My "Roman Holiday" Manicure :)

     I was dreaming of a trip to Europe, particularly Rome.  My mother in law suggested that I watch "Roman Holiday."  It's a black and white movie but it shows a lot of Rome.  I was quite hesitant at first but I gave in.  Frankly, it was hubby who doesn't want to get the movie for me to watch, but he gave in, lol...  And it was thoroughly enjoyable! Yes, I did not grow up in the West so I was not very familiar with Audrey Hepburn.  Now, I am.  And I'm totally hooked on the idea of going to Rome. (And here you thought it was about Audrey Hepburn?  Could be... {wink} ;)

     The story was so sweet and quite cute, I was inspired to pull out my nail art set and paint my nails while watching the movie.  I wanted something girly, cheerful, with some elegance.  So I made a design out of gold glitter, coral polish and of course, white flowers. 

How To: Safely Remove Soak-off Gel Polish (2 methods)

"How to Safely Remove Your Soak-off Gel Polish"

How long does your manicure last?

 

How long does your manicure last?  

 Mine usually last for 4 days without chipping, gone on the fifth day.  I usually don't pay much attention because I want to paint my nails again... This time, I wanted to know just how long my mani could last... I broke the record and passed 6 days... here are some pictures :) ~ Some tips at the end of this blog ;)

Here's how the fresh manicure looks...
since I did this in the morning, this would be DAY 1

Here's some chores I performed today for reference on how hard this manicure worked.
Day 1 was an easy day,
usual tidying up of the house, dishwashing (i do this everyday ;),
and some beauty routines including nighly mini-facial and washing my hair.

DAY 2
Still looking great.
Chores include the same as yesterday's plus
handwashing about 10 pieces of delicate clothing.
BTW, i use hand-gloves when doing dishes or washing clothes ;)

DAY 4
Today I re-applied glitters on the middle finger
and clear top coat on the rest ;)
Out and about includes shopping... plus the usual.
Made stew for dinner :)  Mani still looking great!

DAY 5
Impressive huh?
Usually by today, my manicure would have been chipped to half of the are of the finger.
That is without the re-application of top-coat.
This time, still looking awesome at day five...
My nail growth isn't very noticeable yet, but when I removed the polish the next day,
my nails have grown a lot longer!
I think they still look nice because I use cuticle oil every night,
and hand-cream everytime I wash my hands ;)

I wonder if my mani lasted even longer if I re-applied the top-coat before going to the waterpark... :)
I was just too happy that I passed 5 days, I did not even think of it...
I could have patched up the chip and wore it longer since the rest of the nails are still looking great?
hmmm... the what if's, hahaha....

DAY 6
Baby-sitting day for my niece (6 yrs old) and nephew (2 yrs old) for the whole day.  Besides the usual activities, there's hiking to the park, playing in the park and the water sprinkler too...  The polish on my pointer finger (right hand) peeled off, the rest was still looking great.  Since I had one chipped, I started peeling off the rest, then it looked unpleasant ;( ~ bad, don't peel your mani, lol... must remove it properly... ~  Ok, so this mani retired at the end of the 6th day... that breaks my record of 5 days!

This is what helped my mani last up to 6 days:

* Applied basecoat to clean, dry nails before the color, and applied top-coat after.
* Cleaned out polish that got into my cuticles and skin before drying.  I find that if I do not do this, the excess polish cause lifting (peeling).
* Capped the tips of my nails when applying the polish. (I make sure I brush some polish on the tips of my finger nails too to seal it.
* Applied cuticle oil every night and hand-cream everytime I wash my hands.  Having healthy cuticles makes your manicure look better.
* And of course, I don't use my nails as tools.  I try to treat them gently and use gloves whenever I can.

Want to make your manicure last even longer?

* Try using Julep's Polymer Top Coat
* Even better, paint your favorite polish in between a gel polish base coat and top-coat (fondly called gelly-sandwich).  This may make your manicure last for up to a week.
* And the winner?  Wear your manicure for up to 14 days if you use gel-polish or shellac (but there's a price to pay... hahaha)

How do you make your manicure last longer?