Sunday, December 9, 2012

Share With You Sunday: 12/2/12-12/9/12

Posts I'm Loving:
Gotham Polish shares with us her top 5 winter polish nail polish trends.
The Nailasaurus shows us her Mondrian inspired nails.
Globe & Nails shares with us her "Trim the Tree" nails.
Neverland Nail Blog shows us her cotton candy inspired nails.
Polish, Please! shares with us her glitter gradient nails.
Polish All the Nails! shows us her Christmas party nails.
The Crumpet shares with us her snowflake nails.

Posts You're Loving:
Life in Color! shows us her gingerbread man and candy cane nails.

You can submit your links for Sunday posts here

Reader Manis of the Week:


Name: Erin
Location: Arab, AL
Manicure Description: I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (2 coats), then sponged on Deborah Lippmann Let's Hear It For the Boy. I free-handed the snowflakes using Zoya Trixie and added rhinestone accents.
Favorite Polishes: Zoya Sooki (my all-time perfect red!), Zoya's entire Sparkle collection; China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Dorothy Who?, and Emerald Sparkle; OPI Absolutely Alice and the Burlesque glitters; Pretty Serious BSOD
Blog: Erin's Enamel (http://erinsenamel.wordpress.com)
Instagram: emcgarrahan


Name: Sierra
Location: Grand Prairie, TX
Manicure Description: I used 2 coats of Orly Sapphire Silk as a base color, then used a liner brush to paint on yellow (Sinful Colors Unicorn) and light blue (Kleancolor Pastel Teal) stripes.
Favorite Polishes: OPI It's My Year, Orly Luxe, L'oreal Mystery, Pop Beauty Turquoise, China Glaze Atlantis, Cover Girl Disco Dazzle, Finger Paints Twisted
Blog: http://nerdfighterly.tumblr.com/

I need manis for next week and the rest of December! You can find information on how to submit your manicures for Sunday posts here

Happy Sunday! 

Friday, December 7, 2012

BadAss Polish- Are You Ready For Some Football Collection

I have some polishes for you today from a new indie brand on the block--BadAss Polish. They have 4 polishes to start out their line. I will be showing you 2 of them today, the other 2 I will show you next week. These first two are part of the Are You Ready For Some Football? collection. Needless to say, these are football themed!

America's Team layered over Milani White on the Spot



America's Team is a mixture of silver glitters and blue stars in a clear base.

This polish is themed after the Dallas Cowboys. This is 2 coats over white, and it is meant to be a layering polish. I like the density of this glitter, and applies nicely. The blue stars do not automatically come out on the brush, you will have to snag one in the bottle. That being said, I did not feel as if I was fishing for the stars at all, once you touch one with your brush  it stays there, and will apply easily to your nail. I love this color combination, and it could be used to layer over various colors easily. 


Go Pack Go layered over China Glaze Holly-Day


Go Pack Go is a mixture of small green glitters, gold glitters, and larger yellow hex glitters in a clear base.

This polish is themed after the Green Bay Packers. I did two coats of this over a base. The formula was good and it applied well. I love the combination of colors here. The best surprise in this polish are the teeny tiny little gold glitters mixed in with the green, this is just one of those simple added touches to an indie polish I love! This applied well, and it's great to see a green glitter out there. I do not have many green glitters, so this was a nice addition. 

Before I sum things up, I wanted to share with you how these polishes were packaged and sent to me. I am beyond impressed with this packaging!





The polishes came in these awesome tubes. There is no way anything is going to break in there. The inside of the tube holds your polish and a piece of felt. The tube also has information about their packaging and its double purpose. The felt is meant to help you with removal of glitter polish. I personally swear by felt. I prefer it over the foil method, so this was a nice surprise!

I'm impressed with BadAss Polish. The polishes are glittery, and applied nicely. I want to say, please do not let the football theme trip you up. I am not a football fan in the least, and these are great layering glitter top coats for any occasion. I see both of these as suitable for holiday manicures for sure. I am also very impressed with the packaging, it's thoughtful and purposeful.

You can purchase these polishes from BadAss Polish's Etsy shop for $8.50 each.

You can also follow BadAss Polish on Facebook.

*I received these polishes for my honest review by BadAss Polish.

Happy Friday!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Kiehls Store Grand Opening + Kiehl's Ultimate Strength Hand Salve Review

I had the awesome opportunity to attend the grand opening of a local Kiehl's store recently here in Orlando with some fellow Central Florida Beauty Bloggers! I'm very excited about their opening, and the store is amazing. Kiehl's has a lot to be proud of with this store. 

I must be honest here. I have always found the beauty world outside of nail polish a bit intimidating. There are so many products, and especially on the higher end scale you can start to get a little overwhelmed. I was first introduced to Kiehl's through Birchbox in July 2011. I received a sample of their Ultra Facial Oil Free Lotion. I instantly fell in love with this lotion, it was moisturizing, and gave my skin that balance it needed. 

This discovery compelled me to look more into Kiehl's. What I love about them is while they are a higher end product, they are very approachable--from their packaging to their representatives I find it Kiehl's to be a very friendly, easy going, and informative brand. They're not stuffy or frou-frou, and I really appreciate that from a higher end brand. They've been in the business since 1851, and their professionalism truly shows. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed my experience at their opening, and I'm very impressed with all of the products they to offer.

Here are some photos from the opening...






Chris Salgardo, President of Kiehl's was also here for the event. He welcomed and spoke to customers and the bloggers there. This was a nice treat!



This is a display of their Limited Edition Creme de Corps (body butter) with packaging design done by the painted Kenny Sharf. The profits from these products will help support  RxArt Children's Charity.



