DIY: How To Remove Sticky Adhesive Stickers From Walls

Before I discovered the wonder adhesive that is Command™, I have been making do with ordinary mounting tape. You know those — foamy and sticky but useless. After an unfortunate incident ending up with my eyeshadows broken and shatter glass pieces stuck to my foot, I've decided to just give up. However, by giving up and removing the hooks, I was left with this sticky mess:

So ugly!

What am I going to do with this? I've tried alcohol, soap and water, scraping with a knife. Nothing worked! And then I remembered a suggestion from a car forum about using WD-40 on hard to remove decals. I thought to myself, it might just work!

The only problem was I didn't know if WD-40 was available in hardware stores around the metro. I've been frequenting hardware stores a lot and I've never seen one. But lo and behold, when I went to HandyMan in WalterMart to buy Command™ adhesives, I saw WD-40 bottles by the counter! Imagine my delight.

So here's how I got rid of those ugly sticky marks from my wall using WD-40.

1. Spray a liberal amount of WD-40 to the sticky surface. Let it soak for a while.

Spray!

2. With a paper towel or clean cloth, rub the adhesive off. It will take a little elbow grease.

Rub-a-dub-dub

3. Voila! Clean walls!

Ready to paint over.

If you look real closely, you might see yellowish marks from the adhesive but that's just the result of having those adhesives stuck there for quite some time. Nothing a little paint can fix.

By the way, I got the 3oz bottle of WD-40 at P144.50. It's not that expensive and considering its many uses, you won't regret having this bottle in your DIY/Repair arsenal.

There you have it — non-sticky walls! If you have the same problem, I hope this helps.

Small but Wonderful with Clean Walls,
Monica

DIY: Nail Polish Rack

I don't really have that many nail polishes but I do love them. I used to buy at least a bottle every week but because of a pending trip to Tokyo this November, I decided to do away with unnecessary expenses. Also, I was going to go to the nail art capital of the world, I had to put off buying nail polishes so I can go crazy over there. Makes sense, right?

Back to the task at hand, I may not have a lot of nail polishes but I struggle with organizing them. I remembered asking my boyfriend then to make me a polish shelf or rack (?). But of course, being the way that he is, he will never get around to make me one. Okay, that's enough of my boyfriend issues. Moving on!

So I struggle with organization and... Let me just show you.

My Vanity Table

So now you know. How can I get ready in this dump right? In my defense, it's not like this most days. It just gets to this point at times especially on busy weeks which I seem to always have. But I am tackling this problem one day — er, one free weekend at a time.

Last Sunday, I went to Walter Mart to meet with my uncle and aunt and while I was waiting, I went to Daiso, this Japanese discount store and I saw these rectangular acrylic cases and then a lightbulb moment! How cool would it be to hang this up on a wall and arrange all my nail polishes in it? But then what kind of adhesive would I be using? I thought of Command. Command adhesives are so cool because not only do they adhere well like adhesives should but they also come out cleanly when you decide to take it off.

The acrylic case and Command adhesive

What I did with these is that I attached the adhesive to the acrylic case and stuck them to the wall.

Voila!

DIY Acrylic Nail Polish Rack

All in all,  I spent roughly 200 pesos for these. A pack of Command adhesives cost 100 pesos and each of the acrylic case is P 88. Since I only used half of the adhesives, I'm costing them at P50. I was able to fit around 30 nail polishes. A 60-bottle rack at Amazon costs P1,500 plus shipping and handling fee so I guess, I saved a few bucks.

Unorganized and still small but wonderful,

Monica

How To Create Bold but Natural Looking Brows

I am no stranger to compliments but lately, I've been getting a lot of compliments for my eyebrows. Yes, my eyebrows. A while ago, the lady who shampooed my hair was singing praises for my eyebrows.

motd: before going to church

In all fairness, I've been obsessed with eyebrows since my Tita Gladys plucked and shaped mine in my second year of high school. So in the 10+ years of eyebrow enlightenment, I've picked up a few tricks. I've learned that if the eyes are the windows to the soul then the eyebrows are the fancy drapes you hang on them. I found that even with just a wince of makeup, if you have great brows, you will still look very put together. So I've made it a mission every morning to always get my brow on. And you should too. So I'm sharing to you how I create my eyebrows: full but still natural looking.

For my eyebrows, I use these products:

Mac Brow Set in GirlBoy, Suesh Angle Brush, Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade in Chocolate

Of course, you start out with a clean set of brows. I usually do my eyebrows before applying any make-up but I already have my face on before I thought of doing this tutorial. For the sake of the tutorial, I just wiped off my eyebrow makeup with my trusty make-up remover -- Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion. 

You will notice that my eyebrows aren't exactly neat and there are a lot of strays. Here's the thing, because bold and full eyebrows are the in thing right now, you don't really have to do a lot of upkeep. I rarely do. Anyway, let's move on.

I dip my angle brush in the pomade to pick up a little product. Be careful not to load too much on the brush especially if you're a bit heavy-handed. Too much product will create dark and harsh lines resulting in unnatural looking brows and we wouldn't want that. You want just enough. Anyway, you can just build it up if you feel that you're eyebrows are still a tad bit too light.

What I do is I trace the shape of my eyebrows first.

And then I fill them in.

Don't forget the other eyebrow.

Once that's done, I finish up with the Mac Browset in GirlBoy.

You will also notice that the shade of my brow gel doesn't exactly match my pomade. The Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade is more of a chocolate-y brown while the GirlBoy is more golden. I use the GirlBoy shade to lighten up the chocolate-y-ness of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade to achieve a much more natural look. 

So voila, we're done. Sometimes, I put highlighter underneath my brows but I only do that when I have eyeshadow on. The highlighter underneath the brows will also hide any mistakes you may have made and conceal stray hairs.

Here are the results:

Tada!

You might also have noticed that I have shorter hair in the last picture as compared with the first one. I just had a haircut. That's where my eyebrows got praised recently and thus, inspired me to do this blog tutorial. I had my hair cut at Menage Salon located at the ground floor in Trinoma mall by Ryan. Look for him, he's amazing and most especially nice.

I couldn't tell you where to buy the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade because it was a friend who ordered for me. I did get it for P1,200. Yes, it's pricey but definitely worth it. I got the MAC Brow Set in GirlBoy at the MAC store in Eastwood Mall for P1,000. However, you can get it cheaper if you purchase it from a legit online store. 

Anyway, there you go. I hope you liked my tutorial. Thanks for reading.

Small with Wonderfully Wonderful Eyebrows,

Monica

Nailing It!

I joined the nail art craze over a year ago but due to the surmounting stress in my life, I wasn't able to pay much attention to my nails anymore. It is only recently that I rekindled my passion for nail art. I am no expert but let me show you some of my designs.

A Simple Dotticure

Bumblebee

Quirky Floral

Rawr!

Nails Fit For Royalty

Grey on Yellow

Purple Daisies

Feathers and Dots

I wish I knew how to video myself painting my nails so I can show you how I did them. But don't worry, they're not at all hard to do. As long as you're creative enough, you'll be able to pull out much more creative designs than these. Remember, practice makes perfect. Don't give up. Your hands will stop shaking if you do it frequently enough.

Small but wonderful,
Monica

PS. If you're asking how do I find the time to paint my nails, I'm incredibly lucky in my job. The hours are insanely good!

posted from Bloggeroid