Where Have I Been?

Obviously I haven’t posted anything in over a year. I just haven’t felt like it, to be honest. Sometimes I get myself involved in too many things, and I can’t keep up with all of them. Blogging would definitely be one of things I couldn’t keep up with in my life.

So what have I been doing over the past year?  Besides working in the salon, I have been attending Ivy Tech for Software Development part time.  I resigned from my position as an Education Ambassador for CND to give myself time to devote to my homework.  After 3 semesters I came to the realization that I didn’t see myself working in corporate America.  I would miss the flexibility I have working in the salon.

It has now been 19 and a half years that I have been a Nail Professional in downtown Indy, and I’m still feeling burnt out in my career. Because of this, I’ve decided to return to beauty school to obtain my full Cosmetology License. I will start that 18 month program at the end of this month. I’m super excited to be able to eventually add other services to my work day at Domu!

Wish me luck! 💋

Cuticle conditioning nailed

I’ve never been into the whole manicure at home ‘thing’. A DIY file and paint is about as far as I go, minus two or three manicures a year for special occasions. While I was treating myself to my most recent special occasion manicure before Christmas, I mentioned to my nail technician about how dry […]

http://charliebloggs.com/2016/01/06/cuticle-conditioning-nailed/

1 Week Later – CND VINYLUX Nails

CND VINYLUX nail polish claims that it will last at least 1 week on your nails. This was my first time to try CND VINYLUX weekly polish and I was extremely interested to see if it lived up to the hype. Last Tuesday I was invited to the CND Art Vandal Collection to try out their […]

http://pureirishsugar.com/2016/01/26/1-week-later-cnd-vinylux-nails/

Constant Continued Education

I thought this was not only true but cute! On the note of continuing my education, I recently was in New Orleans with some of my CND sisters learning about new products that will be released VERY soon. We also had an entire day focusing on bettering our facilitation techniques for our classes. Of course we did have a little time in the evenings to enjoy the sights…

Tomorrow starts my first class since that training. I’m pretty excited to use my new found knowledge in hopes I will improve my faciliation skills. Wish me luck!

 

Fifth Third Bank Party Nails

One of my clients works at Fifth Third, and they were having a company party the other day. So we wanted to use their colors as the basis for this fun French! These nails were created with CND Retention+ Liquid & Powder. The colors used for the tips were Venique’s Ballerina Blues & Galoshes Glow (which has a greener tint in person). Then I covered all of the nails with one coat of Venique’s Glitters Of Fun. Very fun & festive!

Smile: Our New Emoticons Have Arrived!

WordPress.com News

Fan of smileys? 🙂 We are. That’s why we just redesigned them to be cleaner, simpler, bigger, more expressive, and modern.

😉 😀

These new smileys are actually vector graphics, so they’ll stay crisp if you zoom in on your page. They’ll also stay sharp on high-resolution mobile displays.

😎 ⭐

To find out how to use an emoticon appearing in this post, just hover over it and you’ll see which characters produce it. We’re working on expanding our collection, so stay tuned for more smiley fun.

XD 😦 😥 😐 😮 😛 😡 ❤

If you’re not a fan of smileys, that’s okay! You can always turn them off and on in your dasbhoard under Settings → Writing. We hope you’ll have fun with these. Smile!

Bonus: We also created a few secret emoticons for you to discover. Good luck finding them! 😉

❤

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Holla for Halo’s

Daily Prompt:  Group

I can’t get enough of these!

I had been searching for this specific brand the last 3 times I’ve gone to Meijer and Target. I FINALLY hit the jackpot at Kroger the other day! I obviously was super stoked, or I wouldn’t have taken a pic. heehee 😉

Spring Forward PLEASE!

I noticed the other day that it’s been a bit since my last post. I sincerely apologize for my lack dedication lately!  I’ll try not to let it happen again.

Today I worked an event for CND at my local supply store. It was a Playstation, which means I get to…

• demonstrate how to use any of the awesome products that CND created
• troubleshoot with Nail Techs
• network with Nail Techs, Cosmetologists & the sales peeps in the store

But the best part is that I get to play with color!  It’s virtually limitless on what you can do with CND Shellac & their Additives!!!  (I also messed around with Brisa Lite and Vinylux with the Additives, but I prefer to use Shellac.)

Shellac – Open Road 2014

Of course the majority of my “playtime” consisted of using the new spring collection pictured above, because I’m DYING for this winter to be over!!!  Anyone else???  I even did my own nails last Friday according to that thought…

The colors used:

• 2 coats of Sun Bleached on all nails
• Using a fan brush, I feathered Mint Convertible from the outside in on the left side & Desert Poppy from the outside in on the right side.
• Next I used the fan brush to lightly feather Sage Scarf over the Mint Convertible & Sun Bleached over the Desert Poppy.
• After that I burnished a lemon glitter additive over the right side of the nail & Green Mirage additive over the left side of the nail
• Lastly, Shellac Top Coat

What do you think of the Open Road collection by CND?  Would you wear this design on your nails?  Be on the lookout for my upcoming posts containing the pics of my “playtime” from today’s Playstation!

Daily Prompt- Teaching

CND Vinylux & OPI Spring 2014

I’ve been reading a lot of nail related blogs lately, and it’s been quite enjoyable!  Most of them swatch polish/lacquer lines and give the readers their opinions on wearability (difficulty to use, how many coats it took to get the correct color, etc.).

Considering all of the spring collections are out, I thought I’d share a couple of links I enjoyed.  I decided to go with the 2 most popular brands that are carried in the local salons.  After all, why recreate my own when these lovely ladies have already done a beautiful job?!

• First up there’s Cynthia at Of Life And Lacquer.  I really loved all the swatches that she did of the new OPI Brazil Collection Spring/Summer 2014.  It contains not only the full 12 shade in the regular collection but the 4 liquid sand shades as well!  We currently have the 12 color display at No. 7 Salon and Spa, but my mini liquid sand set is still unfortunately on backorder from my local supply store.  Grrr
• Next I have Karen from BeautyGeeks with her swatches of The Open Road Collection of Vinylux by CND.   Although I find her swatches and the colors themselves to be beautiful, I disagree with her review of wear that she did in a different post.  As a Nail Professional for almost 16 years and a user of CND Vinylux since day 1, I have consistently had amazing results on my clients!  For a review similar to my results with Vinylux, check out Michelle from All Lacquered Up!

So what do you think of the OPI Brazil Collection and the CND Open Road Vinylux Collection for spring 2014?  Will you wear any of them?  Which are your favorite?

Super Bowl & Valentine’s Day Nails

There are various ways to express your sense of style…choice of clothing, how you style your hair, or the make-up you wear (or don’t wear for that matter). Then you can accessorize! This can literally be done from head to toe. As I shared a couple posts ago:

Nails are the period at the end of a sentence. They complete the look.

– Prabal Gurung

Nails most definitely complete the look!

This client completed her Super Bowl look by showing her support for the Denver Broncos. (Actually her allegiance truly lies with Peyton Manning since he used to play for our Indianapolis Colts!)

Another client this week wanted “the period at the end of her sentence” to have a sort of “rocker” effect. By the help of CND and their fabulous Shellac, she will get to “rock on” for the next 2 weeks chip free!

And then there were other clients this week that were in the mood for love and wanted their punctuation to have a little heart…

How do you express your sense of style? Do you use your nails to add that final punch to your look?