Nail of the Week: Bare Nails

With Flash

With out Flash

It has been a while since my nails have been in this great a condition. I have no bite marks around my nails, dry cuticles, and my nail beds are not the ugly yellow color that comes from painting them.

I spent about 3 weeks babying my nails. Keeping them free of polish, moisturizing, applying cuticle oil, filing, buffing and keeping my teeth away from my fingers. I am very proud of myself an hope that I can keep them this way.

Now all I need to do is find the perfect base and top coat that will keep my nail polish from bubbling.

Ciao!! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Hello.. Spring

It is officially Spring and it feels like Summer. I am sitting here on my sofa feeling like I am melting. I did my nails tonight with a Franken I did a few months ago with Spring in mind. I do not remember which nail polishes I used to mix it, but as soon as I remember I will update the blog.

Here it is in the bottle:

Here it is on my nails:
The Franken reminds me of O.P.I's Hey! Get in Lime! but with a more yellow undertone, which only leads me to believe I used a yellow nail polish to mix this. I tried to get a little creative and did a few stripes with white and silver Art Deco nail polish.

Speaking of Spring, another thing that screams Spring to me is Sakura (Cherry Blossoms). Here are some pictures by my wonderfully talented photographer boyfriend Mr.P (yes, I am a little biased but come on, look at those pictures!):
He woke up at 4:30 AM on Saturday to take those pictures. Now if only I can get him to blog and post more of his wonderful photos so that I can brag more about him.

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of The Week: My Valentine's Day Manicure

This is what I did as a Valentine's Day manicure. I wanted to do something that I would be able to live with all week. I knew that if I did the hearts and pastels I would have drove myself crazy. I like girlie things but I am not that girlie.

Nail Polish: O.P.I Black Onyx, China Glaze Heli-Yum (2 Coats)

Base: Nail Tek, Orly Bonder

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

It is not my best manicure. I love OPI's Black Onyx nail polish. But it is always such a pain to work with for me because of the little air bubbles that always happen when I use it. Does anyone know how I can avoid this?

As for the pink color, I used Heli-Yum from the China Glaze Up and Away collection. It is a very pretty raspberry pink color. But as much as I liked the color this was the wrong polish to use on this manicure. It was pretty difficult to work with because it was really runny.

I will be trying this manicure again. But with different nail polish colors.

What do you think?

Nail of The Day: Sugar High

This is the manicure I did while snowed in on Wednesday. This nail polish is called Sugar High from the China Glaze Up and Away collection.

It is a very pretty creme pink nail polish. It is a very bright, almost neon pink. So far I am really loving the nail polishes from this collection.

Nail Polish: China Glaze - Sugar High (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Ciao! Xoxo

~ Dissolved Girl

Nail of The Week: Dottie Tips

We got a record 30 inches of snow in the DC area over the weekend. The power went out last night in my neighborhood making everything very dark and very dangerous.

I wanted to work on my sewing projects again today. But after my breakdown yesterday, I was just not feeling it. I also need to get a new zipper for the skirt. But since we are currently in lockdown, I will not be getting a new one for a few days.

So I decided to turn it into a beauty day. I gave myself a pedicure and manicure and watched the Supernanny marathon on the Style Network.

Here is my nails for the week:

Nail Polish: O.P.I Big Apple Red, LA Colors Black and White Art Deco

Base: Nail Tek, Orly Bonder

Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

As a bonus here are some pictures I took from my balcony yesterday.

Look at how high the snow is!

I was just watching the news and the roads and highways are really bad. The metro bus is not running, the underground metro train is running on a limited schedule, but the above ground train is not running at all.

Our roads have not been cleaned out and today we tried to get the car out and couldn't. It is looking like we will be home bound for at least one more day.

Ciao!! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Lincoln Park After Dark

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark nail polish is by far my favorite polish ever. In the picture below it looks brown. But this color is a deep rich burgundy, it almost looks black in real life. I will try and take a picture of it in natural light tomorrow and see if I can capture the color better.

