Blue Crushin Diamonds

Hey Everyone!! Is it Friday yet? I have had major computer issues this week. Between the computer at work and the computer at home I was ready to go back to the non computer era. Too much of a headache. Speaking of which I happen to have one right now. T also hasn't been feeling well this week. He is going to the doctor today and hopefully they can make him feel better. I think I need a nap or some coffee. I think getting coffee would be much easier but a nap sounds really nice. I seriously regret giving T my dollar bills this morning. I would love to run up to the gas station and get a cafe con leche.

Today's mani was simple but quite fun. I used ArtsyFartsyCrafts glitter and Sinful Colors Blue Crushin.

I am pretty much addicted to Sinful Colors. It is a cheap thrill and I usually love all their polishes. I always check out their new colors and usually more than one ends up living with me. Blue Crushin was a new color for Summer and part of the Chill Out collection. Honestly half the time my Walgreens stores don't even put the colors in the correct displays. Often they don't even put out new displays and just randomly put new polishes on the shelves. It is annoying.

Capturing the correct shade of this color was difficult. The first picture is most accurate. My outdoor pictures wash the color out and lighten it slightly. I used three coats for this mani but probably could have gotten away with two.

I used the 2x4mm Silver Holographic Diamond (Rhombus) glitter from ArtsyFartsyCrafts for this mani. I placed on in the center of each nail then did a full nail for an accent. I had to cut some of the glitter in half because I have tiny nails and ran out of room. It was easy to place the glitter and it was so pretty on. If I had more time I would have done all my nails covered in glitter but those accent nails took awhile.

I love the glitter when it catches the light. It looks awesome.

I love this color! I love all blues but I was very happy with this one. The formula was great too. Sometimes a pretty creme polish just hits the spot. Add some holo glitter and I am there like a bear!

Another picture where the color is inaccurate but the holo glitter looks so cool I had to post it. I love this glitter when it catches the light.

That's all for now :)

Emerald & Ash Cuticle Oil Review

Hey Everyone!! It is Monday, again. I am not a fan of Monday and clearly with the way it treats me Monday is not much of a fan of me either. Luckily the work day is almost over so there is at least that. This weekend my brother came for a visit. I had found an awesome rolling makeup case on craigslist in his area and arranged for him to purchase it for me. It was not without some difficulty but he was able to get the case and actually brought it down with him. I am so excited! I cleaned it up and glued a couple of areas that needed some help with glue and as soon as  that dries I am going to start loading it up. I can't wait. I will have a home for all of my gel nail stuff and all of my nail art stuff in one place. So excited.

Today I have a review of some new to me cuticle oils. Emerald & Ash is a great little company by a husband and wife team that creates nail polish and cuticle oils. I can't even remember when or where I discovered them but I am glad I did. I believe I might have seen a mention of their cuticle oil somewhere on facebook and after looking into it I had to give them a try. I always try and keep my cuticles moisturized but it seems like whenever I use oil I end up with cuts and hangnails. Another issue I have with oils is the application. I always feel like I get way too much oil on my fingers and then I spend the rest of the day greasy. Once I found out that Emerald & Ash uses a rollerball applicator I was sold on giving them a try. In May they had a huge month long oil event which pretty much finally pushed me into ordering.

When my order came I was so excited. The packaging was really very cute as well. I love the details like the stamped logo on the inside of the box. 

How cool is it that they have a clear business card? Yes, that is right, I am holding it in that picture. It is a clear plastic business card. I am easily entertained and let me tell you this card entertained me for awhile. 

The May oil event kicked off a new program that they are doing called Scent of the Month. Each month a new scent will be featured at a discount so you can try out things you have always wanted to try. The scents from May were Peppered Poppies and Tomato Leaf Coriander. I bought the small 4ml bottles of those scents because I honestly had no idea what they were going to smell like. I also bought a larger 7ml bottle of Monkey Farts and Dreamsicle because I was fairly certain I would love those scents. I believe they have 85 scents as well as an unscented version. They also have a seller's choice option where they will choose a scent and you won't know what you got until it arrives and they do custom blends if you have an idea of scents you want mixed. Quite the assortment.

