Textured Dots

With Summer ending and Fall beginning, I always get a little confused as to exactly what colors to put on my nails.  Summer colors, winter, fall, between fall, who knows.  In all that confusion, I decided to dabble in a little more nail art.  My nail art obsession is dying down as I get older but I do still have the urge every now and then.  This was created with my textured polish that has been on my shelf for sooo long Zoya's Dahlia, which is one of their Pixie Dust polishes and Zoya's Kerry which is just a metallic gold polish.  This look lasted quite a while so I can tell you the lasting polish on the Pixie Dust is great so if you don't own any.... GET IT!!

Graze Box - Friend Codes included

I recently discovered the wonderfulness of graze boxes that can be found at www.graze.com. Graze is a website that send healthy snacks in box form, weekly, bi weekly, every three weeks or once a month.  The price is 5.00 a box, but every fifth box you receive free.  

Graze was started by seven friends who were sick of chips and candy, who wanted a better way to snack.  They quit their jobs and camped out in a friend's spare room for months and after a lot of hard work, graze.com was born - snacks that show off the tasty side of health and are delivered directly to you.

As a special gift I am offering four of my wonderful subscribers a code to join graze and experience all of their wonderful goodness.  The code can only be used four times so it is first come first serve:  

My friend code is GXL43CLGP

Anyone who has not grazed before is eligible to use this code but it is only good four times so jump on this before it is too late!!

Love you my dear subbies, thanks for sticking by me even when I don't post often!!

https://www.graze.com/us/p/GXL43CLGU

Purple Pinstripes

It wasn't until I did my collection database that I noticed my love for purples.  I have more purple polish than any other color in my collection.  Lilacs, dark purple, mauve, violet, amethyst, magenta etc... all in my collection.  So it is no surprise that this past week when I went to pick a color from my untried list, I had many purples that are sitting there waiting to be used.  Sooo I combined four three of them to create the look below, nothing profound just a base coat of Butter London's Molly Coddled, striped with Zoya's Mira and highlighted a certain points with Orly's Be Brave.  

Review Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat

I recently went on the hunt for a long lasting top and base coat.  I was just really tired of my nail polish chipping in one day and knew there had to be better alternatives than what I was using.  I do realize that a lot of it has to do with body chemistry and what job you work, if you use your hands a lot, etc., etc.  However I wanted to branch out and try something different.  I frequently hear people say, try (insert name here) brand they last the longest, but for me, nothing worked.

While browsing Sally's website I came across a product that I had seen in the store many times, but never bothered to pick up.  I read the reviews and decided to give it a shot.  It is Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat. This is marketed as a top coat, however I use it as both a base and top coat.  It is very thick, almost a gel and can be difficult to dry if you use it alone as a top coat, so I suggest using a quick drying top coat on top. I tried it on many looks but decided to take a picture of my recent manicure which I actually still have on today, 9 days later.  The picture consist of:  

1. base coat of Gelous - 

2. Orly's Life's A Peach (2 coats) - 

3. Hare Polish Own Your Opulence (1 coat) - 

4. one coat of Gelous - 

5. one coat of Seche Vite top coat.   

This product actually works at maintaining your manicure, the picture below is after 7 days with barely any shrinkage or chipping.  

little or no tip wear after 7 days

This product is relatively cheap at under $4.00 and in my opinion well worth a try. 

Review - China Glaze Real Nail Polish Appliques in Cherry Blossoms

Hey Ladies, 

Back today to do a review on the China Glaze Real Nail Polish Appliques in Cherry Blossoms.  I purchased these from Sally Beauty Supply.  They were on the reduced table with a red sticker for $3.49, and they were on sale for half off everything on the table so I paid about $1.73 each for them.  I purchased seven of these in all in Loop Hole, Sneaky Snake, Jane Loves Tarzan, Beyond Baroque, Ferr-Ocious, and Seeing Stripes. The retail price for these are about $6.99 average.  I originally placed these appliques, carefully following the directions on three fingers on each hand.  As you can see from the pictures below, that did not last long.  I found these to be not as higher quality as some of the cheaper brand nail covers.  Within the first two hours of regular wear, one of them was wearing off.  I had a difficult time with one trying to peel off and one began popping up.  Finally, I peeled those off and reapplied a thick top coat on the two nails left.  These did not last more than four days without significant wear.  My personal opinion is I will use them as an accent nail every now and then when I want something special, but they really did not live up to the hype, or the quality of the Sally Hansen ones.  I would only purchase again for variety and if they were on sale at a great price.  Nails shown below are with Zoya Lisa, which is an older Zoya but simply beautiful.

photo courtesy of www.byple.com

Funky Rock Star French Manicre

Keeping up with the manicures I do is one of the hardest part of blogging to me, besides just remembering to blog.  This is strictly a hobby for me and by no means a full time commitment.  I do love it though and really love when people give feedback, which I rarely get.  I did this look a couple of weeks ago, it is a play on the half moon/french manicure, but not.  It was done totally freehand and I did not use the little circles.  I took the second color all the way to the tip so its not really a half moon.  I got this idea from a couple of you tubers and a you tube video that came on before watching a video.  You know one of the previews that you have to hit skip intro on.  It came out cute but the polishes were not the easiest to deal with, mainly the Julep one.  I used Zoya Carmen, Julep Otte, from the Trina Turk collection and a random silver striper polish.  I hope this inspires someone and you all enjoy.

Scribbling

 I had a picture in my head when creating this manicure that resembled scribbling with markers and  I admit it did not come out exactly as I had planned but I still liked it anyway.  This was about four days after it  was done because I completely forgot to take a picture of it so please excuse the worn ends.  I used a basic white polish, Sally Hansen, french manicure white and some nail art stripers to complete the look.

Playing With Layering

I am starting to experiment more with layering.  I do like the look of layering, I just simply forget that you can create awesome combinations simply by using multiple colors.  I get so busy trying to get through my unused polishes, that I forget to experiment and use what I have to create great combos.  

I began this combo with two coats of Rainbow Honey's Kawako.  I then added one coat of Sinful Colors All About You, this color is very sheer so I normally would not use it alone and got tired of staring at it on my shelf.  I think it came out gorgeous but wanted an extra little something so I added one coat of Zoya's 18k gold top coat.  I love the look and plan to do a lot more layering in the future.  

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Giveaway Soon and Ideas!!

In honor of my few subscribers, just for hanging in there with me, lots of you since the beginning and showing me love I am hosting a giveaway soon.  I am starting this week to go and buy some prizes, maybe one grand, maybe three individuals.  But I will know once I purchase it.  Starting this month so by the end of the month I should have prizes posted and just need people to win them.  I need to find out the easiest and best way to run a giveaway so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.  It will definitely be nail art and skin care related and I may throw in a few natural hair product samples or other beauty items as i come across.  Will be posting rules and details once its worked out.  LETS GET EXCITED!!

Zoya Arizona/Revlon Steel Her Heart

 I created this look out of a the want to use a couple of polishes that have been in my collection forever and have never been tried.  Inspiration can come from all kinds of places huh?  Nothing special and please excuse the tip wear, these nails were about four days old when I took this picture, because I was not really impressed with the outcome.  Simple to do, just a dotter and a striper and some polish.  I appreciate all that check out my post, I am not a professional and only do nail art for my satisfaction, but the acceptance from the  blogging community has been nothing but positive.  THANKS SO MUCH!!