Maamerose - Life After Acrylics

I had been wearing acrylic and gel nail extensions for the best part of my last five years because " my nails never grew." Come February of this year I got fed up of forking out £20 every two weeks and decided to attempt to grow out my nails. 

When I bit off the final set (terrible I know) they were in a disgusting state, so I made a small investment in a mini arsenal of products and tools to repair and strengthen my nails.

I've been using them for over 6 months now and although they are still peel a lot, there has been clear improvement in their condition.

Here's a breakdown of what I use:

1. Sally Hansen's Instant cuticle remover: This stuff is amazing, it makes it a lot easier to push your cuticles back and dissolves the excess that may have grown out on my nail bed. I got mine on eBay for £4.50 as I couldn't find it in my local drugstore.

2. Cuticle Oil: I have this empty polish bottle and so I made my own oil mix using vitamin e oil, jojoba oil and lavender oil. Its like  10% to 85% to 5% mix and I use the jojoba and vitamin e oil from Holland and Barrett and the lavender essential oil I got from eBay. Empty polish bottles are also available to eBay.

I have tried so many store bought cuticle oils and this honestly works the best for me. I read that because of the similarities between jojoba oil and sebum that a cuticle oil must have jojoba oil as its first ingredient in it to penetrate the layers of keratin. I use this a minimum of twice a day and I keep a bottle in my handbag to use after I've washed my hands.

3. Cuticle clippers: Right so here comes the disclaimer..................I do not recommend you trim your cuticles, I use this on the rare occasion that I have one hideous hangnail or if I have excess cuticle hanging after I have used the afore mentioned cuticle remover.

4. Nailtiques Formula 2 Protein Treatment: Now I have since moved onto the Formula 2 plus, and I use it as a basecoat rather than applying it daily as per the instructions. I haven't seen them sold in stores in the UK, but they are easily available on eBay and Amazon for about £12 for the smaller bottle. I highly recommend the smaller bottle as it tends to go gloopy half way down like the Seche Vite does. Both the formula 2 and the formula 2 plus are for treating peeling nails, the latter being for excessive peeling. I'm not sure if I will continue to use it after my current bottle runs out as I still have a lot of peeling that I deal with, however after reading all the forums and blogs they all point me back to this product.

5. Buffing block: This again is a tool that I rarely use. Most of the time when my nails peel I peel them off because my nails are already trimmed down to the quick and so I can't trim behind the peel to stop it moving upwards. On those occasions where the peeling takes of a significant amount of nail then I try to smooth out the damage until it grows out.

6. Nail clippers: I have both the curved edge and straight edge clippers and use them when i've had a break or tear and need to trim the rest of my nails down

7. Crystal Nail File: Pretty early on in my 'nail journey' I learnt that Emery boards could make splitting worse because of how harsh they are. So I picked up this crystal nail file in Tesco for £5.

8. Cuticle Pusher: I actually have two of these, the metal one you see above and a plastic one with a shiny rubber end. I rarely use the metal one because I can accidentally scratch off layers of my nail, so on a weekly basis it's the plastic one I reach for and use the metal one maybe once a month. 

If you have any advice on how I can get my nails to grown stronger and get the peeling to stop I would be very grateful. Please leave your tips in the comments below, I am eager to improve the health of my nails, I don't want to slip up and go back to falsies out of frustration!

Have a great day guys,

Rose

xx

Manicure Mondays! #3

In keeping with my current love of fall colours I went back into my collection and dug out these two stunning sugar mat effect polishes from Kiko. I have about 35 polishes from this brand and I do have to say they have fantastic formulas. 

This fall nail art has definitely grown up and of course you can still create designs as you please, but i'm seeing a lot less of the designs with crazy with colours and bling add-ons and if New York fashion week is anything to go by (It is!) Then the toned-down monochromatic look will stay with us right into SS 14'.

I'm still wanting to have fun with my nails, but for now i'm allowing my jewellery to take centre stage.

This was two coats of each colour and being a sugar mat polish there was no top coat used. I really tried to capture how beautifully these textured glitters reflect light and this was the best I could do. Hopefully my camera skills will improve over time to give you better shots.

