As I Promised

As I promised, here is my first part of my pregnancy memoirs.

My boyfriend and I moved in to our apartment in February. Before we did, my mother had a mother daughter heart-to-heart about living with him. It went a little something like this
             "I was thinking, you should probably start taking birth control because you don't want to be bringing life into this world yet"
So heartfelt, I know.

So when we first moved in, I was still at my fast food job so money was tight. I got a new job at a new place that paid better (even though money is still tight for unnecessary reasons!) And was waiting for my first real check from there to get birth control. Well that check came, but that period didn't so now here we are months later and a growing baby girl or so I'm told.

We weren't sure if we were going to keep her since due to health reasons I'm really high risk. But so far so good I guess.

Side note, my phone doesn't automatically correct my grammar like my old one does so forgive me for any errors that are out of the ordinary for me.

Im due on my birthday, December 9 but I keep getting the feeling she will be here around Thanksgiving. Being a mom is a scary thing to think about. For a few different reasons.

-We've been together not as long as I would like to have been for us having a baby
-Were not married or engaged
-I love my boyfriend but i still have my doubts
-Trust issues more than just about him cheating on me
-The normal "are we ready for this" and I am prepared for the "well you should have kept your legs closed" nonsense
-Our past

We have been together for a while. But not long enough for me to want a baby. Sure I've thought about it. You're with someone long enough, those thoughts come up. But I'm talking like 5 years.

It's 2013. You don't need to be married to have a baby. Is the idea of having a husband, a dog, two kids, a big house with a white picket fence surrounding a big yard for your kids to play in and you to grow old in and someday pass down yo your children as they carry on the family legacy in the perfect little Stepford cookie cutter community attractive? Of course it is. Im not saying sleep around and have a bunch of babies either. Im just saying we aren't in the days where we must be married and get our husbands permission to go to the store anymore. We don't have to be married to have a baby. But don't get me wrong, it would be nice.

I love my boyfriend. But i still have my doubts. Number one being are we ready for this. Followed closely by how will we take care of her. And how will we afford this. Since our lovely government thinks that people are bullshitting about being broke and wont help people who actually need it. But it seems like to me, people who don't need the help get it just fine. I guess that's what being as crooked as our government gets you. Can I count on him? What will happen when im out on maternity leave? So many questions are flowing constantly thru my mind.

Trust issues are a biggie. Sometimes in a persons life, they fall into a hard place or time, fall in with the wrong crowd, fall into hard stressful times, etc. Sometimes when this happens, things like addiction come into play. In my boyfriends case, it was a stress thing. I wont say to what because that's his business. But it happened. If he is being truthful, he has been clean for a few months now. And if he is being truthful I am proud of him. But sometimes I have my doubts. Like when money goes missing. Or gas gets used like crazy. Or when he is with certain people we know. I'm not sure what to do or think or if its even worth the fight. When I'm at work, is he talking to other girls again? If he is he will lie about it. His phone is under my plan so i could have it unlocked and search it. But I'm terrified about what I might find in there. Is he telling me one thing and doing another? Ill never know. And it kills me. In our past, we did separate and yes, it was him going for his ex. It was a horrible time for me. Watching him go day to day happy with someone else. Someone who did him wrong. Someone who didn't deserve him. Someone who used him. Someone who single handedly ruined both of our lives forever. Someone who he disrespected me by sneaking to talk to at my house while he was supposed to be spending time with me using my internet and my laptop and lying about it. Someone who no matter how hard i try i feel like I can't get him away from. I need to stop now before I start rambling on about this ungrateful female even more.

So yes, this is the first installment of my pregnancy memoirs as I said. As I sit here in our one recliner typing this on my cellphones tiny on screen keyboard while this little brat kicks me like my bladder is a soccer ball and my cats are having a twin death match next to me and a head full of questions and worries, I feel a little better by getting this out there. There are some things i can't say on here for privacy reasons. There are some things I can't say on here because people i know read this and I am already an un wed mother. I don't need any more judgement. But for the things i can say, the release of those from inside my head is an amazing relief that I am so thankful for.

Love always, Viktorius and mini me.

It's ALIVE!

Well i've been gone for a while and here's what's been going on in a short re cap...

