New Dragon Lady Lacquer

*****UPDATE*****
I decided that Dragon Lady Lacquer was just too much of a mouthful and have shortened it to Dragon Lacquer.

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If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you may have already heard the news...

There are 7 different polishes in this collection:

1. Resolutionary - multi-size silver holographic glitter in a clear base for layering. Pics are shown with one coat and no top coat over red, green, white, and black. Since this polish is so glitter dense it is fully buildable. Full of sparkle like the coming New Year!

2. Go Scrooge Yourself! - multiple size/shape black glitter (bars, squares, hex) with metallic green and red hex in different sizes and red/green micro glitter in a clear base for layering.  Pics are shown with two coats and no top coat over red, green, white, and black.

3. Angel Wings - Four sizes of iridescent hex glitter , white bars and squares, small gold hex, and gold micro and gold uber-micro/shimmer glitter for layering. The pictures just don't do this one justice.  Pics are shown with two thin coats and no top coat over red, green, white, and black.

4. Rockin' Around the Xmas Tree - metallic green bar glitter with red, blue, purple, holo gold, holo silver hex and holographic micro glitter in a clear base for layering. Everything a glittery tree should be!  Pics are shown with one coat and no top coat over red, green, white, and black.

5. You're A Mean One... - In honor of my favorite holiday movie from my childhood. He's mean and green but he has a heart. Small and medium size matte neon green hex with matte red hearts in a matte clear base.

6. Melted Snowmen - Multiple sized white hex (snowman bodies), tiny black hex (coal eyes and mouth), metallic orange flakies (carrot noses), and iridescent micro glitter in a matte clear base. Poor snowmen.

7. White Christmas - matte red, white, green squares, small satin green and white hex in milky white base.

These are currently on sale in my Etsy Store Dragon Lady Lacquer. Use coupon code WINTER2012 to get 15% off your purchase.

Much Love and Happy Holidays, The Dragon Lady

Update

My lovely PC has died on me. I am currently working on repairing it. I have narrowed down the issues to a few possibilities. Unfortunately, one of those it that my motherboard and CPU might be toast. Anyway, on said PC are all of my pics, emails, passwords, etc so it has been extremely rough. I guess you don't fully realize how much you depend on something until it breaks. I have access to a laptop but I can't edit photos on it at the moment so I only have the small file of pics that were on a flash drive. Will keep you posted as I can. I haven't forgotten about the winners of the nail contest but don't want to announce winners without being able to show their beautiful nail art. As I mentioned before, I will be adding a little something to their prizes to make up for the delay. Miss you all!

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

ASK Cosmetics TNT Challenge - Week 7

As much as I was loving the length my nails had grown out to last week, I wasn't happy with the shape of my nails. By shape, I mean the rounded tips. I prefer a more square tip, not completely square but as my old manicurist called it, a rounded square. So this week I started shaping my nails toward the rounded square shape and also shortened them a little bit in the process. I am still applying T.I.P.S. once a day in the morning and using the Contour Nail File several times throughout the day. I also use the Revival Hand & Nail Cleanser when I wash my hands and the Revival Skin conditioning Milk in between hand washing through the day. On a side note, I am so impressed with the Contoured nail file I bought 3 for Christmas gifts for some of the women in my family. Normally, I wouldn't by someone a nail file for Christmas but this will be the last nail file they'll ever need.

Nail progress update, I haven't broken a nail in over 3 weeks. I haven't torn one in over 5 weeks. They feel TONS stronger than when I started this TNT Challenge. I actually opened a soda can with my nail the other day without thinking and cringed. It always used to tear or break the nail off. Not this time, it didn't even start a little one. I am so excited!!! My cuticles are also becoming more healthy every week. I am no longer getting so many hangnails, I still get the occasional small one (usually when the weather takes a drastic change - like warm and sunny to freezing cold and rainy with 60-100 mph winds). The little hangnails usually heal up in a day or two. Some of my cuticles are beginning to recede on their own, which is just awesome! Mostly because they have been driving me nuts with wanting to shove them back with a tool, but I've been a good girl and have left them alone. With just five more weeks of this challenge left, I have to say I am officially impressed with the results I have gotten so far.

On to the pictures...

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Starting to feel better...Back soon!

Hello my lovely readers! Sorry I have been gone for so long, I caught what turned out to be 3 strains of the flu back to back (ahh... the joys of having 3 kids in school/daycare). I have felt miserable and couldn't even make it out of bed most days. I can't believe I have been sick for over a month and have SO much stuff to catch up on. Still feeling a bit queasy at the moment and easily tired but I also feel stronger than I have in the last few weeks.

