Acrylic Nails for Me and You - Finally!

So I have FINALLY graduated from applying acrylic to cheesy little plastic fingers and my favorite hand, Gretchen. to giving a full set of Acrylic Nails to Real, Live People, yay!  A couple of weeks ago I "cheated" and practiced on my oldest daughter, and for some strange reason I didn't take any pictures of that...  Yesterday I put acrylics on Stefanie, a fellow student; today I did a full set on April and tomorrow Heather will be my next guinea pig!  I definitely need to keep practicing but here are some photos of what I've done so far:

April's nails from this evening:

Applying the Artificial Tip

Artificial tips on the natural nail, shaped and buffed

Close up of Artificial tips on the natural nail, shaped and buffed

Acrylics done with Base Coat of polish

Close up of Acrylics done with Base Coat of polish

All done!

 Stefani's nails from yesterday:

Red French-style polish

Close up

How To Properly Feed The Washer

The Washer.  While this common household pet is found in basements, closets, laundry rooms and even the occasional kitchen across America it remains an invisible, mysterious creature to many.  Today my mission is to educate the masses in the proper treatment and feeding of this gentle yet sometimes difficult to understand recluse.

The Washer loves to help!  It requires very little from it's family in the way of attention yet it is frequently asked to perform it's function without any thought whatsoever to the delicate ratio of Juice, Water and Clothing necessary to do a good job - and then The Washer is frequently and sometimes even harshly criticized for poor performance.  Sadly The Washer receives praise most often when it's family exchanges it for pieces of paper and a few round pieces of metal and rarely gets praise to it's face...  

I have recently acquired a new appreciation for my own Washer, as my previous Washer - a friend of more than 11 years - passed away quite suddenly at the beginning of September.  Making friends with a new Washer required some time and a bit of patience but I think have discovered a secret that is worth sharing and will help you in your relationship with your Washer as well!

Washers are attached to their homes by magical, mysterious means (sometimes called plumbing) which allows them to take full advantage of their standing prescription to Take Water By Hose As Needed.  Every Washer has it's own Buttons that need pushing, which is why time and patience are so important when meeting a new Washer - you need to know the right Buttons to push and which Buttons to avoid!  After many years of tireless research and finally befriending this speechless species the basics of The Proper Care and Feeding of a Washer have begun to emerge with astonishing clarity.  Following these few, easy steps will allow your Washer to help you to it's heart's content, causing you to fall deeper in love with it every day:

1.  DIRTY CLOTHING.  Fill The Washer's empty cavity with dirty clothing.  I know it sounds mean and rude to consistently give such a faithful family member the worst and the nastiest of your personal fabrics but trust me - your Washer LIVES for this!  One Very Important Note, However:  If your Washer opens at the top don't push too hard and pack the clothing into the washer, just hold each piece at the top and simply let it drop to the bottom of the washer.  Using this whimsical and vaguely romantic method of filling the washer be sure and STOP when the clothing reaches the top of the washing cylinder.  If your Washer opens on the side use the same method to insert the dirty clothing into The Washer's cavity but you will need to have a good heart-to-heart talk with your Washer before you will know at what point to stop the romance and close the door.  For either Front-Loading or Top-Loading Washers once the dirty clothing has been placed you may now Push The Washer's Button(s) and allow it to access it's limitless water source and fill the washing chamber to the top.  The Good Washers will stop the water when it reaches the top of the chamber.  The Bad Washers, however will require the aid of your local Washer Counselor, (sometimes known as a Plumber), to help them reclaim their self-discipline, entitling them once more to the "Good Washer" designation and a closer level of friendship with the rest of the family.

2.  JUICE.  It's a very well-kept secret, only few people know how completely addicted Washers really are to Juice... the trick is to know what Juice is best for not only your Washer but also for your dirty clothing as well.  So far my Washer likes Blue Juice that I get at my local Box Store.  Juice comes in many different colors and flavors but I'm going to try a new, homemade Juice recipe that I found online recently... I'll let you know what my Washer thinks of it after a while.  The procedure for feeding Juice to your Washer is very simple, you just use whatever measuring cup comes with your Juice, FIND THE LINE FIRST and then fill it up with Juice - BUT DO NOT GO PAST THE LINE! Alas, more is not better...  Less, however, won't do you much good either.  Juice has a secret, it is a second cousin to Goldilocks because the proportions have to be "just right". 

