Cuticle Care Routine - Updated!

I did this post a while back, but deleted it months later since it wasn't even accurate anymore - so here's an updated version. I was recently asked on Instagram how I care for my cuticles so here's a little more in depth description of what I do to keep my nails healthy. Let me know if I flaked out and missed a step, I'd be happy to answer any questions!

This is a more intensive cuticle care day than normal since I only do this entire routine about once a month, but this is how I keep my hands, cuticles, and nails healthy! I've left a little bit of detail out since I have full reviews for some of the products that I use in separate blog posts, but I'll still mention them throughout the process.

Step one is this weird bowl of oily goo! A while back on Instagram I saw a blogger I followed post about how she keeps her nails white and her hands soft and ready to be manicured, so I've used this concoction ever since. I don't do it super often since it requires a lot of prep and time afterwards to make sure your nails get oil back (soaking them in water already probably makes Ana cringe!), but I find that it really helps them look healthy for me. After that intro, this is simply a bowl full of hot water, some vinegar and baking soda, and as much olive oil as you can spare. If I was rich I would use a lot more of it! After I have this all ready, I have a couple of products that I throw in there too that I'll talk about in a little more detail next.

The first thing I always add is my Sweet Baby by Donna Nail Whitening Soak! She hasn't made this in a while since she can't get all of the ingredients for it, but hopefully she gets the chance to bring it back since it's a must-have. I put a little spoonful into the mixture I already have and let it melt in a little bit. Next I tend to put an unreasonable amount of mani bombs, sugar scrubs, and other hand care products in because TREAT YO'SELF. This time I used a Pink Sugar Sugar Scrub Tab from Nikki Rose Bath and Body and a Lemon Verbana Mani/Pedi Bomb from Bomber Babe Hand Refinement.

Here's a better look at the Pink Sugar tab from NRB&B! I'll have a more specific review for this one along with the other products that they were sweet enough to send for me to review, but in short - it was awesome. It smelled amazing and it was really easy to use! I dipped it in the water a little bit so it started to break up and I rubbed it into my hands until it broke down enough to scrub some on my nails. It left my hands feeling super smooth and smelling delicious!

And here's a better look at the mani bomb I used! This one I threw into the water and let fizz away before I soaked my hands in it. I usually try to soak them for about 10 minutes, but I tend to get distracted or impatient and it usually ends up being less than that. All of the oils and goodies in these help make your hands and cuticles even softer, which helps remove them later!

Next up I put on my Simply Peel Latex Barrier before I used cuticle remover. I did a whole separate post on this stuff, but in short it protects your live skin from the damaging stuff in cuticle remover! That way you only take off what you want to. I made sure to let it dry before putting on my preferred cuticle remover, waiting the allotted time, and scraped everything away with a wooden cuticle stick.

After removing the latex and cleaning off all of the extra remover by washing my hands, my nails were a little raw. I anticipated this since I'd been painting them a lot without enough oil, so I made sure to slather lots on! I use a lot of different cuticle oils and creams, but recently I've been using a combination of Polish TBH's Good Morning Mocha, Sweet Baby by Donna's Tao Cacao, Bliss Kiss Crisp, and Sunny's Bath Product's Better Than Sex Cake. They all smell delicious and work so well together!

After a lot of oiling and a little bit of filing to even out my nail shape, my nails were nice and white! This was actually the picture that I was asked to do this review on, so we've definitely come full-circle. This was mid-oiling, but whenever I've oiled them enough I put on my Smooth Gem Base Coat to protect them whenever I'm not polishing them. Hopefully this all helped you learn my routine a little better! Does anyone else have any hand care products that they can't live without?

Lemming Lacquer - Curiosities From Wonderland Review!

Hello all! A few days later than I intended, I have the full Curiosities From Wonderland collection to review for you from Lemming Lacquer. This is Cassie's first collection and it's absolutely wonderful! She did a magnificent job covering so many different types of polishes in one collection and doing them all so well. I was especially impressed with how professional and polite she was with me when asking me to swatch, she really sold me on her commitment to professionalism and quality in her products!