These blue bottled products are part of the Ultra Facial Oil Free Line. I would definitely recommend these products to anyone else out there who has oily skin.

What I liked about this store is they had a lot of information material scattered around their different products. There were some laminated that were meant to stay in the store, but they also had materials you could take home. I found this so helpful in determining what products best suit you, and what type of skin care routine you could follow. You could definitely always ask people in the store, but supplemental material is great too!

The other neat thing about Kiehl's is while it is higher end brand, I do not find their price range over the top. I would say general skin care items (cleansers, moisturizers, toners, and etc) were around the $15-$50 mark, while the serums and anti-aging products were $50-$80. This also depended on size too. The size options where something else I liked about the Kiehl's store. I noticed many of their products had smaller size options at a lower price. This is a great feature, especially when you're on a budget.


Being a nail blogger, the first thing I go to look for when a brand does not offer nail polish, is what type of product do they offer for your hands, that's when I spotted this Ultimate Strength Hand Salve. This says it is for severely dry active hands. I wouldn't say I have severely dry hands, but as a nail polish blogger who swatches polishes frequently it can do a number on my hands!

I picked up the smaller bottle for $15, and started using it immediately every night before bed. I use it on my hands, and moisturize my cuticles with it. I just use a tiny pea-sized amount, and I find that to be sufficient. I've been using it for 15 days now, and I am happy to report it is great! The salve is very moisturizing, and absorbs nicely into the skin. What I've noticed is before using this salve, during the day I would be reaching for hand lotion because my hands feel dry. When I started using this I haven't reached for lotion at all during the day. This really locks in moisture, and I haven't felt a need to moisturize until my nightly routine! If you're looking for a great hand treatment, I'd would definitely recommend this!

Overall, I really enjoyed the grand opening at Kiehl's. I was very impressed with their staff and their products. I want to thank everyone at Kiehl's for welcoming the Central Florida Beauty Bloggers to their store!

This new store is located at The Mall at Millenia in Orlando. If you don't have a store near you, they are also online, and can be found at some Neiman Marcus, Dillards, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstroms department stores. 

Happy Wednesday! 

Monday, December 3, 2012

Sparkled Out Drummer Boy

I think one of the most challenging and most first world problem-esque type things about having enough nail polish to paint the globe is not knowing what color to wear. I'll get mani ideas in mind, and what I end up doing is taking a nail wheel and trying out different layering combos, glitter gradients, and saran wrap nail art until I find something I like.

This is usually a great start, until I find out it's one of those days. I had one of those you fail at painting your nails and doing anything nail related days yesterday. I fully intended on doing a glitter gradient nail look using China Glaze Little Drummer Boy and L'Oreal Silver Sparkle when I realized that was not going to happen. I could not even paint my base of ChG Little Drummer Boy correctly. The polish flooded my cuticles. I got little dents in it. I attempted to do the glitter gradient on the accent nail, but that wasn't happening. This was a fail, so I ended up just painting coat of L'Oreal Silver Sparkle on my accent nail over the ChG. I planned just to call it a day there, but I liked the look of my accent nail so much I just layered the Silver Sparkle over the rest of my nails.

L'Oreal Silver Sparkle layered over China Glaze Little Drummer Boy



Here is a pic in dim lighting with no flash, it picked up the detail better!



I LOVE the look of this, it has this awesome metallic sheen, and the blue peeking through the silver is stunning. It looks wintery too! The best part is the Silver Sparkle covered up my nail fail base coat of dents and smudges. I did not have to redo my nails, and I found an awesome combination I would not of thought of before.

Nail fail to nail win. It can be done!

Happy Monday!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Share With You Sunday: 11/25/12-12/2/12

Posts I'm Loving:
manicurator swatches the blues from the OPI Euro Centrale collection.
MandysSecrets shares with us her holiday beauty gift picks for under $50.
Lather Rinse Repeat shares with us her insightful response to Illamasqua's recent Christmas campaign.
Pretty Little Bottles shows us her stamped nails using China Glaze Glistening Snow.
Polish Art Addiction shows us her mauve gradient nails.
Neverland Nail Blog shares with us her shooting star galaxy mani. 
Frazzle and Aniploish shows us some holiday nail displays.
PackAPunchPolish shares with us her polka dotted stripes mani.
Adventures of the Nailfriends shows us her aurora nails.

Posts You're Loving:
The Dalai Lama's Nails shows us her Navajo inspired nails.
Pretty Purple Polish shares with us her glitter sandwich nails.
Young and Polished shares with us her winter favorites.
The Lacquered Lady swatches China Glaze Surreal Appeal.

You can submit your links for Sunday posts here

Reader Manis of the Week:



Name: Barb
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Manicure Description: I used Sinful Colors “I Love You” as the base and added Nails, Inc. Special Effects Holo Topcoat. I loved how this turned out. It was so sparkly!
Favorite Polishes: I have so many. Love Zoya, Sinful Colors, Revlon.
Instagram: barb_mcgregor


Name: Caroline from Young and Polished
Location: Chicago, IL
Manicure Description: I used Essie Hot Cocoa for the base color. I added leaf like shapes using Ulta High Roller, OPI Berry Good Dancers, and OPI Miami Beet. I used a MASH Nail Art Brush to create the leaf like shapes.
Favorite Polishes: Essie Mint Turquoise and Caicos and OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air
Blog: http://www.youngandpolished.blogspot.com


I need manis for December! You can find information on how to submit your manicures for Sunday posts here

Happy Sunday!