The Right Length For You

So after a long time of NOT posting, I finally am uploading a new post.

Tonight I think I want to address proper nail length. Nail length, as do eyebrows, is custom to you and your body/lifestyle. Let me explain.

If you know anything about eyebrows, then you know that your eyebrow shape is custom to how your face is...built i guess would be the right word. You just shape it around the contours of your face. But enough about eyebrows. I might upload a post with pics and all about how I do my eyebrows later on. Since I need to re-do them anyway because I actually do my own eyebrows.

But back to nails....
So, there are many things that can factor in on what is the right nail length for you. Keep in mind this is referring to natural nails only.

If you are always on your phone and texting, Facebooking, Tweeting, or if you are on the computer a lot, then you would probably want to go a more minimalist route. By minimalist, I mean either short like to your finger tip length or barely past it. I personally have an LG Droid Ally aka the ones that came out two years ago that I'm too broke to upgrade from lol. It has a slide out keyboard and a touch screen too. I have longer nails though and it at times is not just difficult but a pain in the ass to use both my slide out and on-screen keyboard. I can use the balls of my thumbs to use the slide out and the on screen key board which, to be honest it isn't always easy to use my on screen like that, or the tips of my nails on the slide out. it makes it more difficult to type. Also, typing on my laptop with longer nails can be annoying. They catch in the tiny spaces in between each key since i have to type with my nails vs my finger tips.

Another thing to factor into the equation is how much you use your hands, and what you use them for. Do you do your hair a lot? Are you always cleaning up/using chemicals?  do you have sensitive skin or dry hands? Chemicals, dry air, season change...things like this can have a drying effect on your nails. therefore making them dry and brittle. especially if you don't use and cuticle oil or lotions and things of that nature.

When you have longer nails, you have problems like stress points to worry about. stress points are the cracks you get at the sides of your nails where you constantly put pressure on them. The longer you keep your nails, the more natural stress points will appear. Once they start cracking, its time to cut them down. Personally, if the crack is too low on the nail, Ill try to patch it until it grows enough for me to comfortably trim the nail.

Things like this are the things that you need to factor in when deciding whether to keep your nails short and sweet, or let them get a little length going on.

Happy holidays guys. I hope you all enjoy the holiday season and have had a good one so far. I am trying to come back more often to post more often so you guys can know whats up and get new posts from me. Thanks :)

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.

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!