Hello everyone! I may look like I just subsist on brownies, but rest assured that my diet is quite varied :).
Here we have Ghirardelli's Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix. This is a huge box from Costco with 6 mixes in it, enough for 96 regular-sized brownies or a hundred some of littler ones. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil because that's what I have on hand and it has worked fine for me.
Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix:
Inside (6 of these mixes):
The basic brownie mix ingredients:
Mixing:
Brownie Batter in Pan:
Finished baked brownies:
These were pretty good. Moist and not so sweet because of its combo of semi-sweet, milk, and bittersweet chocolate chips. It was all gone in 2 days.
Anybody try a million brownie mix boxes and come across this one? Let me know what you think!
After you've gotten some practice with getting the Jamberry wraps on your fingers, the next step is to conquer them toes. Them toes, I said! For me this is actually a great feat. Regularly I avoid painting my toenails because even though I have some kind of control and precision when it come to my nails, my toes are so far away and I just can't see what I'm doing close enough. So naturally, when it came to the wraps, I waited a bit, and well, I'm not going to lie. It took a little getting used to. But after the first time every subsequent application should come easier. That's just my opinion :).
Here is a sheet of Gold Sparkle. I used the 2 largest-sized strips for my pedicure. The largest one was used for all the smaller toenails and the next size down was for my big toe. For my big toe, I just cut that one in half and did a regular application so I didn't need to do any more cutting. Now for the toes, I used one of my leftover strip to size my toes. It turns out that one strip was almost the size of all of my toes. What that meant was that I didn't have a lot of tracing to do, just tweaking after I'd trace stuff.
Even though we are using a pedicure as an example, the cutting part/modification should be similar for your fingernails. I will do a separate post on that at a later date.
Gold Sparkle after 1 pedicure:
PROCESS:
1) Finding a strip that is almost the same size as most of your toenails. Still on the plastic backing, I cut it in half after I've found the strip I want.
Then I cut the whole strip off. Notice I have not peeled the plastic backing off. I don't need to.
I just need one half of it.
I check that it fits. Yay, it does! Remember, it MUST NOT OVERLAP SKIN OR CUTICLES!
If you don't have an extra strip lying around, you'll have to try your best to free hand this. Practice on a paper first, cut it out, and see if it fits on your toe. Don't just blindly cut it out of the strip. You'll waste your nail wraps if you mess up. Also, if your toenails are all different sizes, then you'll just have to repeat the same process with a different sized strip.
2) Tracing the shape of this strip on the back of the wrap you are using:
Turn your Jamberry sheet over. We will be working on the back of it. I used a pencil because when I tried a pen or marker, it "fizzled"and disappeared...you know what I mean. It's plastic so pens and markers don't really work very well and are easily smudged. Pencil marks can be smudged too but not as easily. Use whatever works for you.
I want to utilize my space so I trace 3 of it into the largest strip.
I flip it over so I can get rounded edges on the top and bottom.
I only needed to trace 4 times because my toenails are short so I will just be cutting in half horizontally to divide it. If your toenails are long, trace more and do not cut in half like I will be doing later. Measure your toenails first!!
3) Cutting:Here's where I cut horizontally. Remember, only do this if your toenails are short enough!
Then I cut them all out.
Ok, not the most perfect cutting job in the planet. Practice makes perfect! You should have 10 total! 2 for big toes, then 8 little ones that you had to cut out for each of your 8 toenails.
4) Application. I apply to all of them to my toes. Application was the same. Make sure you clean your toenails and use alcohol to remove residual dirt and acetone to remove residual polish, if any. Pluck the wrap with tweezers off the plastic backing. Heat with hair dryer or heater. Hair dryer may be easier here. Then place carefully, reposition if needed (no overlapping on the skin or cuticles!), then added pressure, pressure, pressure! Heat again, wait for it to cool, cut off or file excess, then heat and press briefly again. For me my toenails are smaller than my fingernails, so I had to be very careful about not touching the adhesive (only by the corners) when placing it on my nail. I also had to apply lots of pressure to the edges. Wait until all the edges are sealed and moisturize. No video this time...it's hard to do the thing on your toes and then do macro...doable, sure, but for now, here's the final product!
