...and we're about to see just how true that is!!  It's theme week over at The Crumpet and the theme is red.  Debbie has graciously allowed me to join her in red week and that means you're in for a week of red nail art.  I NEVER ever use red, even though I have tons of them so this is going to be a little outside my box!  But hopefully you'll enjoy the series anyway. :)  To further challenge myself over the next five days I've added a little bit of an extra rule to my red week: adding only and no removing.  That means that what you see today is the base for what will happen over the next five days.  I won't be removing anything from my nails I'l only be adding to the design.  It seems like an easy plan and it is for the first three or so days but when you get to day four and five it starts to get a bit tricksy!  I've started here with a GORGEOUS red, Orly Grave Mistake.  I added a few gold dots in random patterns with Orly Luxe.  Stay tuned tomorrow to see what I add to this artwork!!   Don't forget to check out the other ladies participating in Red Week!!

It's time for another Project Runway design!!  I don't know what it is about this season but I'm just really uninspired by it.  This week was a real downer.  Andrea left in the night which I think was just SO shady.  Not that I don't think Raul should have gone home but if she knew she wanted to leave then why throw a royal fit on the runway to try to save herself when Chris pointed out that she was ambivalent at the last runway?  And then on top of Andrea leaving like a coward, Kooan decided to bounce too. :(  I knew Kooan wasn't going to be the winner of this season, his aesthetic is really not very mainstream, but I enjoyed what his personality added to the workroom.  Sadder still is that Buffi went home.  Now, I knew again that Buffi was not destined to be the winner of this season.  But I didn't think in the scheme of things her look was THAT bad.  And aside from that she was so bubbly and upbeat.  Now everyone there has the personality of a wet rag.  ARGHHH!!  So this runway was a challenge for me.  Everything was black and white or grey.  I'm sorry but as a woman who does work and who does have a social life there is not one thing that walked that runway that I'd be comfortable working in all day and then going out at night in. Sonjia's winning dress looked like her model had a saggy third boob.  And don't even get me started on Elena's look.  Her model looked MASSIVE.  No thank you.  I instead chose to base my design this week on the pattern that Fabio used for his dress.  

The look wasn't awful although the proportions were off and it was seriously commercial....but at least the pattern gave you something to look at!  Did any of you watch this episode?  What was your favorite and least favorite look?

Don't forget to check Jewli and Emma's blogs to see what they came up with for this week's challenge!

Well this week's Project Runway challenge was certainly interesting.  It didn't really give me any new favorites: I still love Buffi and Christopher, but it did put new perspective on some other contestants.  What the heck was going on with Elena?! And Andrea with her whole "I'd feel relieved to go home" spiel...then goes on to tell Christopher he's being 'demeaning' when he points out that she doesn't care to be there on the runway. Grrr...I hate it when people play games like that.  At the end of the day, I felt like Buffi and Elena REALLY worked it out.  Their dress was one of my favorites and I was really stressing how it would come out.  I hated Dmitry and Melissa's look yet the web was buzzing with people who felt it was short changed.  It looked like a weird chiffon sweatshirt over a nice dress.  Just. Odd.  I was also in love with Kenley's dress even though, let's face it; I hate Kenley.  I do love her style! I did think Irina's dress was lovely on her even though I was reminded that she's a total beyotch.  I was feeling kind of smug when her dress got into the top after she said she was embarrassed to walk in it and bad mouthed the sewing skills of the designers. And even though Gunnar is a total Christian Siriano wannabe...I was hoping he'd win.  So that brings us to the design I chose to do for my nails.  I was rather unimpressed by most of what went down the runway this week.  Things were too simple for my taste or too cliche.  But I was surprised by Nathan and Sonjia's dress for Valerie. I felt like it was too much for Valerie's frame and it made her look too old and heavy BUT I think a statuesque young actress could ROCK this thing.  I could see someone like Miley Cyrus just bringing this thing to life. I love the glitter and the gold and the tiny hints of shimmery chiffon in the sleeves.  Fabulous.  So I chose to do my nail design based on their design.  It wasn't the winner. It wasn't the loser. But in my  book...it was the one with the most pizzazz!  Which look was your favorite for this week? Did this episode change your opinion of who will win?

Colors used: Deborah Lippmann Believe, Tokidoki Savanna, NYX Gold Glitter

I don't know about you, but I'm just a little obsessed with Project Runway.  I've been watching since the very first season and I've just always really enjoyed it.  Fashion goes hand in hand with nail art many times and just like the beauty and nail industry, fashion is always changing.  It's something that we can all relate to: having our very own personal style.  I love that you can play with fashion and make it your own and the idea that you can give sixteen people the very same task and no two will do it alike.  My favorite's were Jeffery and Christian (of COURSE Christian) and without much failure I've predicted nearly every winner from the get go.  This year I haven't really got any favorites yet although Buffi really makes me laugh and Kooan...well...there is Kooan.  So this year I decided to do something I've wanted to do for awhile now and challenge myself to play along with the contestants with my very own 'nailway'!  I got a little behind due to some seriously crazy personal things going on BUT I'm back on track and ready for action!  Above you'll find my episode one nails.  I chose to replicate Kooan's design for the first episode who's challenge was to make a companion piece for a garment they had brought from home and show them in Time's Square.  Obviously...this look did not win!  But it didn't' lose either!  I love the Japanese/Harajuku look and I think this is really fun and interesting.  I'd never wear it as is but the idea of the mixed patterns and textures is really cool.  I did a matte leopard background with some sponging and then a grey panel with blue dots to represent the jumper Kooan paired with his leopard top.  Below you'll find my nails from episode two.  Episode two was the unconventional materials challenge and they  had to make a look out of candy.  I REALLY loved Sonjia's look for this challenge! But I chose to do a look based on the winner's dress instead because I loved the subtlety of it and also it reminded me a little of one of my favorite Disney films, Beauty and The Beast! :P

You can check out full sized photo's of my artwork for the challenges on my Facebook page and don't forget to check out my fellow Runway Fashionista's Emma and Jewli!!  I hope you enjoy the art! What was your favorite look from this week's challenge?

