Nakey Nails and Cuticle Help

After hearing great reviews of Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Balm I hemmend and hawed and finally picked some up.  My hope is that it will help alleviate some of the horrendous hangnails that you have to see pictures of time and time again.  I started using it at the beginning of this month so I haven't seen anything tremendous yet.  I do try to put it on at night but admittedly sometimes forget so I am trying to use it throught the day as well. After one month we shall see what kind of difference it makes.

Naked Nails (gasp!!)

I really hope this works because I despise hangnails.

Claire's Neon Burst

Wow, can you say bright.  I can honestly say I don't think I have ever worn a color this bright.  The funny thing is the pictures don't even show how bright it really is.  The downside to all this brightness is it took about 7 coats to get it completely opaque but it dries really fast so.  I did throw a coat of Wet N Wild White Creme on my index and ring finger to determine if the number of coats it would take was different.  Maybe by one coat so I would just rather not do it since the Wet N Wild seems to take a while to dry.  You can tell the diffence in the photo but I couldn't see as much of a difference in real life.

After doing this I thought it needed to be jazzed up a bit.  Really?  A color this bright need more attention brought to it!!  Why of course.  Why not set these fingertips ablaze.  With a little help from BundleMonster plate BM12 and Konad Special Polish in Red  I think I got a fiery fingernail.

This mani was a little over the top for me so it didn't even last a whole day.  It was just something fun to do something out of my ordinary picks.

Mermaid to Order or Lagoon

As soon as I got Sally Hansen Lagoon in the mail I knew it looked like something I already had.  Ah ha, Sephora by OPI Mermaid to Order.  Here a few pics of them in the bottle and a few pics in different lighting on the nails.

Can you tell which is which?  Do you see any subtle differences.  I don't.  Are you wondering which nail has which polish?

Here ya go!!!

Again pardon my cuticles, I have gotten something that will hopefully help them.

Bummed - Low Iron Means No Blood Donation

As you may have read in previous posts I am all for making sure those who can donate blood do so. Yesterday when I went to do my donation they told me I couldn't. Yep, my iron count was to low. In order to donate you have to have a hemoglobin level of 12.5 g/dL. My count was only 12.3. Waaaaa, I want to cry. They allow you to try twice and both times it was 12.3. This has actually happened before but when they did my second prick to get my level I was where I needed to be to donate.

Boooo, to me. I want to cry. For some reason I feel really bad. The nurse told me there are a number of reasons that can cause it but I can try again in 24 hours. I think I will try to make sure I eat really healthy this week and try again next Monday.

So what can I do. They gave me a list advising me to increase my intake of high iron foods. I think I see where I went wrong.   Having been on vacation last week I wasn't eating the greatest but was taking an iron supplement. Obviously not enough.

Wish me luck for next week. Now all I have to do is find a place.

Oh, and they were really nice. They let me take a snack and gave me some flip flops anyway.  I am pretty sure for the month of August if you donate you get a pair of flip flops.  The flip flops are pretty cool too. If you walk in the sand it will leave an imprint that says Give Blood. Neat!!

Ooops..the flip flop is upside down. You get the idea.  GIVE BLOOD.

Ruby Kisses Skittles

I got these polishes quite some time ago at a local beauty supply store and hadn't tried them yet.  Why not try them all at once!!  Actually, I was initially was trying to pick which color I wanted to do my full mani with but I liked them all so ended up just doing just repeating the pattern across all my nails.

The brand is Ruby Kisses which I have not seen often on nail blogs. These polishes are thin but manageable to use. Each photo is 3 coats of polish and no top coat. Another great thing is that this polish dries pretty fast so three coats takes no time.

Beware...lots of pics.

Silver Bling

Steel Magnolia

Twinkling Mauve

Purplelicious


Flash

No Flash

What do you think?  I like them a lot, lot, lot!!!  Next time I swing by that beauty supply I will be picking up some more.  My faves are the Purplelicious and Steel Magnolia.