Beauty things I love

I am such a sucker for products.  I love to try new things, and when I find something I love, I want to tell the world about it!  Seriously, you should ask my coworkers; occasionally I'll find a new food I'm in love with or some miracle product, and work will be put on pause while I host my own little infomercial complete with goofy hand gestures, but with the added benefit of real-time free samples.  (Full disclosure:  these informercials are usually received with a tepid "Uh-huh" and synchronized swiveling of chairs back towards computer monitors.)

That being said, today I'm going to break from the polish talk to share with you a round of my current (and in some cases, long-time) favorite beauty things.  Hope you enjoy!


1.  Freeman's masks - They're readily available (usually at Wal-Mart, and who doesn't have a Wal-Mart?), and come in LOTS of different scents, formulas and benefits.  I try not to use them too much, maybe once every other week or so.  I suppose I COULD use them every day, but that would ruin the effect.  The effect, to me, is enjoying that certain something about sitting around (for the ten or so minutes it takes for the mask to dry) waiting for yourself to get more beautiful that just feels so self-indulgent.  I feel like half the benefit of any beauty product is how much lovelier it makes you FEEL.  It's all about self-confidence and setting aside the time to pamper yourself!

2.  Beauty vlogs - Two of my absolute faves are Michelle Phan and Petrilude.  Michelle has fantastic tips, DIY beauty treatments and "looks" for any occasion; and Petrilude does AMAZING costume makeup and drag-queen looks, which can really teach you a lot about concealing, contouring and shading to carry over into every day looks.

3.  Twist-up application eyeliner - I've come to discover that most women have that "one thing" that they cannot do without in their makeup routine, and eyeliner is mine.  I have naturally sleepy-looking eyes (heavy-lidded and downturned) and thin, short eyelashes.  These qualities lead to my eyes seeming to disappear into my face.  Eyeliner really helps them POP and wake me up!  I typically only do a single line across my top lid, but will also line the outer half of the bottom lid when I'm going out.  My favorite eyeliner at the moment (and for awhile now) is Avon's Glimmerstick Diamonds.  I am NOT a cosmetics snob.  I will spend where I feel it's worthwhile, but if a drugstore (or Avon) product makes me happy, so be it!

4.  Burt's Bees Foot Creme,  LUSH Lemony Flutter,  and Aquaphor Healing Ointment -  I lump all three of these products in together, because I will use their various benefits as needed on those bits and pieces that need major moisture.  Burt's Bees Foot Creme is a great product for those times when you want to DRENCH your feet in moisturizer, throw on some socks and hit the hay while the product works its magic.  The creme itself is quite greasy, and doesn't soak in easily, so you sort of want to cover it up and let it do its work.  Lemony Flutter has a reputation of its own already as THE go-to cuticle butter.  That reputation is not unwarranted!  It's amazing stuff, and also does wonders when I really want to go after that knobbly bit of the ankle that is forever going chalk-dry on me.  Finally, I learned about the joy of Aquaphor after my last tattoo, when it was recommended as an aftercare product.  It is also fabulous on those bits of your body that just won't soak up enough moisture...the heals, the elbow, the ankles...you name it!  PLUS, it's cheap and readily available and most any drugstore.

 5.  Bath & Body Works True Blue Spa Super Softening Hand Lotion - Yes, I've got two points dedicated to moisturizing.  The one above was for baaaaaad cases, extreme dryness.  This one is the best daily/nightly use hand lotion.  It used to be "Look Ma, New Hands;" you may be familiar with that if you're a fan of B&BW products.  This lotion is the good stuff.  It soaks in easily, but still feels like it's doing it's job without feeling greasy..  Plus (and this is hard to describe) it has kind of a citrusy, tingly feel that makes you feel as though it's DOING SOMETHING.  It's not cheap, but B&BW runs sales throughout the year, so if you're patient and keep an eye out, you can wait until they've been discounted and stock up.  (PS, there were going to be two items here; the other was to be Nivea Renewal Hand Cream.  I got this in my stocking this year, but my mom told me it was the only one in the store.  This makes sense, now that I've gone to look for the link for you;  it seems it has been discontinued.  IF you can find it, though, pick it up.  It feels GREAT.)