Nail Polish: Lincoln Park After Dark (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Ciao! xoxo

~ Dissolved Girl

Nail From Last Week: Thanks So Muchness!

This is the last polish from the OPI Alice in Wonderland collection. This is a really pretty red polish. I like this one much better then Off With Her Red! This time I did my manicure early enough to photograph it in natural light.

Over all I enjoyed this collection, the only thing I wish is that instead of two red colored nail polishes, they would have given us a purple nail polish or a glitter polish with purple in it. I think I am going to have to make myself a purple franken to go with this collection.

Natural Light:
With Flash:

Nail Polish: Thanks So Muchness (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Raven

During Thanksgiving Zoya had a sale on their nail polishes. I had never used this brand of nail polish so I thought this was a good of time as any to try them out. Well, so far I am disappointed.

This is Raven:

Per the Zoya website Raven is described as:

"Black with subtle cool shimmer metallic"

Here is my manicure:
What is wrong with this picture?

There is no shimmer. It is BLACK. No shimmer, no glitter, not a hint of any sort of sparkle. Oh, and they state on their website that:

"Zoya is the longest wearing nail polish on natural nails"

Well, they are WRONG. At least this particular nail polish is not long wearing. I painted my nails a few hours before I went to bed one evening and by mid morning the following day while at work I noticed that it was already chipping. I should really be calling this nail of the day not week since it did not even last 24 hours.

See the Chips?
How disappointing. Hopefully the other Zoya polishes I got will be better quality.

Ciao!! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Day: Mad As A Hatter

I got my Alice in Wonderland for O.P.I. nail polishes and as soon as I got the package and I took a look at the polishes I knew that the first one I had to try was Mad As A Hatter. I LOVE this polish. I tried to take a good picture of it, indoors, outdoors but nothing catches the beauty that is the glittery goodness. Is like a party on your nails. LOVE IT!

They only thing I did not like about the polish is that it was hard to apply. There was so much glitter that it made the polish very thick and made application very difficult. But small price to pay for wonderfully fun looking nails.

Here is the polish in natural light:


Here is the polish in indoor light:


Nail Polish: OPI Mad As A Hatter (2 Coats)
Base: Nail Tek III and Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

What do you think?

Tomorrow I will try out another color from the collection.

Ciao!! xoxo
~ Dissolved Girl

PS: Excuse my dry hands. It is so cold here that there is not enough lotion in this world to keep my hands moisturized.

Alice in Wonderland for OPI Polishes

Today on Transdesign they released the Alice in Wonderland for OPI Nail Polishes that I spoke of here. I had been stalking the site since I walked into the office at 7 AM, waiting for them to become available for purchase. They became available about an hour ago and I am happy to report that those babies will be mine in a few days time. I am all about glitter nail polish even though they are a pain to remove.

While I was on the site I also noticed that the Essie spring collection will be released tomorrow. I am not a huge fan of Essie but I saw that they will have a lilac and coral colored nail polish as part of the collection. I really love both of those colors in a polish and I am really tempted to try them out. But those will have to wait. I will see if the ladies of some of my favorite nail blogs do a review/swatch on the polishes so I can see what they look like and then decide.

Now I am just waiting for the China Glaze spring collection to come out so that I can get my hands on the two yellow polishes in the collection. I am a little obsessed with getting the perfect yellow polish. Last year I got a yellow polish from Sephora as shown in this manicure. But it took so many coats to get it to look decent that it took forever for my mani to dry.

Will you be getting any nail polishes from the collections that are coming out?

Ciao!! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: My First Franken

My first manicure of the new year is a nail polish mixed by me. For it being my first time I loved how the color turned out.

Here is my manicure:

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Polish made with these colors:
What I learned from this experience is not to put too much of the clear polish. Because I put so much it was really runny so I had to add more of the other colors. By the time I got it to the consistency I wanted I had practically used up the other two colors.