3.  SOFT JUICE.  Did you know that Juice has a friend?  Soft Juice is completely different than a Soft Drink and is an important companion to Juice but due to the delicate digestion system of The Washer, Soft Juice needs to enter the The Washer's dietary regime at just the right time or the Soft Juice will be wasted.  Some newer Washers have a Soft Juice container built into them but my Washer is older and requires something completely different.  A hollow, plastic ball roughly the size of a softball is necessary to hold the Soft Juice while a fiendishly clever weighted lid keeps the Soft Juice separate from the water and regular Juice until the regular Juice has been rinsed out of The Washer's system.  The Soft Juice container usually has marks on it to indicate how much dirty laundry is in The Washer and when it comes to Soft Juice sometimes more IS better, it just depends on how you like your clothes to smell after they are cleaned.  However, using  more Soft Juice is not cost-effective so once again using the Goldilocks Principle we try not to overload The Washer with too much Soft Juice.  Once the Soft Juice has been loaded into the special ball, the plug pulled to keep it safe until it's OK for the Soft Juice to come out all you have to do is set it in the cavity of The Washer, shut the lid and walk away.  

And that's it, you're done!  The Washer has been Properly Fed!

Please try to be nice to your Washer on a regular basis, they are over-used and under-appreciated in nearly every American household and it's a sad, sad world we live in when we only tell something how much we loved it after it has died.  We should live every day like we are dying and tell everyone around us how much we love and appreciate them all the time!

Tune in next week when we explore the realities of The Dryer and Lint!

Lighter than Air - and - Real Men Like Pedicures Too!

I have had such a burden lifted off of me yesterday!  Long story short - September 4th I "quit in lieu of being fired", filed for unemployment, it was denied.  I appealed, had a telephone hearing with a judge two days ago and yesterday I received a letter in the mail saying the judge had decided in my favor, YAY!  Yay, yay, yay, yay!  If my body could pull off doing what my heart is doing you'd probably call the cops if you saw it because it would look crazy!  "Happy Dance, Happy, Happy, Happy Dance" - I totally feel lighter than air right now!

As far as jobs go I am still trying to book more Pampered Chef parties (Hint, Hint, to all of my local friends).   Christmas is coming, what a great opportunity to get together with your girlfriends, enjoy an evening of food and fun while they shop for great Christmas presents and you get to earn free product!  <call me!>

 I am also looking for evening and weekend part-time work and hopefully with the Christmas season coming that won't be too hard to find, eh?

Another thought to make money was to donate plasma, but I have been turned down twice in two days so I'm guessing that's a "No go for me, which I am totally OK with.  They won't take me because my iron level is too low, it doesn't meet their guidelines, even after I took an iron pill in between appointments which blocked me up but good.  Aaaand you didn't want to know that, sorry...  Donating plasma is important medically and has a really good compensation plan considering how few hours are actually put into donating.  I've done it before and while I'm thankful for the people that continue to do it I'm relieved that it isn't an option for me anymore but I had to try, right?

Again, this blog is not about my problems but about my new life and my new career...  yes, I do have problems, doesn't everybody?  But most of all this blog is about my God coming through and meeting my needs - and since I mentioned my needs in the beginning of the blog I wanted to keep you in the loop about how life is going.  This blog is about God creating circumstances where I am soooo HAPPY with what I'm doing now, where my life is going now... In spite of the world falling down around me I feel like God has been handing me everything I have been wanting on a silver platter.  It's almost like I've been basking in the Bahamas while watching the hurricane whirl all around me and all my only task is to ask the waiter for more Dr. Peppers... and I'm OK with that!  I love the confidence and peace that I have and I LOVE the fact that obtaining the confidence and peace was a gift to me from God, there was nothing I could have done to "earn" or "develop" them on my own.  That was yesterday.  <3

Today was great too!  My friends, Wendy and Christopher, came in to see me at the school on their Date Day and blessed me by letting me give them both a manicure and pedicure!

Here they are showing off their "new" fingers, aren't they such a cute couple?

Chris had never had  a mani or a pedi before and he enjoyed it so much that he texted other guys and told them all about it! That's a real ego-booster, let me tell you!  Hopefully that will result in more men coming in soon - way to go Chris!