Yes it took me a little longer than applying to my fingers. I will also be really honest; doing your toes is harder because your toenails are really small and it's hard to file down at the end because mine curved at the tips so I was basically filing my skin...use the nail scissors instead, folks! But the cutting process took a while because I'm not the best cutter! My toenails are kind of shaped funny, so when you look at the above, you know it could be better. And from far away it looks good, haha :). I will be doing a wear test on it and seeing if it does stay a while. I definitely recommend trying the pedicure after you've got a solid understanding on how to apply to your fingernails. Also, I should point out that when I polish my toenails, it looks worse than this. It chips. It ... just doesn't work. So even though these jams took a while to apply for me, I think I might do this instead :).
If you've done yours, tell me of your experiences!
Let's break it up a bit and read about yet another brownie mix I tried.
I tried No Pudge! Fudge Brownie Mix by Reily Foods Company. I was expecting this to have a "fat-free" taste and really had no expectations whatsoever. Boy was I in for a huge surprise!
I basically followed all the instructions. It did say to add 5 oz of fat free yogurt but I added 6 oz (a whole container of yogurt) of low-fat yogurt. It made it easier to mix. It does take a bit of mixing because it's really dry (see pics below) so that was my justification for adding the extra ounce of yogurt. The mix was super sticky and dry that you may want to have a spoon handy to help with the mixing (or just scraping off of your baking spatula). Spreading it onto my 9x9 pan wasn't that hard. You just need to use your spatula to even it out and make sure the corners get some of that thick batter. The box gives a pretty common baking time of 25-30 minutes, but mine were done in 13 minutes...I used a toaster oven so I do not have information on what a regular oven would have yielded.
No Pudge! Fudge Brownie Mix:
Inside:
Mixing!
9x9 baking pan:
Done!
It was VERY fudgy and VERY sticky, so slicing it up proved to be challenging. However its flavor made up for it. It was heavenly. It was in our bellies by the end of the night. And the hubby who is gluten sensitive was able to eat it! I guess he's just more sensitive to other things than this...but this is a GOOD thing that we can eat this glorious monstrosity together :).
GRADE: A
Anyone else try these brownies? If so let me know of your experiences!
Hello! Your resident Jamberry Independent Consultant is here!
Finally, we get to the "how to" post that I'd been hinting at for almost a week! There are many videos but I find that it's a little hard to see what's going on in some of them (close-up videos are tough to get right!). I tried my hand at it and hopefully it helps you visualize the process a bit better.
I made a video of the prep, wrap sizing, and application of these nail wraps. I tried to be as clear as possible, but as with anything, there is some trial and error. That's what the free samples are for! We'll get to that at a later time :).
Applying Jamberry Wraps to Bare/Natural Nails (no modification or cutting):
The whole process will go faster as you go along, so don't feel intimidated by them. All in all, I find these much faster to apply than polish (I still love my polish, don't get me wrong!) because my regimen for base coat, 2-3 coats, top coat, cuticle oil takes quite a while to dry, and I need to wait a few hours before I really do any kind of heavy chores. With these, nothing will get nicked and you can get going right after application :). Here's a rundown but you'll really need to watch the above video to see how to do it. If you're seeing the 9 minute long video as "9 minutes too long", keep in mind I am explaining everything while doing it slowly as it's a beginner video. I promise it gets way faster with time!
Watch before reading (or while reading) below or it'll be confusing!
What You'll Need:
Jamberry Nail Sheet
Nail File
Nail Trimmer/Nail Scissors
Nail Cuticle Cream/Cuticle Oil
Tweezers
Hair Dryer
I. Prep Your Nail
A. Clean your hands! Make sure you wash your hands with soap and water.
B. Push back cuticles
C. Remove any remaining dirt (or polish!) with acetone
D. Your nail should be a little longer than desired length for filing step at the end.
II. Sizing on the Nail Sheet
A. Figure out sizes of each nail. The clear backing makes it easy to figure out which size is right for your finger. Because it takes practice to get the wrap on your nail, go for a smaller size instead of one that looks "almost exactly" like the size of your nail. You will have a little more freedom.
