Tuesday, September 7, 2010

NOTD: A Somewhat Successful 1st Konadicure

I bought a bunch of konad items a couple of years back and have played with it from time to time but haven't had any success with it. I ended up getting frustrated and put it away. A sweet and generous blogger friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, sent me an awesome gift a couple of months ago. She sent me the expensive Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polish in Scrangie and some discontinued Sally Hansen chromes. Thank you so much! You know who you are! I finally worked up the courage to try to dress up my poor, mangy nails. My nails have gotten really soft since I stopped taking GNC's Hair, Nails and Skin formula (or whatever order the name is in). I wasn't sure if it was doing anything but now I know that it was helping to strengthen my nails a bit.

I won't review Scrangie extensively since I know many reviews are out there. It is a lovely holo purple shade and I really like it applied as a single coat since it applies as a light purple. Unfortunately, my application skills are horrible and I can't get an even coat with just one application so I had to apply two coats. It's beautiful plum color.

I then decide which konad design I want to use and which color of the chrome to use. The first design and color that I chose doesn't come out well. I think that I needed a brighter chrome color for it to show better so I switched and it still wouldn't come out well.

In this picture it shows up nicely but I took it outside in bright sunlight. Otherwise, you can't see anything in normal lighting. I also noticed that when I put it onto the stamper, a lot of the lines were not showing up. I think that maybe the lines are too fine and unfortunately, most of my plate designs are like that.

I switched to another design, which reminds me of tiger stripes. I am one of those people who do not tend to like animal prints so this tiger design really doesn't appeal much to me. However, for the first time ever, I was able to get a good konad print!

Here is the print on my left hand. Oh, please excuse the really messy application. This was taken soon after I finished my konadicure and I didn't even clean up my fingers. I like how this design shows up really well and I'm happy that it actually turned out!

Next I do my right hand and it is an epic fail! Well, maybe not quite epic but it is somewhat a fail.

First of all, my middle finger is all wrong! The stripes are going from side to side! LOL! Okay, I could reasonably say that this was intentional since it's my middle finger and I wanted to do something interesting. Unfortunately, my left hand's middle finger was already done properly so I couldn't make it match. If you look at the rest of my fingers, the design is pretty much straight up and down rather than at an angle like my left hand. I really like it at an angle.

I did my base coat and top coat with Deborah Lippman Hard Rock, which I like very much. It is the one top coat that really helps to make my manicure last for a decent amount of time. With normal top coat (OPI), after one day and having washed my hair, done dishes several times plus my normal wear and tear of doing housework and work (I'm really hard on my hands), I would have tip wear and/or chipping. I have done all of that and so far my nails look like it was just done, sans the messy polish on my skin.

Now I will have to go and look for more konad designs with thicker lines and see what happens. Do any of you have problems with the small designs and/or designs with fine lines?

*Kat*

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I am not this talented and usually have nude nails...LOL

I love the idea of this design- it's so cute!

galpal.hi said...

Thanks for your sweet comment Really Petite. Thank you also for visiting and following our humble blog. I enjoy reading your blog, which is really great for us petites. Unfortunately, I'm not quite as petite as I used to be. The only good thing is that it's much easier to find store bought clothes that fit.

*Kat*

Susie said...

Looks nice. It does take a ton of practice to get Konading to line up right and it get it to look somewhat the same on each nail.
I can't wait to see more from you.
Susie

Anonymous said...

Hi Kat.
Whew...nice nails.... i want to see them in person....keep them on till we get together..so no washing dishes , no vacuming, no playing with the cat....
lol
MAI

galpal.hi said...

Hi susies1955! Thanks for the encouragement. I'll keep at it. I actually had a compliment at the store. One of the sales clerks in Sephora said that she liked my nails.

*Kat*

galpal.hi said...

Mai actually showed up here! My nails are still just as good as new. I've washed my hair several times, done dishes every day at least once, had to frantically clear up things, move shelving units around, etc. because of the unexpected flooding in the house from the burst pipe. So there's a chance that you'll get to see it.

*Kat*

Anonymous said...

what a pretty manicure!! I havent worn nail polish in like two weeks. my nails looked/felt stripped after taking off the canmake nail color polish! lol. hope you're having a gd weekend :D

Georgina said...

hi kat! i haven't tried konad yet, the middle fingernail made me giggle :P
i dont think it was a fail, i think its cute! :)

thank you for your well wishes, im still down but getting better! enjoy Sunday! :)

galpal.hi said...

Thanks Nic Nic! I hadn't worn nail polish in months so this was a big job! I hope that your nails are in better shape now.

It was a busy weekend for me but it was good. I was busy working at the Women's Expo and did some hauling from there too--mostly clothing.

*Kat*

galpal.hi said...

coffretgorge, I'm glad that I was able to make you giggle. Thanks for thinking it's cute. You need some laughter in your life right now since you've been sick for a while now. I hope that you're truly on your way to better health now.

*Kat*

BV said...

Oh I think that konadicure is a success! I find fine lines difficult also. I have a hell of a time finding a good clean line. I think sometimes if you use a nail polish remover that has too little acetone in it and more of the moisturiser, then the plate and stamp just not get as clean and the lines are blurry.

I haven't konaded in several months! Despite tons of new plates. I just konad lazy probably about 80% of the year!

I love this design + the colours!!
Thank you for posting this...
BV

galpal.hi said...

Thanks for the tip on the nail polish remover. I just bought a refill type container of strawberry scented remover and perhaps I should go and get another one to konad with. I was having a heck of a time yesterday and I was using that remover.

*Kat*