Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

change

This is a mani I did awhile ago that I sort of forgot about!  I just found it in my cache the other day and thought it was a perfect time to show it off!  It features one of my favorite color combinations: green and gold!  It's a simple combination but I loved it anyway! The base on this is a Duri color and I have to say, I'm still really loving Duri.  Not only are they affordable but this is ONE coat of polish.  ONE. COAT. Plus they dry super shiny.  I can't wait to get some more of them!!


Colors used:
Duri: Summer In the City
Lynderella: Change

These are my nails...Rejuvacote Edition

brittle nails


Alright, it's time for my second post on nail strengtheners.  I wish these didn't take so long to put together, but it really requires around four weeks to see the full results on most strengtheners.  You need to allow your nail enough time to make a significant growth in order to see how the treatment is affecting your nail.  That's one reason I really don't care for using treatments.  You're meant to use them for two weeks only, for safety reasons, but two weeks isn't long enough to maximize results. I digress.  My first treatment post was about OPI Nail Envy. You might remember from that post that it caused MAJOR peeling on my nails and really, it didn't help them much. I left my other hand polish free while I was using that treatment and my polish free hand came out the same strength and peel free. Plus the growth on that hand was double the OPI hand.  So I decided to try out Duri Rejuvacote since many of you rave about it.  The above is my starting point.  These are all sort of shoddy photos and I apologize for that but my camera wasn't always available during this trial and I wanted to be sure to have more updates!  Anyway you can see that they're sort of thin and not very long or strong. For the life of me I can't remember what had caused the thinning at that time since I haven't had any  enhancements on my nails in some time but I think it was just too much polishing and buffing.  I wore the Rejuvacote for the first week with no polish and reapplied a new coat everyday as per the instructions.  Here are my nails after the first week:

 

There's not a crazy amount of growth but that's normal.  You can't expect miracles in a week!  The really great thing to notice here is that the thinning nail should have grown out and made a weak free edge.  It didn't.  The growth is strong and my nails look tons healthier already.  I kept using the Rejuvacote for two more weeks, but this time I polished intermittently.  I used it as a base coat and  reapplied OVER polish every day as per the instructions, except in cases where I changed the polish. Then I just started over with the base coat. Here are my nails two weeks later:

 

NOW we're seeing progress. I broke my index but this was because of a previous injury which grew out. You can sort of see it if you look at the second picture and even a little on the first. It was a bend low on my nail and when it grew up the plate it turned into a deep peel. I also managed to break my pinky nail BUT it took A LOT. I actually shut it in a car door and normally this would probably cause it to just crack off cleanly. In this case, it bent backward and I had to TEAR it off with my teeth. I didn't have clippers with me and I couldn't get it to just tear off. Insane. I noticed minimal peeling but not nearly so bad as with the Nail Envy. I also noticed that my nails looked and felt much thicker but they weren't brittle like some strengtheners make them. I continued using this for one more week and this is where the story changes.  I wasn't able to get a picture of this guys but...this caused separation of my nail bed from the nail. :(  Now. Before I get you all terrified, let me explain.  At first when I saw my bed separate from my nail I freaked. the. flip. out. Legit. I was REALLY freaking. Of course I stopped using the strengthener and all polish/remover/etc to allow the bed to reattach and be assured this was not from another source. It was not. However, upon further investigation, I realized something.  It wasn't actually causing separation. The strengthener caused not only my NAILS to grow, but also my upper cuticle. This is the skin on the back of the nail that attatches the base of the free edge to the nail. It was growing up MUCH higher than usual. You can tell when this happens because A) you'll notice that your nails look MUCH shorter, even though the free edge is long. It makes your beds look longer. and B) you can gently separate this skin from the back of the nail plate without pain. It had already started separating itself and when I stopped using the Rejuvacote, all my other nails followed suit. Still...I don't like that. If it's making my skin grow extra...who knows what else it's doing? Moral? Rejuvacote DOES work. BUT...stick to three week intervals and then take a week or two off and start again!!

Have you used Rejuvacote? Did you love it? 


I is for Irish Coffee

at home gel mani
Duri Irish Coffee


It's time for another ABC Challenge polish color! Today is the letter "I".  I feel so Sesame Street saying that!! Anyway, this is Duri Irish Coffee.  Duri is a fairly new brand to me.  It's not carried at any stores near me and until I started nail school I'd never even heard of it.  Apparently it's heavily marketed to professionals and almost every nail magazine I have a subscription to has ads on every other page for it.  Unfortunately, this means there aren't a ton of online swatches available for the brand which makes it hard to choose colors from the website to purchase.  I chose this one and another called Indulge My Whim on my first order. Then I asked some friends what they'd get and snagged all those too! I have to say I'm VERY impressed with these. I believe the retail on them is $5 and it's WELL worth it.  I had some issues with my order but overall they were easy to work with and aside from Indulge My Whim (which was nothing that I expected it to be) I was stunned at these.  This is two coats of Irish Coffee and it dries to the SHINIEST finish ever.  Some of them are opaque in one coat and all of them are just flawless when dry.  They also last well on my nails.  For this particular manicure I tried a new technique that's floating around the web. It's a lightless gel mani that you can do at home with your regular polishes. So far it's been pretty good but I'm going to wear it for a week and update you with the results. If you have the chance to try out Duri polishes I really encourage you to do it! Pick this one up for sure! 

Don't forget to check out what Emma and Kerrie have for the letter "i"!

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