This is a bottle shot of the mini bottle. It is so cute. It looks really small but lasts a pretty good amount of time. Since I have others I don't use this mini exclusively but I have still yet to run out of it. I keep it by the couch and use it if I am watching tv or after I have done my nails. It will be running out soon but shockingly I still have a bit left in that bottle. I love the cute e & a sticker on the bottle too. 

The applicator is a rollerball which I love. It distributes a nice amount of oil. Sometimes I go a little crazy and roll a bit too much but that is my own fault because I like to play with it.

Overall I am very impressed with the packaging and variety. I have been using the oil since May and at first I was really crazy about application and used it all the time. Since I am lazy and forgetful I have since slowed down in my use but I keep one in my purse as well as next to my bed and try to use it at least once a day if not more. It is not overly greasy and the applicator helps keep it where I want it and where I put it. It absorbs fairly quickly too. I also love the scents, well, most of them. I actually really fell in love with Peppered Poppies which is the first one I used and the one that sits by the couch. Tomato Leaf Coriander I did not care for and will be sending to a friend. It isn't that it smelled bad but it is just a scent that I didn't enjoy. Monkey Farts is fun and yummy smelling and I love it because of the name and the scent. I think the one I most looked forward to is dreamsicle. It is a really yummy scent that is sweet and light but I don't smell enough orange. This is of course my own personal opinion based on the fact that I want a dreamsicle and I like the smell of orange. I am not one of those people that could sit and tell you about scents and top notes and all of that jazz so I can only give a basic opinion. I do really like the dreamsicle scent and would buy it again but it doesn't make my mouth water for a dreamsicle. That is probably good too because I don't have one and I am hungry. 

A few weeks after I received my order I had also received a thank you card in the mail with a hand written thank you message and a cute scratch off card. The scratch off card revealed a 10% off my next purchase coupon. I was so surprised and excited by the cuteness and customer service. I will definitely be ordering from Emerald & Ash again and hopefully I will be trying out their nail polish soon as well. This month the Scent of the Month is Fresh Cut Grass. I am very tempted to try that one out. 

That's all for now :)

Greyhound Mani

Hey Everyone!! I am so happy it is Friday. I did not sleep well last night and I am tired!! I am super excited because after a year of going back and forth on wanting a makeup case and trying to figure out what I wanted I finally got one. Sort of. I found a great deal for one of those professional rolling cases on Craigslist and was actually able to get this one! It was a little difficult since she actually lives in one state but had the ad in a different state but she was going there for a visit and it was close enough to where my brother lives that we made it happen. She was really sweet and it was storming so she was running late and my brother was going out of town so he could only do it yesterday and it wasn't the easiest ordeal but she brought it pretty close to him which was awesome. I am so super excited however I don't know when I will get a chance to get it home. That is my excitement for the moment. 

Today I have another mani I did using Couture Gel Polish as a base.

I used Dance Til Dawn as a light base for some homemade decals I prepared. I wore this mani when the adoption kennel was closing and they were having a big open house to get dogs adopted. I made decals of the dogs that were actually available for adoption which was fun.

It was so cute because I actually know these guys. 

I loved them and so many people got a big kick out of seeing the dog pictures on my nails. Several people took pictures of them. I thought it would be a fun way to show off the dogs.

That's all for now :)

Bees

Hey Everyone!!! It is only Tuesday and I am already wondering if it is Friday yet. Geesh. I recently received the Sugar Bubbles stamping plates I ordered through a group buy back in March. I was swatching them a little bit earlier and now I just want to go home and play with them some more. I also tried out a Mundo de Unas stamping polish that I recently snagged. I wanted to give it a try before I made a huge order and I found one that someone was selling. I am a weirdo but I absolutely love the smell of it despite most people complaining about it. I have lots of new stamping toys that I need to start playing with so I can show you. My head is in the stamping clouds today.

Today's mani is one that I was so excited about. I thought it came out so cute.

I used OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana from the Brazil Collection and Artsyfartsy Crafts glitter in Dark Sunflower. I used Vivid Lacquer plate VL008 for the little bees.

I started with a base of Couture Gel Polish in Dance Til Dawn. I then sponged a gradient on my tips with I Just Can't Cope-acabana.

