My Cuticle Care Regime

So, I have gotten questions on my cuticles, and I have been working on them for quite some time now, trying to figure out what works for me to get my cuticles to looking how I want them, and for them to not be ratty or have hangnails, and I just wanted to share what I use for others who may not know alot about cuticles, or may just wonder how others take care of theirs.

Before I get to the main part of this post, I must state this: I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL.  I do not have a nail tech license, so I have no merit to tell you what will work for you, I am simply telling you what works for me. :)

I will also start off by showing you someone else who is a nail tech, who shows quite well what the cuticle is, and explains how to properly remove the cuticle.  My article isn't showing how I do it, just the implements I use, her article shows quite well how to use them!  I present to you Bee Polished and her article on Cuticles!


What I use!


Remover!
First up I want to show you my Cuticle Remover.  I use Blue Cross Cuticle Remover, which is a white liquid.  I would say it has the consistency of skim milk, and the bottle is really hard to work with if you use it out of the bottle.  I have not yet, but I plan to put some in an empty polish bottle so I will be able to brush it onto my nail, for much easier application.
I find that this cuticle remover works really fast, I put it on my nails and flood my cuticle with it, and after about 15 seconds I begin to use my cuticle pusher to remove the cuticle. 
Important to note! Be sure to wash this stuff off really well when you are finished removing the cuticle, it can be toxic from what I hear. so be sure to wash your hands when you are done getting that cuticle. :)

 Pusher!
Next up, is my pusher. When I was searching for a cuticle pusher on the internet my mom asked what I was looking for and I told her a cuticle pusher with a scoop-y type thing on the end of it, and she says "oh i have one of those"  and she reaches over to her nail basket next to her and pulls this out! It is from Revlon, and I believe she said she got it at Burkes Outlet. 

Whenever I use them on my mom or sister I am sure to clean them obsessively like 3 times with alcohol before I use it, because I don't want to cross contaminate between people. 

 Nipper!
These are my nippers.  I only use them on myself.  These ones are REALLY CRAPPY.  They are slightly dull, which tells me that i need a new pair.  recently I haven't had any hangnails, which are the main reason I use them, but I am getting a new pair tomorrow at Sally's because these are going bad.  I will say I DO NOT recommend nippers from China. lol. I really suggest you get a good pair if you plan to use nippers, which can get expensive, but there is a pair at Sally's for around $9 I believe.

 Moisturize!
And lastly, MOISTURIZE!  I often use Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, but I found this Victoria's Secret Ultra-Softening Body Butter in my drawer the other day(granted it is old, but it is still good. i don't think they make this size anymore) and I have been using it often, and have been LOVING IT.  First off, it smells like Love Spell! What I love about these body butters is you can find a smell you like, you aren't stuck with the one they give you.

Why I love it:
it smells delicious.
It is not greasy at ALL. i have taken photos right after putting it on and my cuticles aren't shiny.
I feel it nourishes my cuticles.

When i do my toes, I have another different tool I love to use, but i will save that for another post. :)


My pretty cuticles. :)

So there you have it! My tools and stuff I use for my cuticle grooming. :)


I have a video which helped me learn how to remove the cuticle I want to include, because it does work.  Just be very careful when doing it the first time.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ttxRWkbwGIg


And again here is Bee's Article if you wanted to click on it, but didn't want to leave the page earlier. :) http://beepolished.blogspot.com/2012/05/tools-needed-1-2-cuticle-remover-345.html


Have happy cuticles!

XOX Caitlin

Summer Challenge Day 3: Summer Dots

Summer Challenge Day 3 (which I forgot to post yesterday. oops. :P )

The theme was Summer dots. and i had on my bright pink and thought it would be cute to do a watermelon. :P

The Base is Sinful Colors Pink, the black is wet n wild black creme, and the green is Color Club Twiggie.

XOX Caitlin

Haul Post!

I haven't done a haul post in a while, so I wanted to post a couple of things that I accumulated over the past couple of weeks. I won't say I have been on a no-buy, but I haven't been buying alot.  Only when there are good deals. :P

I got my first Lippmanns from HSN on Clearance, they came in 2 sets for $10 a piece, which is a bargain! I got both sets, and for a total of $27 shipped for 4 lippmanns I am super proud of the bargain I got.

I got this polish for free when the Pampered Chef had a Bloom.com deal, and I got this polish for free! I also got 2 EOS Lip balms and my shipping was part of the deal(even though they closed it off hours after I got mine with shipping included).   so my total for this polish was $1.

