Haul Time

Hi Bloggers!


Before I start, let me just say that I didn't not buy all of these in one day! These were bought over the course of around two weeks and I hardly ever buy this much in such a short amount of time! Also, Zoya had a great promo going on that let you get two polishes for free which I took advantage of. Anyway, on with the goodies :)

Top row, left to right: Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Kaleidoscope, Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Hallucinate, NYC In a New York Color Minute Quick Dry in Central Park, Finger Paints in Laugh My Art Off, Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Fractured Foil.


Bottom row: 5 different Bon Bons that don't have names

 

Top row, left to right: Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Cheery Smash, Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Antiqued Gold, Zoya in Dove, Zoya in Caitlin, Zoya in Colbie

Bottom row: 3 different Sally Girl nail colors that don't have names

 

I'm so excited to use every single one of these polishes! Some of these I bought to mess around with frankening my own nail polishes. If you don't know what a franken is, it's a nail polish mixed from bits of other nail polishes to make a new color. I still need to order bottles, but I'll be making some of my own creations very soon! I'm already coming up with color combos that I want to try so be on the look out for those in the near future!!

-Lindsey

I'm going Nude-ist!

Haha, okay, not really but for the next couple of weeks I am!

I'm getting married in 18 days!! Ahhh!! No cold feet here, just plenty of nude nails! I am on the hunt for the perfect pinky nude nail polish! I don't want my nails to look gaudy since for once the attention is not on them, so I have been on the hunt.

First up is OPI Sweetheart! A very pretty light pink shade!

This is one of my FAVORITE nail polishes ever, just behind You Don't Know Jacques! It applies like a dream and needs only two coats (I put three just even everything out) to look precious on fingers or toes (I have it on my toes right now and they look so clean and cute...mind you, i'm usually a only red on my toes kind of girl).

So here, I give you: OPI Sweetheart!

I'll be here tomorrow with my next maybe wedding polish! 

Brielle

Zoya Mira

Hey all! I hope everyone is enjoying Memorial Day Weekend! It's so nice to have wonderful weather and a long weekend! I received my one free summer collection polish from Zoya the other day and woud love to share it with you!

Zoya Mira! I had my eye on this polish since the collection came out! I waited to get it because of course it wasn't first on my list.

Other than nudes and red, purples are my favorite! Purple is my absolute favorite color, but sometimes on my nails it doesn't look so hot. Compared to Demi, Mira was a dream. Perfect in two coats, application was wonderful and I had no problems (well if you don't count my top coat woes).

 While wearing Mira I wondered how close in color it was to China Glaze's Grape Pop. Preeeeetty darn close. In person they look identical, but on camera they turned out a little funny because Grape pop had been sitting for a while and got color messy.

Next up, I have a few nude/pinky colors that I want to show you. Since my wedding is under three weeks away, I'm looking for the perfect color for my big day! So I am in search for the perfect pinky beige nude!

Brielle

Mani Prep

Hi Bloggers!


This post is going to be about my pre-mani routine, what I do to my nails and what products I use on them before I paint them. It's rather self explanatory for the most part.


After I take off my polish, I either will trim my nails or file them if my nails need shorted or reshaped. After that I will buff them so my nails don't have any ridges, once again, only if needed. After that I will wash and dry my hands to get any nail polish remover or dusty nail particles from filing and buffing off.


Once my nails are reshaped, I put a few products on them. First product is the Sally Hansen Grow Nails Now! which I talked about in my previous post. After that has dried I put on either ORLY's Nail Defense or Sephora by OPI's strengthener. I switch between these products but both of them do the same job, they are meant to help strengthen your nails. The last product I use before my actual nail polish is Nail Life Gripper. This product is a basecoat that helps the nail polish grip to your nail and stay on better and longer.

