Review: Orly Nail Defense Strengthing Protein Treatment

I recently bought a bottle of the Orly Nail Defense treatment, because I keep my nails constantly painted and they are often peeling on the ends. I don't have much experience with the Orly brand, but based on the price, I assumed it would be similar to Essie, OPI, and China Glaze.

The instructions say to use it as a base coat, and to replace the coating every 3-4 days. It can also be worn by itself over bare nails. It is only a little shinier than natural nails when it is put on by itself.

Things I Liked:

* It dries in less than a minute
* It doesn't smell terrible

Things I Didn't Like:

* It caused my nail polish to chip off in chunks after only a day

In general, I think this nail treatment should not be used as a base coat. Anywhere my nails were peeling, the nail polish came off, even with Seche Vite top coat over it. I ended up redoing my nails after less than 24 hours three times, which is about 10 times more often than I usually do, so actually made my nails worse.

I have yet to try this by itself, since I pretty much always have nail polish on. Perhaps I will use it in between manicures, maybe once a week. So far, I have not noticed a difference, but I only used it for about 5 days before it got on my nerves so much that I gave up on it. I don't think it is worth the $10.50, unless you are planning to take a break from nail polish for a week or two at a time in order to give it a chance to work. For me, that doesn't suit my lifestyle so I probably won't use it again.

Futurama- Why Didn't I think of That?!

I can't believe how awesome this is.

Easter

And on to a more seasonally appropriate design- Easter!

I took my idea from a post on YouTube by CutePolish, then added my own twist. I'm really not a fan of painting all my nails white, and tend to avoid any design where this is necessary. So instead of painting colored lines on the "eggs" like she did, I decided to paint each nail a different color and then paint white designs over them. I think this is more authentically Easter egg for me anyway, since one of the ways we always colored eggs when I was a kid was to write on the egg with a white crayon, and then color them, so the egg would be colored and the writing would be white. I kept her spring chicken design though.

These two photos feature the same hand, but I wanted to show our best two colored eggs of the year. My husband and I colored eggs with my grandma. He had never colored eggs before, but he did a nice job! The top egg is mine, and the bottom egg is his. Yes, we already ate them ;)

This is the original video by CutePolish. Her chicken looks a lot better than mine!

Valentine's Nails (Very Late!)

I know it's super late (by almost two months!) but I told myself I would post my Valentine's designs, and so I will by gum!

There are two- the first one is what I wore in the days leading up to Valentine's Day, and the second is the one I actually wore on the day.

These fun hearts were actually very easy to do. I didn't even use a nail art brush, just a dotting tool and the regular nail polish brush for the big hearts. I used a red polish first, then put pink over it in a shadow box style a la Emma Watson, then put the hearts over it.

 Once I thought of the Valentine heart saying "Bee Mine" I knew I had to make it into a nail design. And I did! I'm not very happy with how the bee came out, but I like the hearts.

The trail of hearts coming out of the bee's bottom!

First Knitting Project in 6 Years!!!

Ever since I taught myself to crochet, I haven't knitted a single thing. With the exception of several attempts at knitting a hat in the round, all of which failed miserably and don't count. So, I am especially excited to introduce you to my first finished project and my new favorite accessory-

The Cowl

This is a close-up of the pattern.

It wears easily, not too tight at the neck.

This is the pattern I printed out from Lionbrandyarn.com. It is a free pattern, so if you search for "knit cowl" you will find it easily. It is an easy pattern. All I did was knit three rows in stockinet, repeat the above pattern twice, then do a 12-stitch decrease in one row, then three more rows of stockinet. It took about three hours all together. Pretty easy!

Umm... What?

Tell me this isn't the craziest thing you've ever seen on a thumbnail? If it isn't, please share the craziest thing you've ever seen on a thumbnail below! If possible, with pictures.

BTW, how could she do anything with little people glued to her nail? Imagine taking a shower or doing the dishes. My husband would shoot me.

Nail Inspiration: A Design for Every Nail

One thing I love to do is put a different pattern on every nail. It is time consuming, and requires planning, but I just love how it looks. Not to mention it makes it so much easier to match a manicure to a week's worth of outfits. (That is, assuming my manicure lasts a week!)

I love the photo below, but I didn't want to paint the same design on every nail. I don't own enough blue shirts for one thing, and all those white and black lines are reminiscent of the Beetlejuice movie. But I loved the little bow, so I incorporated it into my interpretation below.

The little sailor bow is there, but matched with some pink and white stripes, black and white polka dots, and a fun little design I gleaned from a Goth Lolita fabric pin that came with a dress I bought in Japan. The gold glitter is I'm Not Lion by China Glaze.

I used a white striper to do the heavy work here. I use Sinful Colors stripers because the polish is thick and goes on smoothly if you have a steady hand. The only downside is that it tends to dry out quickly, so unless you use it really often, it will likely become gooey and stringy before you are finished with it, and you will have to throw it away. There is nothing worse than finishing a line on a design and having a little polish string dangle off the brush and float down onto your design! If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you are fortunate indeed.

I'm also entering this design in Sincerely Stephanie's skittles contest! I'm new to blogging, so I hope some people will come on over and subscribe, even if I don't win!

The Rules:
Entries must be submitted by February 16th 11:59PM EST through the InLinkz tool below.
One entry per person
You must follow Sincerely Stephanie via GFC to enter
Old manicures are allowed, but new ones are encouraged!
All manicures must be done on your own nails (no falsies) and must be your own work. Have at least 4 nails showing in your pictures.
You don't have to have a blog! Just upload your image to flickr or another photo sharing service and use that link.
Open Internationally! (Or wherever Harlow & Co. ships!) 


If you are seeing this, haven't entered, and still have time, then do it!