Do gel manicures yourself!

About two years ago, I started going with my friend to get manicures or pedicures.  I got addicted to gel nails or SNS nails.  My nails are super brittle and will only grow if I have gel or SNS on them.  But, I'm super lazy and didn't always remove them safely therefore defeating the purpose of helping my nails grow and be healthy. 

Then, at the end of last summer, while visiting my friend, she had a whole kit of gel nail stuff!  She had her own UV lamp, and gel polish, etc. I did my own nails following her directions with the base coat, polish and top coat, and it was so easy I was hooked (and Mallary was hooked!). We ordered our own kit shortly after.  When I saw the price for the whole kit was the same as a manicure I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.  Oh my word I've saved so much money with how much we do our nails.  Three of my friends even bought a kit too, and we've all been hooked.

Mallary uses it ALL THE TIME. I use it the normal amount.  We do gel on our nails and toenails. They last for two weeks on my nails and about a month on my toes (perfect for my lazy self).

Here is the exact kit I ordered from Amazon.  It comes with everything you need to get started.  I also ordered extra colors.  

 

 This is one of my newer favorite colors:  

You can see ours has been well loved... (i.e. Mallary is messy...)

You guys! Also, see the washi tape on the one bottle there?  My friend, was brilliant and got a different color washi tape for all of us to put on our bottles so that we would know whos was whos!  Brilliant! We can borrow colors and not get them confused. 

Honestly, twice I got colors that were kinda goopy. I reported it, and Amazon refunded my money. So, no loss on my part!

Then, my friend showed me this stuff you can use to turn any nail polish into a gel polish and I have been dying to try it ever since! (Like, seriously turning dollar store nail polish to gel polish, and it works!!!) I finally did yesterday! I am hooked! Here is the stuff I bought that can turn any polish into gel polish:

 

Mallary and I chose some of our favorite nail polishes to turn into gel polish.  This is how many we made yesterday! 

I ordered these empty small nail polish containers to mix them in.  You are supposed to mix the Hydracol and the nail polish 50/50, so I didn't want to use it all on just a few colors so I ordered these so I could do lots of colors. I still have more of the hydracol so I can do a lot more colors still! 

You can see my nails in this picture. That manicure is eight days old - no chips or anything. I did this manicure with this base and top coat:

So, these are some pictures from when I mixed colors yesterday.  You will need a q-tips to help clean the funnels and toothpicks incase the balls fall out of the nail polish and block the funnel opening. I showed you a picture of that as well. 

Honestly, we tend to just peel off the polish when we are ready to do a new manicure.  (If you don't buff your nailbeds before painting you can usually do this without harming your nails.) But, I'm trying to keep my nails healthy so I ordered these for me and my friends that have the kits to safely soak off the polish without having to wrap your nails in aluminum foil.

Anyway, I'm hooked!  I just thought I'd share one of our new favorite things!  

Practice makes perfect, but you will catch on so fast! Just remember not to put too much polish on your brush.  You just don't want the polish to be on your skin before you put it under the lamp, because it will stick to your skin and make your manicure not look great. Slow and steady is the way to go! Enjoy! 

Luau Celebration

Looking through my unpublished posts, I found this gem and can not believe I have not blogged this yet!

A few years ago John was out of state doing training for his job for 9 weeks leaving me a single mother except on Saturdays (but one Saturday he got snowed in and couldn't make it home).  That summer, I planned a dinner to thank my friends who helped me in some way while he was gone.  They didn't know it was for them, and I actually did it on my birthday and some people thought it was me throwing a birthday party for myself (which actually it really was the best birthday!) but mostly the husbands didn't even realize it was my birthday.  So, I read a little poem (part of it at the end of this post) during dinner that I had written to tell them that the dinner was really for them and I wanted to say Mahalo (thank you) to my village!

Not even kidding, that morning my app said like 90% chance of rain for the evening.  I texted everyone to pray hard it wouldn't rain and borrowed as many canopies as I could.  It sprinkled a bit during the day, but the weather ended up being perfect!  Hallelujah!

The Invite:

The front and back of the invite I made

The walk lined with tikki torches to my back yard

The set up - I wish I had removed the wrapping on the table tikkis before I took the pictures

I made napkins out of Hawaiian shirts I bought back from Hawaii a few years ago. (I gave my nephew a quick sewing lesson, and he helped too!)

I made the seashell candles that you can see in this picture too.

I wrote every name in Hawaiian on the place cards, so it was fun for people to try and figure out their name.  This one was easy.

So, I bought this china at TJ Maxx years ago, and I thought about renting china for this party, but looked into seeing if Replacements carried this china and it did!  So I got enough to make up the difference for the number I needed and considered it my birthday present!

I made these star fish chair wraps with raffia

The buffet

Salads: Spinach salad with Papaya Seed Dressing, Pasta Salad, Potato Salad, and Frog Eye Salad

Rice, Home made Hawaiian sweet rolls, Teriyaki Chicken, Polynesian Chicken skewers, Kalua Pig, and sweet potatoes

The appetizer station:

Pipi Kaula, and shrimp cocktail

The shrimp may or may not have been forgotten about when it was cooking....

We made some virgin lava flows or lava coladas

Of course my friends were greeted with leis when they arrived

The haupia in coconut shells

You guys, I love my backyard.  It basically sold the house to me.  Never a fan of our house, but huge fan of my back yard!  I love these pictures because it just reminds me of what a perfect evening it was!!

Couldn't resist adding a picture of the cows that came to see what all the fuss was about

Played a little Hawaiian themed charades:

Some of my awesome village!

And I even got to hold a newish little baby!  Love!

I had a little photo opportunity:

They made the perfect hula couple with their dark hair

The best evening!

 

Earlier in the evening, I stood up to do my prepared little poem to thank my friends and tell them what the luau was really for, and it was pretty funny because some people thought I was going to announce I was pregnant.  Which I was not.

Below is the first part of the poem I read out loud, I didn't include all of it though.  Too personal, it did make me tear up a bit reading it. 

Aloha!  Welcome!  We’re so glad you’re here,

You have been assembled under a bit of guise.

What’s she talking about?  I know you’re thinking,

But, this was all just a big surprise!

This isn’t a birthday party,

Or just an ordinary meal.

It’s a way I can thank you, my friends,

So, Mahalo!  Here’s the deal…

You see, my husband, he was gone

As you may recall, for a long nine weeks,

But, you, my friends were always there,

To help, even before I had to speak.

I soon realized that I was in good hands

That I was surrounded by my village,

I can’t even tell you how grateful I was,

For my sanity, my children did try to pillage.

And it goes on from there...  

It really was the perfect summer evening with friends!  Going through this post makes me want to do it again!