Today's mani: Stars and stripes

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! I hope you get to relax and enjoy some fireworks, BBQ, or whatever floats your boat! We went into Boston for a few hours to walk around and get some burgers.

I did a quick mani to celebrate the occasion. I started with a base of KBShimmer Pimp My Pride, added stars to my middle finger with China Glaze Hanging in the Balance and a vinyl from the For the Love of Polish Box, and painted some flag stripes on my ring finger with Nailtini Bloody Mary and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Simple!

Review: Influenster Surf's Up VoxBox!

The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.

Hey there! I was really excited to get my first box of products to review from Influenster. The Surf's Up VoxBox is full of items that are perfect for a fun summer! Read on...

1. Sinful Colors Sage Rose

Sinful Colors Sage Rose. One coat with Out the Door topcoat.

Yep, I got a nail polish to review! It's like they read my mind! Sage Rose is a metallic fuchsia that was opaque in one coat. Buuuut...holy brushstrokes, Batman. My photo makes the brushstrokes look worse than they are, but this still isn't my favorite finish. The color is pretty though!

2. First Aid Shot Therapy Pain Relief

First Aid Shot Therapy would be great for the morning after a big party! The bottle contains one dose of choline salicylate (an NSAID) with caffeine in liquid form. It's berry-flavored, but it still tasted kind of medicinal to me. I took it when I had a headache. It definitely got rid of the pain, but it didn't seem to be any faster than taking a pill would be.

3. Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration

Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration after-sun lotion soothes and hydrates your skin and is also supposed to help preserve your tan. Although I feel I have to point out that tanning is NOT healthy (it's a sign your skin has been damaged) and you should always wear sunscreen outdoors! Maybe a better use for this lotion would be after you go swimming, since chlorine makes your skin feel icky.

The lotion is very light and non-greasy and definitely made my skin feel soft. It's sticky for a few minutes after you apply it, but that feeling goes away. The coconut-papaya scent isn't very strong, so it probably won't bother those with sensitive noses. This lotion contains some natural ingredients, like shea and mango butter, but they're waaay down the list of ingredients.

I think I'll take this stuff with me on vacation!

4. Not Your Mother's Beach Babe Texturizing Shampoo and Conditioner

I was disappointed to get these in my box, since I've tried a texturizing product before and it definitely didn't work. My hair is just too fine and straight for this kind of product--it does NOT want to be wavy! But of course I had to try these two anyway.

Not Your Mother's Beach Babe shampoo and conditioner are supposed to give your hair beach waves and volume. You use them like regular shampoo and conditioner, then towel-dry your hair. It seems to be a trend that you aren't supposed to blow-dry when using texturizing products...too bad, because my hair looks like crap unless I blow-dry it. Flat and frizzy, yuck! So I didn't look great when I tried this shampoo and conditioner. Plus I didn't really see any extra waves.

On the bright side, they worked perfectly well as a shampoo and conditioner; my hair felt clean and soft afterwards. They also make your hair smell like coconuts, if you like that sort of thing (I do!). And they're sulfate-free, which is great! So if you've had success with other texturizing products, you might have good luck here.

5. Jamba All-Natural Smoothies in Orange Dream Machine

I saved my favorite product for last! I got a coupon for a free package of Jamba All Natural Smoothies, which contains chunks of frozen fruit and yogurt. All you have to do is add a cup of apple juice and blend everything together. The Orange Dream Machine flavor has peaches, orange and vanilla yogurt.

One package makes about sixteen ounces of smoothie--enough for me and my husband! This flavor is reminiscent of creamsicles, but with extra peachy flavor. The smoothie was nice and thick, with a perfect amount of sweetness! We were both big fans! I'd like to see this sold in bigger packages that you can use more than once.


That's that! I loved the smoothies and the lotion best, although I'm always happy to get a new nail polish too! Have you tried any of these products? Which would you take on vacation with you?

The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.

The Neverending Pile Challenge: Independence Day mani!

Happy 4th of July to my fellow USians! It's been raining nonstop today thanks to Hurricane Arthur, but we still had burgers and potato salad for dinner. Plus we could see some fireworks from our bedroom window last night!

My 4th of July mani also satisfies today's Neverending Pile Challenge theme, which is free polish (meaning a polish you got for free). I used China Glaze Man Hunt, which I got in a Secret Santa swap, as my base color, and made some faded-looking stripes using Zoya Carmen, Julep Harley and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I was inspired by this beautiful mani by Manicurator!

