Nails! Dots! (& Nuts'n'Bolts)

I bought a dotting tool and went a little nuts. 
China Glaze Poetic
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City
Zoya Kimber
Zoya Myrta

Other news:
I've updated my blog sale post (top right hand sidebar has the link). Please buy my stuff! If you do, I'll buy and swatch some Inglot for you.

Sunday Sunblock is going irregular - I still have about six products left in my bathroom that I'd like to talk about, but I need more time to use them and form opinions on them. Unformed opinion = bad review. Nobody wants that!

I'm in some serious need of a new nail polish storage solution. Ideas? The cupcake carrier isn't cutting it anymore.

January Used It!

In January, I finished off eight products; two minis and six full-size items.

Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum*
Buy again? Maybe. I have no idea if it helps with breakage or not, but I did like the way a little made my hair feel. This is definitely a less is more type product - too much will make your hair look stringy.

Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish Strips - Teal with it*
Buy again? Probably not. They're on the expensive side and take too long to apply.

Lumene Sensitive Touch wipes mini pack
Buy again? No. I just bought them because I wanted something and I was on a trip. They're fine, but I don't want to buy anything that's just fine.

Nuance wipes*
Buy again? Probably not - they were this strange rectangular shape - more oblong than I usually like in a wipe, and they had more texture than I prefer.

ELF Studio Complexion Perfection*
Buy again? Probably not. This has its uses - it will lighten the appearance of a too-dark foundation, but it's hard to travel with and you don't get as much as you'd expect - the layer of powder is pretty shallow. It did work fine, but it wasn't awesome.

Silk Naturals Ginny liquid lip gloss*
Nice color, nice formula, but I really don't like wand-style, especially when there are so many natural ingredients. I worry it will go bad, which is why I made the effort to use this one up.

Garden of Wisdom Sulfur Clearing Mask*
I think things with sulfur might help clear teeny pre-zits, but I haven't found that it takes care of the monsters I really want gone.

Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Conditioner 3oz size
This is probably one of the two conditioners I've repeatedly bought over the past couple years. It's cheap, works fairly well, and is widely available. I don't love it, but it's convenient and functional enough that it's what I buy when my favorite's hard to come by. (My favorite is Kiss My Face Whenever conditioner - green tea and lime - smells like dessert but not so sweet it's sickly.)

Sally Hansen real nail polish strips review

I bought a box of the Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish Strips in Teal With It a few weeks back, thinking it would be good for a trip I was going on. This brand is mostly known for its funky patterns, which do look awesome. Usually, they retail at about ten bucks each. I got mine, a solid color, on sale for about two fifty.

The box comes with a leaflet of instructions, a nail file, a cuticle stick, and two packets of eight nail polish strips each. My nails are tiny, so I was able to make eight strips cover all my nails - thus stretching the purchase to two manicures.

On the first try, I must have done something wrong, because the polish was peeling by the end of the day. Also, these aren't like stickers that you can just slap on and go - it actually took about the same amount of time as a regular mani, but without the downtime where I get to browse the Internet or a magazine as the layers dry.

I was pretty dismayed after that - peeling 16 hours later =/= 10-day wear. Maybe it happened because I didn't rub down the edges of the nail with the stick well enough? But that was tricky, because if I rubbed too hard, the strip ripped.

So, I tried again. This time, I brought out an additional tool: scissors. Each of the strips is a different size (I think they're pairs if you take all 16 strips together), but I found that I could get closer matches to my nail shape with some trimming.

I also dispensed with the instruction to file away the tips with the included file - choosing to use a finger to stretch it over the edge instead.

On the second try, they seemed to stick better. I got about a week of wear even though the very edges still wanted to curl up a bit. And about five people commented on them.

I'm undecided on these. I had better luck the second time, and I might try a fancy pattern if I could get it on sale, but I wasn't overly impressed.

Also - if you have any sort of ridges or a part of your nail that's peeled - the strips will conform to the bumpiness.

Have you tried them? What do you think?

Nails of the moment - snowflakes

Essie First Base
Sally Hansen Xtreme silver color
white nail tip pen for the snowflakes, don't remember brand name
Essie Good To Go

Nails of the Moment - 2nd grade seal of approval!

I think this looks like birthday cake. Funfetti, even.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lavender Cloud
OPI by Sephora Spark-Tacular topcoat
Essie Good to Go topcoat.

It's been 48 hours and so far still holding up well. Also, the girls at school were FASCINATED by it yesterday. If only my subject was so fascinating...

Happy Halloween! Nails of the moment

Happy Halloween! I did a couple nail looks this past week that are a bit Halloween-y. Aside from that, I'm not doing much for the day because my door's not easily accessible to trick-or-treaters, and my boss thinks marking the day during school hours is not conducive to learning. Both looks involve black crackle.


