth movement.

The last time I got fingerprinted, I was updating my greencard. (I was born in Canada) There was no inkpad, only a computer with a touch-sensitive screen. The concept, however, remained the same, because the fingerprint could only be read clearly with a smooth roll of my finger across the screen.

This same smooth rolling motion serves as the foundation of this freehand french manicure:

left side

You’ll have to excuse my one-handed pics.

Since my husband draws the line (no pun intended) at merely enduring my polish addiction, there is no way I could coerce him into photographing pictures that may subject other innocent husbands to further fume exposure.

front

I suppose, in keeping with the theme, a “mug shot” analogy might also work…=]

right side

This rolling motion can be used to apply the french base, whether it is white or not, as well as to accent the look with a ribbon of color or a stripe of glitter.

far right edge

There are definite advantages to mastering this method of application:

• you can stop buying the guide stickers. (or devising other substitutes out of address labels and the like)

• avoid the frustration that accompanies the use of sticker guides when they remove previously applied layers of polish. (or leak polish under the guide itself)

• the little bit of a “ledge” that is built up once the guide is removed is no longer an issue as the freehand layers tend to be thinner and blend in easily with the application of a topcoat.

• if you do not have a Konad, do not have french tip image plates or they don’t seem to work for you, this is another alternative.

• you can easily use whatever shape you choose to change the look of your nails. (Some of my nails have a more curved border between the pink and white, so I can either add curve to the others, or flatten the line as I see fit.)

I prefer to keep my nails, from cuticle to tip, relatively the same length, so when I wear darker colors, they appear approximately uniform. This means the nails with shorter nail beds have longer nail whites, and so on.

The french manicure can be used to somewhat disguise the discrepancies in length, and the stripes only enhance the illusion.

Here are my nails with a base coat and one coat of sheer polish to even out my overall tone.

I started out with a sheer peach base (Misa Romantic Peach)

Here is my basic french manicure with Misa Heaven White for the white.

right hand: classic french (natural light)

Add a bit of color, (and a smudge off my index finger, some over-zealous cuticle-nipping on my middle finger) and Voila! Snazzy french manicure!

From pinky to thumb: Misa Pink Champagne, ChG Passion, Misa Radiant, ChG OMG, Omega striper art brush holo glitter

snazzified french (natural light)

With flash, for dramatic effect.

classic french (flash)

Maybe not as dramatic as I thought…=]

snazzified french (flash)

Now, for those of us who prefer the funky french manicure, this too can be made snazzy with a little bit of striping.

The base black was Misa I will Survive on thumb and index, OPI Thrills in Beverly Hills gold glitter on middle, ChG Sexagon holo glitter on ring and ChG OMG on pinky.

left hand: funky french (natural light)

(Not sure where my natural light snazzified pic went…)

funky french (flash)

(Ack! The peach base turned yellow for some reason in this pic- sorry ’bout that!)

snazzified funky french (flash)

For the striping accents, from thumb to pinky: Omega striper art brush holo glitter, ChG OMG and Misa I will Survive black for the rest.

Now, to clarify, I do not go out, sporting the various colors you see here, all at one time. This was for demonstration purposes only.

One final thought: since my nailbeds tend to be stained, even slightly, I rarely do a french manicure without the assistance of my Seche Bright. It is an optical brightener that looks clear on the nail, but freshens up both the color of  the polish and “pinkens” (if that’s a word) my skintone from the dingy orange to a more palatable blush.

Here, I have only painted the bottom half of my thumb with the Seche Bright to show the contrast. While it looks somewhat strange on half a nail, it is not at all apparent when used over the whole nail.

It also really brings out the white in your nail edge when used alone. If I run out of time to do my planned manicure, one coat of Seche Bright is all I need to feel confident that I look, well, “polished.”

seche bright thumb 1/2 and 1/2

It’s all done using the OMG collection from China Glaze, with a couple of frankens thrown in for good measure.

right hand:
pinky to thumb: DV8, LOL, L8R G8R, QT, 2NITE

left hand:
thumb to pinky: IDK, “wixology-blend” grass green, GR8, “wixology-blend” royal blue, BFF

I did a mini-tutorial, around St. Patty’s Day on the Makeup Alley nail board, about how to make the green holo. The blue is the same idea, but with ChG Frostbite instead of ChG Outta Bounds.

Enjoy!

This is the Eyeclops Bionicam:

This is a new and improved version of the one I used for the review, but the gist of the Eyeclops is that it magnifies anything at 100, 200 and 400 times.  The original version, which I had purchased for one of the kids I watch, was hooked up to their 50-inch plasma television, displaying every minute detail in gorgeous clarity.

After the rocks, leaves and carpet fuzz had lost their novelty for the kids, I brought out my swatch wheels and was immediately transported into a tiny universe where holographic and prismatic are not interchangeable terms, and all glitter is not created equal.

This version, the Bionicam, is more like a super-magnifying digital camera with a video function, for capturing those pesky bugs without expecting them to hold still and USB memory stick, for transferring the photos and videos to the computer. It also has a nice large screen for previewing shots before taking the photo. (The previous version had no screen and no camera, video or otherwise.)

It still has a video-out port and cable for displaying the images on a television for a larger audience, but you are no longer tethered to the television by the cable.

If you are as curious about the world around us as I am, and would like to acquire an Eyeclops of your very own, I recommend amazon.com and if you are also as frugal as I am, wait until Christmastime when it the price goes down to a mere fraction of its MSRP.

On to the close-ups:
First, we have China Glaze OMG at 100x magnification:

OMG at 200x:

OMG at 400x:

And now for a little glitz and glam in gold…OPI Thrills in Beverly Hills at 100x:

OPI TiBH at 200x:

OPI TiBH at 400x:

I must apologize for the blurriness- when you are trying to hold a swatch wheel steady and a camera steady and use one of those fingers to push a button to take the picture at 400x magnification, even your pulse can cause enough movement to disrupt a clear shot.

These foil-y holographic shades are hard to capture, but this is a comparison of three I own.

Sally Hansen Nail Makeup in Crystal Ball at 400x:

China Glaze Sexagon at 400x:

And last, but certainly not least, OPI Paris Couture for Sure at 400x:

For those of us who propose that holographic colors should be called “prismatic,” I submit actual prismatic polish samples.

These have tiny little prisms that flash different colors independent of neighboring prisms, unlike the foil-finish polishes above, that have some color continuity from piece to piece. These prismatic polishes also usually have a rough finish due to the cubic nature of the light-refracting prisms, whereas the foil finish dries smooth.

Here we have OPI Text Me, Text You at 400x:

And Orly‘s aptly named,  Prisma Gloss in silver at 400x:

(Siobhan at the Nailphile swatched this topcoat recently. It also comes in a gold version.)

I know I could look at swatches of my polish all day, but since this is about you, I would like to know what polishes you would like to see.

I have plenty to choose from, so if you have a request, leave me a comment with the polish you’d like to see and at what magnification, and I will let you know if I have it. This way, multiple requests for the same color will be avoided once you have checked the comments for your choice.

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If I do not happen to have your request, and you do have it, the easiest way I can think of is to send me a swatch on a piece of clear tape, covered in another piece of clear tape. (once it has dried, of course)

This could be done on a postcard with a larger third piece of clear packing tape covering it all. I can give better instructions, as well as email you my address if the need arises, so leave me your swatch requests in the comment section and we’ll get started! Enjoy!