I hope you guys love Sarahita as much as I do. Since she has so many nail pictures, I get out of doing a design (muahaha!), and you all get a post much sooner. Plus, it gives me time to get pictures of nail polish swatches and company reviews done. Win-win!
These are nails that Sarahita did for a friend. I have to say that I absolutely love the color and the picture. Insane. Anyways! The base is China Glaze Unpredictable, from their Bohemian Luster Chrome collection (I just have to say that since the summer, I haven't had time to follow nail polish blogs and never really saw the swatches for this collection. But my goodness. DUOCHROME. I have to go get the collection now). She added top coat and some green glitter on the thumbnails (you can never have too much glitter... thankfully Sarahita and I are of one mind about glitter), then another coat of top coat to seal it in. Gorgeous!
These are Sarahita's nails (aren't they so cute?), done for fall. Done using a light gold base, China Glaze Midnight Kiss. To make them glittery, she mixed two different shades of orange glitter, and applied it the same way as on the green nails: top coat, spread glitter on, and then sealed it in with another top coat.
This is what she used to brush on the glitter (instead of just sprinkling it on like crazy): A broken manicure brush. Obviously, you can use the brush from a nail polish bottle, but this way you don't have to clean out the glitter from your top coat. Also, just look at all that Shellac in the background. Sarahita's mom owns Patrone's Day Spa in Brooklyn, Michigan (aka, where the Michigan International Speedway is), which is why Sarahita has access to all these fabulous nail polishes. Patrone's Day Spa is in (what I think is) downtown Brooklyn, and it's such a pretty place! Plus, the styles are really updated and they offer a lot of services, so if you happen to be in Michigan, I would definitely check them out!
Pretty nails! It almost makes me want to pull my collection out from under my bed where it's been collecting dust all semester. Almost...
Stay tuned! When I get back to my dorm (where I left most of my supplies), I'll do a comparison post on Sensationail vs. Sally Hansen gel polish, as well as a review of a few different companies that have been waiting for me. And hopefully, in the meantime, Sarahita will have a few designs to send, too!
Today, I actually have some nail art to post for you guys! Granted, it's not mine. But still!
My lovely friend Sarahita is going to send me pictures of her manicures and graciously allowing me to post them on musingsofthenail. Whee! This is nice for two reasons: 1) I haven't had the time to do nail designs (plus the smell just fills up my entire dorm room and it's too cold to open the window) and 2) Sarah has a very nice nail polish collection. Love! She is the one who gave me one of my favorite OPI glitter polishes ever, OPI Shimmer & Simmer from the Burlesque collection.
I might even let her do a guest post! (Although I haven't told her that yet). Anyways, you'll probably be seeing Sarahita's nails a lot from now on (side note: I love her nails. They're so cute and well shaped.) Maybe I can even get her to swatch some OPI or China Glaze polishes if you guys are interested!
The polishes used are: China Glaze Recycle as the base, and China Glaze Liquid Crystal for the glitter! I love this design. Even if it's not true to color (Recycle is hard to capture, but the design is what's important!), very neatly done! Plus it looks glittery and fun.
Merry Christmas, guys! And thanks to Sarahita! <3 p="p">
My first post back and I am posting a review of a fabulous website. B-glowing describes itself as being a "leading online specialty beauty retailer featuring an extraordinary collection of hard-to-find niche beauty products alongside some of the worlds most coveted beauty brands." They feature a "multifaceted search - you can search by formulation, skin type/concern, fragrance notes and more, improved browsing and navigation, a new men’s category (great for gifting), seasonal fragrance flights with a clean elegant look and feel. Look for other great improvements throughout the holiday season including 200% larger product images and 3 Beauty Archetypes – b-natural, b-classic or b-creative."
Let me just say that I had such a fabulous experience with this company! They told me to pick a few items off of the site to review and so I browsed around the site and picked out a few things that looked nice and would look great as gifts (in fact... I might give some away as gifts. If I don't keep them all for myself...).
First, let me write about the packaging. Since this isn't quite so important, I just collaged it so that it would take up less space. As you can see, it was shipped in a box via FedEx two-day shipping. The website says that standard shipping (5-7 days) is $5.95, 2 Day shipping is $16.95, and overnight is $25.95. But free standard shipping on orders over $75, and free 2 day shipping on orders over $100. (Also, I am horrible at this editing thing, so I don't edit my images. For one thing, watermarking is enough of a pain that I am too traumatized to do anything else. So! Please don't mind if my pictures are slanted/a little dark/weird.)