Don't go searching for a mermaid if you don't know how to swim.

Today's lovely was a pain in the tail (haha, tail...get it?) to photograph.  It's Sinful Colors Green Ocean over American Apparel Passport Blue.

This photo doesn't begin to capture its charm.  Nevertheless, here's another attempt...do yourself a favor and click to magnify:

Shimmery!  Green Ocean is a very sheer pale green jelly with blue-green flakies and blue-green iridescent glitter suspended in it.  I tried it over a few dark colors - black, green and this navy American Apparel Passport Blue.  It really popped on that blue!  When you move your hand in the light, it flashes from blue to teal to green and back again.  It's downright mesmerizing!

Good thing it IS a lovely, because the formula leaves a lot to be desired.  I opened up a bottle in Walgreens to peek at the texture, and it was gloopy and stringy.  I tried another bottle and it was just gloopy, so I bought it.  After several drops of Zoya Renew, it was at least usable, but it was difficult to place the flakies.  Some fingers barely had any.  The ones that DID have a lot were bumpier than an Arkansas freeway, so I covered everything with one coat of Zoya Armor and another of Seche Vite.  This smoothed them out quite a bit.

Now, a word on American Apparel polishes:  I don't love them.  A lot of nail bloggers do, and I'll admit, the formula is great.  Every one I've tried is a one-coater.  But...the bottle SUCKS!   Check this out:

Sure, its simplicity is aesthetically appealing and the shape makes it easy to store, but the brush has to be so long to reach the bottom of the bottle, that TONS of polish slides down the stem and ends up pooling all over your nail!  It's a total mess to use and to clean up.  I'm learning the trick though:  Clean the brush completely against the neck of the bottle, and suspend it over your nail until enough polish slides down the stem to go ahead and apply.  It just irritates me that I should have to learn by error to use this otherwise excellent product.

Manicure Fruity Butt Bears

 I am a sucker for a gimmick.  Always have been, always will be.  I am a product marketing expert's wet dream.  As a kid, I sought only the finest in bizarre snack foods.  Dunkaroos, Fruit Roll-Ups with punch out shapes...I don't remember what all.  I think kids today have a greater selection of these foods (Bagel-Fulls, anyone?), and I have not ceased to invest in them.  Growing up, my brother always made fun of my proclivity for eating weird foods, calling such items "Fruity Butt Bears."


I'm no different when it comes to health and beauty items.  Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips?  Had to have them!!!  These are...well, for lack of a better word, they're like stickers.  But the stickers are made of polish.  Already dry, perfectly painted polish.  Stick em on, smoosh em down, and you're good to go!  The strips come in a variety of designs and colors.  I'm not a big fan of the color options, simply because if I want a solid color on my nails, I'll paint them (thankyousoverymuch).


I chose the Lace pattern:

 Pretty, no?  So unique!  I was shocked by how easy these were to apply.  The $9 kit comes with everything you need to put them on properly:  sixteen strips in a variety of sizes (duh), a teeny tiny orange stick for pushing back your cuticles and tearing away excess polish (easy to do) and a teeny tiny file/buffer for shaping your nails and buffing away excess polish that hangs over the tip (again, easy to do).  I struggled with wrinkling in only a couple of places, but those places are very difficult to notice.


If I had to complain about anything, it might be the color saturation.  The black is just not black enough in some places.  I tried capture it here, but you may need to click to enlarge to see it:

I'm sure I'm the only one who notices it, but it's the sort of thing that drives me crazy.

Please note that the top picture is with a coat of Seche Vite topcoat, and the second is without.  I think the topcoat helps it look a bit more "finished," and even saturates the color just a bit.

At $9 a pop for a one-use system, these are bit on the pricey side; but these promise 10-day wear and from what I'm reading in reviews, that may not be an overstatement.  Not sure I'll have the patience to leave them on that long, but I'll keep you posted.  If they're all they're cracked up to be, I think they'd be great to apply before a vacation when touch ups and redos won't be possible.

