Sample Sunday: Dolce & Gabbana Intense, Julep One Step Polish Remover Pad and L'Occitane en Provence Concentre de Lait

For this week's Sample Sunday I chose Dolce & Gabbana Intense for my fragrance choice. It's starts out with warm floral notes and soon turns deep and almost amber and woody. The top notes are listed as Neroli and Green Mandarin and the base notes as Sandalwood and Guimauve (I'll be honest I have no idea what Guimauve is.) The sandalwood makes this such a warm scent that is seductive and great for warming up cooler days and nights.

My nails look awful this week. I've been so crazy busy I haven't taken off the sad remnants of my last manicure. I needed to get them cleaned up quick so they wouldn't look so terrible, so I grabbed my Julep One-Step Polish Remover Pad sample. These work ridiculously well, so much more so than I expected. I had all my polish off in less than a minute, which is better than when I use cotton balls and nail polish remover. I would definitely get these to keep in my purse or for when I travel.

 Since it refuses to be Spring in New England, my skin is a little dry from the weather so I decided to try my sample of L'Occitane en Provence Concentre de Lait (Milk Concentre.) This is the first product I've tried from L'Occitane and I really like it. It has a light almond smell and a really light texture, but it's very hydrating, a little goes a long way.

Have you tried any of these? What did you think?

Mani Monday Deborah Lippmann Space Oddity Trio

My love affair for Deborah Lippmann nail polishes began last year with the color Candy Shop which may as well be a cupcake in a bottle. It's wonderful. So imagine my delight when I popped into Sephora to find a Deborah Lippmann trio on sale! Originally $29 it was on sale for $13.99. These are just about half size (8mL versus the usual 15mL.) The trio is called Space Oddity and contains the colors When Lightning Strikes (silver polish with gold micro glitter and white glitter),  Planet Rock (a violet grey crème), and Baby I'm A Star (champagne gold with gold micro glitter and pink glitter.)

These colors are all gorgeous, but I chose Planet Rock to try out first. It has great opaque coverage in two coats. It's a moody neutral that is quite chic.  I can't wait to try out the other two.

What's on your nails this week?

February 2014 Julep Maven Box

I was really happy with this month's Julep Maven Box, not only did I get my two polishes and beauty product, but there was a bonus polish as well! This is one of the few months that I remembered to log into my Julep account on the 20th to scope out the selection. I was super tempted to do the biggest upgrade since the polishes this month were all gorgeous! I'm attempting to be low buy right now, so I didn't, but this box didn't disappoint.

 This month Julep introduced their new Eye Sheen Liquid Eyeshadows. I thought this would be like some cream eye shadows I have tried in the past, but they are totally different. These are truly liquid and I used a very stiff flat brush to apply it, but you can use your fingers. The pigment is very rich and I had great color density with just one thin layer. It does feel a little funny while you're applying it and as it dries. I kept my eyes closed while it dried because I was afraid of it creasing. Julep included a look card on how to use some of the colors together, but I only got the one so I tried combining it with some other products I already have. My color was warm fig shimmer which is a plummy brown and is really gorgeous on, I think it would work well on any skin tone and it is extremely flattering. It held up really well and didn't crease through the day. It did start to fade along the upper edge by the end of the day (I used no primer to test it.) The following day I tried it with one of my Makeup Forever Aqua Shadow pencils as a highlight in the inner corner and they played well together. I hope the Julep expands their color range with these. I think these would be awesome for more talented makeup artists who create those amazing works of art like liner art.

 On to the nail colors! The photos just don't do them justice. I really loved this month's shades. Can we just talk about the fact that until this month I kept complaining that the Swatch Me was on the top and I had to use q-tips to swatch them... and then this month I figured out that the top pops off... I'm human, I make mistakes.

So first up is Judi! It looks a little bright in the photo, but they call it an English Violet Creme and I would say that's pretty close. This is one of the few Julep polishes I would recommend at least two coats on to achieve the true color. One coat looks fine, but isn't quite as deep as the bottle color.

Next up is Kristen! Julep describes this as a deep sea teal. It's a really gorgeous deep teal color with a silvery microglitter. The picture truly doesn't do it any justice.