Wendy also enjoyed her mani-pedi, her work doesn't allow polish on her fingernails but we put some sparkles on her toes.  Here she is sporting those fantastic foam flip flops with her new pedicure and purple sparkly toes :)  Go Wendy!  Go Wendy!

The rest of the day at school was spent watching one of the other nail tech students apply a full set of acrylic nails to our first paying acrylic customer, whoo hoo!   Then Peter, the school owner gave us a lesson on nail art using our special nail art brushes and all I can say is Wow, he makes it look easy!  Peter said I will get to do the next set of acrylic nails that is needed so I'm a little nervous, I think I should practice on my daughters more...  Twist their arms, I know...

Today was a full day, a good day, and I am soooo happy it's Friday!  Sleep in tomorrow folks and have a great weekend!

Meet My New Hand... Gretchen!

So today at school was lots of fun, I know, big surprise to everyone... <rolling my eyes>  No, I did not get to fix Stephanie's nails today which kind of bummed me out but it turned out that she was more focused on preparing for the boards than worrying about how her fingernails look - she's taking school very seriously...

Something off topic and much less serious - we had a potluck today!  Yummy!  I made Taco Soup and the other girls and instructors brought food, I think we have enough food leftover to eat lunches for the rest of the week, yay!  (Because I'm really bad at packing lunches, seriously, I am!)  Everything tasted wonderful and it was soooo fun!

After lunch Stephanie and I worked with our new hands.  The hands were included in our kit but today is the first time we've pulled them out and tried to use them.  I don't know that Stephanie has given her hand a name yet but I decided to call mine Gretchen.  Gretchen sounds like a properly brought up Scottish lass who just might even say something like  "Yes mum", when I ask her to hold still and stop wiggling while I try to work on her nails...

As you can see, Gretchen and I met at a small table cluttered with acrylic nail paraphernalia and she didn't say a word about the mess - I see the beginning of a true friendship right here!  In this picture you can see my little containers of monomer (purple liquid), acrylic powder, sculpting forms (a roll of stickers that look like weird little horseshoes), files, brushes, buffers, assorted nail tips and other implements.  Gretchen is a trooper!  No sooner did I break her out of her box and suction her stand to the table and she was up ready to get to work, no slacking here, Gretchen is my Go-To girl, whoo hoo!

I sculpted acrylic nails on Gretchen's hand.  Gretchen is a nice, quiet individual who doesn't complain when I accidentally file on the skin around her fingernails and she is remarkably easy to talk to - she's a great listener!  Here she is with the completed, sculpted, acrylic nails and a base coat or polish.  Thankfully Gretchen is not shy about having her picture taken...

After I applied the acrylic nails I practiced my very first French Manicure with white OPI polish.  Ta Dah!  For those who are not familiar with how to apply a French Manicure with polish (like I was this morning) please follow the photos:  you start with a base coat on either the natural or artificial nail (see the picture on the left)...

...and then put white polish on the tips of each finger.  I used a white OPI polish, a nice, thick nail lacquer that makes it easier to spread consistently and looks good without a whole lot of effort.  You just slather it on the ends of the nails, taking care to get the sides and edges if the acrylic is thick and it doesn't have to be neat or pretty.  This picture shows the OPI polish, two fingers with white on the tips and my special French Tip brush.  Once all the fingers have white on the tips it's time to use the special brush!













To use the French Tip brush just dip it into acetone and then use it to wipe off the excess white polish, leaving a beautiful "smile line" and thereby creating the French Tip look.  :)











Ta Dah!  One hand of sculpted acrylic nails with French Tips completed by a Top Coat.  Ooh La, La!













But there was still more time left to play so I experimented with some nail art.  Behold the finished project!  A thin silver line separates the white from the nail bed while the ring finger sports a red flower with a white rhinestone and white and silver decorative lines.

                            Here's a close-up of my ring-finger art, enjoy!

And that was my day at school - Fun huh?

I sincerely hope you have this much fun at whatever it is that you do all day, every day.

The Nail Technician course I'm taking is only 4 1/2 months long, seriously, only 4 1/2 months to change your life?  Be brave, be bold, follow your dreams and just do it!  Super-low prices and In-House financing makes it especially affordable, call Murano Beauty Academy College now and see where your life takes you!  208-378-5800

The Worst Feeling In The World

Today at school:  we did our book work in the morning,


I had lunch with a friend, after lunch I crammed five people (including myself) into my Subaru and we went to Cosmo-Prof, a  beauty  supply store (these are all stock photos today, sorry).