I got a new boyfriend
We live together
I got two cats
I also got pregnant
My dog died
And I got a new job (wish i could say where)

I don't have internet at my place sadly and things have just started to settle down for me. I want you guys to know  that I am still here and now will be trying to post more. It will be from my phone so bear with me I would much rather type on an actual keyboard but beggars can't be choosers I guess.

So while I was in the shower today I got to thinking about how my body is changing with this pregnancy. Which, by the way, I will go into more detail about later. I have two friends that are also new moms that I go to for advice. I had some questions about tenderness in certain areas and was trying to figure out which friend to talk to about that. Then it got me thinking, I sort of have a list of who to call for what issue I have, and I'm kind of wondering if anyone else has this mental list. So, without further ado (is that how you spell that...) here's my list of friends designated for certain issues.

Mommy friends-the girls and fellow moms I go to for mommy and personal issues also works for boyfriend complaints

Medical advisers-for when you are too lazy and/or cheap to go to the doctor

Uppity friends-the people who you know will eventually piss you off with something they say but you still talk to them anyway and love them eventho you want to slap the shit out of them

Bitchy friends- the people who bitch more than you eventho you are six months pregnant and they are either spoiled or bring the situation upon themselves. Also friends who need to be slapped (see uppity friends)

Rich friends- always wanting to get you to go out and spend money to hang out eventho this is a recession and well, aint no body got time for that

Want to be rich friends- almost the same as rich friends but these people want you to pay for everything

Work friends- people you only see at work and the occasional facebook post. The common phrase used with these people is "yea we should totally hang out". Spoiler alert, you never will

Childhood friends-the people you can tell anything to no matter what and they still won't judge you. You need these people because face it, your a hot mess and these people know it and still love you like family

First of the month friends- these are the friends that only call when they need money. Usually for something unnecessary that will piss you off. These people think that your just dumb and wont notice that they only call when they need or want something and if you cant deliver they magically disappear like we actually miss them because spoiler alert, we don't

And

Frenemies- you love this person but you also love to hate this person. You envy them sometimes they envy you too but you both just communicate under a thin layer of mutual cattyness and bitch to your poor boyfriend who did nothing to deserve being dragged into this drama all he wants is a peanut butter sandwich and some milk  

Well, that's my list (so far) of friends i have. I wonder if I'm the only one with this problem...

I will try to be back and post more. This would be so much easier with a computer but oh well. It does feel good to be back though and get some of what's on my mind out there.

I haven't been sleeping much so maybe this will help. I guess i should try and get some sleep since i do have to work tomorrow. But Lord knows that between my bed hog boyfriend, gymnast baby and obnoxious inconsiderate snoring cats, sleep is a foreign word to me. Almost the way that common sense is in teenagers. That's all for now. Love you guys!

Sorry For The Wait...

Hello my loves! First, before I get to the point of this post, I would like to apologize for my absence from the blogging, vlogging and nail art community. I have been having some personal problems lately and took some time off to deal with everything. I'm still resolving some issues, but I am in a better place now then I was a few months ago, so I am so sorry for that.

Now, to nail art news, I have created an email address for you guys to send me love notes and such to :) lol.

No, but seriously, I have made a new special email address just for my nail art community people. I made it for two reasons, one being that if you guys have any requests, questions, would like to be referred to a nail guru I mention, want to send me an email about something you like/didn't like about a post or a video, etc., you can. But please, no weird stuff. I deal with enough weirdos on a daily basis so please don't make me regret making this email address for you guys.

Secondly, I am thinking about selling sets of nails designed by me. So if anyone would like to send me a set that fits you for me to paint for you, that can happen. OR I am also thinking about buying some sets and designing them to sell. This is all still in the beginning stages of happening so I haven't come up with a pricing system yet or anything. I really haven't decided if I am actually going to do this or not yet. And there would be a charge. As much as I would like to do this shit for free, I would eventually run out of product and supplies so, i will have to charge something. PLUS shipping is definitely NOT free, and I do apologize for that. So, if you guys like this idea, go ahead and shoot me an email or a comment on one of my many social networking platforms letting me know what you think.

The email address, finally lol I know I talk a lot, is VNJconfessions@gmail.com

Send me some love soon and let me know whats up and if you guys like my new idea of the designing and selling nail sets.