Milani Smoothee
Sinful Colors Charcoal
Sally Hansen Shattered Ink
Milani Glossee


Orly Bonder
OPI Tangerine Dream
Sally Hansen Shattered Ink
Orly Glosser

September 11 used it!

September '11 Used It!
In September, I used up six full-size products and five sample sizes.

- SN Devoted cream blush*
Not bad - though the formula's recently been reworked to exclude the cyclopentasiloxane Karen used to use. I found it easiest to use with a duo-fiber brush: then it was fine over powder foundation.

- Garnier Nutrisse Moisture Rescue Gel Cream*
I used up some of this in my frankenlotion, and used the rest of it on my face as a moisturizer. It's ok, but I don't think I'd buy it again. I've tried other water-based serums that I liked much better.

- Sally Hansen (Carmindy line) luminizing face primer*
Don't waste your time. Even if you really want to look like a vampire from Twilight, there are cheaper ways to do that. It didn't even really help my makeup stay on. Instead of "Luminizing," it should say "contains chunks of glitter."

- Silk Naturals Oatmeal Serum*
I liked this better than the Green Tea and Aloe, but if I use their Awesome Sauce, there's not really a need to keep it around.

- Nuance Salma Hayek Volumizing Conditioner*
Worked fine, smelled a little "ripe" for my tastes.

- Garnier Fructis Intense Cleanse anti-dandruff shampoo*
Just slightly too harsh for me. I did enjoy the little scrubby beads in it, though.

- Aromaleigh seafoam pure matte eyeshadow sample
Nice pale blue.

- TanTowel (one)
First time I'd ever tried a self-tanner. My legs glowed for a couple days, but I was glad when it wore off because I didn't apply it super evenly, and it was nice to be the same color all over again. I think I'm fine with being super white and don't want to spend the time to look darker.

- Urban Decay makeup remover sample decant (new kind)
Does not smell as good as the old kind.

- Sample baggie Meow Pink Inc. Blush - Cashmere
I want a full size of this pretty badly - it's beautiful. Subtle, but leaves me glowy. Hard to overdo.

- Boots Naturals makeup remover sample decant
Fine. Nothing special.

Nails of the Moment - Warm Gray

Orly Bonder
Gray franken
Sally Hansen silver crackle on ring fingers
Orly Glosser

Nails of the Moment - Black and Gray

So, my teacher training program was brutal, and I wasn't doing well at all. It was time for me to consider other options. So far, I'm a lot less stressed out overall, and I think having something between insanely stressful 11-hour days (and that's just outside the home) and minimally stressful 3 hour days would be ideal.

Since I'm no longer supposed to be available for a job interview at any minute, I did my nails up a little darker. It kind of matches my somewhat melancholy (but so much more stable) mood.

Sally Hansen Diamond Shine
Wet N Wild Gray's Anatomy
Sally Hansen black shatter
Milani Gems on ring fingers
Sally Hansen Diamond Shine (again)

Nails of the Moment - sparkle sparkle!

Orly Bonder
Clinique Fuchsia Fusion - 1 layer
Wet N Wild Waves of Enchantment - 1 layer
Milani Dazzling Diamonds - 1 layer
Sally Hansen Diamond Shine

Sad to say, this chipped pretty quickly. But while it lasted, it was super sparkly funtimes!

Nails of the Moment - more neutral fun!

Orly Bonder
Essie Sand Tropez
Sally Hansen Fractured Foil crackle
Sally Hansen Diamond Shine topcoat

Sand Tropez is going to be a big one in my rotation, I think. It'll be a way to wear sheer and clear with sparkles type colors without displaying the white parts of my nails - it seems to be a really nice nude base. I'm not sure I'd ever use it on my own, but I can't wait to put it under some holo glitter!

My nails are tiny - so I don't have much room to work with (or patience for) fancy nail art, but layering different stuff is a good way to get something more interesting without extra effort.

Nails of the Moment, and Face of the Day!

Brought to you by my webcam from my favorite café, where I am trying but failing to work on a lesson plan.


Nails - 3-4 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Lavender Cloud. Sticking to professional colors in the meantime, and this was only two bucks at the CVS clearance sale. I purposely did not use a base or top coat because I wanted to see how long it lasted on its own.


Face: Frankenprimer, Frankenfoundation mixed with Aromaleigh Divine Radiance in Magnolia Blossom, Tarte Park Avenue Princess bronzer

Eyes: Lumene eye base, some sticky concealer, Aromaleigh heels on fire on lid, same color mixed with Brazen Cosmetics Jinx in crease and to line. Cover Girl Lash Blast (red tube) in some mostly black but with "silver shimmer" color.

Lips: Fyrinnae Lip Lustre - Puppy Love