Suzanne Calling

I talk about my nails a lot here. After 40+ years of crappy nails, the fact that I have nice looking nails with minimal effort on my part makes me happy to share the information and the pictures. Two years ago, I'd read a thread on a message board asking about Shellac, I was curious about the concept of a two week manicure and did some investigation. Like many of the people who visit my blog, I'm just a consumer-a savvy one. I looked for the good, bad, and ugly about gel nails, because I wanted to get my money's worth. You do, too. My two experiences with acryllic nails left my soft nails weak for months afterwards. I didn't want a repeat. So, today, I share what I know. Why? Because there is a ton of information about there saying that Gel nails are bad. When done by a TRAINED nail tech, they can be very good for your nail health. Trust me on this one-nearly 45 years of nails that split, peeled and chipped if I looked at them the wrong way and now, they ...

I'm getting a lot of raves for this manicure. I really love the color and the effect, and apparently, it catches other people's attention, too. There's one area where it doesn't measure up: look what happened while I was cooking this past Saturday: I wasn't using a knife, I was actually just filling a pot with water to make baked ziti. To be honest, I've done far more kitchen work with CND's Shellac not showing a single sign that I'd spent time in the kitchen. This was underwhelming. That, and the fact that two nails have ripped near the base of the nail leaves me with the impression that the layers are not nearly as durable as CND's Shellac. I'll probably go with this when the nails are shorter, but I have an average length (for me nowadays, anyway) and I'm being a lot more ginger with what I do with this manicure-which defeats the purpose of getting a two week gel polish. Your mileage may vary, but I'm recovering from s...

After my last manicure with CND's Shellac Black Pool layered with Hotski to Tchotchke got so many rave reviews from the nurses, I thought I'd go with another Black Pool layering effect, but Katie had other plans. She got in the Gelish line, which means she now has CND, OPI and Gelish. I'd heard some so-so reports on it, but she found that it's been working well-and wanted me to try the magnetic polish. I think the tipping point was that she had some samples to show and a lovely blue, Inseparable Forces. If you were wondering about the Gelish Magneto colors, it does take a little digging online, as the Nail Harmony page only describes what it does, rather than giving the palette of colors. There are other pages that show six Magneto colors, I've seen three-the plum hue and the blue really caught my eye, and I can't wait to see the green. Anyway, I was in on trying something different, and in the same amount of time as any of my other gel manicures, I...

An interesting thing has occurred in the last six or so months in that my blog readership has nearly tripled. Once I switched to the pay portions of Feedjit, it was easier to see the trends. You're all here to read about the various soak off gel color nail polishes, aren't you? I end up reviewing a new color every two weeks, and posting pictures. Today, I'm putting all the pictures in one place and will continue to add the colors. This way, those of you who are curious about the nail products have one resource for the palette with links to the related blog post below it. First, the Shellac colors: CND's Shellac, Baroness This was the first color I tried and I blogged at the end of two weeks about the experience. CND's Shellac, Rock Royalty CND's Shellac, Iced Coral and Black Pool to make USF Bulls Green CND's Shellac, Purple Purple CND's Shellac, Masquerade CND's Shellac, Hotski to Tchotchke CND's Shellac, Decadanc...