Much love!! <3

Watch me on YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/user/ViktoriusME?feature=mhee

Follow me on Twitter- @viktoriusME

Follow me on Tumblr- http://vikkiviktorius.tumblr.com/

Just A Quick Thank You

I started this blog in October of 2011 and started it as a hobby to share my nail art and techniques with those who are interested, to vent when I had no where else to go and to share things that I thought were worth sharing. I never really expected it to become what it has in these few short months. I have had so many hits on here from not just people I know, but people in other states and even crazier, other countries. I literally never thought that this many people would actually care to read the stuff that I either think is important or decided to ramble on about because I just had to get it off of my chest.

I love doing nails obviously. But I also like to share my life experiences with those that may need it and I like to keep people up to date on whats going on in the world (like my many SOPA/PIPA rants lol).

It still blows my mind that you guys read all of these things and it means a lot to me that strangers read my blog. Its almost like having a lot of invisible friends lol. Just kidding! But seriously, It does mean a lot to me and I would like to just take the time out to say thank you all, I love you all and that as long as you keep reading, I will keep posting.

I'm going to try this year to do more than just nail blogs and political blogs lol. I know that posting about politics is one way to start problems but the SOPA and PIPA mess was too much for me to NOT post about. Since we have this invisible, long distance and, in some cases, long distance friendship going I want to bring you guys more into my life a little. Not like sharing EVERYTHING but just for you to get to know me more.

Another thing that I wanted to say was that thanks to all of you guys, SOPA is now DEAD! I THINK PIPA is too but don't quote me on that. I am so happy that it's gone so that I can keep posting on here for you guys. Thank you all for clicking on the links I posted for the petitions and different articles to go to so you could all become informed citizens. As a young adult, I feel like it is important to make sure that people are and stay informed about the goings on of the country and the world since we are the future of it. And because I see so many people who either don't know or don't care or just cant make it home in time to watch the news.

Just because we have won this battle does not mean that we have won the Internet war though because I am pretty sure a bigger and more impactful (wait is that a word...) bill will surface but when it does, we will be ready.

Anyway, this random rant was just to tell you guys thank you soooo much from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog posts, watching my YouTube videos, following me on Tumbr and Twitter and Beautylish. I love you all and appreciate the support you give me. I look forward to new "Confessions" to post about soon :).

Watch me on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/ViktoriusME?feature=mhee

Look for me on Tumblr http://vikkiviktorius.tumblr.com/

Follow me on Twitter @viktoriusME

Follow me on Beautylish http://www.beautylish.com/VikkiViktorius

Black n' Red

This is definitely one of the most simple nail looks that I have ever done. Literally the only thing more simple would be if I just painted my nails one solid color, which I was going to do, but you guys know me, I couldn't leave it just like that! So, I'm here to tell you about this simple nail look that turned out better than I planned for it to.



So, here is the story behind why my nails are so short. (If you don't feel like reading this part and my rant, feel free to skip down to the next paragraph, OR where you see the pic of the products used and go from there, I won't mind.) A very rude man decided to snatch his credit card from me at work because we no longer carry something that he really liked and was mad. Because of this, my middle finger nail on my right hand was clipped on the weak side and broke almost straight across. So, I had to cut my nails and find a quick fix for them polish wise until I had a chance to get my claws on some on the new Muppet nail polish from the new collection at Ulta, WHICH I will have a post on later. I also will have a post on the nail design that I had before the mean man broke my nail. And just for the record, I am not one of those girls that's like "OMFG i like broke an effing nail" I definitely wouldn't have cared as much if I hadn't just done them the night BEFORE lol. I was actually trying to decide whether to cut them or not and I guess I got my answer!

Ok, so I wanted something simple just to hold me over until I got my Muppet polish and I had painted them black and decided to put a thin coat of red glitter over them. When I did this, I didn't think that they looked that great and i didn't think that I was going to upload a post about them because they were so simple that I thought it was pointless. But people were actually asking me what kind of polish it was and how I did it so, here goes!

Here are my products used.



