On this blog I love to cover natural parenting things;
breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby wearing, etc. As parents committed to what is best for our
babies we sometimes forget to do something nice for ourselves. One of my favorite relaxing actives pre-parenthood
was getting manicures and pedicures but as a mom of two little girls (who are
now 3 years and 21 months old) I find that I am so busy that I don’t have the
time or budget for this activity anymore.
I thought I was destined to have boring hands until a friend
introduced me to Jamberry a few months ago and it has been love ever since. I love that in about 20 minutes I can have
beautiful nails that can range from fun to professional. These also are super durable and last 1-2
weeks for me even with all of my house hold chores, sewing, playing with my
kids and typing on a computer at work.
Haven’t heard of Jamberry yet? Jamberry is a line of nail
products that started as nail wraps (applied with heat and pressure) and has
since expanded to nail care products and even nail lacquers.
So the big question is
how does this relate to a natural lifestyle? While leaving your nails completely natural
is obviously the best when it comes to avoiding chemicals, I think that
Jamberry offers a very good option when you want to have nice looking
nails. Jamberry nail shields are
non-toxic, cruelty free (not tested on animals), vegan and made in the
USA. The nail lacquer is also “5 Free”
meaning that is free from 5 of the top toxic substances: Dibutyl Phthalate,
Toluene, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, and Camphor.
Over the past few months I have tried out the shields and
recently my friend Melanie who is a Jamberry consultant also provided me with a
nail lacquer to try out, here is what I think of each one.
I love the wraps because they are so easy and nail polish
ALWAYS chips on me within about 24 hours.
They come in over 300 designs and I think most people like the really
fun ones but because I work in a business setting I really prefer the more subdued
ones. I recently put on the French tips
and they were pretty easy and they look amazing. I also like that they are economical, each
sheet is $15 on its own or are always buy 3 get 1 free making them $11.25
each. From each sheet you can get about
3 manicures (or 2 manicures and 2 pedicures) plus have a few accent nails left
over making the total cost per manicure $3.50-$4. Jamberry also sells sets for children that
are smaller wraps (and they sell Mommy and Me sets!). My daughter is 3 and while she loved it when
I put the nail wraps on her, because she wouldn’t let me prep her nails well
they fell off within 24 hours so in my opinion waiting until you child is about
5 is probably better. Overall though the
nail wraps are my favorite Jamberry product because I love how easy they are,
how nice they look and how well they last!
There is a slight learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it’s super
easy.
 |
| For those moments when your nails need to match a cloth dipaer |
 |
| Fun Holiday Nails |
 |
| One of my favorites - Puppy Love! |
I was excited to try the nail lacquer not only for myself
but also for my daughter. She loves
having her nails painted so we paint them all the time with other child safe
polish but it normally is completely gone within 12-24 hours. I have always avoided painting her nails with
regular polish because I don’t want her exposed to all of the chemicals so
trying out the 5 Free Lacquer from Jamberry was a great solution. For my 3 year old I put one layer of the
Jamberry base coat and 2 layers of lacquer and it lasted for at least 3-4 days
looking really good and a week later she still has a little bit of polish
left.
 |
| My Daughters Hand after 24 hours |
For myself I tried out the lacquer a few different
ways. The first way I tried was with one
layer of the Jamberry strengthening base coat and then 2 layers of the lacquer
and then a topcoat I already had. I also
put an accent wrap on my ring finger to see how well the wrap kept up over the
polish. My nails are really weak at the
tips so they chipped a little bit the first day, but I was surprised how well
the polish held up over the next few days. I would say that it performs at
least as well if not slightly better than regular polish.
 |
| Base Coat + Polish +Top Coat |
The second way I tried it was with just two layers of the lacquer
(no base or top coat). Surprisingly the
lacquer was really shiny on its own and lasted almost as long as with the base
coat and top coat so I was really pleased that this could be an option for a quick
fix.
 |
| Two Layers of Polish |
The last thing I tried was one layer of basecoat under some
Jamberry wraps. I loved this and will be
putting the base coat under all my wraps!!!
For whatever reason it made the wraps really easy to apply, they seem to
wear less and look really good for longer!
The only downside of using the base coat under wraps is that once you
place the wrap you can’t lift it and try again because the base coat sticks to
the wrap and will be peeled up. Also if
you use the basecoat under your wraps be sure to let it dry really well before
you apply your wraps!!!
 |
| French Tips over a Base Coat |
Since I love my
Jamberry wraps so much and since I really like using the basecoat under my
wraps I have decided to do a giveaway of the basecoat. Anyone that wants to try out Jamberry and
places an order (here) before January 16th 2015 will be entered in a
raffle for a free base coat!
If you would like to be kept up to date on any Jamberry
information and specials make sure you like Melanie’s FaceBook page.
No comments:
Post a Comment