Nekkid!

Ana over at Simple Nail Art Tips posed a challenge and had an awesome sale while she was at it: go naked for 3 days and follow the directions for happy, healthy nails. 

I decided to join. Why? Eh, my nails had already been naked and I know how good people say cuticle oil is lol. You should probably note that I absolutely abhor cuticle oil and I'm terrible at nail care and maintenance usually. 

Before:

Overall not terrible right? I mean honestly they could look a lot worse. Especially when you consider I don't do any kind of nail/cuticle care. 

The directions to follow are basically to apply Pure cuticle oil to the nails as often as they need for 3 days. At first they should soak it up really quick. In the starter pack you get 1 2ml nail oil pen and 1 15ml bottle of cuticle oil for $24 (US). Believe me when I say it is totally worth it! It smells great and feels great and doesn't stay all oily for super long. It works! Don't believe me? Proof:

Keep in mind that I am pretty much incapable of focusing on anything for days at a time lol. I probably followed the directions and applied the oil like I should for, um, maybe a day? A day and a half at the most. I tried though! The point is this would have worked even better if I had. I could feel a HUGE difference. And once the challenge days were over I was dying to wear polish again! And I needed to do some swatching. I could definitely tell how drying that process was. The only other nail anything I did during that time was file. 

Great things about Pure:
All natural
Great Smell
Nice texture, not super oily/greasy feeling
It works! 

Find the recipe along with full directions, testimonials and Ana's before and after pics here: http://www.simplenailarttips.com/products/pure-cuticle-oil

What do you think?

As always, thanks for stopping by :)

Review: Above The Curve Nail Polish (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)

Hey guys! I know I'm kind of behind, work was super crazy all week :( But I have a great review for you of one of the sponsors for our contest, Above The Curve nail polish.

When I messaged Angel to ask if they would be interested in bein a sponsor for our contest she was pretty quick to agree (once she talked to Shawn of course!) and she even said she would send me an extra in case I wanted to show swatches. Which is super awesome of them! If you haven't entered the contest yet, click here or anywhere it says contest and do it! We are also doing a giveaway with the contest! 

This is a gorgeous pink holo. You can see the holo even without direct bright sunlight and it's probably my new favorite holo polish I own! (Not sucking up, I really mean it!)

It applies like butter, it's so smooth and perfect. I'd say this is my favorite Indie polish yet (which unfortunately doesn't mean much, since I only have a couple, lol). This was also the easiest clean up and removal job ever. As for wear it's pretty good, it lasted the week I left it on my nails with only 1 chip and that was my fault lol. 

Where you can get ATC polishes:
http://abovethecurve.bigcartel.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AboveTheCurve

You can find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AboveTheCurveNailPolish.

Interesting information about them:
Their mission is to raise awareness for Shriner's Hospitals for Children and Scoliosis. 
$1 of every bottle sold goes to Shriner's. 
They were voted #1 by the Crumpet's readers poll favorite Indie polish of the year for 2012.

Seriously, have you gone shopping yet?


As always, thanks for stopping by :)

*This polish was provided to me free of charge to show swatches for the contest, I took it upon myself to review it. The review was not asked for by the makers of the polish.*

Julep Review & Giveaway

Today I have a treat for you (and of course for me lol): 
I got the chance to review a Maven Box from Julep and I jumped all over the chance, of course. So here are some great pics for you!

So we'll start with packaging, it comes in a box that I find pretty useful actually. I keep my stamping supplies in one that you can read about here. The polishes are all bubble wrapped inside a pink gift bag that rests on a bed of confetti and tied with a black ribbon. I think Julep does a great job with packaging. 
What I actually received is the It Girl box that came with 2 toe separators and three polishes. 

So cute!

From left to right: Brooke, Mandy and Jessica

So who wants swatches? You guys of course! 

Mandy, Jessica and Brooke 1 coat inside house

1 coat, sunlight

One coat, sunlight

One coat sunlight

So very opaque in one coat for both Jessica and Mandy. I would use Brooke as a topcoat over other polishes.