 

I realize for some people this might be overkill, but it's what I do and it helps my nails stay healthier and my nail polish stay on longer. After the Nail Life Gripper dries it's time to paint your nails with a lovely color and then use a good clear top coat and you're good to go! I found a diagram online that shows the basics of applying your nailpolish but I couldn't find the original source (if anyone happens to know the source, or if you are the source, please let me know and credit will be given!). You might think this is dumb, but I'm going to post it anyway because it could help someone out! 

Edit: This helpful diagram is from http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/05/how-to-how-i-paint-my-nails.html 

 

The text is a little small so here is what it says: 

1. Start off with a clean nail, make sure the surface is nail polish and oil free. 

2. Apply your base coat or ridge filler. This prevents staining and chipping. Let it dry.

3. Place a drop of polish in the center of the nail, a bit above the cuticle. 

4. Carefully push the drop towards the cuticle, leaving just a small gap. 

5. Now move your brush upwards making a straight line till the end of the nail. 

6. Go back to the base of the nail and swipe the polish along the curve of the nail. 

7. Keep dragging until the whole side of the nail is covered. 

8. Repeat step 6, but do this on the other side of the nail. 

9. Repeat step 7, but do this on the other side of the nail. 

10. If necessary apply a 2nd or 3rd coat. Finish with a (quick drying) top coat. 

Hope this was helpful and Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!! 

Lindsey

Grow Baby, Grow!

Hi Bloggers!


So I know Brielle and I both suffer with nails that tend to break easily and that peel and I'm sure some of you probably do too. Neither of which are fun to deal with. I decided to use a product that I've had and used before but didn't give it a real good trial to see if there was any benefit to using it. The product is Grown Nails Now! by Sally Hansen. In the picture below my nails are bare, just filed and freshly buffed.

The directions on the back of the bottle say: Brush generously over nails and cuticlues; gently massage in. Let nails dry before applying nail enamel, or wear alone for a natural look, so that was exactly what I did!

 

I did this for seven days. I haven't gone that long without putting on polish in a long time. As you can see there was a good amount of growth during the week, although it is hard to know how much my nails would have grown naturally without this product. Right now, I'm dying to paint my nails so going another week without putting anything on them might kill me. Okay, over exaggeration but still! My nails did grow and they did feel stronger than the normally do so there was a difference while using this Sally Hansen product.

 I will probably be putting this product in my pre-mani routine, which I will be blogging soon to show you all! I also plan on trying out some other growth products in the future because after all, who wouldn't want longer, stronger nails?


-Lindsey

Bad few days for Nail Polish...

Okay guys. I never knew what bubbling was in nail polish for the longest time. Seriously.

I can't remember the first time it happened, but I'm pretty sure I didn't even notice it then. My reaction was probably like, oh what's that? there's dirt stuck in there. Dang.

I now know what absolute bubbling looks like.

OPI Designer Series Ruby. I got this polish probably three or four Christmas's ago from Adam's Aunt who works at a cosmetics distribution center. I was like, "Oh, thanks..." (thinking it would never be a polish I would wear... at the time it looked total old ladyish). Finally about three weeks ago, I was getting bored with my collection and wanted something different. Here comes DS Ruby. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about this polish.

Application was a dream, no surprise, but. BUT. I ran out of Seche Vite last week and I'd forgotten how awful regular top coats are! I ran to the CVS down the road and picked up the cheapest top coat I could find, just to get me through (NYC "Long Wearing" Extra Shiny Top Coat) all fine and good. So, applied two thin coats of Ruby and then a coat of NYC top coat (I use Nail Life Gripper as a base --Love it!). After waiting forever to get no dings, I see BUBBLES GALORE! Seriously? This beautiful polish was tarnished by BUBBLES! Ugh! Here are some pictures:

Sunlight:

 BUBBLES!

The beautiful holo in this polish.

Cool Undertones

Right before this polish, I had whipped out Zoya's Demi. This was the first polish I bought from Zoya. Probably sometime late last year. A perfect deep Purple, like an eggplant color. I thought I would be in love.