B. Cut your nail strips in half before you start taking them off the plastic backing.
III. Application
A. Peel the wrap off the plastic backing with the tweezer. Hold the tweezer in the same hand where the wrap will be applied.
B. Use the hair dryer to heat the wrap. With your tweezer, hold the wrap in front of the hair dryer and heat it on the highest heat setting, but on the lowest air setting. This way your wrap can be heated evenly without it blowing all over the place. Make sure the adhesive is facing the hair dryer so that it doesn't accidentally stick to the tweezer if it does blow upwards.
C. Heat for about 10 seconds, then apply the strip. Using your opposite thumb and forefinger, take the wrap from the tweezer and place it on your nail. Do not put a lot of pressure on it in case you need to reposition. Remember that you should not be putting the wrap on any part of the cuticle or skin.
D. Apply pressure from the middle of the edges to prevent bubbles on the inside.
E. Heat up the wrap again for about 5 seconds & apply more pressure to whole nail.
F. Cut the wrap close to your nail.
G. With the nail file perpendicular to the edge of the nail, file the remainder of the wrap away in a downward fashion.
H. Moisturize with cuticle cream or oil.
This is the basic application using a hair dryer that most people start out with. Any tips, tricks, or alternative methods for individuals with curvy nails can be found on YouTube. I will either supply links later or make my own videos. Stay tuned!
**Remember that this is my own video, and I am responsible for the content, not Jamberry Nails LLC. They do have official videos on their site and you should check those out as well.**
Hooooold on a sec! Whaddya mean I can't just stick the wrap on my nails and it'll last for 2 weeks like it says??
Exactly that.
Before you apply your wraps, your nails (or hands in general!) must be healthy. The same rules that apply to polish apply to wraps. If you have a wound (from trimming your cuticle or just skin peeling off), get it healthy before you do anything to it. This will minimize infection or fungus when you add a foreign object (polish/wraps) to your nails.
You must also take good care of your hands regularly, not just for the purposes of polish! This is not meant to be some time-consuming routine that takes hours. It really takes just minutes out of your day :).
To prepare for Jamberry wraps, follow these simple steps and they can adhere to your bare nail for the time (2 weeks) that they're supposed to.
Watch the video or read the blog post below:
Simple Nail Care Routine:
1) Take care of your cuticles. Happy cuticles = happy nails. This is imperative if you're going to expect Jamberry wraps or polish to adhere to your bare nail effectively. Don't cut cuticles because you risk breaking the skin and once you have a wound, you have to wait until it completely heals if you want to dress up your nails. Cuticles protect the cells that help build healthy nails, so broken cuticles = sad nails. Broken cuticles = chance of hangnails (who wants those??) True story.
2) Push back your cuticles often. If you don't want that little bit of cuticle making your bare nail uneven or breaking off when the nail grows (thus weakening bond of the wrap to the nail or polish to the nail), you should push it back often. If you've never done it, you can definitely start now :). It's easier to push it back when they're pliable like in the shower, after a bath, or if you want, you could soak your hands in warm water before you do it. I usually use my opposite thumbnail to push my cuticles back every day. You might want to start once a week if you've never done it before. You can also use a gentle cuticle pusher. GENTLE is the key word. Don't go all crazy on them if you haven't started yet or you'll hurt yourself. Do not use cuticle trimmers/clippers/scissors!! Some salons do this, but you must say no! It increases the chance of cutting it too close, breaking the skin, and then possibly creating an infection.
Using thumb to push back cuticles:
3). Moisturize! I like to use Sally Hansen's Cuticle Massage Cream. You can just use plain old hand lotion or generic body lotion. Any lotion to moisturize is better than nothing. This will help your cuticles not be cracked or dry. Pick one that isn't oily if you work with your hands a lot. The one I use is just massaged on to the cuticles as shown below.
4) Don't leave your nails too short. I have nothing against short nails. However, Jamberry wraps at the end need to be filed down a little to help seal it to the nail. If you've got no nail to file, it might not be sealed properly at the free edge. Of course, you can skip this part, but I like to make sure I've covered my bases.