A little breakdown of this collection for those of you who haven't seen my IG swatches: three jellies with glitter, one thermal jelly with glitter, one glitter topper, one holo, and one duochrome holo. Seven polishes in all, this collection was designed to encompass several different forms of Alice In Wonderland stories, video games, and movies!

First up I have two juicy coats of Ravens & Writing Desks. I decided to accent the colors of the glitter on my ring finger using Morning Dew (Stardust Polish) and stamping with my 2-03 plate from Uber Chic Beauty. On top of that I drew a couple of ravens using black acrylic paint. I reeeeally love this polish! It went on very smoothly and evenly, the glitters distributed so well, and it dried very quickly. Whenever I see polishes that have this much glitter in them, I expect the polish base to have much less pigment so that the glitters are visible when layered, but I think R&WD has just the perfect amount. You can still see the different layers of glitter and the base is still very squishy, but it was only two coats! I'm also a huge fan of this unique jungle green, I think it looks very flattering on my pale skin.

Next up is Eat Me, the glitter topper from this collection. As I've said before, this might be one of my very favorite manis that I've ever done! I'm so thrilled that it came together as I expected. I did a corner gradient over white using Gossip Mag (Trust Fund Beauty), Funny Bunny (B Squared Lacquer), Bees Knees (BSL), Sprout (BSL), Rachel (Mentality Polish), and Viola (BSL) on my pointer, middle, and pinky nails. I also used the same colors to gradient stamp on my ring finger using my Alice 03 plate from MoYou London. On top of all of my other nails, I used one coat of Eat Me! I'm so excited about this polish. I really don't own very many glitter toppers because they tend to get left out of collections and for whatever reason I just don't buy many solo. I love how versatile this is that it can create more complex manis like this, a simple accent nail, a jelly sandwich, YOU NAME IT. I was also pleased with how jam-packed it was! I was expecting to have to put at least two coats just to get all of the colors on there, but it was surprisingly easy for me to cover the whole nail and get the whole rainbow with one quick swipe.

Next up we have two squishy coats of Drink Me. It's so hard to say since I really love all of these, but I think this may be my favorite. I can't even handle it! I love polishes like this make me look super pale because they're so dark and vampy, it's one of my favorite things about polish at all! This one also holds a special place in my heart since it was designed based off of Alice: Madness Returns from American McGee which is one of my all-time favorite video games. I think Cassie captured the dark nature of that game and Alice's shrinking hiccups perfectly! As with R&WD, this one distributed very evenly and dried very quickly! This polish is everything that I was hoping that Cosmic Forces would be when I first saw it, it's dark and ominous with bright glitters and I just love it. I used an accent nail of three coats of Fabled (Illyrian Polish) stamped with Posh (Nvr Enuff Polish) and my MoYou London Alice 03 plate again.

Next up is the jelly thermal I'm Not All There Myself. Initially, I didn't even realize that this one was a thermal until Cassie reminded me and I'm so very happy that she did! I just thought that it was another gorgeous jelly, but who knew it was two gorgeous jellies in one?! I used two coats over a nude base to reduce VNL during transition, but I was surprised to see that it seemed unnecessary since it looked opaque enough without the extra effort. This polish is a bright fuchsia when warm and a deep blurple when cold - encompassing all of the lovely colors of our favorite Cheshire Cat from the 1951 Disney version of Alice In Wonderland! One of my favorite things about this polish is that the glitters match each respective shade so well that they quite literally disappear during each transition! I'll explain this a little bit better with the larger shots as that sentence was just about as confusing as the Cheshire Cat himself.

Warm

As you can see in this picture, the lighter pink circle glitters are much less visible on the nail than they are in the bottle. She did so well matching them so that they would disappear and focus more on the darker purple glitters that nearly disappear when the polish is cold! Such a great amount of thought went into balancing this polish out in each stage, and it really shows.

Cold

Now in its cold state you can see the larger pink glitters much more than in the previous shot. I just love the attention to detail in this polish! Since I forgot to mention it before, my accent nail was Trick Or Treat (B Squared Lacquer) with strips of Avalon (A England) and an acrylic Cheshire grin. 