***DISCLAIMER***
I paid for all the products used with my own money. I use these products because I like them and I feel like they fit this nail look the best. I am not sponsored by these companies in any way.

base coat- Salon Sciences Fiberglass Networks
BLACK- Revlon Black Lingerie
GLITTER- Sephora by O.P.I. What's Your Poison
top coat- Salon Sciences Instant Artificials

What I did first was to put one coat of my base coat on my nails. Since they were short and I didn't have a free edge I only put one kind of thin coat on. When you have short nails, and you don't have a free edge, you don't have a way to seal your polish and your design in which ends up just making your polish pile up on your nails. If you have ever put too many layers of nail polish on your nails and ended up peeling off the polish because it was too much and too thick, you know what I mean.


The nest thing that I did was to put two thin coats of the black polish on. Revlon polishes tend to be thin (in my personal experience of course) and as I mentioned in my previous paragraph (see nail polish peeling), you want to avoid thick coats of polish. Be careful if you do have a thinner polish. They have a tendency to run like water off of the brush and off of your nail and onto your cuticle/skin.


***(TIP! If you do get polish on your skin, you can use a Q-tip soaked in acetone/nail polish remover or a paintbrush dipped in acetone/nail polish remover and take the polish off of the sides or wherever it is you don't want it. Just make sure that your careful to not get it on your design! You don't want to mess up all your hard work or even worse, have to start over!)***

I was originally going to leave my nails like this just plain regular solid black, but I couldn't leave it like that so I decided to add a thin coat of red glitter polish on top. Just one thin coat though (see previous paragraph on peeling). Every things better when you add glitter!


Last step, after the polish was completely dry, add one thin coat of top coat!


This polish look is very simple but the effect in the light is so pretty. Especially when its darker and you cant really see the black you just get some of the red shimmer catching the light. I hope you guys liked my simple nail look and give it a shot! Its good for fall because of the darker colors and you could even do a brown instead of black if you wanted. Let your creativity loose!

My Alternative, Unique and Ghetto Nail Art Tools

***My video on this matter***


Good nail art tools can be pretty expensive and there are so many that it adds up quick fast and in a hurry. So, I find my own ways of..."creating" nail art tools of my own. So, today I decided to go ahead and talk about the things that I like to use instead of normal tools.

One of the most commonly used items in nail art is the nail dotting pen. I've seen them for as cheap as $4.00+ shipping for a set on sites like eBay, all the way to as expensive as $10-$15 dollars for a set. Well, what I like to use instead of the traditional nail dotting pen is an open bobby pin. You can buy a pack of like 100 bobby pins at places like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens for under a dollar and its not like you need to worry about if you buy the right color if your using it only for nail art. I personally buy the ones that match my hair color only because I like to pin my bangs up so its a win win for me!

Bobby Pins also work as a way to pick up individual rhinestones for nail designs. But, if I'm trying to be more precise with the rhinestone I'm trying to pick up, especially the smaller ones, I like to (CAREFULLY!!!) use an open safety pin. I repeat, CAREFULLY! You just dip it in a little bit of top coat and grab a rhinestone and place it on the desired area on the nail that you want. You can buy packs of 100+ safety pins at not only the previous places mentioned in my last paragraph, but at the dollar store. Buy a pack, use some for nail art and the rest for all of your safety pin needs. This is WAY cheaper than going out and buying a tool made special for picking up rhinestones. If your dealing with a huge rhinestone that a bobby pin/safety pin wont hold, feel free to use tweezers. You should also use tweezers if your using things like pieces of gold foil or the dried flowers. As for nail beads, I haven't used them yet but when I do, I'm not sure what I'll use.

If I need to do a design where I'm doing a design with something like leopard spots, I like to use something like paper to put a drop of polish on it and dip my paintbrush in that (I'll get to those later). But paper can leak polish thru and make it stick to the surface I'm working on so I like to use index cards. Their thick enough so that the polish doesn't leak thru and I can buy a pack of 100 at one of the previously mentioned places above for a couple dollars.

Instead of spending a lot of money on special nail art brushes, I like to buy a big pack of normal paintbrushes at Wal-Mart and cut them down to size. I learned how to do this thanks to the fabulous Robin Moses who shows you how to cut them in this video riiiight here...

I also like to use regular flat top brushes to clean the excess polish from the sides of my fingers when I'm done with my design.