These are my mom's polishes, she got these with her bloom.com deal, and she has used ZsaZsa on her toes since she got it! I just keep it on my shelf with my other Zoyas.  The total for these was only the shipping which was around $6 which my mom paid. 

When someone posted that they had found the Color Club Blossoming collection at Burlington Coat Factory, I took a trip and was actually able to find it! Such a good deal for all 7 polishes(and a topcoat) was only $8, and I also got the grey Cosmetic Arts Polish at Ross for $2.

 I won this polish in a giveaway! I already did a post about it, it came from MiMi's Manis, and I am so grateful for it! I hardly ever win giveaways and this one was a real treat! 

I saw these neons at Walgreens and I really wanted them. so I bought these 3, for a total of $6.

Yesterday I found these Essies at Rite Aid on clearance, for...... wait for it....... $2 a piece! I got all 4 of these for what it would cost to get one at normal price.  $8 total.  There were only these 4 in the bin, but they are from the navigate her collection. 

I think even though I found the essies last night, My favorite find of the day is this Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White.  For some reason it has been discontinued, and it is super hard to find.  It is supposed to be a really good white for stamping, and when I test it out you guys will be the first to know!  I also got this pretty Maybelline Express Finish polish, and the total of these two polishes was only $2.50 combined.  I really want to go back out and search the other Rite Aids to see if any other ones have more Whirlwind White.

I am pretty proud of my hauling over the past month, it hasn't been too much, i don't think.  Only really good bargains. The total for all of my past month's haul is:  $61.  That is a lot, but if you factor out the Lippmanns it is only $34.  wwhich i think is pretty reasonable. :)

I am also waiting on a package to arrive from the UK, and I am super excited to be able to knock some of my lemmings off of my list. 

Have you gotten any deals lately?

XOX Caitlin

Barielle Sweepstakes!

Barielle is having a Sweepstakes on their Facebook! 

"Barielle is hosting a BFF Sweepstakes on our  Facebook page. The contest starts May 21,2012 and ends June 30,2012. Twenty random winners will be selected. The prize is Barielle’s Nail Strengthener Cream(full size), a Barielle Base Coat, Top Coat and 3 Shades Colors of your choice-a retail value of up to $74.50."

To enter just like their page and enter the sweepstakes here.  You could win this awesome prize! It is definitely worth checking out!

Day 2: Chelcea Flower Show

I decided to participate in the Summer Challenge in the Purple Crumpet Challenge, which lasts all summer.  I don't know if I will be able to participate every single day, but I am going to try my hardest to do them all.


Ok, I had my day 1 mani, and right after I painted it I had to use my hands, and it got ruined, so thats why I am starting with day 2. :P

Day 2 is the Chelcea Flower Show.  The colors used in this mani are Essie Ole Caliente, Color Club Pucci-licious, Lippmann Almost Paradise, and Wet N Wild Black Creme.

XOX Caitlin

Neon Swatch Wheel!

So if you have been following me on instagram(I'm Caitlinspolish if you want to follow me. :)), you got a sneak peek of this awesome swatch wheel I have been working on the past two days.  You can kind of see my train of thought for the wheel with my photos leading up to it. lol. 

Lets start with the inspiration post.  I had on some neon shorts from the walk my mom and I did yesterday morning, and my sister had some highlighters and pencils in the door of the car, and I snapped a picture and posted it...

Then the instagram post of my haul from Sally's and Walgreens that day.  I bought my first swatch wheels for nail art at Sallys and I got the 3 neon Sinful Colors from Walgreens.  I am really loving these neons, and for $2 you can't beat them,  they were opaque in 2 coats.

Now onto the swatch wheel. I absolutely <3 this swatch wheel.   I used the 3 neon Sinful Colors Neon Melon, Summer Peach, and Pink.  I also used Acrylic paint, and some Wet N Wild Black Creme for the ones that I used striping tape on. 

All of them are freehand. I am pretty proud of these, I have to say.

The names of the colors are Neon Melon, Summer Peach, and Pink, and they were all from the Sinful Colors Display.  I managed to snap a picture of the display before I left, in case you are curious.

I am pretty proud of these. <3 What do you think?

XOX Caitlin

Dragon Nails

I put on Floam yesterday, and all I could think about is how it reminded me of dragon scales.  So I decided on doing dragon floam nails. :)

I think these turned out really cool.  I am totally in love with these, and I don't want to take them off!

I used Acrylic paint for the dragon face, and then stamped Red Angel Plate  RA111.  This is over Lippmann Almost Paradise, and Nailventurous Floam.

