Me-icure

Nice nails

I love a good manicure - you know, when someone who is good at it does it for me. And I love a good gel  manicure.I think everyone has those little things that makes them feel good. I like a clean car and a nice manicure. (Did you read my post: Get a Gel Manicure?)

Practicing & Tricks
I am not really good at doing my nails myself but I have been practicing more. I found one good professional manicure a month takes care of all that shaping and stuff I really can't do.

So, by practicing, I mean really collecting data (my favorite thing) and making determinations on what works for me and what doesn't. After having people give me and me buying or squiring nail polishes through gift sets, I have determined I really like Essie nail polish.

I have more experience with OPI, and I really like their web site better, but a couple bottles of Essie and a couple runs with the polish, I found I really don't have to struggle to like too much about it. 

My current collection is:

• Ballet slippers
• Limo-scene
• Lady like

I really need to find something that's like OPIs Samoan Sands. Since I am unskilled, the consistency makes the polish easy to apply.I use to just try to get the thinnest layer of these polish on my nails because it would always run all over, but, now I have a good feeling with the tiny brush and that I can get a good drop on the brush, push the brush down on my nails and get a pretty good looking polish layer. 

I have basically been doing my nails once a day or four time a week in an attempt to prefer my technique!

Stickers?

Orange and blue - wrong blue

I was at Target and got myself a pack of these nail stickers things. They seem to have been around for a bit although I don't know if I ever knew someone who used them, but, they seemed fun and thought I would give it a try.

I never did nail art, but, I don't mind having an accent finger or something a little different on one nail. Sort of like what I did for the MS City to Shore ride I have done a couple times.

I got a pack of the Essie Sleek Stick Nail Applique, Embrace the Lace 070 at Target and headed home to give it a try. They call them this fancy thing, I'm just going to call them stickers because that's where my vocab is.

The Product

Doing the Sticky
To be honest, I wasn't sure I could follow the three steps. Clean nail, apply sticker, file off extra sticker - however, it really worked!

I applied on on my left hand ring finger. The sticker was pretty forgiving when I was applying - I could half apply it and then remove it to re-preposition as needed. After a few tries, I gave it a firm press and then set about the filing part. The pack comes with a little nail file, but, I have my own block. This might have been the most awkward part for me because I thought I would just be damaging my nails or the sticker. Something was going to go wrong. . .but it didn't!

You have to fold the sticker over the end of your nail, and then you just start to grid on that crease with the file. It comes off pretty easily without damaging your nail or ripping the design on your nail.

Not bad!

The Aftermath
The design lasted a long time, actually. Through lotion, hand washing, showers, hand sanitizer and all that. I started to pick at little at the end of it by my cuticle after about a week and the thing pulled off pretty easily leaving not a hint of damage on my nail.

I think I will be using these again - probably not a lot, though. They are nice for some detail on a nail but I don't think I would wear them on every nail because it's not just my style.

Image Credits
I got the image of the pack of stickers from CVS.com