The only thing left to do is give it a name. Any ideas? I was thinking of calling it 2010 since it is the first Franken I have made and also the first polish I used this year. Does it sound too corny? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Ciao! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Shim-Merry Chic

Best Buy still has my camera hostage. I have a temporary camera and it sucks, so I apologize in advance for the not so great manicure picture (such a shame too because it really is a pretty color). Once I get my camera back, I will update this with a proper photo.


Nail Polish Brand: O.P.I
Color: Shim-Merry Chic (2 Coats)- This is the only color I got from the O.P.I Christmas Collection. None of the other colors caught my attention enough to buy. It is a very pretty bronze color with glitter. Love it.

Base: Nail Tek and Orly Bonder. I put a thin layer of Bonder over the Nail Tek. Just cause I did not like the matte feeling of Nail Tek. I know, I know, I was going to apply the color polish. Just humor me.

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat. I am wearing two top coats because my Seche Vite is almost at the end of it's life. So instead of doing 2 coats of Seche, I am doing one coat of each top coat. Yes, I should just buy a new bottle but I am trying to finish the other top coat polishes I have.

I had to cut my nails yet again. This time it was a little upsetting because I finally had them the length that I wanted and the shape that I wanted. But as luck would have it, in the last week two off them broke. So I am back to square one.

I have also noticed that my nails are really dry and a little brittle now that we are going into the cold weather. After doing a bit of research and reading other nail blogs, I found out about a product called Nail Tek. They have several products that target different nail problems. From all of them I think Nail Tek Foundation III is what I need. Here is the description from the website:

"Nail Tek III: Protection Plus
for dry brittle nails

Protection Plus provides extra conditioning for nails that are hard and brittle. This special formulation replenishes the natural moisture content of the nail. Applied daily, Protection Plus helps nails regain the healthy balance necessary to resist stress and enhance survivability.

Nail Tek III: Protection Plus
replenishes, moisturizes, protects"

I ordered myself a bottle and I started using it with today's manicure. I will give you guy's updates on how my nails are looking. I only wish I took a picture of my bare nails before I cut them off and painted them.

Ciao! xoxo
~Dissolved Girl

PS: Wow, this was long.
PPS: I have not forgotten my weight loss update. It is coming, I have a lot to say and I did not have a camera for pictures.
PPPS: How awful does my nails look short? eeeeew..... Ok, that is it with the PS's.

Nail of the Week: La Paz

Nail Polish Brand: O.P.I
Color: La Paz-itively Hot (2 Coats) on nail tips; La Paz-itively Hot Matte on nail bed

Line: Art Deco in Black

Top Coat only on nail tip: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

It is fall and I am still wearing the bright summer colors. The funny thing is that I prefer dark nail polish but for some reason when I sit to do my nails I keep reaching for the brightest nail polish in my stash.

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail of the Week: Swizzle Stix

Nail Polish Brand: Shades by Barielle
Color: Swizzle Stix (2 Coats)

Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I know this color is more of a color for Spring. But I was really in the mood to wear a nice baby blue. I also wanted to try out one of the Konad plates that I have. For my first time using Konad I did not do too bad.

What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

PS: Tomorrow there will be a post about my first giveaway so make sure to stop by my blog tomorrow.

Nail of the Week: Pink Underground

Nail Polish Brand: China Glaze
Color: Pink Underground (2 Coats)

Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Anyone that knows me for longer then five minutes knows I am not really a fan of pink. But for some reason or another I own about 5 or 6 pink nailpolishes in different shades. I for some reason love pink nails in the summer. I also love it on short nails.

Nail of The Week: Shower Together

Nail Polish Brand: China Glaze
Color: Shower Together (2 Coats)

Base: Orly Bonder
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Sorry for the messy looking polish. The picture was taken before I did the clean up.