2 coats, inside the house no direct light

2 Coats, Brooke Direct Sunlight

Brooke 2 coats, direct sunlight

Mandy and Jessica 2 coats direct sunlight

2 coats shade

2 coats shade

Mandy and Jessica both have great pigmentation and I don't think they really even needed the second coat. I definitely plan to use them for stamping in the future! Brooke is very sparkly and pretty :)


The polish applied great and the brushes were all even, no stray hairs. I would definitely recommend signing up to get Julep's monthly Maven Box. 


Now to one of the best parts: Because Julep is awesome they are giving ALL of you the chance to try one of their boxes for only 1 penny! Yes, you read that correctly, 1 PENNY! So all you have to do is click right here and take the style quiz. It will tell you what your style is (if you don't like what it picks for you, you can change it by clicking see other styles and adding the one you want to your cart). When you checkout use code MAVENINTRO. Make sure you choose your state and your balance will be $0.01.


Now for the best part, Julep wanted to do a giveaway for you guys! 


The giveaway will run for a week and is really easy :) Don't forget to click and get your 
first box for a penny!


As always, thanks for stopping by and good luck :)


**I received the products mentioned above free for a review. I was not paid for said review and all opinions are my own.**


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Exfoliator Review

A review for you all today :) Well maybe more of a comparison I suppose lol. We have here Qtica's lemon dream, Julep's Facial for the hands, and lastly a generic apricot scrub. I use one or another of these as part of my mani process (which I will tell you about next time).  

Lemon Dream smells great and works pretty well. It's a thicker gel kind of substance and since I happen to have 2 of the one I use most often just since one is upstairs in my bathroom and I have one downstairs with my nail stuff. It smells great and works pretty good. It has little plastic like beads in it that exfoliate.

Qtica lemon dream

 Next we have Julep's Glycolic Hand Scrub which I believe they call a facial for your hands. Its kind of a liquidy gel. Its got kind of a fruity smell but no-where near as strong as the other two. I only used this one a few times so I should note that it may be watery due to lack of use as well as heat. I got this one as a gift so I definitely can't complain ;) 

Julep's Glycolic Hand Scrub

 Lastly, we have Dollar General's Apricot Scrub. It's supposed to be for your face but due to my super sensitive skin I can't use it for its intended purpose. So I re-purposed it lol. It smells great and exfoliates really well. It has apricot seeds that exfoliate in it and is a thick paste. 

Overall I prefer the Qtica lemon dream just due to the great smell, smooth texture, and lasting effects of smoothness and moisturizing. However the Apricot Scrub is a very close second and it is far cheaper. 


Do you exfoliate? What products do you like and use? As always, thanks for stopping by :) 

Red Angel Review

I ordered the Red Angel plates from Amazon.com after extensive checking to see what was available price versus value and I have to say I'm very happy. It shipped very fast and you get a lot of designs for what you're paying. I did read all the reviews before I purchased and formed my own opinions.

There were some complaints that the plates were very sharp and that there isn't a backing on them like some of the other plates have, but I found them to be ok. The plastic film wasn't horrible to remove and as long as I didn't get any kind of cuts.

It comes with 21 plates for $12.99 plus $3.99 shipping. Which to me is a great deal since some of the more well known brands are upwards of $6 per plate.

As for designs there are some incredibly cute ones, including lots of flowers, leaves and some butterflies. That being said there are some designs I have absolutely no interest in like a full plate of smiley faces. This set has a lot of french tip and full plate designs some are bigger and some are smaller which could be a good thing. You can see all designs here.

The quality seems great on all the plates I have tried, the designs are etched deeply enough but not so deep that it causes problems.


Overall I would recommend this product, based on designs, quality and shipping. If you would like to see some stamping I have done with these just click on the label Red Angel on the right. To order these plates you can click this link here As always, thanks for stopping by :)