I just have to note: the order didn't get lost in the mail! Now that I'm living in a dorm, I have to write my address a certain way or it might get sent back (which has happened with my elf order and coterie order). This got here fine, thankfully! Anyways.
When I first opened the box, there was this pretty tissue paper. Seriously. You could ship this straight to a friend's house (I'm not sure about the receipt though... You would want to check that) and save yourself having to bring it in person or mail it second hand. It's already packaged so nicely! The tissue paper is such a nice touch and even had a little sticker with their logo on it. It's little details like that. With the holidays coming up so soon and all the chaos going into preparing it, I think b-glowing would be great to send quick gifts to friends! You might not even have to wrap it! *swoon*
One cute little thing that they sent that I didn't expect was a pack of samples! This kind of bag is my very favorite in the world because I love putting random trinkets in it. It came with a small sample of Baume De Rose multi-protector balm that "repair[s], hydrate[s] and guarantees a maximum volume effect. Lips are soft, smooth, pulpy and nail contours perfectly defined." The sample is .007 oz, and it sells for $59 for .34 oz on the website. Also, a By Terry Touch Expert Advanced Multi-Corrective Concealer Brush. (I can't find it on the website, but the picture shows a concealer pen. Inside the sample is just the concealer liquid, though.) Last, a .3 fl oz packet of Neil George Indian gooseberry treatment oil. A container of 3.7 oz sells on b-glowing for $42. I actually already used this sample because I've had to dry my hair a lot lately which equals split ends (the bane of my existence). I loved it! The site says that it is meant to "calm frizz and ease styling, leaving hair beautifully smooth and wonderfully healthy." It did! My hair was so shiny and silky and styled really easily. I might buy a full-size of this.
I asked for the beautyblender holiday candy cane trio of sponges. The water here at college has been really hard on my skin and I've had to start learning how to use foundation and cover-up, which I've never used before. So I don't really have the right tools (although I did a huge order of eyeslipsface), and these looked so pretty. Also, I've been debating with buying the Soho beauty sponge (the bright pink one... I can't find it on their website), not based on anything but how pretty it was! Anyways.
So, the website says that it comes with two original beautyblender sponges and one beautyblender pure sponge. This is true. And let me just mention how pretty the packaging for this product is. You can easily wrap it or throw it in a gift bag and give it away as a gift. It even comes with a cute little gift tag!
Now, the sponges aren't quite true to color. The pink is a little more vibrant than my pictures and the stock pictures. It's way closer to the Soho beauty sponge, which is why I'm glad that I got it. They're pretty small, too, but perfect size for using. And they're soft! I really like it. I also like how they packaged it (into three separate containers), because I can totally see myself giving one or two away and keeping one for myself. I haven't used it yet (I got this right before finals week) but it has rave reviews on sephora.com. I think the price is fabulous, since you get three of the sponges for $50, when sephora sells one for $20.
I also asked for the Sara Happ luxe lip scrub & slip gift set. The one they sent me is a little bit different than the Red Velvet that I linked to, and instead it is the Black Velvet lip scrub but with the same lip slip balm. This is packaged so beautifully! In a sturdy cardboard box, that looks very neat and classy.
It comes with 1 oz of the Black Velvet Cherry scrub (on the left) and .5 oz of the lip slip, the hydrating balm (on right).
Now that it's winter and getting colder (and I always forget my chapstick), my lips are starting to get chapped so I tried this out. It works fabulously! Rub the scrub gently in a circular motion, then wipe off with a tissue. And then apply the balm right after. It made my lips so smooth (no before or after picture... I don't want you guys to see a) the poor state of my lips and also b) my mustache). Also there's a ton of product in both jars, so it will definitely last all winter.
The next thing that they sent me that I honestly did not expect was Butter London nail polishes. They sent me La Moss, which is this beautiful, vampy red nail polish that is better suited for fall than winter (not that I ever follow nail polish trends...). I haven't gotten around to testing it (Finals ;-;), but you can expect a swatch coming soon!
They also sent me Butter London British Racing Green, a super pretty dark, cool toned green with an emerald sparkle. I reallyyy can't wait to try these out!
Finally, they sent me the Paul & Joe Eye Color and Lip Balm set. I can't find it on the site right now, but I will update when I find it.
