Another Festive Manicure! #blogmas Day 3, 2014

So chances are if you follow me on snapchat you may or may not have seen me snap my newest manicure!  I'm trying to get things going 'festively speaking' in my life because the people I see on a daily basis are SO not into Christmas it seems.  Don't you hate that?  When everyone you spend time with on a daily basis is like, 'bahumbug' every second of the day.  I even made super delicious soup tonight for dinner and have been getting really creative when it comes to food around here and no one seems to be liking it.  Whatever.. it makes me hella happy and that's what matters!

As I said, the above photo was from snapchat so this is much more true to the color that the polish actually appears on your nails.  That perfect wine red color that you long for during Christmas<3.

I hope you love this cute little manicure.  I didn't take full advantage of the 'metallic' in the Sally Hansen polish (linked is the gray color) because I just wanted the color.  The magnetism is really cool when you do it, but it just didn't set the tone right for this manicure, the color is good enough.  I'm still getting used to the formulation on these Revlon Gel Polishes.  They do stay on longer than most formulations but definitely not as long as a real gel manicure.  I miss my gel manicures.  Sigh.  It's almost as if the consistency is 'goopy' a little bit, but like I said I think it's just me getting used to it.  Revlon is most definitely my favorite drugstore polish HANDS DOWN though, I just LOVE it.

Tell me if you have the same opinion on these polishes of if I'm just plain crazy.  I'd love to know!  Send me a tweet or leave a comment below.  Thanks for reading BLOGMAS!  I hope you're loving it so far.  Can't wait to show you what comes next!  -Brit.  

Winter Whites, FTW! #blogmas Day 1, 2014!

I am so excited about this latest Ciate Caviar Manicure that I tried!  It actually reminds me of snow and makes me happy.  I know, snow.. making me happy.. imagine that.  I posted an Instagram picture today with the below photo saying 'I'd rather have the snow on my manicure than the ground,' because that is completely true.  I mean how gorgeous is this though?!  Winter whites, FTW!

Ciate Caviar Manicure, Snow Virgin

An added bonus is that the white is a really nice white all alone.  I have been wearing the polish for a couple of days alone and it's just a bright, vibrant color that almost pops off your nails!  Have you tried it?  Tweet me and let me know!  Thank you for reading.  P.S.: Welcome to BLOGMAS! -Brit.

Chop-Sticking To My Story

Probably one of my favorite posts of Blogtober!  I don't know why I'm saying this when I'm only three days in, but I think it has something to do with the fact that this is nail polish and it's orange.  COMPLETE HAPPINESS.  I love this rich pumpkin color, it makes me so happy.

The color is called Chop Sticking To My Story by OPI and I couldn't love it anymore than I do.

What is your favorite color for the fall season on your nails?  I tend to love deeper colors and stuff when it gets colder, but this is definitely appropriate for fall and October in general!  Send me a tweet or leave a comment below.  Thank you for reading Blogtober!  -Brit.

The Purple Haze

 I had to beat a dead horse with these damn terrariums when I first made them, so you will happy to know that this post is about my nails.  NOT the terrariums.  Of course though, I had to at least include them into some of these photos.  Just sit back, relax and enjoy the purple amazement that is this color.

I thought the color was so underrated in my nail polish collection and I wanted to bring it back.  A friend of mine's favorite color is purple and I was NEVER into it that much.  He always used to tell me that he was obsessed with the color because it was different and most guys don't like it.  I thought it was an interesting explanation for his hue obsession but after he said that, I still didn't like the color.  All of a sudden for the past year or two though, I have been able to find a place in my *hEaRt* for the color.  I'm so weird, but sometimes you surprise yourself with things.

With a color that has a name like 'Funky Dunkey' you can't really be afraid of making a statement.  By no means is this a color for a serious business environment, I would say.  Something about it just pops on the nails.  I think even with lighter skin tones this looks awesome.  Normally coming off of summer my color would be a little darker so I would have another tone to report on but not this year.  I think the brilliance in the color of this formula is what makes it look great on any nail.