I added some of the Dark Sunflower loose glitter to the tips to give it some extra sparkle.

I stamped all the bees and their flight patters with black polish. I thought this mani was super cute and fun as well as nice and summery. 

That's all for now. :) 

JOSS Silver Holo Gel Polish

Hey Everyone!!! It is a gray, wet Monday here in Sunny South Florida. I completely forgot to post on Friday. Work was pretty busy last week and I don't know what I got caught up doing but it wasn't posting obviously. Today I have another gel mani for you though it was supposed to be posted Friday. 

Today's gel polish is from JOSS Nail Lacquer. I believe this is an Australian brand but I am not sure. I tried googling and didn't get a ton of information. I bought this one from Llarowe on sale awhile back. I figured it was a gel polish AND a holographic polish AND on sale so it had to come live with me. After trying it I actually went back and ordered more. They are no longer listed on the website so I am not sure if they will be restocked. 

This is JOSS Gel Polish in Silver Holo. I believe I used three coats for this mani. 

Silver Holo is a really nice holographic gel polish. I don't know of many gel polishes that are holo so I of course had to jump on this one. It isn't an in your face linear holo but it does show it's holo and is quite nice.

I couldn't capture great pictures of it showing the holo because the weather doesn't like to cooperate with me at all. You can see some holo when you are under indoor lighting so that made me pretty happy. 

I would love to find super linear holos in gel form but since I don't know if or where they exist I am quite happy with these polishes. I bought blue and another color which I can't recall at the moment. I had wound up buying two more since the sale price was so good and intended to send one to a friend. Unfortunately I have no idea which color I had planned on keeping and which one I am sending her much less which colors I actually bought. I think there was a magenta involved but I can't recall.

I had no issues with the formula on this one and application was very nice. 

I am a little sad that these are no longer on Llarowe's site because I would definitely buy other colors. I would love to figure out where else they are sold and more information on the brand. I know that I have seen they make some killer holos in regular nail polish form. I will probably be looking into finding some of those too.

That's all for now :)

IBD Lights! Camera! Karats!

Hey Everyone!!! It is almost Friday! YAY! I am ready for the week to be over. C got some good news about a new job so we are keeping our fingers crossed on that. T comes back home tomorrow night so I am excited. Other than that I am just ready for a nap. 

Today I have another brand of gel polish for you. I didn't end up using the Couture Pillow Talk because I wasn't in the mood for pink. I might have to end up swapping or selling that one. I just can't see me using it. Today I have an IBD Just Gel Polish for your viewing pleasure. This was gifted to me by my very good friend who apparently has some awesome beauty supply stores in her area. I haven't really seen this brand around here much though I have seen some great swatches online. It is a pretty affordable brand and the bottles are 14ml so they are nice and full size. 

For this mani I used a glitter polish that my friend had picked out. This is Lights! Camera! Karats! from their Tinseltown Collection. 

This is more of a glitter topper but I wasn't in the mood for a base coat so I used it alone. Please excuse my uneven, dirty looking nails. I swear they really aren't dirty but they are definitely uneven and it is more evident with clear polish on. 

Lights! Camera! Karats! is a clear based topper with blue shimmer, iridescent glitter and short silver bar glitter. It is a great glitter and shimmer combination. 

I found the glitter payoff to be low on this one. I didn't have to fish the glitter out but I did have to roll the bottle a little to get it mixed in better.

I believe I used two coats for this mani. The first was a thin coat with the second being a little heavier so that I could get more glitter out. I had figured I was going to have to do 4 to get fuller coverage on the glitter so I just stopped at two. It is a fun topper and even nice to wear when you want to add a little sparkle instead of having just clear on your nails. 

Next time I am going to have to give it a try over a base color. Once in awhile I like to have something sparkly but subtle on my nails and this fits the bill nicely. 

That's all for now :)

Couture Gel Polish Dance Til Dawn

Hey Everyone!!! I am going to make this quick today since I have had a busy day at work, YAY, and it is almost time to go home. 

Today I have the second polish I chose when I ordered my Couture Gel Polish kit. I absolutely love this polish.