Since the Manicurator post didn't have any directions on how to do this pattern, I had to work out my own method. I put down striping tape above where I wanted each stripe to go, then I sponged on each color using the edge of a triangular makeup sponge. I wanted the stripes to be crisp on top and fade away on the bottom. I really like this style, so I'll have to do it again sometime!

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend!


Total untrieds tried: 69 + chevron decals + 3 stamping plates


 

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #8: Cute

Hey all! I can't believe we're eight weeks into FingerFood's Theme Buffet challenge already! Where did the time go??

This week's theme is "cute", and as everyone knows, the cutest thing in the universe is a pile of puppies. So here's my doggie manicure!

Hee hee, this makes me smile every time I look at it! I like how the dog on the far right looks kind of skeptical. I started with a base of Zoya Sweet, then added the dog heads, spots and ears with Revlon Stiletto, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Revlon Stormy Night, Julep Otte and Sephora by OPI Leotard Optional. I added a layer of Revlon Matte topcoat and did the eyes and noses afterwards so they kept a little shine.

I asked Trudy if she approved of my mani, but she was still recovering from her busy day yesterday (busy =  going for a walk):

An InLinkz Link-up

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #5: Party time!

It's Sunday, and that means it's time for FingerFood's Theme Buffet! This week's theme is birthdays and celebrations. I was a bit short on inspiration this week, but I ended up trying to reproduce the shaggy texture and fun colors of a pinata.

I just used a small nail art brush to paint on little irregular streaks of polish. I started at the tip of each nail so each color would be layered over the one below it. Here are the polishes I used: China Glaze Aquadelic, Julep Nina, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Color Club Twiggie, Zoya Ali (the closest Zoya's gotten to my name!) and Sally Hansen Lightening.

Don't forget to follow our Pinterest board to see all the challenge manis so far!

Two Julep dupes

Hey all, I'll have a nail art post for you later today, but first I wanted to share some discoveries I made about the February Julep collection. I posted a bit about this on my Facebook page, but I've since found out that there are not one, but TWO dupes of cheaper polishes this month! (Isn't it supposed to go the other way around?)

First off, Julep Love, which I think was included in every box this month, is pretty damn close to Sinful Colors Gilded. Here's one coat of each over black:

Putting them over black shows that they're not completely identical: Love has more gold shimmer (although that may be due to me always getting too much polish on the brush thanks to Julep's stupidly long bottles), while Gilded has more red glitter and its gold shimmer is more yellow. I really don't think you need to own both of these.

Second, here's two coats of Julep Glam Roc (from the It Girl box) and Forever 21 Black Glam (even the names are similar!):

These are both blackened purple textured polishes with magenta and gold sparks. Glam Roc seems very slightly darker (the difference is less obvious in real life), but the glitter seems to be the same. I also prefer the texture of the Forever 21 polish--I think it's packed more tightly.

So I'm a little bummed that I paid for two polishes that I had cheaper dupes of. Obviously it's too late for those who got the box this month, but if you were thinking of buying either of these Juleps on sale later, get the cheaper brands instead!

FingerFood's Theme Buffet #1: Animal Print

Happy Sunday! Today I'm starting another nail art challenge, FingerFood's Theme Buffet. This is a weekly thing, so it shouldn't be as stressful as the 31-Day Challenge was! The first prompt is animal print. I had to do leopard print again because I love it so much, plus it's incredibly simple to do!

I decided to make things a little more interesting by starting out with a gradient background. I used two DIFFERENTdimension polishes, Totally and Gnarly, which are super bright neons with holographic shimmer. This mani is a nice antidote to the horrible winter weather we've been having here (not so bad today luckily)!

I did the leopard spots using a dotting tool and my favorite black and white polishes, Revlon Stiletto and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Here are the upcoming prompts for the rest of the challenge:

If you're interested in joining in, you can request to be added to the Facebook group. This is a really low-key challenge--you don't even have to do all the weeks if you don't want to! You can also follow the Pinterest board to see everyone's manis!

Here are the rest of today's animal print nails!

31-Day Challenge #29: inspired by the supernatural

I didn't have to think too hard about today's challenge. I've been into dragons since I was a tween--I used to draw dragons on people's folders in middle school. I even have a collection of dragon figurines, one of which appears in today's pic:

The base color is Julep Hailee with Color Club Wild Cactus and more Hailee sponged on. I made a darker shade of green by mixing Wild Cactus with Revlon Stiletto, and did the scales and area around the eyes with that (it's unfortunately hard to see in this pic, but quite obvious in real life). I defined the edges with Revlon Stiletto. The eye is Sally Hansen Lightening with a dot of Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the "reflection".