Next up is Her Imperial Viciousness, another favorite of mine! As luck would have it, I just happened to be wearing a red shirt when I swatched this, so it matched pretty well. This was also two squishy coats with wonderful coverage and glitter distribution! There were also black heart glitters in this that I only managed to get one of on my middle finger. I have very rounded nails so I tend to avoid larger glitters like that on purpose because they won't stay flat on my nails, but turning the bottle upside down for a couple minutes would certainly help if you wanted more hearts. On my accent nail I stamped using Alter Ego (Cirque Colors) and my plate 1-01 from Uber Chic Beauty. I'm such a huge fan of classic reds like this that make me look more pale than I am, it makes the polish look so bold and bright! 

This polish was actually the first polish that I noticed on Cassie's IG and thankfully I commented and she was sweet enough to offer me a chance to swatch for her! Before I forget, make sure you go follow her on Instagram so you don't miss out on any news considering new collections and any possible restocks of these! You won't be disappointed and she has a criminally low number of followers for the quality of her polish. This was two coats of Whooo R U? on all nails except my accent nail which was Scoundrel (Mentality Polish). I stamped using the opposite color on all nails using my Sailor 07 plate from MoYou London to give a hookah smoke sort of pattern to emphasize the inspiration of the polish. This one is so hard to capture on camera since it has so many hidden shimmers and looks so amazing from all angles, but I did get a video on my IG that absolutely won't load here so I'll just leave the link! 

The final polish that I have for you from this collection is Curiouser and Curiouser! This was two coats on all nails except my accent nail which was the fitting Miss Alice (Stardust Polish). This is such an amazing baby blue holo with a magnificent gold shimmer in it, it encompasses Alice so perfectly! I stamped some gold bows using Dapper (Mentality Polish) and my Alice 07 plate from MoYou London (again, I know, but it was so perfect for this collection!). 

Overall: This collection had astounding quality and creativity, especially for a debut collection from a new indie! Cassie blew me away with her inspiration (one of my favorite topics and stories of all time) and she translated them into unique but still very obviously fitting polishes. I'm very excited to see what else she has in store! 

Disclaimer: These polishes were all provided free of charge for my honest review,

This whole collection is still available for purchase from Lemming Lacquer ($65 for the whole collection, $16 for the Drink Me/Eat Me duo, and varying prices for each individual polish depending on the finish of it). I suggest getting in on this brand before she starts selling out instantly, her polishes are quite fantastic and I have it on good authority that she has more amazing things to come! 

Simply Peel (and more!) Review!

This post is so long overdue, but I've finally found the time to sit down and do it justice. A couple months back I was lucky enough to visit the lovely Ana of +SimpleNailArtTips/Bliss Kiss and she was sweet enough to give me a sample bottle of Simply Peel to review before it was released. Of course, I'm way behind in actually posting it, but I've been using it ever since and I'm so in love!

WARNING: THIS IS A LATEX PRODUCT, DON'T USE IT IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC!!!

Image Credit: http://nailcarehq.com

One of my favorite things about this product is that it's actually unique. By that I mean that it isn't just rebottled liquid latex from Amazon! No offense to brands that do that, I have nothing against it, it's just so awesome to know how much work she went through to formulate this and make it unique and actually helpful to your skin! I used it for a few different things to show how versatile it is, so hopefully this break down helps you realize how much you need it.

The first thing that I wanted to try after getting this product was using cuticle remover while wearing it. Much to my surprise, Ana informed me that cuticle remover can damage your living skin just as much as your cuticles. To think I've been damaging my fingers this whole time! So I put on this barrier around my nails before I used cuticle remover so that it wouldn't harm my living skin but I was still able to safely remove my cuticles. 

After you put on cuticle remover the edges of the latex will turn a little white, but Ana assured me that the skin is still fully protected!

After my nails were all clean from the cuticle remover, I enjoyed a few rounds of Bliss Kiss to get my nails super healthy!