*EDIT*:  I wore this for about three days before it began to chip on my weaker nails.  Given the pattern and color of the design, I don't think anyone would have noticed, but I took it off anyway.  I would venture to guess that someone with stronger nails really could pull these off for much longer...the coverage still FELT strong, if that makes any sense at all!

Curses, snow!

I have fallen off the wagon.  I blame it all on the snow.  Something about a nerve-wracking commute that takes four times as long as it should that'll knock a person right off the track to kicking a nervous habit.  I didn't do too much damage, so I didn't take any pics, but I'm still not proud.  Stupid snow.

Now, remember that trip to Ulta?  Well, this store may have taken Target's place in my book as the land of happiness and dreams.  I could (and did) do serious damage in the place!  Here's what I got:

Essie Sew Psyched and Revlon Suede Matte Ruby Ribbon.  I've had long wear-time with the only other Essie I have, and the Revlon color will be a foray into a finish I've yet to play around with.  I'll be sure and swatch that one, for sure.

 Here are the three OPI colors I picked up (L to R):  Coronation, Ski Teal We Drop and You Don't Know Jacques (it looks pink, but it's really a light milk chocolate color).  I gotta say at this stage in the game that I'm gonna have to go with OPI as my favorite brand, for the range of colors alone.  The formula is great, and the wear-time seems to be decent as well.

Here's Ski Teal We Drop.  It's a creamy teal that leans towards blue.  It came out a bit darker than I expected, which is not really a complaint.  I did have some application problems, to be honest.  The left hand (I'm right-handed) went on just fine, but by the time I got over to my right hand, it was going gloopy.  Because of that, it was a messy manicure, and cleanup was a BEAR.  

Excuse the bizarre choice of background in the last picture above, by the way.  I'm still experimenting with manicure photography, and when your studio is a garage, you get creative!

What do you do when you can't pick at your cuticle?

Pick at your nail polish!  Although I actually did a pretty good job at holding off on that today, too.  I can't say that I have been 100% pick-free since my last post, but I've avoided doing anything that might be categorized as self-mutilation, so yay me!  My hands are in pretty good shape right now.  I started off this mission with my fingers in what I would consider "manicurable" shape.  That is to say, I wouldn't be too embarrassed or scared of infection to go to a nail salon right now.  There have been many times I might have wanted to get a manicure just for the fun of it or for some sort of occassion, but I really didn't feel like I had any business doing so.  There have been times when I shouldn't have gone, but did anyway and just put up with the "tsk tsk tsk" (or its Vietnamese equivalent) of the lady with the cuticle clippers.

Right now I don't have to go get a manicure, though, because I just got six new polishes from Zoya!  I'll be showing off some of those in the future, but today I wanted to show the results of an experiment in topcoats that I just performed yesterday.

Why am I showing off a crappy manicure?  To demonstrate a crappy topcoat.  (You might also ask why I'm showing off a crappy picture.  That's just cause I'm too lazy to have gone out in sunlight to take pictures.)  In truth, the topcoat may not be so crappy, but I'm going to be testing that more with other polishes. 

See, I'd read where most of the nail bloggers tend to use a product called Seche Vite.  Every blog I read, "This is two coats of blahblah and one coat of Seche Vite."  Everywhere.  Unfortunately, I also read where the chemicals in Seche Vite do not play well with the chemicals (or lack thereof) in Zoya polishes.  Did you ever wonder about those people who have to touch where it says "Wet Paint" just to see if it's really true?  Yeah, I bought the $8 bottle of Seche Vite topcoat just to see if it really screwed with Zoya polish.  It chipped that much in just less than a day.

See how it's not only chipped, but trying to peel away from the nail bed?  Indeed, after I took this pic, I was able to peel the polish away from my index finger in one piece.  Not good.

Zoya did not do this when I painted it over the weekend and sealed it with Sally Hansen Insta Dri clear.  But what I will say for Seche Vite is that it dried likethat.  I've never seen any polish harden so quickly.  I'm eager to see if it will be useful on non-Zoya polishes.

Color:  Zoya Crystal