Couture Gel Polish in Dance Til Dawn (#96) is a very pretty off white with a hint of pink. I know, I just said I don't like pink but this baby is only pink in certain lights and it is really just a hint of pink.  

Like Aloe Very this polish was a breeze to apply. It didn't flood my cuticles and cooperated very well. I really do enjoy the application of this brand. 

I believe I used three coats, not too thin, after my experience with Aloe Very. I was quite happy with color.

I had wanted a white but not a stark white to add to my gel collection and this one fit what I was looking for perfectly. It is not bright, in your face, white but it is still crisp.

Out door lighting.

Indoors and more accurately in the office lighting you could see a little bit more of the pink hue I was talking about. 

Nothing too pink but just enough to know that it isn't white white.

Right now Couture Gel Nail Polish is having a 2 day sale, according to their facebook. You can use the code 2daysale for 20% off. I thought that was a perfect tie in to my review of their products this week. Quite a great coincidence :) 

That's all for now :)

Couture Gel Polish Aloe Very

Hey Everyone!!! Oh Tuesday, you are not being kind to me. You are acting like a Monday and that is not friendly. I have a slight headache too. It is just one of those days.

Today we continue gel week with the polish that turned me on to the brand Couture Gel Nail Polish! I actually spoke with a very nice member of a nail group last night who loves Couture Gel Polish. I thought it was really cool since I had initially contacted the lovely lady regarding stamping polishes and the conversation just roamed to gel and Couture. 

You saw a sneak peak at this mani yesterday in my system review. This is Aloe Very which is #100. It is a gorgeous color but I believe I made my coats a little too thin. Since this was my first experience with Couture polish and the system I went pretty thin and cautious. My mani is very much lighter than the swatches I have seen for this color. I think next time I need to actually use more polish. This was four very, very thin coats.

I absolutely love the color but 4 coats did not make me happy. You can see how thin it is in some spots. This is no reflection of the actual product but very much a reflection on the skills I lack. The shade is a very pretty shimmering sea foam type green. Very very pretty even though I made it very light.

I will definitely do another mani with this color and post that one. It doesn't look too bad being very light but the visible nail line drives me mad.

This polish was so easy to apply and super smooth. The mani itself did not last very long on me but that was not due to the color. 

It is so pretty in the sun, I love the shimmer. I pretty much went through the site and wanted all the polishes that have this type of shimmer in it. It is stunning.

I was extremely happy with this polish and the way it cooperated. It didn't flood my cuticles at all which is a great bonus. I am not the best with gel polish but this one made it so easy to work with. I usually have some cuticle flooding issues with other brands and was so happy with the formula on this one. 

This was probably one of the least messy gel manis I have accomplished yet. I am very impressed with their polish. I wish it would have lasted longer but the color and formula were great. I will be able to say for sure it is a complete winner when I try the mani again with thicker coats and see the coverage. Right now I am happy to say I am not at all upset about the purchase or the quality.

That's all for now :) 

Couture Gel Nail Polish Review

Hey Everyone!!! Ok, I am ready to start gel week! I love gel polish because it gives my nails some strength. I started out with the basic Gelish kit and the lamp from the SensatioNail kit. I had been researching for a better lamp for a long time. I had also seen a swatch of Couture Gel Polish in Aloe Very which I fell in love with. After asking some questions from both the company and a blogger I decided to give Couture Gel Nail Polish a try. I bought my kit and patiently waited for it to come.

I had looked and looked before I finally decided to take the plunge on Couture Gel Nail Polish. I decided to buy the deluxe kit because it came with three gel polishes and was the best value. I did have a coupon code to help offset the cost. Considering I was looking at LED lamps alone that cost $200 this kit was a great deal. I did pay for my kit and nothing was given to me for review of this product. The kit currently runs for $129 on the site.

I was super excited when the kit arrived. The Deluxe Starter kit comes with a ton of stuff. It was packed very well and delivery was pretty quick.

The Deluxe kit came with the LED light which was my main reason for buying. It came with top coat, base coat and three colors which you get to choose. I chose Aloe Very because I had wanted that polish for a very long time. I also chose Dance till Dawn and Pillow Talk. The kit also came with a pretty big bottle of Clense and Remove and a instructional dvd. There was a bonus manicure kit included as well as a cosmetic case and a free sample of their foil remover wraps. 