As with all of their products, the packaging is pretty and really holiday-y (maybe it's limited edition...) and ready-to-give. It contains a 0.56 oz tin of lip balm (with a cute deer on the top!), a .21 oz tin of a smoky eye color, and a .17 oz tin of glistening eye color. Perfect for a holiday party. The lip balm is a gorgeous pink-red (I know, descriptive) color. It doesn't really have any odor, nor is it waxy. It gives your lips a nice tint and, best of all, doesn't really wear off (I tested by drinking coffee not five minutes after putting it on). The smoky eye color is a very, very dark brown that is long lasting and applies smoothly. I'll try to post a shot of my eye makeup using that. The glistening eye color is two sided: a light bronze on one side, and a pearly pink on the other, both with glitter in it. It is stunningly pretty, I kid you not. (I will edit with a picture soon. My camera battery managed to die just before I had unscrewed all the tins, and I can't find my charger. I might have to just take a picture with my poor quality iPod until then).
A note about the containers and the packaging: all three were set into this plastic container... thing then inserted into the box. The plastic container was perfect because it had grooves between the containers, so you didn't have to shake the container to try and get the tins out and then pray that nothing got damaged. So points for packaging!
My thoughts:
Service: 10/10. I asked them to treat me as a regular customer and they promised to. (Other than the 2-day shipping, which I needed since I wanted to post this as soon as I could before holiday shopping).
Shipping: 10/10. I asked her how long it would take to reach me (so I could plan out my posts. I actually have a lot more posts due up), and she told me that they would be sending it two-day. It was sent really nicely packed, no damage to anything and (like I've said multiple times through the post) you could easily give the box as a gift.
Products: 10/10. They really, really spoiled me. I gave them a few options and thought they would just pick the cheapest one or two of the batch and send it to me, but they sent me everything I liked (that's actually a lie. I was short on time so I just picked a few things that I like and now as I go through their website again, I'm cursing myself for not getting certain other things). They clearly only stock high quality products. And I love that they re-opened in time for holiday shopping! I know my friends are going to love, love, love me when/if I choose to give them something from b-glowing.
There really were no cons. The website is easy to use; you can choose from "skincare," "makeup," "bath+body" "hair" "fragrance" "men's" and "sale," as well as inputting by brand or keyword.
I really recommend them! I'm keeping them bookmarked because I have a ton of birthdays coming up (poor me... so many right after the holidays!), and I will definitely be ordering from them.
(These items were sent to me by review from b-glowing.com, but they are all my own opinion.)
I have a whole long post to publish, with a ton of pictures of what I've been up to, nail-wise, since my last update. However, since tomorrow is July 4th, I wanted to post my manicure for the week!!
The red is Zoya Stella, the white is an Art Deco striper in white, and the blue is Revlon ColorStay Indigo Night, and I finally used my fimo canes (post on that coming soon)! As you might be able to see (hopefully not though), it's not cut very straight or even. Any tips on how to cut the canes easily?
As I said, just a quick post. Sorry for the blurry image--I took the picture on my iPod. Bad idea. Even though it takes like, two seconds longer, I'll have to start using my camera instead.
Here's the first part of the new Zoya summer collection, the Zoya Beach Collection. The press release describes it as being "designed and inspired by resort runways and tropical getaways."
indoor shot of Reagan
middle and pointer finger painted with OPI Dim Sum Plum
Reagan. Described as a "deep cerise pink creme." But on the nail, this is a dark fuchsia colored creme. When I first applied it, I thought it looked familiar, so I compared it with my bottle of OPI's Dim Sum Plum from the Hong Kong collection, and they're an exact match! Can you tell the difference between the colors if you hadn't read the caption?
Lara. Zoya describes this as a "vivid cerise pink cream." It is a lighter fuchsia than Reagan, pretty much matches the bottle color exactly.
Shelby. Another pink! This is described as a "soft pinky pink cream." Very true. This is a very light pink, and it appears almost jelly-like on the nails.
Arizona. Described as a "soft coral orange cream." It is a little bit darker than my picture, but not "pumpkin" colored. A nice color, and it actually looked nice with my skintone because it has a yellow tone to it.
Tracie. A "sea grass metallic." It has a touch of frost shimmer to it, which gives it a pearl-like finish. A nice, soft, light green that I don't have any other of.
outside photo
inside photo
Wednesday. "Soft aqua cream." This one really changes colors for me when you go from inside to the outdoor light. Inside, it's a darker turquoise, but when you go outside, it is a nice light blue. Doesn't really look like the ocean, if that was the intent, but it is a nice, relaxed blue colors. I wore this one last and kept it on for longest, and it has received a lot of compliments.
