Nail Polish Words

I have posted before about terms that I have seen used but I thought since I have become more aware of them I would do a new post on them. Now we do not have the new camera yet but I will put pictures in of examples just bear with me until we get it :) .

Okay so let's talk manicure tools first --

For me, I use a File to get the dirt and grime (gently) from under my nails, a cuticle pusher to help keep them in shape, a 7 sided buffer because it is easier to keep up with than anything else (I use the Medium Grit to level out my nail ends to a square shape as that is least breakable on me) (I use even out/smooth nail/shine on the nail itself to make sure there are no bumps or grooves). I also have a pair of tweezers but that I use for nail art not for pre-work.

To prepare the nails and make sure they stay healthy I keep a bowl on hand which I put olive oil in (warmed in microwave) to make sure the nails stay moist. I also have Jojoba oil (you can purchase cuticle oil with it already mixed in or buy it pure and mix it yourself) mixed into some cuticle oil and a cuticle cream that I use.

Now is the fun part, to decide what art are we going to do. So many choices and only 2 hands to polish! You can choose to do what is called a Drugstore polish or you can choose Indie Polish. Now an example of drugstore polish is Orly (picture below), Sally Hansen, or one of the many many others. Or even China Glaze (can be found at Sally's). Basically Drugstore means the polishes you can walk in a store and purchase off the shelf.

Or you can go with an Indie polish as shown below with Cosmos Lacquer's Hoofbeats.

Okay so we are at the point we have decided polish but are we going to go simple and just polish or should we embellish and explode the universe. I love to make the galaxies come alive so I tend to go overboard with a LOT of my polishes. Soooo many choices if you go this way. You can choose to do some dots (there is a previous post on this) with dotters

you can choose to play with brushes and make freehand designs or your own french manicures (like I did)

you can do stamping! (yep on nails :) )

or even tape.

These are the ideas I have fiddled with so these are the ones I am going to stick to for now. In future posts I will show you more ideas.
Now that you have a basic idea of what you might want to play with it is time to get started but with WHAT?! A good basecoat. I have learned that a popular one (and I like it too) is Orly Bonder. You can purchase this in the store. I get mine at CVS. Super easy and convenient.

Okay now you got your basecoat on. Let it dry. Then have fun with whatever your design might be! I can't wait to see what you come up with....

Now a good finisher for most designs is a good topcoat. This is one that I use and it does have high reviews. It is called Seche Vite and is available from Sally's store and online.

Now you might ask what about the polish that jumped off my nails? Well, I have been looking for a brush I was told to buy. It seems like this brush is much more different to find than the Death Star! It might even be harder to find than the TARDIS at the rate I am going. I was told a nice eye shadow brush would work wonders. For now, I am using a q-tip for clean-up but it is a fiasco as q-tips like to shed more than Chewbacca!

Mind you this post is in no way complete but it is a beginning to a beautiful opening of Nail Polish. I hope I haven't overwhelmed you. I just want to make sure you are able to get as good a start as possible. A lot of the nail tools in this post I was able to purchase from Amazon at very reasonable prices. If I can answer any questions, as usual just ask :)