For some reason I just love the shade.  The application is great, I normally really like the brush on OPI polishes.  Do you?  I always do about three coats of any polish but this was only two.  I also find that OPI always dries lickety split.  I absolutely love the formula for that reason because as much as I have a passion for doing nails, I can't stand waiting for them to dry.  Send me a tweet and let me know if you love OPI.  This is quite a Halloween-y color, can you sense my excitement?  -Brit.

Gel Manicure #4: Update

Yes, yes it's that time again: Gel Manicure update time!  I know what you're thinking: why are you sporting red nail polish right now?  Well, during my visit to the salon this time I went in knowing exactly what color I wanted.  I literally was dreaming of this gorgeous burnt orange color and I knew for sure that was what I was going to get.  So as I sit there starting to get the manicure looking at the color wheels, I noticed that my color wasn't there!  I was so annoyed because I saw the color for  the past four gel manicures that I went in for but wasn't going to get it because it was still July and I wanted light and fun.  

Needless to say I really wanted the color this time because August just does something to me that it instantly brings on the fall feelings.  Don't get me wrong, I do NOT want to rush summer at all but I just feel like Pumpkins start growing in my mind as soon as August 1st comes along.  Needless to say, I decided to go with this beautiful red color.  At first glance on the color wheel, this color did not look as strong and prominent as it does on the nails.  I still love it, but I wasn't thinking it would be as bold.

What do you guys think?  I'm not mad because normally I don't regret any color that I put on my nails (haha) we all know this about me.  I love painted nails in general.  Of course I'm going to ask you if you've ever gotten a gel manicure?  What do you think of them?  This post is about 5 days after my latest manicure, so if you see growth that's why.  Send me a tweet or leave me a comment!  -Brit.   

Gel Manicure #3: Update

As you know, I have recently 'found the light' in gel manicures.  Although I haven't written anything about my second one, I wanted to definitely document this one because it's the best one yet.  Perhaps I will continue showing you each manicure I get, because I do plan to get some cool stuff when the holidays start coming around. 

When I saw this color on the color wheel in the salon, I automatically fell in love with it, but I wasn't sure I wanted to get it.  I was torn between this 'rust orange/red' color and the one I actually chose.  I decided to wait with the rusty color until at least August.  I didn't want to rush the fall or anything.  #SummerForever

As you may be able to realize, there are fine glitters in the polish that are yellow.  Combined with the pink it almost looks green and it is absolutely beautiful.  I like this color because I wanted something interesting but subdued at the same time.  You might be thinking, 'Uhhhh, that's not subdued,' but it actually really is.  The only time the glitter picks up is when it hits the sun or direct light, other times it just looks like a really nice pink color.  

Another thing you might be able to notice that my nails are growing DRASTICALLY from where they were three weeks ago.  Now that I have gel nails, I constantly feel the necessity to massage my cuticles.  This is really wierd sounding but it's completely true.  For some reason I guess I try to convince myself that it will make them grow and it just feels good.  So far so good I would say.

Have you guys tried gel manicures since I last wrote about them?  Let me know in a tweet or leave a comment below.  I would definitely suggest this color over my last two, I enjoy it.  -Brit.

My First Gel Manicure Experience!

GUYS.  I have jumped ship.  If you know me at all, you know that I am a nail polish MANIAC.  There's nothing that makes me happier than taking the time to sit here and do my own nails.  Whether it just be a polish change or a complete at-home manicure, I am just the queen of all things nails.  This has changed.  

~*ReVoLuTioNaRy*~

The Gel Manicure has changed my life.  Okay so granted, it's only been one day since I have had it but I can already tell you that I have fallen in love with it.  There are a few things that I wanted to tell you about just incase you were thinking about going in and getting one yourself.  I can almost guarantee that you are going to fall in love too.  

What I Was Expecting

#1: Expensive!?