Once we got back, it was about 2:15ish, I started giving Stephanie (one of my fellow Nail Tech students) a manicure so that Cathy (a new Nail Tech student) could watch and get used to the order of procedures before she gives her first manicure later this week.  Everything is hunky-dory up until this point, fun and games, rainbows and unicorns, blah, blah, blah...  (Can you hear the ominous music building?)

I take my time setting up for the manicure and get started about 2:30 or so.  At 2:50 pm our instructor reminds me that Stephanie has to leave each day at 3 pm.  I should have known this!  Ha!  Actually I did know it, I just forgot it, grrrr...  So due to my lapse in memory I've been dinking around, being slow and careful about filing her nails with my new toy, a crystal file, which feels better on the skin but is waaaaaaay slower than using the school provided files and then I was cutting her cuticles with the nippers ever-so-gently to make sure I'm not cutting anything I'm not supposed to... ugh!  I should have been most of the way done by 2:50 and I wasn't even halfway finished!

Stephanie says she doesn't have to go right this very second, yay!, and she wants to let me try and finish the service.  So I hurry up and complete the nipping, skip the arm and hand massage with her permission and go straight to the "new" Gellish nail polish that we are starting to work with.  BUT having never having used the product before we had to have Cathy read the directions which I then performed on Stephanie's fingers.

Apply the Ph Bonder.  Done.  Apply a thin Foundation coat and put under the UV light.  Done.  Side note here - the Foundation coat was one of the thickest products I've ever seen to come out of a nail polish bottle and the brush is super short and unlike anything I've ever used before... NOT helping my gotta-rush-rush-rush situation here but I still managed to whip out the foundation layer and get started on the first coat of color.  I even got the first coat of color on all but three of her ten fingers and then all of a sudden the bell rings at the front desk...

DING!

Our instructor had an appointment and has left for the day and the other instructor is helping her students in another room so there is no staff available to be at the front.  I ask Cathy to go help whoever is at the front while I finish putting the first coat of color on, albeit poorly due to a combination of my first-time-nervousness, lack of confidence because the product is so new to me, agitation that there is nobody at the front desk,  embarrassment that I forgot Stephanie leaves every day at 3 pm and frustration that I am still slower than I should  be.

Cathy comes back, the walk-in-customer wants to book a facial but Cathy doesn't know how to do that on our system yet.  I quick polish the last fingernail with the first coat and Stephanie puts her hand under the UV light to start the curing process as I go to the front to help Cathy.  Success!  We get the walk-in client booked for a facial on Thursday.  Failure!  My be-frazzlement and temporary lack of confidence turned her off from booking a pedi-mani that same day as well, meaning she was totally interested in booking a pedi-mani until I started talking to her about it.  Normally I'm a good up-seller but today I completely turned her off from something she clearly wanted.  I don't remember that ever happening before, wow, another blow to my self-esteem!

The walk-in has walked-out and I'm quickly trying to show Cathy what I did to book the appointment and Stephanie comes up to the front desk and says she has to go, it's 3:30 and she needs to leave - but her fingernails are sticky!

I remember that rubbing alcohol will take off the stickiness and so we grab some cotton and rubbing alcohol - the sticky comes off her nails just fine but so does most of the polish!  Ugh!

Stephanie is kind to me but obviously unhappy and has to Go Right Now.

I apologize profusely and promise to do re-do everything correctly tomorrow morning.  She utters a gracious, politically correct response and skedaddles out of there as fast as she can to try and make her next appointment on time.

I feel horrible!  Part of me is really, really glad Stephanie is a fellow student and not a paying client but the other part of me fully recognizes that she could have just as easily been a walk-in and I was completely unprepared to meet her needs in a timely fashion.

This is truly One of the Worst Feelings In The World.  I don't like it at all and never want to feel it again.  EVER.  I let her down and I let myself down but I'm going to do manicure after manicure until I meet the 40 minute mark from start to finish, no matter what kind of polish my clients want.  This is my biggest goal as of right now, although I officially have until mid-January to complete it, I want to accomplish it within the next week or two!