And here's a bonus dragon I found buried in my pictures folder--I drew this in 2002, which means I was probably 16 (don't ask me why he's holding a banner)...

Finally, don't forget to check out today's other supernatural manis!

31-Day Challenge #28: inspired by a flag

Does anyone else find today's prompt oddly specific? Why a flag of all things?

Anyway, I picked the flag of Slovakia, because I have a bit of Slovak ancestry, and I also think it's a nicely designed flag:

The double cross comes originally from the Byzantine Empire, since the Slavs were converted to Orthodox Christianity by Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius (who also invented the ancestor of the Cyrillic alphabet). The blue hills represent three mountain ranges in the region.

My mani isn't very exciting, but I wasn't sure how to spice it up! I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Revlon Red Carpet, and China Glaze Hanging in the Balance.

Here are today's other patriotic manis!

31-Day Challenge #27: inspired by artwork

I was initially nervous about this challenge, because I didn't think I had the talent to reproduce any works of art (except for maybe some really minimalist abstract art). I hope you like the inspiration I eventually came up with...

It's Lascaux Cave art--the original artwork (over 17,000 years old)! I love the style of the animals. Here are the pictures I used for inspiration:

 Here are the polishes I used:

• Julep Otte
• L'Oreal Creme Puffs
• Sephora by OPI Thyme for a Mani
• Revlon Stormy Night
• Revlon Timeless
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• OPI My Vampire is Buff
• Revlon Stiletto
• L'Oreal Spice Things Up
• L'Oreal L'Orange

I sponged several colors on the background to get a "rocky" look. At the end I used Revlon's matte topcoat.

Don't forget to admire today's other artsy manis!

31-Day Challenge #25: inspired by fashion

I had been avoiding thinking about this prompt for a long time, because I had no idea what I was going to do. I've never been interested in fashion in the slightest; 90% of my wardrobe is from GAP, and the rest is mostly funny t-shirts. Eventually it occurred to me that I should just go with what I know. And one thing I have a lot of (from GAP, of course) is argyle.

This mani made me very grouchy. First, I used striping tape to make the diamond shapes, but of course once I removed the tape I had white lines that needed to be filled in, or it wouldn't look right. Since I had to fill in the gaps by hand, it doesn't look as neat as I would like. Then, I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen for the dotted lines--I started with dots, like you see on my socks, but it didn't look good, so I connected some of the dots to make dashes. But I think this pen was too thick for this design. (Do they make super thin nail art pens? Like the size of thin mechanical pencils?) And the pen also stained my skin! Boo.

ANYWAY the colors I used were Essie Lapiz of Luxury, Revlon Timeless and Sinful Colors Snow Me White (plus the turquoise art pen).

I didn't put a topcoat over the turquoise, and it washed off almost completely in the shower, so I took a quick picture of just the diamond pattern:

Here's hoping tomorrow's mani turns out better (even though I have no idea what I'm going to do yet...).

And don't forget to check out everyone else's fashionable manis!

31-Day Challenge #23: inspired by a movie

I don't know about you, but my favorite Disney movie of all time is The Lion King. I've watched it probably at least a hundred times, and I've seen the musical twice. I gave myself a very ambitious (for me) goal for this challenge, which was to recreate this scene from "Hakuna Matata":

I was terrified the whole time that I was going to do something horribly wrong and have to start the whole thing over, but miraculously that didn't happen!

OK, Simba's expression looks more doofy than carefree. But all things considered I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. :-D

I used a zillion polishes for this (in many cases I mixed two or more colors together):

• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• Revlon Stiletto
• Julep Otte
• L'Oreal L'Orange
• L'Oreal Spice Things Up
• L'Oreal Caught Red-Handed
• OPI My Vampire is Buff
• L'Oreal Not a Cloud in Sight
• Essie Sand Tropez
• Julep Parker
• Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!

Don't forget to check out today's other movie-themed manis, and remember...ya gotta put your behind in your past!

31-Day Challenge #22: inspired by a song

OK, can you guess what song I was thinking of?

(The answer is Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles!) For this mani I was experimenting with "drawing" using dots. I do like the way the sun came out, but I can't decide if I should have used a base color or not. I used Sally Hansen Lightening, Revlon Sunshine Sparkle and Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the sun and L'Oreal Not a Cloud in Sight for the sky.