The copper is number 645 and the black is 646.

Rose

xoxo

Manicure Mondays! #2

Now we are September, I am on the hunt for beautiful fall inspired lacquers that won't break the bank. Naturally, i'm starting with what I have in my own collection. 

This little beauty is from Boots No7 in the colour Temptress. I acquired it when I got one of those £5 off No 7 vouchers a few years back and although I don't recall wearing it often. It seems that I'm halfway through the bottle. I suspect that's down to my mum borrowing it sometimes when I was living with my folks!

So I used a dotting tool to create this simple nail art design, and although I liked the finished result, looking at the photos I can now clearly see that after two coats the polish is still pretty see-through. So i'm going to keep an eye out for a gorgeous oxblood polish to rock this fall.

If you know of any that I can get my hands on, pleaseee let me know in the comments!

Rose xoxo

50 Facts About Me

I've seen this tag floating around on various blogs and YouTube videos for a few months now, and although its a little late I wanted to join in the fun!

1. Up until a few weeks ago I slept with a lamp on, every single night.

2. When I was three years old, I lived in Ghana for a while and when I came back I couldn't speak any English.

3. I can't walk in a straight line, I've tried and I just can't!

4. I am obsessed with nail polish. I currently have about 350 polishes and my collection grows, by about 3/5 a month. My fave is Warm and Fozzie by OPI mainly because it took my ages to find it ha ha!

5. I'm a bit of a germaphobe; my mum says I would wash my water before I drink it if I could

6. I love being anti-social, I am a friendly person I just love my own company as well.

7. I'm allergic to crustaceans, if I eat prawns I end up looking like Quasimodo from the hunchback of Notre Dame :(

8. Coldplay has been my favourite band since I was 12

9. My favourite song is "Warning Sign" by Coldplay

10. I played the violin throughout secondary school - I wish I had continued after I left

11. I get the worst hay fever in spring/summer; I have to use an inhaler, anti-histamines, nasal spray AND eye drops!

12. I can't wear socks in bed, it feels like someone is ticking my ankles

13. I have ridiculously short eyelashes

14. I enjoy going to the cinema alone, the first time I went alone it was to watch "Eat, Pray, Love"

15. The last book I read was "So You Want to be Married" By Cornelius Lindsey

16. My first YouTube video was the "About Me" tag on march 31st 2011

17. I have super oily skin; in my mind I believe there is a BP oil rig on my forehead!

18. I love watching cooking and crime shows on the telly.

19. When I was a kid I wanted to be a newsreader, Trevor McDonald was my hero

20. I am one of four siblings; I have two sisters and one brother.

21. I believe that Finding Nemo is the best Disney movie of all time!

22. When I was a kid I remember I had a Polly Pocket watch and the miniature doll fell in the toilet and I stuck my hand in there and pulled it out!! I would slap myself if I could go back lol!

23. I want to own a dachshund dog, unfortunately I don't have time for one right now.

24. I've always been interested in interior design, I applied and was accepted into KLC's school of design in Chelsea Harbour back in 2009, but I didn't end up going because I couldn't raise all the money for the tuition fees. #SadStories

25. I love vanilla everything - its the best flavour, except the Oreo cookie milkshake at Tinseltown of course ha ha!

26. Saying that I'm lactose intolerant #Whoops

27. I always eat Jollof Rice (African cuisine) with mayonnaise, try it before you judge me lol.

28. Once on a red-eye flight back to London from Ghana, I woke up to my mum and sister eating a full English, whilst they got me a bottle of water, because I was sleeping. They could have at least nudged me to wake up kmt lol

29. As a 'tween' I used to write in a diary club with my sister and friend. We would swap diaries every week and give feedback to each other - ROTFL

30. In primary school my then BFF and I would make up activity books for each other. We called them the 'Turkety, turkety books!' There was a dance and everything #TheShame

31. Fave cocktail: Long-Island Ice Tea, that's all I have to say on the matter

32. I've never had a hangover, probably because I don't drink that much.

33. I HATE confrontation, I will block your ass out with music!

34. Maybe it is because I am a pretty emotional person, I can cry at the littlest things even though I don't want to.

35. I love green tea and I always reach for it when I've had to much to eat. Somehow its reduces the bloating.

36. My 'secret' place is the river bank that runs between Surbiton and Kingston-Upon-Thames in Surrey. I will go there at least once in the summer and chill out.