Honestly, I don't know what I was completely expecting but there were a couple of, I guess you could say, misconceived notions about gel manicures for me.  The only memory I have of going to the nail salon is when I was about 10.  I remember that my mother used to get these outrageously expensive manicures week in and week out and I would always wonder why she would spend so much money.  Granted, they looked great when she came out but I just was thinking how expensive that was.  I thought, going into this gel manicure, that I was going to have to pay about $60-$70 for it and I was outraged.  This is absolutely NOT the case.  

My Aunt put my mind at ease and assured me that I would be only paying $22!  :O  I was completely shocked.  My Aunt was the one that got me interested in getting a gel manicure for the first time so I was taking everything that she said with complete confidence.  I asked her all of the questions that I had in my brain and it was a spur of the moment decision to go and get them done yesterday, I swear.  We were sitting at her breakfast nook in the kitchen dripping sweat from the run we just went on in the 91 degree weather when we just up and decided that we were going to go get manicures!  I feel sorry for the people that were touching us, ew.  Obviously we washed our hands and made ourselves look semi-presentable but we both felt gross coming straight from a run.  

#2: A Normal Manicure?

I totally thought that it was going to be just like a manicure.  You go in, you pick a color, you sit and wait and then finally they help you.  I thought after the manicure was done, you were to sit there for ages and let them dry.  I thought you had to dig awkwardly through your purse for your wallet and eventually grab out your credit card/wallet to pay.  This was not the case at all!  Being that I was such a no0b at gel nails, I think it showed on my face.  The woman (I could tell) was totally making fun of me.  I'm okay with that.  I didn't ask any questions because I wanted to refrain from acting a fool and that was the best choice possible, as I ended up doing everything perfectly fine.  Except for one thing.  Upon the entrance of my nails into the lamp, the smallest fuzz stuck right into the wet polish.  Five minutes later, the lady was blaming me for bumping my hand onto the top of the lamp.  I knew FOR SURE that I didn't bump it.  I made sure that I very carefully was sliding my hands in and out of the lamps because I am so incredibly clumsy.  Needless to say, she just completely re-did it and everything ended up being perfectly fine.  

#3: Heat And Lamps!?

Now I guess this technically could have gone under the 'Normal Manicure' section of this post but I had to differentiate because of my interesting story about messing up the nail (natural Brittany move).  I was absolutely amazed at the way the gel manicure process went.  It was nothing like any other manicure has ever been for me.  First, they clean your nails (this is about as normal as it gets).  There's a base coat that is applied once and then you stick your hands in these small neon lamps that are glowing with heat underneath the table.  Now granted, I knew the process but I had just never gotten it done before.  

Once the base coat is applied and your nails are sitting under the heat lamp, you are prompted by the artist to give your hands to her and she starts applying the color.  Now depending on the color that you select, the amount of coats my vary.  With that being said, between each coat, you are to put your hands back under the heated lamps.  After the top coat is applied and you wait significantly longer than between each coat, the artist takes rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball and rubs it on your nail.  At this point I was freaking out wondering why she was trying to ruin my nails.  I mean obviously I trust them, they know what they're doing, but I just was like 'Ummmm.. what?'  Needless to say, you take out your nails from the heat, she hits it with the alcohol and then its COMPLETELY DRY.  

I was literally amazed.  I still was fumbling around for my money to pay like an idiot and the artist was like, 'Oh honey, don't worry, that's dry.'  I felt like a complete idiot haha, but hey!  I wasn't sure.  Overall, my experience at the salon was absolutely amazing.  I am so happy that I went and that my Aunt took me to such an awesome place called Star Nails.  Now I'm sure that you all have places wherever you live to get gel manicures but if you live in the Ocean County/Jersey Shore area, I would suggest Star Nails for sure!  They have this really awesome program where you get a card and for every service you get, they check it off.  Eventually when you reach 10 services, you get a $20 credit.  This almost equals out to a free gel manicure.  Pretty awesome.