The Nail polish remover that I like to use is the kind that comes in a little jar that you stick your fingers in and swirl them around and the polish comes out that way. When it's time to get a new jar of remover, I like to keep the old jar and use it to clean my brushes. Kind of like the way that you keep a cup of water next to you when your painting on a canvas and you need to clean your brushes. They only cost a couple of dollars at (again I refer you to one of the previous paragraphs) one of the previously mentioned places. The way that I tell if I need to get a new one is when your nails start to come out discolored like the color of the nail polish remover. If you like, you can even empty out the jar and put some from the bottle in there. I like to do that with one of them that I kept that has bristles instead of a sponge.

So, that's my post on my alternative, unique, and some may call, ghetto nail art tools. I hope you guys can find this helpful, and if you have the actual tools and DON'T find this helpful, thanks for reading anyway and now you have some tips for if (nail gods forbid) one of your tools breaks and you need a last minuet alternative. Obviously, these are for the people that do their own nail art like me because I'm sure if you work in an actual salon, you have the good stuff. Enjoy!

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! @viktoriusME or http://twitter.com/#!/viktoriusME
CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE! http://www.youtube.com/user/ViktoriusME?feature=mhee

Happy painting!

Rachaels Pandas

I've been neglecting my blog a bit this past week I do apologize. Ok, so one of my best friends likes pandas a lot and Sailor Moon to. I was planning on doing some Sailor Moon nails on her but my navy polish decided to commit suicide down the stairs so I had to come up with another idea for her so I decided on pandas.

Here they are

I was inspired by a panda nail tutorial done by Cutepolish on YouTube Here is the link for anyone interested. Shes Amazing.



Ok, so here are the products used


***DISCLAIMER***
I paid for all of these products on my own with my own money. I am in no way Sponsored by these companies nor did I receive these for free. I just use them because I like them best and for this tutorial.

base coat- Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network
WHITE- China Glaze White on White
BLACK- Revlon Black Lingerie
RED- China Glaze Rose Among Thorns
GLITTER- China Glaze Carnival Lights
top coat- Salon Sciences Instant Artificials
and
a paintbrush but you could use an open bobby pin as well

The first step to the pandas was to use a base coat. Since Rays nails are short, I only used one thin coat of base coat. I find that thicker coats of polish on short nails dont always end up well and tend to peel off easier especially if they are too short to seal the free edge. So, thinner coats will definitely be your friend if you have short nails.


Next step was to make a circular shape with the white polish. This is to make the pandas head. It doesnt have to be perfect because we still need to add the ears and (for the girl) a bow. As long as you can tell its a circle-ish shape, your good.


After the pandas head shape has been done and completely dries, the next step is to add the first layer of the eyes, the ears and the noses. We decided to make one of the pandas a girl so, we gave all of them black noses except for two, one on each hand. They got red noses.



After the first layer of the eyes dried, it was time to add the whites of the pandas eyes.


Then I added the bows for the red nose girl pandas.


After the design completely dried, I used a thin coat of my favorite top coat to protect the little pandas.


As always, AND if your nails are long enough, make sure that you put at least one coat of each polish on your free edges to protect your nail art. And put at least one thin coat of top coat on your nails if they are short. A good top coat will work wonders for you and your nail art.

Also, these are simply the colors I used because we were making traditional pandas. So, if you want to get creative and make different crazy colored pandas, feel free to do so. Art is in the eye of the beholder and nail art even more so because they are your nails. So if you LOVE the color purple and want the pandas to have purple eyes instead of black, go for it and more power to you! Your nails and your nail art should be what you love no matter what.

The Tea Bag Method

I have a lot of people come to me asking me how I repair My broken nails.

Well, here is the answer to that question:
first of all, there is a difference to a "broken" nail and a chipped/cracked nail.

Broken nails can not be fixed because they are, in a word, broken. When you tell me that your nail is broken, I am assuming that your nail has gone from one long one to a short one and a tip that has come off.

Chipped nails are nails that have become uneven. Mine usually chip around the tips and start to peel. but sometimes, a piece of your nails can come off and i count that as a chip too.

Cracked nails are the most annoying in my opinion. They always seem to crack in the most inconvenient and possibly painful places. For example below the tip of the nail where your nerves are sensitive. Or, that ONE nail that decides to be a pain in the ass and start to crack right at the tip of your nail while the others are still nice long and pretty.