37. I got a kindle because I ran out of places to store my books!

38. I have successfully collected all 10 Series of 'Friend's on DVD+VHS via charity shops. I set myself a challenge after seeing it cost £150 in HMV about 4/5 years ago. I have since sold them off, but I was really chuffed with myself that I was able to do it!

39. I have flat feet and had to wear corrective insoles inside Doc Martin boots. They weren't cool when I was in secondary school. Kids used to sing "Buffalo soldier....." when I walked past them :-(

40. I don't like talking on the phone. I ignore calls more than I answer them, but text me and you will get an instantaneous reply!

41. I used to be obsessed with the fragrance Daisy by Marc Jacobs. The lady at the counter in John Lewis on Oxford Street had my number and would call me whenever something new came out of that range!

42. My First name is actually Roselyn, but people always pronounce it as Roz-lyn (which drives me nuts) I introduce myself to people as Rose.

43. My Birthday is October 14th.

44. My name 'Maame' means mother or lady in my language (Twi, spoken in Ghana, West Africa)

45. I was given the name Maame, because I was named after my grandmother, so they added Maame to my name so that we wouldn't get confused when someone was calling out "Rose!"

46. I used to have a recurring dream that the bald guy from Right Said Fred would try to steal our money in legit ways on out days out. (He would collect our money as the bus driver, as the dude behind the counter at the cinema...) very random I know, I didn't get it either lol!

47. I day dream about living my dream life, when I should actually be working towards it ha ha!

48. I don't like sleeping in the dark. My sister makes me, but I don't like doing it, I'd rather sleep with the lamp on, but electricity is expensive these days!

49. My favourite food is tuo zaafi. Its not the best looking Ghanaian dish, but when I was in Ghana I checked in at the airport two and a half hours late for my flight back because I said I wasn't leaving the country till I had finished eating it (my Nana cooked it, you know Nana's are the best cooks right?)

50. I enjoy DIY - I am responsible for building and fixing in my family. My greatest achievement was building two double pax wardrobes in four days BY MYSELF (Get in thereeeeeeee! *cockney accent*)


So those are my 50 facts, I want know some of your facts too; leave them in the comments below or leave me a link to your 50 facts tag!

Rose
xoxo

Manicure Mondays! #1

Fall is on its way and so this is my nod to the new season. A little dark for the beginning of fall, I know, but this velvet grey shade has been calling me for a few weeks so I was obligated to wear it!

Both polishes are by Kiko; the pale grey shade is number 329 and the darker one is number 381

I also had fun experimenting with fimo canes, I haven't used them in almost two years and so I whipped out this Chanel logo one to finish of the look. If your thinking of using fimo in your nail art I suggest getting the canes and slicing them yourself, rather than buying them pre-sliced - much better value for money! I Picked up the silver square studs on eBay.

Rose

xoxo

My Life Though Instagram #2

I've been busy writing blog posts and recording videos for my youtube channel and created a schedule to make sure that i'm consistent for you guys! So I will be posting new blogs every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and a new video posted on my channel every Thursday

So in the spirit of catching you guys up on what i've been doing with my life for the last few months - here is another instalment of my life through instagram!

1. Selfie at 1am after an event held by VEP Suite (July)

2. View from the window of my new home (June)

3. Me at the JustFab style event (June)

4. At the Dragon's Den studios pitching for seed funding! (July)

5. Quick photo with Sammy a.k.a BeautyCrush and Patricia a.k.a BritPopPrincess (June)

6. Checking out my outfit before I went to my friends wedding (August)

7. Black and gold manicure, inspired by my sister (August)

8. Yummy dinner at Wahaca with a friend (August)

9. My bedroom after I built the desk and bookcase from Ikea (August) 

Rose
xoxo