Taking A Nail Break...Sorta

Hi my lil Sparks, (and those of you who are not yet part of the fam, welcome ! )

I just wanted to let you guys know that for the next month or so, there might not be any "what's on my nails this week" videos or blog posts, because I have decided to let my nails "breathe" for abit. I've had my acrylics on since August, and my intention was to keep the acrylics on till my natural nails grew long enough and then to just keep putting an acrylic overlay on them, but unfortunately, the acrylic I had on was begining to turn yellow and looked kind of ugly when I wanted to keep my nails bare, so I decided it was time to take off the acrylics. 

Well when I did, my nails were so soft and brittle, that they actually hurt to touch, and my nails broke ! Yep, all except 3, which looked kind of silly, so I had to cut those down as well. 

It was then, that I decided to let my natural nails breathe a little and go back to get them redone in about a month, which SHOULD (hopefully) be enough time. 

I MIGHT still do some manicures to protect my nails, and also to prevent myself from that oh so nasty habit of mine of picking at my lips, (which is why I got them done in the first place), and IF I do, then for sure I'll do a video showing them to you, but I don't find it easy to come up with nail art designs for super short nails, so I might just end up putting a base color and some sparkle over it, so my nails still look pretty in my upcoming videos lol

If you still want to see videos of "boring" plain manicures, let me know in the comment section here, on my google+ page or get at me on my social media, and I'll continue to make them for ya'll.  

Have a great weekend, and a fabulous New Years.

What's On My Nails This Week ? (2)

My nails have been in dire need of a refill for awhile now, but I knew I wasn't getting in to the salon any time till aftedr Christmas, so I decided to do some nail art, and use my polish to hide the fact that my acrylics are so badly grown out lol. 

So this is what I did. 

Its my version of a winter theme. I was going to do something Christmas related, but I figured this would blend in better than flashy Christmas art.

Do you like it ? 

Here's the products I used...

As always, basecoat first, then 2 layers of the dark blue polish by Pure Ice (which is shade "French Kiss"), but I only put it on 4 fingers on each hand, and left one bare to use as an accent nail. Index finger on my left hand, and "ring" finger on my right hand. Then, on the accent fingers, I used 2 coats of the lighter blue polish by Pure Ice (which is called "Bikini"). 

Once those dried, I used a stripper brush with a white polish to freehand 2 snowflakes on each accent nail. The using a small dotting tool and more white polish, I placed randomly placed and sized dots to represent falling snow around the 2 big snowflakes. 

Finish off with one or two layers of glossy top coat, and voila ! Done. 

I'll admit, it was strange to me to have a manicure with no glitter or  shimmer, but I think it still came out pretty nice.

What's On My Nails This Week (1)

Alot of people ask me to show close ups of my nails after viewing my snaps, or videos on youtube, and since many of them haven't got Instagram, I decided that every time I do fresh nail art, that I'll do a short video on my channel showing my nails up close, as well as post them here on my blog with pics of what I used to do the designs.

This is this week's nails. 

I know they aren't perfect, but mind you, they were done at nearly 4 am. Yes, 4am, because I have a hard time sleeping at night and I was bored one night and all the hangouts on youtube I tried to watch kept freezing on me, so I popped on an episode of Sons of Anarchy, and set out to do my nails. 

What I did was first, as always, applied my favorite base coat. 

Then, on my pinky and index finger, I applied some of my glossy taco lol (top coat, but I like calling it glossy taco after hearing Simplynailogical say it) and dipped my finger in my little pot of silver glitter (much better than trying to get my glitter polish to work lol), pressed it into the nail with my finger and applied two or three coats of glossy taco  over it to seal in the glitter.

On my other fingers, I used 2 coaats of my Sally Hansen "Hard as Nails" polish in Tough taupe (#560), applied a thick layer of top coat, then added 3 star gems to each nail while it was still tacky, and then added another laye of top coat to seal it all in. 

(p.s...if you want me to talk more about the base coat and top coat I use, let me know in the comment section, and I'll gladly do a review on them both here and on my channel)

Here's the video if you want to check it out (for those not coming from my Youtube Channel)
 

Just a little update....

I haven't posted since I first got my nails done back in august. I thought I would show you guys some of the nail art I've done since then. 

from top to bottom....

Pink and blue nails with glitter and gems covering the fact that my nails needed refilling. These were inspired by nails that one of my favorite youtubers, Karina Garcia, was wearing, except hers were different.

Silver and black nails inspired by the team colors of one of my favorite football teams, the Oakland Raiders.

Orange, black and silver striped mani and pedi, just in time for fall and halloween. 

My daughter wanted to have a matching mani but wanted hers in blue.

New changes !

Wow, so apparently, my last post was in December 2015. 