The bonus color is Love. I couldn't even find it on the Julep site and I think it may have been for Mavens only. It's a gorgeous glitter shade with microfine pink and champagne gold. I think this would be great alone or over another color. It's just such a happy little glitter polish and I absolutely love it!

Want to get your own Julep Maven Box? Sign up here and take the style quiz!

July Julep Maven Box

This month's theme was the California Coast and while the Dry Oil spray got me feeling the sunshine, the colors didn't scream summer to me.

I haven't had a chance to try the blotting papers yet, but with this sticky, hot weather, I'm keeping them around since I know I'll need them soon. 

I was actually pretty impressed with the Beach Tonic Dry Body Oil. It has a nice light citrus scent and was fairly moisturizing. Other dry oils I've tried in the past have had a funny feel to them and left an oily residue. This one absorbed quickly and felt great right after the shower.

 

I tried to get pictures of the polishes with and without flash because they look so different as they reflect the light. Blakely is a definite purple green duo-chrome, it's a really pretty color, but I feel I would wear it more in the Fall. Joanna is a beautiful color somewhere between French blue and lavender and I immediately put it on. It's a cool color that would be great in Winter, but also pretty in Spring. Both gave a good coverage in 1 coat, as I've noticed most Julep polishes do. 

I've been pretty happy with what I've been receiving from them so I'm going to keep my subscription going. 

If you want to try them for yourself click here.

Drugstore Finds: Gorgeous Nail Polishes by Essie

I, like many, find myself obssesed with nail polish. I have far more than I should and I adore getting new colors and textures and I love playing with trends. I also always like to keep a few classics on hand, especially for my toes. My toes are where I tend to be a little more conservative and I think it's because quite frankly, I'm awful at painting my own toes.

I stopped by CVS today for one thing and left with way more than I needed,  including these great polishes by Essie. I'm planning to do the Mint Apple Candy for my hands with an accent nail of Set in Stones. My toes will be wearing Nothing Else Metals and yes I say toes instead of toenails because I really can be THAT bad at doing my toes.

What colors are you loving for spring?

Illamasqua Imperfect Nail Polish: Speckled Nails

I am loving some of the new nail trends, there's a big emphasis on birds and feathers right now. I adore the new Illamasqua Imperfect nail polishes which resemble the speckles on a bird's egg. I was finally able to hunt down a bottle and purchased it in Speckle which is a lovely lavender shade. For the best results you will need 2-3 coats of polish, this helps to really get the speckled egg effect. I chose to do 3 coats, but see the comparison of coats below. I love this for Spring, and as cliché as it is, I love it for Easter. I'm thinking of pairing it with an accent nail I recently saw on Pinterest using a real feather. If I'm able to pull that off, you guys will be the first ones to know. 

I had to ask for the polish at my Sephora, because they had just received the shipment and it wasn't even on the floor yet, so don't be afraid to ask!

There are five colors available:

Speckle (lavender), Freckle (cocoa), Fragile (light blue), Mottle (light moss green), and 

Scarce (light pink.) They are available exclusively at Sephora for $16 or on Illamasqua's Website

One coat on the right, two coats on the left

Two coats on the right, three coats on the left

 I was a little bit messy since it was kind of late at night, but I just couldn't wait to try it out!

Close up of the polish in the bottle

All done! (Don't worry I cleaned it up a little in the morning)

What nail colors/trends are you loving right now?

Champagne & Caviar

I know this is a little late, but everyone keeps asking me about my nails. If you didn't see my picture on Instagram, here it is. Yes I realize the edges are messy, I cleaned them up right before I went out the door, but I was doing these a bit last minute.

I wanted to do a Champagne and Caviar manicure because I thought it fit with New Year's Eve very well. I had to buy some nails because in the midst of packing and moving, I managed to bang up my nails pretty badly. I bought Kiss nails in a huge pack of different sized clear nails in the medium length oval shape. They were a little long for me so I filed them down a little bit. I used Essie Good as Gold polish for the Champagne (I was pretty happy with one coat and I was in a major hurry) and I used Sinful Colors Black on Black for the caviar. The pearls are a generic version of the Ciate caviar pearls and I bought them on Ebay for a lot cheaper (7 colors for about $19 compared to Ciate's $25 for one kit.)

Voila! Ultra luxe manicure.

