Flowers Freehand

As soon as I saw this , I knew I had to try to recreate it, despite the fact that I'm still no good with freehanding. Buuuut I got some new brushes and I want to try them out, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

They turned out pretty well, if you don't look too closely.

I did this from memory, and i'm still pretty pleased with them :)

I'm really digging these nails!! I wish they'd turned out better, but that's what practice is for, right?

Two coats of Pure Ice's Superstar, and then I dabbed Sinful Colors' Lavander (it's weird how that's spelled wrong, and I triple-checked), and Essie's Bikini So Teeny randomly on the corner or my nail, and let that dry. I dabbed some Oh Baby! by Pure Ice in the center, then went to town making ) shapes with the brush. Which is not particularly hard, it's just not easy getting the polish to stay the same consistency.

I thinned the polish with some acetone to try to get it easier to work with, and it actually worked :D

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Review of Mango Cuticle Cream by Deb's Calming Creations

So while hunting for replacement cuticle creams I favorited a bunch of stuff on Etsy to compare. One of the things I favorited was this cuticle cream by a shop called Deb's Calming Creations. It was fairly inexpensive at $5, and I was interested because I LOVE the smell of mango.

I got an email from Deb a few days later that offered me a deal of free shipping on a purchase through her shop, good through a certain date.

So I decided to try out the cream I'd wanted.

We emailed back and forth for a time after I purchased, and Deb is a really, REALLY awesome person, on top of making such an awesome product.

Here's a quick tour of the product:

Penny for scale. It's a .4oz tin.

Ingredients list

What's inside

I had been expecting a mangoey scent, because I'm an idiot and didn't bother to read the ingredients. Deb was kind enough to inform me that there IS lemon oil in it. Still, I was surprised when I opened the tin for the first time and the most heavenly smell wafted out. This is a very, very lightly scented cream, unlike Burt's Bees nail butter or Lush's Lemony Flutter, which both have a very strong lemony scent. I can't stop smelling it! It also complements my Carmex hand cream really well, whereas the Burt's Bees tends to smell rancid with it.

This cream is also very light in texture. It spreads very well and you don't need a lot to cover all your fingers. It also soaks in very quickly, and doesn't leave your hands greasy. I'm so used to having a cream stay put for a long time (Looking at you, Burt) that I apply it pretty often, 3-4 times a day and before bed.

I didn't take pics of my nails during this review because I've completely spaced everything about my life for the past few days. Life is moving fast, work keeps making changes that I'm trying to keep up with, and my doc has me on some new meds, but I do have an after pic :D

It's cold in here, yes my hands are that blue!

With this cream, I've noticed much less redness in my cuticles themselves, had less peeling than I did with either of the previous butters.

I've had a couple of chips, and a split in one nail, but nothing serious, or even noticeable once I filed it out or fixed it. The weather has taken a severe turn for the bitterly cold and dry and I don't think soaking my hands in any cream for days would stop the kind of dryness my nails are going through, but I can tell this cream definitely helped quite a bit.

I'm pretty pleased with this purchase, and I plan on continuing to use it, though I'll probably add the Bees back on the routine, probably using this one while at work (waste not want not... and I can't smell the Bees while I'm asleep thank heaven). I'm gonna give it a 5/5, this is my favorite cuticle cream now!

Please subscribe and vote in the poll. Also, pay a visit to Deb's, she's got some other great stuff and I love her moisturizer too!

OPI's Spotted Has A DUPE!!!

So the boyfriend and I were walking around Walmart and as I was perusing the nail polish section and OMG LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!

A SPOTTED TOP COAT!!! 

I'm sorry about the fuzzy quality of this pic, but I was reeeeally excited...

It's still going for quite a bit on Ebay, with a few going for $40, though there's a couple that are only in the teens.

This bottle was only $2.50 thereabouts. Compared to the usual $9 a bottle w/ OPI? WIN!!!

Also, shoutout to my boyfriend because he is awesome and was the one who bought it.

Only 11 days left to vote on the poll, please vote!!!

Comments section: What are you gonna do with your bottle?

Thowback: Swirls

Surpassed 10k views!!!! ...And no followers, with like 6 comments. C'mon guys, why no interaction? :(

I did these nails back in like, May of 2013 and SOMEHOW didn't get a pic of them. So I redid them! And I love them just as much :)

Step one: Dab your chosen colors of nail polish on a makeup sponge and dab your nails with the sponge.

Add a sparkly layer

Stamp your favorite swirly stamps/freehand it (if you're good enough!)

Topcoat, and tada!!

My son's doctor loved them, as did the girlies at work :) The stamping was not my best, but I was still pleased with them.

What would you do differently?

Please participate in the poll, leave a comment, and subscribe :)

Zoya Color2014

Zoya's having a deal! Pay S&H, and you get three bottles free if you use the code Color2014. Three bottles of Zoya for $12?! HECK YES!!!!

Link!

Reviews of Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream and Carmex Skin Care Healing Cream

I ran out of my Lemony Flutter (it expired MONTHS ago to boot), and it has suddenly gone outside of my budget. At ~$22 for a pot and shipping, I simply cannot afford it. So I decided to try something new, something I can get at a store, and something cheaper.

So I bought some Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream at Walgreens a week ago, and decided to keep my nails clean and use it daily to get the most accurate review possible.

First, I gotta say this: To me, my nails feel weakest when they're clean and free of polish. I'm always terrified of them breaking and chipping and peeling. That being said, they chipped and peeled the first couple of days, which I was expecting. What I really was not expecting was for it to stop. My nails feel noticeably stronger after using this for several days on my bare nails. My cuticles are softer and I've noticed a decrease in hangnails and peeling skin. (Apparently Lemony Flutter does nothing after it expires?) After one week, I've noticed a severe improvement in my nails.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 4

Today

As you can see, there's significant improvement with the whites of my nails, with reduced redness in my cuticles.

This stuff has saved my hands. I live in the Midwest, so we've been in the -20's for the past couple days. It's been dry as all get-out and on top of that it feels like my hand is freezing solid when I go outside.

The smell is very strongly lemon, and it lasts quite a while. The smell is stronger than Lemony Flutter, and it smells more like lemon, which I thought impossible. I like it though! The texture is slightly grainy, which I found odd, but it disappears when applied to the skin.

I've applied this at least twice daily. At least once during the day and immediately before bed.

I've also been using Carmex Skin Care Healing Cream on my hands, my mom recommended it. It's perfect for dry hands in dry weather. I love the way it smells and the way it feels. It smells kinda like classic Carmex.

Neither product is very oily, and both soak in very quickly. I'm very pleased with both products.

I DO NOT recommend using both at once, however. The Carmex makes the lemon smell rancid, which is a definite downside, but you can use other lotions, I'm sure.

What are your favorite products?

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Swatches

I got some swatch rounds (I think that's what they're called?) with my birthday Amazon gift card, so I'm doing swatches of the polishes I own.
The one I've got done so far is my Miscellaneous glitters, ones that don't have any particular color placement.

This is the round blank:

And this is what it looks like when it's done. As you can see I need to get a much thinner marker. Here's my silvers, golds, and misc glitters:

Right now I'm working on a week-long project for you guys, as a part of a review of a popular product I've found online, so unless someone lets me do their nails I won't be posting anything until then.