This color is pretty cool. But I think I will leave this color for the fall, it does not scream spring or summer to me. This polish is so thick that I could have gotten away with one coat but I was not satisfied with the color turn out. So I went ahead and applied a second coat just too see how dark the color got. I must say I like it much better but not one of my favorite polishes.

What do you all think?

Ciao!! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Nail Art Diva

I was surfing around the net looking for cheap nail art supplies and I ran into this little puppy:
Has anyone tried it?

It is supposed to make it easier to apply "Konad" type nail designs. I am really curious about this little contraption.

Below is the information directly from the site:

"Break into the exciting world of custom nail art design with the Nail Art Diva!Diva Basics SmartStart Nail Art Kit, a complete nail art design system unlike anything you have ever experienced.
You will get The Nail Art Diva!, a patented nail art printing device specially made to easily apply any of the included 29 unique re-usable nail art designs to any of the six vivid nail art polish colors that you will find inside this kit.
Our nail art polish dries in seconds and is specially formulated to work with the nail art designs for quick bonding. Create hundreds of new nail art looks in minutes. It is easy to change your manicure style whenever you want! Project fresh innocence with Morning White and Soft Peach paired with a softer nail art decal graphic. Add vitality to a bolder nail art graphic with Passion Pink, Deep Strawberry or Passion Plum or go dark with Basic Black! In this kit, we have also included a bottle of Top Coat. The CE mark on the bottle lets you know that the polish has been tested and approved safe by European standards.
The Nail Art Diva! Diva Basics SmartStart Nail Art Kit comes with a SmartStart Basic nail art polish holder to help you keep everything organized by holding up to ten Nail Art Diva! nail art polishes (more colors are available separately). As you expand your collection of nail art designs, you can purchase the nail art polish holder expander(sold separately). The expander easily snaps to your basic nail art holder so you can increase your storage in the combined holder and expander from 10 nail art polishes and a top coat to 28 nail art polishes and top coat."

It costs $59.99 on the Nail Diva site, and on the Ulta site it costs $39.99.

I think I am going to wait till I get enough points on my Ulta card so I can get it as cheap as possible because I know that if I do not like it, I will be upset that I paid so much for it.

Has anyone tried it? If you have, is it worth buying it? What do you think?

Ciao! xoxo

~Dissolved Girl

PS: Do not forget about my poll!

Hump Day Video: Glitter and Flowers

On Sunday I showed you all how to do the basic manicure, well today I bring you a video on how to do a nail design. Today's video is from the one and only Queen of Blending she is a fantastic make-up artist that posts on YouTube how to make-up video's and even how to nails. The girl has serious skills! Go check out her YouTube channel!



Until next time, Ciao! xoxoxo

~Dissolved Girl

Hello Kitty Nails

I know it has been a while since I blogged but I am working on another blog that will be up soon. I will still keep this one for my regular rambling sessions but the other one will be to showcase some of my work. Once it is ready I will update this one and let you all know my new blogging home. Now that we have that out of the way, on to some fun stuff.

The Hello Kitty collection for MAC Cosmetics is out and of course I had to run out to the store and check it out. So with the boyfriend in hand we headed to the M.A.C store at Pentagon City, tracked down my favorite make-up artist Christian and started testing out the products. I must say after looking at everything I was not as excited with the collection as I thought I would be. I adored the nail polishes and I really liked the Too Dolly eyeshadow palette so that is all I got. Which at the end of the day it is a great thing because then that means more money for other collections.

Anyway, as soon as I got home with the help of the darling boyfriend we set to work on doing my nails. I must say I was really happy with the out come (thanks babe!!) and I look forward to trying other combinations with the polishes.

I would love to hear what you all thought of this collection. Was it all you hoped for? or did it leave you wanting more?



Look out for my next post about my new blog. Till next time....

Ciao!! xoxoxo

~Dissolved Girl