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 ...

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.

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...

Today was my second time getting an OPI Gelcolor manicure. For those of you who landed here by searching "OPI Gelcolor" or "Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not" (and I know you're coming, trust me), I'll provide you with a little backstory. I'm most definitely NOT a girly-girl, but I coveted nice-looking nails. I hate the look of acryllics, hate that the nail techs use dremels to remove those or the earlier Gel coatings and well, especially hated that cooking, doing dishes and swimming kind of ruled out having silk wraps done. So, my nails looked like crap most of the time. Enter CND's Shellac. It goes on like polish, lasts two weeks and protects my nails? Sign me up. There are many posts of the various Shellac manicures I've had done by my lovely nail tech, Katie. (Seriously, if you're near Lakeland, email me and I'll set you up-she is awesome.) The color selection was 18 when I started, now is 24 and 6 more are announced for March. Not bad...