XOX Caitlin

Nailventurous Floam!

Ok, if you are into Indie polishes, then you know that a must have is Floam from Nail-Venturous Lacquers. They are really hard to get, because there is so much demand for the polishes. The polish is inspired by the 90's toy Floam which was made by Nikelodeon.

The way I got this polish was through a giveaway from MiMi's Mani's! I totally wasn't expecting to win, and when I got the email, I couldn't believe it! It arrived today, and I had to instantly put it on.

I used a base of 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Almost Paradise, then 1 coat of Floam, then I used 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of Seche Vite to even it out, because this was a hungry glitter.

I have some neat nail art coming up in a bit, so be sure to stay tuned. ;)

XOX Caitlin

Cherry Blossoms

I was sitting in my little polish area painting my nails with the Color Club polishes I found at Burlington Coat Factory(the Color Club Blossoming set!) and I really wanted to do some cherry blossoms.  the colors just screamed cherry blossoms to me. lol So here they are!

The base is Color Club Hydrangea Kiss, from the blossoming collection, the brown is China Glaze Mahogany Magic, the pink is Color Club Sugar Sheer, and the black accents are acrylic paint.  I used one of my nail art brushes for the stems and dotting tools for the flowers.

XOX Caitlin

Stripes Revisited

Before I took off the previous striped mani, I wanted to see what else i could do with it, so I went back to the striping tape.  This is what came from it, and I kind of like it even better than the original.

The under polishes are stated in this post, and I just took more striping tape and went the opposite direction and painted with Wet N Wild Black Creme over it.

What do you think?

XOX Caitlin

Fun with Striping Tape

For today's nails, I have some diagonal stripes. I don't know where this idea came from, but I had striping tape in front of me, I pulled out my swatch sticks to find a color, and this is what came out.  I am totally loving this mani. 

I had a problem on my middle finger with topcoat that kind of smeared the polish toward the tip, but other than that, i would call this a success.

I used Wet N Wild Black creme as the base of this mani, then I taped it off and painted the stripes with China Glaze Traffic Jam, Color Club Almost Famous, and the blue Love&Beauty polish from Forever21.

XOX Caitlin

MIlitary Jacket

One of my favorite styles of clothing is Military jacket.  anything that has buttons on the front I am in love with. I pulled out my striping tape and thought about this mani with it.

I used China Glaze Westside Warrior as the base, then used striping for the lines, and Barielle Gelt Me to the Party for the buttons on the sides.

I like this mani alot. :)

XOX Caitlin

Stamping Sunday: Unnatural Animal Print

Today for Sunday Stamping, the theme was unnatural animals. Sooo i did a green and blue zebra. ;)

I used Zoya Mitzi as the base, and stamped with Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire, and my Salon Express plate. I didn't use a topcoat, because i wanted the zoya matte to stay matte. :)

XOX Caitlin

My Stash Post

My favorite types of posts are stash posts, so I thought I would show you guys my little corner of the world. :)

Here is my setup:

These are my top coats, base coats, and stamping polishes. 

My wall rack: with OPI, China Glaze, Zoya, Butter London, Illamasqua, Magnetics, Sally Hansen Prisms, Holographics, Orly and Revlons. 

This has my BBs for frankening, polish remover, polish thinner, Blue Cross Cuticle Remover, and my mini polishes.  

Below that are my other polishes.  This is my Color Club, Barielle, Sinful Colors, Hard Candy, Barry M, Love&Beauty/LA Girl, and randoms that I reach for often. 

This is all of my nail art supplies.  I have brushes, striping tape, stamping supplies, rhinestones, beads, and glitter all in this little foldable pouch.  it is really easy to carry when I travel. 

This caboodle consists of all of my glitters, flakies, crackles, and stripers. 

This bottom area in my desk holds my bubble mailers, my cup and water for marbling, my acrylic paints, and the extra polishes I don't have a place for in my other displays. 

This box contains all of my nail care tools.  It has my files, cuticle nippers, nail clippers, nail brush, cuticle cream, orange sticks, pumice stone, and my felt square for removing polish.  This one normally sits on my desk and i put it away when I'm not at polishing my nails. 

This last container holds extra things.  It holds all of my extra bottles of my favorite polishes, glitter, stickers, tape, stones, scissors, and it is just randomly thrown in there. I don't normally pull this box out unless I need something in it. 

So there you have it, my little nail art area. :)

XOX Caitlin

PS, i have some nail art coming your way today. :)