The light is pretty cute and reminds me of a space ship. I mainly purchased this kit for the light so this was an important part of the purchase. It feels pretty sturdy but isn't overly heavy. 

The light has different time settings on it in increments of 30 seconds. There is a 30, 60 and 90 second timer and then a 30 minute timer. I am not sure exactly what one would want a 30 minute time setting for but it is an option. The light beeps when it turns on and off. The beep annoys me greatly but it didn't seem to annoy anyone in the house so I guess it is just me. I would love to be able to turn the beep off or make it quieter.

A shot of all the bubble led lights. I love the way they look. 

The lamp in action. It is big enough that I could fit my thumb in there if I wanted to. I still cure my thumbs on their own.

Quite the roomy lamp. 

Everything arrived in perfect condition however the top coat did have some polish in the thread and around the neck of the bottle. It was a little bit annoying but nothing major. I cleaned up the threads and the neck however there is still some polish in the threads of the cap so it is still messy. Again, nothing major just something that happened with one bottle in the package.

I will do a review of the polishes later but I did want to show a quick picture of the first mani I did with this system. I used only Couture Gel products for the first mani so that I could judge how the system worked. I used Aloe Very first because I wanted that polish the most. 

I did have some lifting at the tips and chipping on the index and thumb nails. I often have lifting and chipping because my nails are peely and have some issues. I will say that this happened within 3 days of doing the gel mani which is on the quick side. I can usually get about 5-7 days out of my gel mani without having too much of a lifting problem. 3 days bothered me but I thought maybe it is because I usually use a bonder with my gel manis. If it hadn't peeled off so much I wouldn't have taken my mani off so quickly but it was to the point where I had to remove it. I lightly buffed the top of the mani to help aid in removal.

I had never used foil remover wraps before so I decided to give them a try. They are cute precut strips with a cotton pad attached to them. You saturate the pad and wrap your nails up tight.

Aren't they cute? I forgot to take a picture when I removed my first hand so this is actually a picture on my second hand. I was able to get away with using only 5 wraps. The polish came off so nicely I was able to resaturate the pad and then use the same wraps on my other hand. This made me happy since I was able to stretch the wraps out longer.

As you can see the polish removed quite quickly and easily. It pretty much just popped right off. I wish my gel manis came off this easily every time. I absolutely love these remover wraps. I am considering ordering more because I really like the ease of using them.

I was quite impressed with how easily the polish popped off my nails. 

I had not really heard much on this company before seeing a swatch of Aloe Very and looking further into it. The company overall had a very quick response time when I asked questions. The products all seem to be of good quality and I am very happy with the light which I have used several times since getting it. The beeping annoys me but that is just a personal thing against noise that I have. I am still experimenting with their base and top and a combination of products that will work best for my nails but I would definitely purchase from this company again. There are several colors I would still like to try.

 My only real complaint has somewhat been fixed by the company. Since ordering they have changed their site to have actual swatches of each color on real nails instead of the little color bubbles they had before. When I ordered the swatches were not available and I wasn't able to really find a swatch of Pillow Talk when I googled it. I ordered Pillow Talk based on the swatch bubble and the picture that they had on the website in their try it on image. The color is completely inaccurate and I ended up with a pink I would describe as a light bubblegum rather than the pretty pale color I thought I was ordering. 

I snapped this screen shot just now because it illustrates the difference in the color I thought I was ordering vs the one that actually came. The picture on the hand on the left is what the color looked like online before the real swatches were added. The color on the right, third picture from left in the top row, is the color that arrived. The description also led me to believe it would be closer to the pale picture on the left. I am not a fan of pink and I would not order that shade on purpose. Honestly between lack of time and not really wanting to go through the hassle I just kept the bottle and chalked it up as a live and learn experience. I was pretty much taking a chance anyway since I hadn't found any real swatches for this color I just happened to go the wrong way on this one.  

Despite my new pink polish I am very happy with my purchase and the product. I will definitely order in the future as there is already a list of polishes I would like. I also fell in love with the removal wraps and their ease of use. I love the lamp and it has worked with other brands and systems with no issue whatsoever. 

That's all for now :)