Here are some photos of my nails.  I am so pleased with the way they look.  They're shiny, perfect and this is such a perfect color to have on the nails if you are looking for 'office appropriate/interview friendly.'  I cannot wait to go insane with the colors over the holidays and everything.  I hate to say it, but I think I might be making a big change in my nail polish collection.  Time to clean it out a little bit and give some to my 11 year old neighbor.  And we never thought this day would come.  

Sorry for the awful angles of my hands.  Ew.  Anyway!  Send me a tweet/leave a comment and let me know if you have ever gotten a gel manicure!  Is there anything that I must know about getting them in the future or am I just super excited and probably sounding psychotic (lol).  Thanks for reading!  -Brit.

Jade Is The New Black!

It has been raining a lot lately.  I guess the last couple of days of April are really taking advantage of the 'April showers bring May flowers' rule.  I'm not okay with this.  I really just wish summer temperatures would come and stay.  To make up for feeling the blues, I decided to paint my nails and toes green.  Whats the point in waiting for everything to turn green when you can just paint everything green, right?  Needless to say I took to my nail polish rack and chose Jade Is The New Black by OPI.  

I've written about OPI polishes on here before.  As you know, I always like to do about two coats of polish no matter what.  I think here I did three because sometimes I just prefer.  This particular color is pretty opaque so you don't have to worry about sitting there forever and getting it to come out the color it looks like it is in the bottle (like some other polishes I know you do).  This color just makes me really happy and brings a little color to these otherwise mundane days.  Here are a few photos:

        

        

I actually started with this color on my toes.  After I had the polish on my feet for about two weeks I said to myself, 'maybe I should just put that on my nails.'  Haha.  Please ignore the bandaid, I stepped on a piece of glass while volunteering with my dad a couple of weeks ago.  We were doing a stream clean-up and the glass went right through my boot and into my foot.  This did not make me happy as I am sure you could imagine.  I got that darling little ankle bracelet from a local boutique called Sunshine Daydream here in Point Pleasant.  I know its easy to make myself but I like it!  I got another piece from them as well that I will share with you soon.  Thanks for reading!  Make sure you send me a tweet & let me know what you've got on your nails/toes lately.  Talk to you soon!  -Brit.

Revlon Parfumerie: Fresh Linen.

As you sadly know, we are in for it.  By this, I mean we are in for another storm that is set to come our way at the end of today, right into tomorrow morning.  This is going to be bad for many reasons but the worst reason is because of the morning commute.  Granted, if the weather is bad enough, my office will close but it's just extremely annoying to have to worry about how bad the snow will be because granted, trusting the forecast is never a good thing (it changes every five seconds).  

For today's lazy Sunday, I woke up with really only a couple of things that I had to do.  I must do laundry, pickup my room a little bit and I just really wanted to re-paint my nails.  So, with that said, my dad put on a pot of coffee, made us breakfast sandwiches and here we are chillin'.  My dad isn't painting his nails though, he's working on the snow blower a little bit (lol).  

So above are the two integral parts of my day.  On the right you will see my adorable coffee-stained mug that is making me very happy.  Quick tip for people, try drinking your coffee black.  I don't know, I have tasted coffee like one time with sugar and creamer and I just don't like it.  Ever since I started drinking coffee, I have been drinking it black.  Every single day, it just tastes so much better and stronger.  On the left you will see my nail polish of choice for today (and probably tomorrow), Revlon's Parfumerie in Fresh Linen. 

With this color, you need more than two coats, on my nails currently is three coats.  It may seem like a bit of a no brainer that a white polish would need more than two coats, but this one has a pearly finish so you might be fooled.  The color is beautiful but even with three coats you can still see right through it in the photo to the bottom of my nails.  I didn't use a base coat or top coat with this, but I didn't want to because when I test a polish, I always want to do it without base/top coats to see how well they are on their own.  

I'm pretty sure I have never talked about these polishes on my blog before but I have a couple of them as you will see down below and I do enjoy them.  Other than the scent of the polishes, my favorite thing about them is the bottle shape.  They are so darling and look like a tiny little perfume bottle and it makes me so happy.