The application was horrendous. Gloopy glops all over my nails, strings of polish pulling from the brush. Nothing good about it. Disappointing yet again. As I used my last bit of Seche Vite with this polish, I figured it'd be on there for a few days. NOPE. This picture is of my nails less than 12 hours after application:

ARE YOU SERIOUS? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Zoya, I almost always participate in their promotions and their polish is usually great, but this was totally unacceptable. I'm going to buy some thinner (another first) and see if that helps Demi out from the gloops. 

Well, I'm going to enjoy the nice weather with bubbly polish, hopefully I'll live ;)

Brielle

OPI Mermaid's Tears

Talk about a great polish!

I know this polish has been talked about for months (because I followed every word) and I finally got my hands on it earlier this month as it was part of the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection by OPI. It's not a surprise that OPI is one of my favorite brands of nail polish, so I was exceptionally excited for the release of this collection.

Seeing the preview swatches, my eyes instantly were drawn to Mermaid's Tears. It's a light turquoise creme.  Application was a dream, and not a problem. It would have been perfect in one coat if I wasn't so picky about always applying two.

I cannot say anything bad about this polish! It's perfect, I just wish I would have bought Skull and Gloosbones and Planks A Lot.

The weather has still been dim lately, so no sunlit pictures, but for this polish, I don't think it would have made a difference, it's beautiful in all shades.

Brielle

Recent Drug Store Finds

Hi bloggers!  

This is also a place for me share my love of polish with you as well as my best friend. I am a 21 year old college grad with a degree in graphic design, currently searching for a "real" full time job.  

My nail polish habits are similar to Brielle's in the fact that I typically change mine color about every three days, give or take and I secretly peel it off too sometimes (sshhhhh!). Our color choices differ though. I love colors and glitter, just about any color I will wear at least once but I am a firm believer in wearing the right colors for the right occasion. Typically how I pick out my color choice is dependent upon my mood and what catches my eye at the moment. 

Yesterday I went to Walmart and grabbed a few cheap polishes to try out. From left to right: Wet n Wild Wild Shine in the color Wild Card, Wet n Wild Megalast in the color Undercover, NYC in the color Park Ave, and Sally Hanson Fast Dry in Clearly Quick.

I have yet to try any of these out but I'm excited to give them a shot. The first two, I simply loved the colors. The NYC I grabbed because it looks like a possible duplicate for Sephora by OPI's Metro Chic. I'll have to try it and see. I grabbed the Sally Hansen because I've been in need for a new top coat and I love, love, love Sally Hansen brushes. They're just the right size for my nails and I have yet to use a polish from their company that I haven't loved.

I'm currently trying out a nail growth polish and will post a little mini review once I've given it a few more days and then you'll probably get some color swatches from the polishes above.  


Happy weekend everyone! 


-Lindsey

OPI You Don't Know Jacques!

Hello Blogiverse!

This is a place for me to share my love of polish! I'm a 20 year old college student, hoping to become a high school English teacher (if I can find a job). I'm getting married in a month to my high school sweetheart, Adam. I have polishes from OPI, Essie, CND, Chanel (of course), China Glaze, and Zoya. I would love to try more CND, especially their Stickey Base, Deborah Lippmann, Inglot, BarryM, etc.

About my polish habbits:
I usually don't change my polish everyday. I'm like a 2-3 day wearer.
I love wearing neutrals, and the occasional red.
Secretly,  I peel my polish off sometimes.

The best way to figure out what I like is to see my absolute favorite polish. It's my 'go to' polish for any situation.

OPI You Don't Know Jacques! It's the muddy brown-taupe that started it all. This polish applies like a dream. One coat, per usual, leaves little streaks, and two coats perfects it's color. This is with two coats and Seche Vite top coat!

Since it was so cold and dreary outside, I couldn't get a good picture in the sunlight.
This picture was taken with the flash:

This was taken under artificial light.

You Don't Know Jacques is my signature polish, I hope it tells a lot about me, and this will be a long lasting relationship with nail lacquers!

Brielle