So who's with me?  Who wants to come down to Murano Beauty Academy and get a manicure for $8 or a mani-pedi for $20 so I can keep practicing?  Unfortunately I can't offer these particular services for free at the school anymore and I don't have all the equipment to do them at home but they're still really good prices and while tips are greatly appreciated they are not required - I need the practice more!

Providing a poor guest experience was devastating and motivating at the same time, I'm going to climb this mountain and win my battle!  Care to join me?  Call Murano's at 208-378-5800 to schedule a manicure and/or pedicure appointment with me right away - I NEED you!

I've Been "Tented"

Okie dokie, she is a total sweetheart and a wonderful teacher but one of the instructors at my school says a couple of words differently enough that it always makes me go "Hmmm???"

Donna is the Esthetics (sp?) instructor and sometimes I get to be the guinea pig for her students when she teaches them new things - the facial period was fabulous! - but my latest adventure was getting my eyelashes and eyebrows "tented", as Donna says it.  The first time she asked me if I wanted my eyebrows tented it took me a minute to figure out what she meant.  TINTed, ooohhh!  Why yes!  I would love to get my eyelashes and eyebrows tinted, lol!

So ignore the hair and lack of makeup, just focus on my eyebrows and eyelashes, here's a couple of before pictures:

And an immediately after picture - the tinting is noticeable but natural looking, I like it so far!

And a picture later that evening:

Look!  I appear to be a battered woman, oh crap!  The eyelash dye kept darkening on my skin throughout the day giving me this fabulous black-eye and facial bruises.  I went to the grocery store after school was out and at first I was afraid that I might see someone I know but then I started noticing how people were looking at me...  They all slid their eyes away from me as soon as they saw my face and walked in the other direction.  How sad that no one came up to me and asked if I was OK!  But that's a post for a completely different blog.

In the end the dye faded, leaving me with slightly darker eyebrows and almost mascara-dark eyelashes but Note To Self:  NEVER get your eyelashes and/or eyebrows tinted on The Big Day no matter what kind of big day it is.  Not even the day before.  Give yourself at least 48 hours to make sure any dye mishaps have a chance to fade away, eh?

The final result:

OK, so it's late and I'm tired, I'm not wearing any makeup at all and I just snapped off a quick shot but hopefully you can see darkened eyebrows and eyelashes that look like I am wearing a brown mascara.  The tinting was totally worth it and I will be doing it again whenever it wears off, which I forgot to ask how long that will be :P

My Kit, Practicing Nail Art and Having FUN at School!

Here's my day in pictures:

My Kit!

My kit spread out,  lol!

Making pretty nails...

One of my favorites!

This one looks better in person and ignore the icky plastic finger, it has remnants of acrylic on it and looks diseased now, eeewww!

This one is harder to see but...

I found rhinestone butterflies!  (lower right corner of the nail)

I tried to put the design above on my friend April's toes with a couple of color changes

She and I really need to stop talking so much - I spent two hours on her pedicure, oops!  (It should have taken 40 minutes tops before the nail art...)

Note the black "French Tips" on her smaller toes because I worked really hard to get those straight, ha, ha!  Seriously though, school was so much fun today - if you're not doing something you love I highly recommend that you change your life, it's totally worth it!

Candy Corn Flames

So there was more Nail Art in today's forecast - but first - I got my second facial from one of the other students!  I gotta tell ya, I am a believer now!  It's a good thing I'm going into the beauty industry because I think I'm about to become High Maintenence...  (sorry honey!)

Heather was my fabulous guinea pig this afternoon and she let me do my new creation "Candy Corn Flames" on her toes and fingertips.  I have to say she's a trooper because I didn't know what I was doing but it sure was fun to experiment!  Here's what my initial concept looks like on a white nail tip:

Dont'cha love my plastic practice fingers?  Lol!  And the colors in the picture aren't right, the "red" is actually "Bronco Orange" (if you live in Boise you'll know what that means) so it really does look like Candy Corn and then the area next to the cuticle is supposed to be the white part of the candy corn.  Anyway...  Here's what it looks like on Heather:

(The picture of her other foot didn't come out right.)  I didn't get the white part of the candy corn look next to the cuticles like I wanted to but other than that I was satisfied with my first "official" nail art on someone else and she was very pleased so Thank You Heather for letting me work on your toes and nails today!