Posts Tagged ‘nail polish’
Things I Love Thursday
♥ Sebastian is 6 months old! Happy six months, my sweet boy.
The official six month mark was actually yesterday, the 23rd. People always ask me, Aren’t you sad that he isn’t a newborn anymore? Nope, I’m not. As much as I appreciated the long stretches of newborn sleep and that newness, I love this age. He doesn’t seem fragile anymore and I love that he can sleep in the blankets with us. His smiles are real instead of mostly reflex. He can barely crawl but he’s mobile enough that he isn’t constantly frustrated. He has two teeth! He reaches his arms up when he wants to be pulled to a standing position or picked up. He likes to grab my face and plant me with big wet kisses that conclude with latching & sucking on my lower lip. I love watching him grow.
♥ My husband, for many reasons. I feel like we reconnected a lot this week and I’m grateful. Also, my ears would have probably fallen off if it weren’t for him. My stretched holes got infected, forcing me to downsize to 1/2″ (from 5/8″) and if it weren’t for him pushing me to keep my jewelry in and stay on top of salt water soaks and ointment, I’d probably have no plugs at all.
♥ Piggy Paint! I ordered this stuff for Sebastian and I. He is always pulling my hands into his mouth, so I am not comfortable using normal polish – Plus how cute are painted baby nails! Piggy Paint is non-toxic and designed for kids. I purchased Sleepover (black) and a green called Dragon Tears and I love both shades. They hold up really well and don’t dry out my nail beds and make my cuticles ragged like traditional polish. I also like The Polished Mama for non-toxic nail polish but there aren’t nearly as many colors to choose from. Black is classic and green is on point for spring.
♥ 6 months of breastfeeding – My goal is at least a year (although I’m OK with two) and I’ve now reached the halfway mark! (Although we introduced baby led solids awhile ago, I consider exclusive breastfeeding to mean no formula.) As he gets older, he grabs and paws at me more, which is frustrating, but it is made up for by the sweet cuddles that come with nursing naps. He has started giggling when we snuggle up on the bed during the day and he knows he’s about to get his milkies – It’s so cute it kills me!
♥ Social Spark – I’ve posted a couple of sponsored posts here (never anything that presents a conflict of interest!) with Social Spark, an affiliate blogging program (sign up here!) and made a little bit of money through them. This past weekend when we were short on cash, I made a withdrawal from my Social Spark account and voila! Money in my PayPal account within minutes.
What are you loving this week?
28 Weeks Pregnant
I have only done a couple of pregnancy updates because I think they’re kind of boring if you aren’t pregnant yourself, but I am in my third trimester now and this doubles as a Look of the Day post. After an extra month of winter weather, yesterday was close to 100 degrees so I spent the day in a bikini. (The top is from a Roxy suit, with severely sun-bleached bottoms from Old Navy. ON flip-flops and sunglasses from Goodwill.)
Un-Photoshopped because I really believe being pregnant makes you stop giving a fuck. I’ll be starting up with my Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite
According to March of Dimes, you gain around 3 pounds of blood and 4 pounds of water during pregnancy. You also gain approximately 2 lbs in your breasts although, tragically, you can’t see that in the photos. My breasts have also been leaking colostrum lately, which makes me feel really womanly. I’m totally pumped on the idea of breastfeeding, pardon the pun.
If you click and enlarge the photos you can see my turquoise nail polish. I think it’s fair to say I’m obsessed with shades of turquoise. I bought a teal-ish Sag Harbor handbag last month even though I’m expecting a Matt and Nat bag in the mail this week. I am constantly eyeing turquoise jewelry. The polish I’m wearing here is Sinful Colors Rise & Shine. It has some sparkle to it but the color itself is more matte than shiny. It goes on a bit sloppily but the color is pretty gorgeous and the bottle cost all of $2 at Walgreens.
In actual Baby news, we are definitely decided on the name Sebastian. Little Zebby is a major mover and this week we realized he moves even more to music. We’ve been strapping my belly with headphones and exposing him to New Radicals and my Rise Against station on Pandora. I wonder if he’ll be just as active once he’s born – Can’t wait to meet my little Asian! 
Polished Mama Pregnancy Safe Nail Polish
After learning about the unhealthy chemicals in most nail polish, I was excited to try truly pregnancy safe nail polish from Polished Mama. I received a free bottle of bubbly pink Craving to review and I tried it on both my fingers and toes (and on the husband’s toes).
I was skeptical that Polished Mama Nail Polish could possibly be as good as commercial nail polish, but it glided on surprisingly smooth and better than any mainstream polish brand I’ve tried – really! It didn’t become tacky, even on the second coat, although I found I only needed one coat for great color. The polish dried incredibly fast as well.
The nail polish shade I received was Craving. It is more bubblegum in color than shown on the site but I’m sure I can’t get a better shot of it myself. I suspect it would look great on any skin tone but I especially liked it against my olive skin.
Almost better than the polish is the Polished Mama Moisturizing Remover. LOVE. With no acetone or hazardous chemicals, you can enjoy the scent guilt-free – which is good, because it has a lush coconut lemongrass fragrance that seemed to hang in the air for an hour. While it took a little longer to use than a chemical nail polish, it’s worth it for the moisturizing benefit. In fact, I now use this moisturizing remover to clean my nails prior to any nail polish application. It leaves nails and the skin around them clean and soft.
Polished Mama Nail Polish retails at $8.50 a bottle and is available in an array of shades, all named for pregnancy – I love Stretch Mark and Goddess Pose. Polished Mama also sells manicure kits that would make a great gift to a newly-pregnant friend – the odorless polishes are perfect for sensitive pregnancy noses. Obviously you don’t have to be pregnant to use this brand – it’s a high quality polish, and I hope Polished Mama comes out with more shades!
Safe Nail Polish During Pregnancy
Pregnancy brings lots of beauty changes, including fingernail changes that can be for better or worse (some women experience more brittle nails, others’ get stronger and shinier). While protecting Baby from dangers is objective number one, you can still (safely!) stay on top of your beauty routine, and that includes your fingers and toes.
When it comes to nail polishes, chemicals you should avoid are formaldehyde, toulene, and dibutyl-pthalate (DBP), as well as acetone in nail polish removers. Most of the danger comes from inhaling fumes during application, and studies have shown that chemicals can even make their way into breast milk.
Bella Sugar has a great list of “three-free” polishes (no formaldehyde, toulene, DBP) which includes some popular drugstore brands as well as the brand I use most often in the salon, China Glaze. Also on the list: newer Sally Hansen polishes and cult fave brand Zoya. If your salon doesn’t carry a brand you like, most are OK with you bringing in your own bottle of polish for your mani/pedi. You should also double check any hardeners and the top coat your manicurist is using, or skip those products altogether. Most research suggests acrylics are probably a bad idea. If you must do fake nails, wear a mask while having them done. Personally, I’d start weaning yourself from acrylics before baby comes – Newborns like to suck on mama’s fingers, plus cleaning baby poop from under your nails will be no fun.
If researching individual polishes is too much for you, I suggest Polished Mama, a company specializing in safe nail polish and nail polish remover. They feature non-toxic and odorless polishes and even sell a paraben-free French Manicure kit.
I have no problem with bare fingernails, but pedicures are a must, especially in warm weather. Call me silly, but it’s also important to me that my toes are top notch when I go into labor! Thankfully the beauty industry is making changes to keep us safer, both during pregnancy and in general. As with so many pregnancy taboos, a little research finds some happy wiggle room. 
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