I decided to do some nail art to show how crazy useful Simply Peel is, so I started off with one coat of Simply Smooth for the base. Ana also gave me a mini of this to try out, and it's super amazing! It's really smooth (go figure) and dried very fast. I love it! Side note: I did these steps a couple weeks apart, so my nails are much longer from this point on...you are not imagining things.

I started off with two coats of April 2014 for the base of my crazy nail art extravaganza because I felt like doing some purple nails. I also used one coat of Simply Quick top coat from Ana to seal this before I moved on.

This is what Simply Peel looks like as soon as you apply it...

And this is what it looks like when drying/dried. It has little glitters in it! GLITTERS.

I chose a gradient to begin with since I just love them I used April 2014 (Enchanted Polish), Charmingly Purple (ILNP Brand), and June 2014 (Enchanted Polish).

This is what it looks like after one quick grab with tweezers! Still a tiny amount of clean up will be required since you can't get it too close to your design or it'll pull up too, but soooo much better than gradients without liquid latex!

After a little bit of clean up and another coat of Simply Quick, my gradient base was done!

Next I stamped over one of my nails using June 2014 and one of my Bundle Monster plates! While this particular color wouldn't have been so terrible to get off skin, this barrier saves so much time on clean up and would be a lifesaver for reds/blacks/deep blues!

The next thing that I wanted to try was using Simply Peel for some negative space designs. I decided to do a half moon design since it was the easiest for me to work with, having not been use to maneuvering the latex very well.

Here's what my nail looked like after sponging on one coat of Lusty Lavender (Painted Polish) without removing the latex. Yikes! Could you imagine cleaning that up without a barrier?!

And here's what it looked like after removing it!!! Without any clean up! I'm telling you, magic.

Here's my final, very purple look with a final coat of Simply Quick over everything. Liquid latex is a lifesaver in general, but Simply Peel is by far my favorite that I've tried.

OVERALL: The drying time will vary based on how thick of a coat that you put on, I found mine to be roughly 2 minutes in general. You'll want to be sure to do alternating nails so you don't stick your fingers together because it'll just all pull off in one piece! Also, make sure that you clean your brush off after each use so the latex doesn't dry off and clump up the whole bottle.

AGAIN: DO NOT USE THIS IF YOU HAVE A LATEX ALLERGY!!!

This product was provided, free of charge, for my honest review. I love this product a ton and I'm absolutely going to be purchasing more as soon as I run out!

If you want to try this product out for yourself, head over to Nail Care HQ and grab a bottle for yourself! Simply Peel is available for $11.99/15ml

Happy Birthday Lillian Eve!

Hello there! Today I have a special post for you all since it involves a giveaway! I was recently contacted by the lovely Tiffany of Lillian Eve to help her celebrate her first anniversary since LE began business in April of 2014. I've followed her on Instagram for some time and I was very excited to be a part of the celebration! I have some springy manis that I'm going to do using a few of her polishes in celebration of her brand's anniversary, but for now I'll just share the Rafflecopter so you can get in on this party!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Delush Polish - Spring to Conclusions Review!

Hello there again! Today I have a for fun review of Delush Polish's spring collection - Spring to Conclusions. This collection of 6 cheery spring shades was just so perfect that I had to swatch them and share them with you all!

Image Credit to Adrianna of Delush Polish!

For all of these swatches I wanted to show them both glossy and mattified because they look so very different and gorgeous!

Glossy

Matte

The first polish I chose to swatch was An Offer You Can't Refuchsia! I used two coats of this squishy and magnificent polish for full coverage. This was probably the polish with the most glitter, but that didn't make it difficult to apply. As with any glitter-filled jelly, as long as you don't try to apply another coat before the first is dry, there won't be any dragging or issues. I absolutely love this color combination and it is just so perfect for spring and summer.

Glossy

Matte

The next polish that I tried was A Peony For Your Thoughts! This was also two squishy coats. I didn't have any difficulty grabbing the larger circle glitters, although I did leave all of my bottles upside down for a few minutes before swatching them. As with all the others, this had a great formula and went on very smoothly!