As you can see, I have six of the polishes in this line.  I have: Fresh Linen, Pink Pineapple, Beachy, Wintermint, Autumn Spice and Apricot Nectar.  My favorite out of these is most definitely beach (scent wise).  These all smell exactly like they are labeled and that makes me happy.  I say this because Revlon came out with another line of scented polishes that didn't smell that great and I was so upset.  I bought a beachy-scented one and it smelled so bad and nothing like the beach.  These polishes are great and they only smell like a normal nail polish upon first opening up the bottle, right after that they smell like the scent they are labeled.  I couldn't believe it.  Also, the scent lasts longer than just the first day.  I would probably say about three days later, the scent was still there but starting to wear off, definitely pretty cool!

Thank you for reading once again.  I felt inspired by the snow (um, ew) to paint my nails this angelic white color and I am happy with the decision.  Who knows how long I will feel this inspired but I hope this snow comes and goes because I looked further into Accuweather and it says that we are going to be getting temperatures in the 50's and 60's so I cant wait.  What polishes are you loving right now?  Mine are always so dependent on my mood as you know from last couple of color choices.  Let me know in the comments below or send me a tweet.  Thanks for reading!  xoxo

Braziliant!

Okay guys.  As I had previously said, the weather has finally been looking up but I knew for sure that it was too good to be true (being that it's only February).  Granted, tomorrow is the last day of the month and I could not be more excited.  For some reason I just cannot stand February because it always kind of meant 'dead of winter' to me and I hate winter (no surprise).  

Being that you know I hate winter, I bring you a nice little pop of color for the time being.  While we wait for the weather to be on a steady incline rather than just popping up in random places when it feels like it, March IS actually coming so that means it's time to starting bringing out the pastels and the brights.  Nothing makes me happier.

Come May I'm sure I'll do Manicure May but for now you have to take a look at this color!  I remember when the color came out with the Braziliant collection and I was so excited.

This is the collection titled color Braziliant.  I love the bright pop of color because it's HOT orange and it just makes me happy.  I can use this as a crutch to get me through the rest of this gross winter weather.  

As you can see, the polish has amazing duo-chrome.  The subtle hints of purple are just enough to make it look like 'not your average orange' polish.  I like the application of this polish,  I have two coats on here and that's really all you need.  Normally Essie polishes are great this way, pretty opaque.  

I feel like I also must add that I have Lush 'Dream Cream;' on my hands at the time of these photos so thats why they look a little oily.  I couldn't wait to take the pictures because I wanted to show you the color.  I am going to definitely be sharing my favorites for dry skin coming up soon, so make sure you don't miss it.  I have eczema and not everything works for me  (barely anything), so I have a lot to say about Dream Cream and another line of amazing products.  

What are you doing to get through these last couple of cold months?  Thank you so much for reading and make sure you check in for my dry skin (eczema friendly) post coming really soon!  Also, more outfit of the days coming up as well.  Send me a tweet or comment!  

Manicure Monday: American Denim Style.

It's Manicure Monday again!  I cannot honestly believe how fast these weeks are just passing right by, but I am not going to complain about that!  I want summer to get here as soon as possible and THEN the weeks can slow down, ha!  As I write this post for Manicure Monday I sit here looking out my window at SNOW falling from the sky nearly a week after spring has started.  I really have no explanation for it.  

Today's polish is American Apparel's "American Dream" as you see in the photo.  There's something about this polish that I really love.  To start, the color is amazingly opaque.  Because I always like to do two coats on my nails, I do, but you can absolutely get away with only one coat.  Another plus to this is that is dries pretty fast.  I wouldn't say its the fastest drying polish, but it is pretty good.  The pastel color is so adorable for spring and perfect for creating a cute little Easter egg design or something.  I will, im sure, have some of those posts coming up soon.

Check out the polish on American Apparel's website.  What are you all wearing on your nails today?  Leave a comment below or send me a tweet and let me know.  Thank you, as always, for reading today.  Hope to talk to you soon!

Xoxo-Brit.