Ahh...hangnails.  Those pesky little buggers that ruin our photos, annoy us to the point of insanity, and leave our fingers stinging from everything we touch.  Yuck.  Hangnails aren't just an annoyance for nail bloggers or a pain for everyone else though...they're dangerous.  Everyday your hands come into contact with MILLIONS of bacteria....no matter how many times you wash your hands.  And open cuts on your fingers are a very easy way to get sick or worse!  So what can you do?

The number one rule with hangnails is NEVER EVER EVER pull one.  Never.  Ever seen that scene in Black Swan where Natalie Portman pulls a hangnail and ends up practically severing her finger? Well, OK that might be extreme but it DOES hurt and it DOES leave a nasty cut on your hands for days or weeks sometimes.  If you do have a hangnail, the best way to get rid of it is to nip it with your cuticle nippers at an upward angle and then apply cuticle oil to help moisturize the area. A better question is...how can I prevent hang nails? And to answer that it's important to know that there are two basic kinds of hangnail:

Here's the first:

These are the hangnails you get generally towards the top of your nail, which tear down the sides and seem to never end if you pull them.  They're relatively easy to prevent but it takes a bit of time to see the results.  This type of hangnail is caused by not pushing enough of your cuticle.  When you push cuticles, you want to be sure you're including the entire nail plate, even deep into the sidewalls of your nails.  I'll be doing a followup cuticle care post to address this particular issue but for now, you get the idea.  This is actually cuticle which grows up the sides of your nail, if not pushed back.  When it reaches the free edge, it has no where to go so it just sort of peels back.  To take care of this simply nip the base of it while trying not to further loosen it from the nail plate.  Then be sure to push the cuticles on the sides of your nails when you do your regular routine.

Here's the second:

It's hard to see here...and I rarely have this type of hangnail so I didn't want to wait for another one!! But this type of hangnail is basically a little flap of dead skin which can occur anywhere around the base of your nail.  It includes hangnails which are caused when your live cuticle splits and peels off or bleeds.  These are caused by lack of moisture AND improper care of cuticles.  When pushing the cuticles, be sure you're not applying too much pressure.  If you press too hard you can loosen the seal on your nail and cause the cuticle to "flap" up.  If you do this you will expose your nail to bacteria (yuck) and the flap will dry out and crack.  Nipping the cuticles in a ragged or uneven pattern can also cause this to happen.  To prevent these type of hangnails, keep the cuticles and the skin around your nails well moisturized and use just enough pressure to move the cuticle, not enough to do yourself harm!! Remember, when you're pushing your cuticle, you're really cleaning the nail plate.  The cuticle you can see doesn't actually need much care which is something else I'll cover in my second cuticle care series. 

I hope this has been helpful to all of you!! Cuticles are one of those things that always seems to puzzle people about their nail care!  The more you learn, the better you can take care of yourself and the healthier your nails will be!!  Stay tuned for the next rehab your nails series: Keeping Your Cuticles Healthy WITHOUT Nipping!

It's time for another edition of Dupes Up! This weeks contenders:

China Glaze Rare & Radiant

Retail Cost: $5.99

vs.

OPI Just The Spotted Lizard

Retail Cost: $8.50

The other day my husband surprised me by purchasing the entire China Glaze Bohemian collection for me.  It was a nice gesture, though I have to say I'm fairly dissapointed in the collection as a whole.  That aside, when I got them swatched I realized that one of them was VERY similar to another polish I already have!  So I decided to swatch them together and see if I was right.  You can see that in the bottle the two look exactly the same, thought the China Glaze seems a bit more coppery owing to the bottle shape. So how do they look on the nails?

You guessed it: exactly the same.  The formula is very similar on these as well. The China Glaze was a hair thinner but the application was the same.  This is two coats of each.  Obviously the OPI has a larger brush and the China Glaze is a bit easier to obtain but other than those differences, these are exact dupes. Exact.  I'm not really sad about owning two of these because it's a lovely color and neither color is core so now I sort of have a back up!!  But if you were searching for the OPI you can now buy the China Glaze and save yourself the silly online prices or the hassle of hunting it down!

Verdict: Dupes.

Availability: OPI Just the Spotted Lizard was part of the SpiderMan collection and has limited availability at Ulta and drugstores where OPI is sold.  China Glaze Rare & Radiant is to be released in August at Sally Beauty locations nationwide and will also be available online and at Ulta.

...hangnails are actually caused by improper cuticle care?

Many people think that lack of moisture causes hangnails and while that is sometimes the case, it's more often improper care that causes them.  Aggressive pushing, improper cutting techniques, or lack of care causes your cuticles to split, tear and grow up the nail plate.  

Want to know how to avoid and treat hangnails?  Look out for this week's rehab post!!