Glossy

Matte

The third polish from this collection that I swatched was Amazemint. This shows it being a little bit brighter than it really is, but I promise that it's the most perfect teal/mint. I loved the small glitters in this that made it very subtle and wearable. 

Glossy

Matte

The next polish that I tried out was 50 Shades of Yay! I had more issues making the glitter look evenly spread out on this one, but that was really only my OCD that wanted it more even, it still looked gorgeous. For this swatch I used two coats on all nails to create this squishy joy!

Glossy

Matte

The fifth polish that I swatched in this collection was Springing In The Rain! I used two coats for this swatch as well, and had no difficulties with formula or application. This whole collection was just so well-made! I'm madly in love with this color combination, it just works perfectly with spring in Seattle to me.

Glossy

Matte

The final polish that I swatched was In the Prime of My Lime. This one required three coats because it was a little more sheer, but it still dried quickly and I had no application issues. This polish reminded me so much of margaritas, I couldn't help but think of them whenever I looked at my nails!

Overall, this whole collection was amazing. I've been trying to spend a little less money on polish since I quit my job, but I just knew I had to splurge on this whole collection because I needed them alllllll!! I purchased all of these myself with no request to review them, I just wanted to share how much I love them with you all.

These are available through Delush Polish's website for $4.50 per mini, $8.95 per full size, $25 for the set of minis, and $48 for the full size set. 

Nail Crazies Unite! - February

I'm so excited to be taking part of this fun group! Two of my favorite IG girls (@cdbnails143 and @roselynn787) created this challenge as an easier way to do themed monthly challenges without the insane task of doing intricate nails every day or two. Some people with full time jobs and/or kids miss out on things like this because they just don't have the time to join in. So I was thrilled to get to see this supportive group and time-friendly challenge! I'll be uploading all of my pictures for each week of the challenge on both my blog and my Instagram, so make sure you check back for them and look out for other members' posts as well!

Week 1: Anti Vday

For this week's design I did some negative candy hearts over a pink to red gradient. The gradient was done using Cutie Pop (ILNP Brand), Yes Your Majesty (Stardust Polish), and Briarwood (A England) and the hearts and letters were done using acrylic paint. I really love this design! This one was using Simply Quick Top Coat from @simplenailarttips on IG.

I also mattefied my previous look because it made it a little easier to read the words, but I love it matte too! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Week 2: Love Song

I got a little behind with this challenge due to school and real life, but I still wanted to upload my pieces for each one even though they weren't included in the InLinkz because I missed the deadlines for weeks 2 and 3. For week two I decided to do Enjoy Your Day by Alkaline Trio because it's one of my favorite love songs, even if it's a sad one. I used Peppermint Twist from Laquerlicious (now Polish 'M) for my pointer and middle fingers and Love Fool from Bliss Polish on my ring and pinky fingers. I used acrylic paint to write Enjoy Your Day, Veruschka from Zoya for the rose stems, and finally Velvet Rope and Killer Curves from Color Club for the petals. I did this in both matte and glossy, but for some reason the matted version just seemed more fitting to me.

An InLinkz Link-up

Week 3: Candy

For my candy design I chose to do Hot Tamales because they're my favorite candy in the world! This design was actually really easy to do, I'll have to remember it in the future. I used Over and Over A-Gwen from OPI for my base and freehanded the Hot Tamale edges with Mrs. Mia Wallace from Urban Decay. After that I added small "highlights" using Peppermint Twist from Laquerlicious again and used a wax effect topcoat to make it look more like candy. I really loved these!

An InLinkz Link-up

Week 4: Fruit

These might have been my favorite nails for this whole challenge! I thought about doing a different type of fruit, but since it was near Valentine's day I thought the chocolate-dipped strawberries would be fitting. I used Valley of the Dolls from Nvr Enuff Polish for the base, Cosmic from Nvr Enuff Polish for the strawberries, acrylic paint for the seeds, Dragon from A England for the stems, and Hot Chocolate for Unicorns for the tips. I think these worked well with my nail shape and they looked so fun! 

An InLinkz Link-up