Ok, that's it! Properly care for your nails and even if you don't have wraps or polish, your hands will feel great and healthy and you will reduce the risk of infection.
***These opinions are solely my own and are not the ideas of Jamberry Nails, LLC. Again if you would like to order these wraps you can browse over 300+ designs on my consultant site: http://myrop2nd2.jamberrynails.net/
I just signed up to be a Jamberry Independent Consultant, so it'll be my job to introduce Jamberry to you and give you as much info as I can so that you can fall in love with them too! Don't forget to browse designs on my site: http://myrop2nd2.jamberrynails.net/product/ & place an order if you see something that you like.
Waiting for a package is one thing, but knowing what to look for and expect is a whole other ball game! Here I'll be unboxing a simple Jamberry shipper from a Buy 3 Get 1 Free Nail Wrap Order. It came during the ETA period (6-10 business days) they promised so all in all I'm a happy customer! Any questions, sound off below!
Here is the actual video of the unboxing:
Unboxing Video:
If you like reading & pictures, continue on...
It doesn't come in a box but in a purple shipper with their signature vector logo and colors. Turn it over and you've got your basic perforated tear strip to open, and voila! From the Buy 3 Get 1 Free deal going, my sister and I ordered the 4 nail wrap sheets below. Each sheet is in its own plastic protector thing.
Jamberry Shipper:
Patterns (L-R): Pixel Tile, Uno Mo Mo, Shattered, & French Tip Bows:
Opening up Shattered:
Shattered Sheet, clear backing:
Each sheet comes with 2 rows of 9 strips for a total of 18 strips. Each strip is meant to fit 2 average sized nails, and whatever you have left over can be used for a pedicure once you get right down to it and cut it into pieces to fit your toes. The strips were true to what I expected from what I saw on the site, so I had no complaints there.
I will put up a video of how I applied it on my fingernails. For now, I leave you with...
As I promised, here is how I removed one of the Jamberry wraps from my nails. Although Jamberry has their own video about this, I figured you'd want to see how it did on my nails after I actually used it for more than a week. On the Jamberry site there is a heater method, an acetone method, an organic lemon+water method, or using a combination of either one of those if a single method doesn't do it for you. I decided to use the heater+acetone method and it was pretty easy.
If you would like to watch my video of what is written below, here it is:
Otherwise read on...
As of Day 9, it was pretty clear that it needed to come off. The adhesive was no longer strong and the wrap had been pulling away from the nail. When I ran my fingers through my hair in the morning, it got stuck, and that was pretty much the deciding factor. I used my thumbnail to check the peeling and the corner lifted off easily, as revealed below.
Day 9, Wrap Peeling:
The heater+acetone method required a few materials from me. A hair dryer, acetone, and a cotton swab. I turned on the hair dryer on low and exposed the wrap to some heat for about 10 seconds.
Hairdryer, ~10 seconds:
Then I peeled it off CAREFULLY & SLOWLY as shown:
It should come off easily, and you shouldn't have to pull it off like the jaws of life. If you find that it is not coming off easily like a sticker off of a plastic backing, use the Gentle Removal Process from Jamberry's Official Video. Here's what it looks like after I've removed the sticker. Not bad, but there is some adhesive residue left and we will need to clean it up. I simply dipped a cotton swab into the generic CVS acetone I had, cleaned it up, then washed my hands in soap and water. I filed the nail a little bit because it was long. Afterwards I applied cuticle cream to moisturize it.
Post-Peel:
Clean up with acetone:
After washing up & moisturizing:
As you can see the results are not bad. I wouldn't recommend wearing nail wraps in general past a week unless you're somewhere (like on a vacation) where you're unable to remove it. You will need to give the nail a break and moisturize it like what you do after you use regular polish, and if you use it for too long it might dehydrate your nail. But that's just my two cents!
Again, this is the sample that took some repositioning to get right. It could be that I did not apply it to the best of my ability and that is why after 9 days it was peeling. However, that is not bad as most sticker strips would've torn or done something weird by now.
Anyone had it last for a ridiculously long time without ANY kind of wear? Sound off below, and if you have any tips for better removal, let me know!
