Cuticle Cream

I got this Burt's Bees cuticle cream at Nordstrom Rack the other day after being recced it by Alissa. So far I've only used it for 2 days but it's pretty good! I like how it's not gooey/runny/greasy and that it's more solid and thus portable. It smells really nice and lemony too, refreshing and not overly stinky. Just how I like my scented things.

Some Improvement!

I think I made a huge jump in improvement with my nail polish application last night, also I used some cuticle gel and pushed back my cuticles which may have helped some. The skin around my nails still looks rough, but at least I got the cuticles fixed somewhat.

I also managed to get more control with the polish and not flood my cuticles and get it all over the skin around my nails, and actually only had to do minor cleanup that wasn't so bad at all. I am proud of myself :p. At least, I actually feel like I can show off my nails more (not that I didn't show them off before) since it looks a lot cleaner. I just have to practice getting a cleaner line around the cuticle and leaving an ever so slightly wider space.

Now on to the actual polish I used! I used Milani Holographic in Hi-Res for my accent finger and Milani Holographic in Cyberspace for the rest. Originally I used the pink/yellow Icing Mood Swing polish on the accent finger, but since my hand is warm it was yellow and didn't look so great with the blue of Cyberspace. Then I put a sticker on it, which warped (maybe I did something wrong...gotta figure that one out) so I just decided to scrap it and wiped the accent nail clean with a very saturated in remover Q-tip.

I also think that having a purple as the accent for blue is better this

time around, since last time I had blue as an accent to pink which was a pretty stark contrast. So this time it's still there but much more subdued, I like it. Still a little "wacky" but not as obviously so.

It's a bit tough to see the holo in this pic, since it's a scattered-type holo but it's there. I think it's more of a soft look with the scattered than the linear which is also nice. It's still rainbow just not as in your face about it. This picture doesn't really represent it well, but it's definitely true what people say about Hi-Res having a stronger holo effect. Cyberspace's is still pretty obvious but Hi-Res' is definitely stronger.

Don't mind the trash can and my sweatshirt sleeve :p.

Yes~! Got a good pic of the holo effect AND how it's stronger on the Hi-Res, all thanks to flash. Yay for iPhone 4 haha.

This about the best representation I can get of the holo effect right now, under my bathroom light.

Help! My Fingers Are Dry!

Around my nails the skin is SOOOO dry and hard, and I don't know what to do to fix it! Anybody have some good tips? If it was just a little dry lotion would help but it's HARD too, and makes it extremely difficult to clean up after I polish my nails, because it's not a flat surface and is often split (thankfully it's very rarely painful)... I know I need to work on my cuticles but that's more a matter of doing it rather than it being an issue of I don't know what to do.

(As a side note I am really having trouble showing the Nubar 2010's effect on the Essie French Affair...it just looks like clear flakes but it shines a really pretty reddish pink with a bit of green. At least you can see the lovely subtle shimmer of the Essie Coat Azure though!)

I use this Vaseline Healthy Hand & Nail conditioning lotion almost every day and rub it in really well around my nails but it doesn't really do anything. I can't exactly have my hands in a tub of lotion all day, so I probably need something really heavy duty...