Now, for two out of three of those scenarios, I have a solution that can help you to save your chipped or cracked nails. If their broken, sorry but I'm not a magician. This solution is called the Tea Bag Method.

Now you cold of course go out of your way to go to the store and buy a the nail wraps and gel and a UV lamp to cure it and all that good and expensive stuff. OR, you could grab a tea bag or buy a cheap box of tea and try this.

Here is what you will need to do this. Well, my way anyway.




-An empty tea bag
-Scissors
-Base coat
-Acetone
(optional) Paintbrush or Cotton Ball/Q-tip

Now what you want to do first is to clean your nail. Your going to need acetone to do this but rubbing alcohol is an option if you don't have acetone. I have the one in the jar that you just stick your finger in but if you have a bottle, you can use a paintbrush and dip it into the acetone or put some onto a cotton ball or Q-tip and rub it onto the nail. The acetone takes off the natural oils and anything else like lotion or normal everyday hand gunk that may build up on your nails.
If your just repairing one nail and have the rest of your nails polished and dont plan on taking the polish off because you just want to fix that one nail, then here is what I do when I'm using a cotton ball. Put it on the top of the bottle of acetone, place your palm firmly against the cotton ball and turn the bottle upside down CAREFULLY. Then use tweezers to hold the cotton ball and clean the nail.

Ok, after your nail has been cleaned, your going to want to take your tea bag and make sure its empty.
Open it up completely into a big rectangle. Then take the open tea bag and measure it against your nail and cut out a piece to fit the crack of your nail.


Then your going to want to take your base coat and put a thin coat on your entire nail.

Then, take the strip of the tea bag that you cut off and sized to your nail and put it FIRMLY against the area thats cracked. Your going to want to put the edge of the tea bag as close to the edge with the crack as possible. If some of it gets onto your skin and off of the nail thats ok, when your done and its completely dry then you can file it off. Any bubbles you see you can squeeze out or pop with a pin.


after you have that piece of the tea bag firmly against your nail and have gotten rid of the bubbles and your first coat is dry (so that the bag doesnt move from where you have placed it), put a second coat of your base coat and seal your free edges.


When that dries, then you can file off (GENTLY) any excess that you see.

Now, if your trying to cover your entire nail because of peeling, the only thing different that your going to do is instead of cutting off a small strip of the tea bag, your going to cut a piece that fits your ENTIRE nail and then put down your base coat and press the piece of the tea bag against it. A cool trick i learned from YouTube is to grad a piece of plastic wrap and hold it against your nail to help smooth it out. Now if you use the plastic wrap, be very careful to not leave it on the nail too long or you can end up gluing it to your nail and THAT is definitely not part of this process.

Confessions of a Nail Junkie...

Hi, I'm Vikki. First off, let me start my intro by saying that I am in NO way shape or form a licensed nail tech, NOR am i sponsored by anyone. Everything that I know and do is all from being self taught by either trial and error or the internet, mainly YouTube. And the products that I use are ones that I have bought with MY OWN money. This blog will be dedicated to all things nail art related and of course some rants here and there too about whatever happened to be on my mind that day.

Now, on to more about myself. I am a 19 year old multi racial woman born and raised in Miami Florida (shout out to the 305 :D) but now I live in Chattanooga Tennessee which is....quite..different to say the least. I love to draw and paint and recently was inspired to start blogging about my painting and nail stuff by some of the people I follow on YouTube. I also have my own YouTube channel and will be uploading some of my own tutorials on there shortly. But for now, I'm starting out with just this blog. I will be uploading pictures and what not on here and then my tutorials on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/ViktoriusME(<----there's the link to it). I also have a Facebook but I dont really have anything on there nail related yet... Well no let me correct myself, I have some pics uploaded but that is all that is there.

I enjoy doing nails very much and hopefully will become a certified nail tech one day. I update my twitter more often than I do my Facebook about my nail stuff http://twitter.com/#!/viktoriusME so go ahead and follow me there if you would like ;)

Thank you for taking the time to read this and be sure to keep checking back here or on my channel to see my new stuff :)
I havent uploaded any videos yet but I will tweet and update the blog when I do!