I'm bad at keeping up with my blogs, I know. *lol* Yes, I said blogs, I have 3. This one that is strictly for nail related things, one that is just for fun where I post quizzes and surveys like what we used to have on myspace back in the day, and finally, my personal blog, which is for pretty much everything. 

So what's new ? 

As you can see, the name of my blog has changed. 

I no longer am against the use of acrylics. Hold on, before you start calling me a hypocrite or anything (like some people have been doing), let me tell you why. 

I have a bad habit, especially when my lips are chapped, to pick at my lips until they bleed. Its a really bad habit I have had since i was little. For the longest time, even using chap stick and other lip balms wasn't helping my lips. and being someone who has her face in public (via my YouTube videos) 3 times a week if not more, I was embarrassed that my lips looked like Freddy Kruger had attacked me. 

The only way I know of to not pick at my lips, is to have my nails done. I tried just doing some pretty nail art, thinking that would do the trick, but nope, I still picked at my lips, and would ruin the nail art. 

Having my nails long is honestly the ONLY way for my lips to be safe from me picking at them, because when my nails are long, I can't seem to grasp the skin of my lips well enough to pick at it. But, no matter what I did, my nails just were not growing, so, as much as I dislike acrylics, I decided to get them done again. 

Its been almost a month since I've had them done (the 5th of september will be a month), and already my lips are almost completely healed and scab free ! 

Mind you, I still am not a fan of acrylics, and believe me, if I could find some other way to grow my natural nails to this length without them cracking or breaking, then trust me, I wouldn't deal with the acrylics. But until that day comes, this is seriously my only option. 

Friends have suggested I try nail wraps like Jamberry and other nail wraps, but I mean I doubt that would deter me from picking my lips. Because honestly, I been doing it so long, that nothing deters me. I have done some seriously intricate designs on my nails in an effort to not pick my lips so I don't ruin the art, but nope, still did it. Even went so far as to go to a salon to get the nail art done, thinking, since I've got a very limited financial budget, that getting my art done at a salon would deter me cause I would be basically wasting money, and again, nope, still did it. 

Since having my nails done on august 5th, I have tried to pick at my lips twice but to no avail, so I haven't tried since. So obviously that tells me that having long nails is the key. 

I got them done with white tips this time, so that if I don't feel like doing any nail art, my nails would still look pretty. But once they grow out, and my natural nail starts getting long, I'll have them just putting acrylic over my natural nails. I believe its called an overylay. I might even look in to learning how to properly do it myself and save some money in the long run. 

So that's the reason I got my nails done, so now hopefully, people can stop calling me a hypocrite after seeing pics of my nails on IG and other social media. 

Hello Kitty Nail Polish from Dollarama

I really love these polishes. Not just because its hello kitty, but they are such pretty colors, they don't have a bad odor like most cheap/discount polishes do, and it doesn't take a ton of coats to make it opaque.

I really suggest if you see these anywhere, to get yourself some. (Sorry, I didn't take a pic of the case it came in, but you can see it in my youtube video, which I will link down below)

The set of 4 colors, only cost 4 $ at Dollarama, but apparently they can be found at other places too, just not sure where, cause I've only ever seen them at Dollarama.

^ This is just one coat of each color ^

                                            ^ This is 2 coats of each color ^

That's all for now, let me know in the comments section if ya'll have ever tried this polish before, if so, what did you think of it, and where did you purchase it ? Which is your favorite of the 4 colors ? 

See you guys again soon !

(here's the video if you haven't yet seen it) 

Football Inspired Nail Art Tutorial

Hey everyone ! 

So today, I'll show you close up pics of the products I used to achieve this gorgeous look.



Its quick and really easy to do ! 

You don't have to be a professional to achieve this either, I'm not, and while I will admit, I could've made thinner lines, it came out pretty good.

To begin with, paint your nails with a basecoat (to protect them from the dark colors and the glitter, as well as to help the manicure last longer. 

Once that's dry, choose 3 nails and paint those green. Add some green glitter (or any color you want if you have no green), and add a topcoat to seal it in. 

Then on the remaining 2 nails, paint them brown. I used Essie's "Mink Muff", its not as brown as I wanted, but its the only brown I had. 

Using a dotting tool, (or toothpick, striper brush, or paintbrush), paint a vertical line in white on the 2 nails you painted brown. Then, using that same white, paint 3 smaller horizontal stripes along the original vertical line. 

Seal with a top coat and voila ! Pretty football inspired nails. 

This is the original pic that gave me the inspiration. But I wasn't too keen on using the same fingers since I wanted it to look different. 

 

Here's the products I used....

 

And here are the pics close up of each product....

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it, I hope you enjoy this tutorial, and if you decide to recreate this look, let me see your designs. Use the hashtag #MamaTamz on twitter or instagram.

Here's the full tutorial I posted on youtube...

 

See you guys again soon !!!