Here are today's other musical manis!

31-Day Challenge #16: Peruvian patterns

Well folks, today I'm officially more than halfway done with the 31-Day Challenge!! Just gotta keep that momentum going!

Today's prompt is "tribal". Can I just say first that I really hate the term "tribal"? It's often incorrect and just kind of racist. :-(

*gets off high horse* Anyway, I'm assuming "tribal" means "a pattern used by non-white people". I chose to reproduce some Peruvian textile patterns I found--I love the bright colors they use!

I picked four patterns from this lovely picture to attempt (hopefully you can tell which ones):

I'm pretty impressed with myself, I must say! I'm especially proud of the pattern on my ring finger.

I used a ton of polishes for this one:

• Revlon Impulsive
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• Deborah Lippmann On the Beach
• Revlon Plum Seduction
• Sally Hansen Lightening
• Essie Play Date
• Essie DJ Play That Song
• Essie The More the Merrier
• Wet 'n' Wild On a Trip
• Julep Meryl
• Julep Nan
• L'Oreal L'Orange

Whew, I think that's all! Oh, and I mattified everything because, you know, it's fabric! :-D

Don't forget to look at everyone else's "tribal" nails!

31-Day Challenge #9: rainbow tie-dye

The "colors" section of the 31DC is wrapping up with the prompt "rainbow", which just screams tie-dye to me. I decided to try the needle drag method; it's not perfect, and I definitely pressed too hard at times, but for a first attempt I think it came out pretty well.

For some reason my camera couldn't capture the orange at all, even though to the eye it looks quite distinct from the yellow. Maybe because it's neon?

Anyway, I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and added a coat of Out the Door. Then I painted on the rainbow stripes and dragged the tip of a safety pin from the pink down to the purple. The colors I used for the rainbow:

• pink: Zoya Ali
• orange: Color Club Psychedelic Scene
• yellow: Julep Abbie
• green: Essie Shake Your $$ Maker
• blue: Zoya Robyn
• purple: Essie DJ Play That Song

To celebrate the end of this part of 31DC, I made a compilation image of all my color-themed manis! (You can click on each one to see the post.)

31-Day Challenge #7: black tie

Wow, I've made it through a whole week of 31DC already! Only 3 and a half more to go! It's been pretty easy so far, but the prompts are going to get harder soon...

Today, since it is Saturday after all, my nails are ready for a night on the town!

So dapper! I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, then outlined the shirt area with striping tape and painted Revlon Stiletto outside the tape. I did the bow ties and buttons with a dotting tool.


Check out everyone else's black and white manis!

31-Day Challenge #5: blue sea

Recently I got an aquatic-themed stamping plate (MoYou Sailor 04) and I thought the blue nails day would be the perfect time to use it!

The fish are so cute, no?

I did the gradient background with four colors (though you can really only see three):

• L'Oreal Now You Sea Me
• Color Club Endless Summer
• Revlon Plunge Pool
• Revlon Beguile (looks black here, but has a blue-to-purple shimmer)

The stamping was done with Sinful Colors Snow Me White. I finally have a decent white for stamping!

While I was photographing this mani, Trudy tried to butt in on the action.

Check out today's other blue manis!

31-Day Challenge #4: green colorblock

Another day, another 31-Day Challenge! I'd never done a colorblock mani before, but I'm pretty sure I'll be doing them a lot from now on! So easy but they look really put-together! Also I'm a sucker for geometric patterns. (Design shamelessly stolen from Didoline's Nails.)

Although I did get a bit grumpy when I noticed that my striping tape left some gray gunk behind. >:-(

Colors used:

• base: Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• emerald green: Revlon Posh
• shimmery spring green: Julep Mackenzie
• medium blueish-green: Essie First Timer
• light yellow-green: Julep Adrianna

Check out today's other green manis!

31-Day Challenge #3: yellow striped gradient

This mani marks my first successful use of a striping brush! How exciting is that. I followed this easy tutorial by A Little Polish.

Polishes I used, from top to bottom: Julep Abbie, Sinful Colors Snow Me White (a two-coat white!! Where have you been all my life?), Sally Hansen Lightening, and OPI The "It" Color. I noticed when I was done that The "It" Color looks really orange here next to the other yellows, but in reality I'd say it's right on the border between orange and yellow.

Like I said, this was really easy to do and I like the intentionally imperfect result! Unfortunately I ended up with stained yellow nails despite my base coat. Good thing they'll be covered up by nail art for the next month!


Check out today's other yellow manis!