Each polish has three coats, but Arizona was the only one that really needed it. Something about the polish made it runny and streaky, but if you take time between coats then it should be fine.
Overall, the collection is nice, but three pinks? And none of the colors really scream summer to me, usually I think of neon or very bright colors, but this collection of muted colors is very off-putting. Not that they're not nice colors, but they're not unique or summer-y.
I know it's been awhile since I last posted (read: a couple of months), but I haven't done any nail art for a few weeks. And I had a nail haul post planned a few weeks ago, using the Blogger for iPod app, but the app ate my post and all the pictures that I had taken for it, so I'll have to re-do that. I am also planning to do another Sensationail post, about different uses and possibilities for it, so I will definitely keep working on that. Meanwhile, the Zoya Surf collection should be up by the end of the week.
(PS, sorry about the watermark on the pictures! Flickr has a new editing program called Aviary to replace Picnik, and it is not nearly as nice or easy to use, so I'm still trying to get my watermarks straight and neat.)
Summer collections are finally here! Well, Zoya's is, at least, and I'm sure lots more will follow. But just look at this collection! Such bright, pretty colors.
Here is what the press release says:
Summer 2012 is going to be a super stylish season for nails with the latest offering of nail polish collections, Beach and Surf, from the new color of fashion, Zoya! This new splash of color, designed by the Zoya color experts, is kissed by sea and sand translating beautifully onto the nail in the famous, full-coverage Zoya formula.
Dive into the creamy shades of the Zoya Beach Collection or the shimmering sea foils of the Zoya Surf Collection.
The Beach collection consists of six polishes:
Reagan (ZP614) - deep cerise pink cream
Lara (ZP615) - vivid cerise pink cream
Shelby (ZP616) - soft pinky pink cream
Arizona (ZP617) - soft coral orange cream
Tracie (ZP618) - sea grass metallic
Wednesday (ZP619) - soft aqua cream
And the Surf collection also has six polishes:
Rory (ZP620) - lotus pink foil metallic
Carly (ZP621) - thalia purple foil metallic
Kimber (ZP622) - magenta pink foil metallic
Myrta (ZP623) - coral orange foil metallic
Meg (ZP624) - mermaid green foil metallic
Zuza (ZP625) - aquamarine foil metallic
The two collections were designed and inspired by resort runways and tropical get-aways. All Zoya polishes are free of toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, and DBP. You can buy the collection at www.zoya.com, starting April 1st.
Release date: April 1st.
Retail value: $8
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My comments: How pretty are these? I like the Surf Collection a lot. Foil metallic? Definitely. One thing that I have to say is that I didn't realize until the True and Fleck Collection that all Zoya polishes were named after women. Now, I totally see that and am smacking myself for not noticing. But seriously, it just makes Zoya that much more friendly to me that they're not trying to make up clever names to match their colors.
Are you anticipating this collection? How does it look to you?
OPI Ink as the base, with the pink flowers made with L.A. Colors Pink striper, silver flowers made with Zoya Trixie, and the green made from a F21 Teal color.
I bought OPI Ink some time around last year, and this was the first time I've used it. It is beautiful! Seriously, I couldn't stop looking at my nails. This was also one of the first times lately that I've painted both hands with the same color (normally I only paint my left hand).
With Essie Matte About You topcoat over top. I took this design off of Soompi, and the original poster did her design in matte, so I decided to try it. It's even prettier that way!
Also, today I came home to find my March 2012 Birchbox!
Last month, Birchbox sent out an e-mail offering a Teen Vogue-partnered Birchbox, that would feature something from Essie. Of course, I jumped right on that and signed up for it. The e-mail said that they would be pretty much first come, first serve, so I wasn't sure if I was too late or not.
The card that came with it.
An Annick Goutal Petite Cherie perfume sample
Tarte LipSurgence natural lip tint
This one just blew my mind. A FULL-SIZE Essie A Cut Above nail polish (retail value $8), from their new Luxeffects collection. Wow. I just love Essie, but I figured it would be a small, mini bottle, like they put the Zoya Megan in for January. I'm still just amazed.
Shiseido Oil Control Blotting Paper (10 pieces)
It also came with an offer for two years of TeenVogue for only $10, and a $10 off $75 purchase on ModCloth.
I'm so excited to use the stuff in this Birchbox. It's all so cool! Seriously. I'm not sponsored by Birchbox, I pay for it every month like everyone else, and I definitely encourage people to buy it if they like trying samples of new products!