Have no fear I should be back posting soon and will have the winner announcement for the giveaway and contests soon too. I feel so horrible I wasn't able to pick them sooner I just might have to add something to each of the prizes to try and make up for it. I will also be posting the TNT Challenge weeks that have passed. I have managed to take weekly pictures, just didn't have the strength to do much more than that. Lucky for me the Ask Cosmetics products are so easy to use I could apply TIPS even half dead to the world.

Thanks to all of you who emailed me to check up on me, I appreciate it. Miss you all lots! Much Love, The Dragon Lady

ASK Cosmetics TNT Challenge - Week 1

Last week I started the ASK Cosmetics TNT Challenge. You can check out my starting pics and post here. The biggest part of the challenge being only using the ASK Cosmetics products provided for 12 weeks and abstaining from other nail/hand care products including nail polish. 

So here we go...

Week 1 - Left hand

• Thumb - nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was, & ridged; cuticle is healing still a bit dry but not as bad as last Friday, no longer cracked or torn, and hangnails are healing

• Index - nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was, ridged; scab from lost hangnail is gone, small hangnail on right side is healing

• Middle - nail is  still thin, ridged, not peeling; no more hard, dry cuticle, hangnail on left side still there, but the tear starting in the middle of cuticle last week is gone

• Ring -  nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was, ridged, starting to grow out nicely from it's tear last week; cuticle is no longer torn, hard, dry, raw & bleeding but healing quite well, so are the hangnails near the old tear

• Pinky - nail is still thin,  ridged but I managed to rip it off cleaning out the garage; hangnail starting on right side of nail is healing

Week 1 - Right hand

• Thumb -  nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was, ridged; cuticle still a little dry, hangnails are healing up

• Index -  nail is still thin but stronger, ridged; scab from lost hangnail is healed, and current hangnail is healing up as well

• Middle -  nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was , ridged; hangnails almost gone

• Ring -  nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was, ridged; cuticle is no longer hard and dry, tear in cuticle has healed and hangnails are healing up nicely on both sides

• Pinky -   nail is still thin but I think stronger than it was, ridged; cuticle is not dry and tearing on the bottom has healed, hangnail at the bottom is healing up nicely

So for the last week I have been using T.I.P.S. for Toes on my nails twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. I have also added an extra application is I knew I was going to have my nails in water for an extended period of time (like when I cleaned out out pond or took a really long shower). After each application of T.I.P.S for Toes and a few more times throughout the day, I have being using the ASK Contour nail file to seal the ends of my nails. This has helped immensely in decreasing the amount of snags and nail tears I have had this week.

I have been washing my hands with the ASK Revival hand and nail cleanser, which I have to say is pretty awesome. For example, the other day I bought new windshield wipers for my car and had to take the old nasty ones off to put them on, by the time I was done my hand were filthy with the weird black, oily dirt stuff that always seems to build up on cars in tight places. I thought I was going to have to wash my hands repeatedly to get it off. Nope. Just a small pea sized amount of the ASK Revival hand & nail cleanser and the water turned black and my hands were clean. I was shocked! I love this stuff!

After hand washing I apply a little bit of the ASK Revival skin conditioning milk. I am still amazed at how fast it soaks into the skin and love how light and non-greasy it is. 

So I am already impressed with the improved strength of my nails and improved health of my cuticles in just one short week. I can't wait to see the improvements next week! If you would like to purchase any ASK Cosmetics products you can click here to visit their website and don't forget to check out Lisa's awesome blog here. 

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

First Entries!!!

I received the first entries for each category of my DLN Happy OctoBlogoBirthdayWeeniVersary Nail Art Contest. I am so excited! I love seeing other people's nail art creations!!!

The first entry in the Halloween (Amateur) division:

This entry is from Melissa and here's what she used:

Tools:

• double ended dotting tool
• #000 brush

Polishes:

• CND Stickey base coat
• Zoya Yasmeen (purple)
• Pure Ice Wild Thing (neon green)
• Sally Girl Banana scented (yellow horn)
• Sally Girl You Glow Girl (glow in the dark on top of the monster)
• OPI Alpine Snow (white)
• China Glaze Liquid Leather (black)
• Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up (orange)
• All coated with NYC Grand Central Station. Everything was free-handed.

The first entry in the October/Awareness (Amateur) division:

This entry is also from Melissa and here's what she used:

Tools:

• double ended dotting tool
• #000 brush

Polishes:

• CND Stickey base coat
• Wet n Wild Megalast Sugar Coat (light pink)
• Wet n Wild Megalast Sugar Coat (hot pink)
• OPI Alpine Snow (white)
• OPI Planks a Lot (purple dots)
• Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (mint behind cupcake)
• Love and Beauty Shimmering Teal (Forever 21 brand for the teal dots)
• All coated with NYC Grand Central Station. Everything was free-handed.

Interested in entering? Check the original post here. Good luck to all! If you are trying to decide on an Awareness theme, here is the list for October Awareness from Wikipedia.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady