Deborah Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale and Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Hello snow day!! This is probably one of the worst snowstorms of the year here - NY is swallowed by snow. I've just about had enough of the snow and the winter, and I hope we have an early spring. Look at this chaos! I do love fresh snowfall, but in a few days everything is brown and mucky and disgusting.

So Liam took me to the mall this evening, we were getting stir crazy from being in the house so much due to crappy weather. I got two lovely new additions today - I am not able to swatch them until I return from vacation Sunday, but I did take some great photos of them so you can see how beautiful these really are. Today was a fairytale is the most amazing glittery color - silver and blue are just so cohesive and I can't wait to try this with a powder blue base. Hit me with your best shot is a slate gray/blue and I want to try this in a reverse french. Both are so lovely and a treat to look at until I get to try them :)

I also gave the sparkly french mani yet another go, because it is definitely my favorite experimental mani! This is my best yet, because I had the right swatches that all went together much better.

Butterfly wing nail art( or at least my attempt at it) (Erika)

I went on FB a few weeks ago, just to spend a few minutes(coughhackhours) looking at nail polish pics. I noticed that Julie had "Liked" a few pics, so the nosey person I am, I went to see what else was posted, haha. After about 10 mins of looking, I found this tutorial by the amazing elenaeris:



Instantly I wanted to try it! So fast forward a few weeks( hey even if with nail polish I drag my heels, really got to try to work on that whole procrastination thing...) and here are the results:

The nail polishes I used are:
Sally Hansen Insta-dry 430 Brisk Blue
Kiss Nail art (black)
Kiss Nail art (white)
Color Club nail art (opal glitter)

This is my first experience with the Zoya color lock system. I have to say I'm impressed! The remover is amazing! Non drying and no god awful toxic smell. My favorite is the base coat called Armor. It really grabs the color and leave a nice and smooth finish. I am a little bias about the speed drops. I don't think it really helped in the fast dry dept. But overall, its a great set for a person who is starting out with building a nail polish collection(or obsession..tomato..tomoto)

Katy Perry for OPI Shatter Polish (Julie)

Took a drive today to Ulta to check out the new Katy Perry line. There wasn't much left - and the shatters were all gone, which is what I was really after. Had a nice employee check in the back, but there were none in stock. So I shopped around for a while, and low and behold, I find a bottle of Shatter hidden amongst the sale boxes that somebody must have tucked away to come back to. Lucky me!

I applied it over Revved Up Red by Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer line - it's a really bright red and I thought it'd really glow through the black.

I am not sure how I feel about this. It did apply evenly and shattered immediately, and dried fast. However, it dried matte which I hate - so I applied 2 coats of Prolana Quick & Slick, and it was an improvement. I think it's neat I am just not sure it's my style per-se. I think I prefer the shimmery stuff. But maybe it'll grow on me.

How to grow your nails naturally - Key ingredient Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Julie)

Today I was looking online for a site that could provide me with some homemade natural remedies for weak nails, and I came across one in particular that looked really good...not to mention yummy. I truly felt like Winnie the Pooh with his honey obsession. The two key ingredients are Extra virgin coconut oil (i luckily had in the cabinet!) and honey. The entire site and more interesting recipes for home nail care remedies can be found here: http://naturalnailcarerecipes.homestead.com/nailsoaks.html

It's a really simple recipe, and this is supposed to help your nails grow strong. I took equal parts Langnese creamed honey and Nutiva extra virgin coconut oil that I had in my cabinet already. (you can use regular honey)

I put them in a microwavable safe (duh) bowl together. (as I said before, you might want to first melt the coconut oil for 15 secs then add honey, and microwave another 10-15 secs)

 

First attempt was 15 seconds. The honey melted nicely, the coconut oil did not. It kinda looked like glaciers in a sea of pee. I have a way with words, don't I?

Not quite ready yet. Shoved it back in the microwave for another 15 seconds and it was much better.

Dunked my hands in for about 7 mins (it calls for 10 minutes but I got bored fast, and it was starting to dry and get sticky as it cooled)

For the last few minutes, I applied it to both hands entirely, and massaged it in. Rinsed it off and my hands felt soft, and smelled great. I felt pampered! I enjoyed it and will try and do this often.

Repeat this twice a week for stronger nails. Good luck!

Chanel Paradoxal PERFECT Dupe (Julie)

I know Erika had mentioned a dupe before, the one made by Revlon - and she said the only problem was bubbling. I found a dupe that is amazing! It's absolutely perfect, i see no differences whatsoever. It applies beautifully in one swipe, and bolder in 2. It doesn't bubble, and it is perfect with a seche vite top coat. It's by Barry M and is called Dusky Mauve. They are in the UK, so if you are outside the UK (yes, they do int'l shipping) I would suggest making a slightly larger order to make it worthwhile.

My Zoya 3 Freebies are here today! And a Chi swatch

These are amazing!!! All three are so completely gorgeous - especially Edyta. I will swatch these either later on this evening, or tomorrow.

And take a look at my first and only Chi polish (more to come!) called Midnight Rendezvous. It's such an electric blue, I doubt photos will do it much justice. It applied perfectly, no streaks, no bubbles, great formula and application.

Erika calls blues like this "avatar blues" ...I completely agree!

My New Vegan Nail Polish Brand Discovery: Goldie

I was rummaging through TJ Maxx today and came across a set of 8 gorgeous nail polishes for just $7. They are called Goldie, and apparently Bath & Bodyworks distributes them. They are presented in a really cute pink white & black damask box, and the bottles have molded flowers on the cap. I have never really seen a set of polishes where i want to try them all. There's usually a stinker or two in the box. But I was impressed with each color!

I have only swatched one so far, it doesn't have a name that I can see, but it's a deep aqua sparkly swatch and it is really nice. The application was very pretty, no streaks, looks even more vibrant with a layer of seche vite on it which is weird. The seche almost changed the color entirely, but I like it! I think the polish may have been intended to be matte. I don't know much about matte polishes though so that's just a guess.

two left fingers are without Seche, two right are with Seche

I thought i'd photograph it with the contrast of a gold NP bottle...

then I got an idea....

to bling up my ring finger

and I like it!!

:)

Color Club Covered In Diamonds Vs. Nubar G188 2010

I was super excited to get Color Club's Covered in Diamonds today. I was really itching to swatch it with a mint green cream. I thought they'd go together really well.

I used a mint green by China Glaze- 2 coats, and I think perhaps because I didn't let it fully dry before applying the Color Club, it just sunk into the polish and ended up looking so gross! Reminded me of ambrosia. Not a pretty sight. And it's such an awful gritty texture. Very unappealing. I'm so disappointed!

Well since I had wasted 1 hand, I decided to take out my Nubar #G188 and use that on the other hand. Oh what a difference! I didn't have to wait for the China Glaze to dry either. It's just incredible, what a huge difference there is between the two. Would I recommend the Color Club swatch? Sure, if you have time to wait for your base color to dry first...and only use 1 coat! That's all you need!

Here are some comparison photos.

This is Color Club's Ambrosia --- I mean Covered in Diamonds ;)

Nubar G188-

Color Club - Covered in Diamonds

Color Club

Nubar

Nubar

Color Club