Suzanne Calling

I've had quite a few trips to Mandi that I haven't blogged about, so a round up of all those trips is in order: First, today's manicure. She'd done some marbling on another client's nails and offered to do mine. I think we needed more contrast and she agreed, so we'll try it with the next visit. I think I'd mentioned that she returned to being a nail tech after several years away, raising her daughters. In that gap is when gel nail polishes took off, which means her return involved trying out three different types of UV Gels-and having a large palette of colors to choose from. (Get ready for a fourth to appear soon, as Essie joins the market with UV Gel polish soon!). Anyway, because she's a latecomer to it, she didn't know that CND's Shellac line really played up layering to make new colors. I shared my links and was a bit disappointed that Hillary at Solessence has really moved away from the color swatching she'd done a couple ...

I came back from my cruise with ultra long nails. Yesterday, I had Mandi trim them down and picked Grape Gum to cover the nails. There's a layer of purple glitter over it, to add a bit more shimmer. Alas, I knew it was too good to last. I'd gone far too long without a nail breaking. This was three hours later: Wouldn't be so bad, but I have an interview tomorrow afternoon...

Mandi hit it out of the ballpark with the last manicure she did two weeks ago. It wore amazingly well. In fact, she may have needed to cancel today, and I was fine with that manicure for another week if we had to cancel. Today, I also did a pedicure, with the same color. What's funny is that about six months ago, I found a foot soak on Pinterest, and I do that every other month-she commented that she didn't have to do anything to my feet but a salt scrub and polish. Her idea was to dip an entire nail in glitter, then a double top coat. It seems to work for her other clients. I prefer glitter as an accent, not on the entire nail. We'll see how this wears.

When you spend over two years with the same (awesome) nail tech, you tend to get spoiled. Katie and I settled into a routine where she'd pick my colors and just paint my nails, because we knew she got my tastes perfectly. Many of her clients would put the same color on their nails over and over, so I was the palette to try new things. It was fun. Mandi is still learning with me. A lot of the things that work for others don't seem to work for me. For instance, she got an OPI Gelcolor because the shade is right up my alley, but I'd told her that the OPI product doesn't last on my nails. It lifts within a week, and did so, no matter what kind of pre-treatment was done to my nails. She also got some nail glitter, and a purple CND shade for me last time, but we went with the Cerulean Sea, which has worn the best since she started doing my nails. So today, I got Tango Passion with glitter. I had to demonstrate the preferred process for applying the glitter, as I...

My fingers look like crap, but my nails look good! I still haven't gotten my skin back to normal since the trip to New Jersey, but I stepped it up with some neosporin on the nail beds and it seems to be helping. In the meantime, we visited an old favorite, and Mandi placed Rock Royalty Shellac on my fingers.

Two Gelish Shades, and they're rather festive, Wanna Share a Lift and Dark Side! Bonus photobomb by the lovely and funny Katie, who in two years, has me figured out and just does my nail colors without me saying what I want.

Once again, I walked into my nail appointment with Katie and didn't pick colors, nor did I have an idea of what I wanted. Apparently, she knew what was going on my nails, so I walked out with this: In a bit of a departure from the norm, it seemed like there was a hubbub of activity while I was getting my nails done. Another client needed a toenail fix while I was having the old color soaked off and the three of us chatted the entire time I was there. Then, one of hairstylists came over and asked Katie if she'd take her client's credit card because she didn't realize that it was cash only at the salon. So, it made my visit seem like no time had passed at all, but I was rather distracted and don't even know what colors I have on my nails! I will say this, the base color is OPI, maybe A Good Man-darin Is Hard to Find, the top light glitter is Shellac's Gold VIP Status and then the ring fingers are the Shellac Effects glitter. It's funny that I don...

My nail tech is psychic. I got there and she had a bottle of polish tucked behind the UV 'box' used to cure the UV gel manicures. She showed me the new colors done on sample nails and when I picked my color, that was the one she'd had ready. She gets my tastes. What I wanted was PURPLE, and Dark Dahlia delivers it. It's like a nice glass of bordeaux wine, but it looks much darker indoors. I really like it.

My friend A told me 'do something different with your nails', but Katie had a plan that I liked, so I have something that is a little different. I LOVE THIS COMBINATION! The pictures do not pick up the iridescence or the fact that they kind of glow in person. I suspect there will be more 'I love your nails' than usual with these!

Katie thought A Mint of Spring is good as an accent color, not for all ten nails. Meanwhile, I saw matte and thought we could glitter it up. We looked at doing iridescent or sea glass and I agreed that sea glass would look better. I need to get some pictures in daylight to add to this.

I didn't know what to go with today and let Katie decide. This means that for three weeks, I will be looking at this: Apparently, the one different color fingernail is hot right now, but it is the pinky on my left hand and index finger on my right. Plus, it is pink. So, I may be regretting letting her decide! We shall see.

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 a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world... At least that's the way I feel, every time I look at my nails. The color looks really good, but it really is NOT me at all. I liked the way it looked on Katie's toes, and well, after the fantastic job she did on my nails with Azure Wish and the glitter Effects, I had not a clue of what I wanted this time. This is what I have now: What I did not consider is the items in my wardrobe that aren't in the blue/green/purple palette. I went to put on a red shirt today and it clashed. Then a salmon colored shirt and the same deal. Soooo, the next three weeks will be spent planning ahead, instead of grabbing the top shirt of the pile when I get dressed in the morning!