Ciate Velvet Manicure Review

A few months ago I bought the Ciate mother of pearl caviar nail set and was pretty happy with it. Just in time for the holidays, Ciate came out with their velvet manicure. I was dying to get my hands on both the deep garnet red and the navy blue. The two Sephora stores near me were out of the blue, so I decided to just try the red for now. I have to say I'm glad I didn't buy two. The color of the polish is absolutely stunning and I would definitely wear it again. The velvet is a whole different story. It was a little bit difficult to apply and the container for the velvet cracked halfway through doing my nails. I managed to finish up my manicure and it looked pretty good for about an hour. Once I had to wash my hands it looked a little worse for wear. The velvet dries pretty quickly, but doesn't look the same afterward. After about one day of wear my nails simply looked as if I had smudged the polish while it was wet. I did mine for Christmas (velvet always makes me think of Christmas) and it was sufficient to get me through the day. For $19 though I wasn't overly impressed. It's good for a one night occasion, but I didn't find it had lasting power past that.

I would give it a 3/5. Pretty, but not spectacular.

What nail trends have you tried?

How to fix your completely destroyed nails

So maybe you've been being a little rough with your nails, maybe someone else was (link), or maybe you've never really known what to do with them. My nails got absolutely murdered so I had to do what I could to salvage them. I'll do a video on nail maintenance another time so you can avoid this kind of situation.

Hopefully my video helps a little bit!

Happy holidays!

    

Worst nail appointment ever

I love doing my nails, I mean, I LOVE doing my nails, and getting them done. I got turned on to gel nails way in the beginning of the year and I loved them. They lasted for forever and people loved them, plus they were super durable which was great for work. I got them initially because I had been doing my own nails weekly as sort of ritual to keep myself from biting and picking at my nails, an awful habit I had. It was working, until I got super busy and was having trouble devoting my time to it each week. The idea of having someone do my nails once a month (sometimes longer) and still having them strong and beautiful was amazing. The caveat, the girl who does an amazing job on my nails is an hour away for me... Yeah that bit makes it a bit harder. I know there are plenty of places that do gel nails, but I've seen many in my area that their work just looks plain tacky, not classy.

I made the decision to get rid of my gels after several weeks of debating it. I called to make an appointment for a fill and since my usual was not available, I figured I'd spare her the breakup and get them off while she wasn't around. Trust me my friends, there is a price to pay for cheating, no matter the kind.

I got to my appointment, and the man who was supposed to be taking off my nails was still busy with his previous appointment and handed me off to another man. Unfortunately it was the one tech in the nail salon people tell you to avoid. There's always one that people warn you "if so and so can't take you, at least don't go to _____" or they tell you who's just as good I case of emergency. So my luck, I get the guy no one wants. He begins my asking why I want them off and I explain, to which he begins chastising me, saying a fill would be better. I explained a second time and he shrugged it off. He asked if I at least wanted a manicure and I said yes, please. Then I got the lecture about why Shellac is better than polish, I explained I just wanted regular polish. Apparently, none of my answers were good enough. He started to drill off the top layers of the gel, which is fine and dandy, but then he grabs a fake nail and starts trying to pry them off of my fingers and a cuticle clipper to start clipping chunks of my nails parallel to my nail. Now mind you, not only is this not the right way to take off my nails, but pieces are flying into my face and onto the girl at my side (who at this point I believe was equally disgusted. The right way is to soak the nails in a solution to break down the remaining gel.  Next he had one of the other techs come over to look at my nails, the other tech proceeded to ask my how long I wanted them and I showed him a specific length, not super long, but a little long, I had plenty for him to work with. He then proceeded to use the drill again to get more of the gel off and all of a sudden nicks me with the drill and says, "whoops, guess I can't save that one!" He then proceeded to whoops at least 3 more healthy nails. After annihilating my length he managed to whittle my nails down to a ridiculous thinness, so much so that it was painful and I had a burn from the drill on my right thumbnail. Once he decided he'd done enough damage with the drill he began to wipe my nails with acetone (now he decided to use it.) I had a scab that had finally formed where I cut my ring finger, it ended probably about a half centimeter below my nail bed, I say had because he decided to grab a little lower on that particular finger and ripped the whole scab off. He looked at me and shrugged it off. Once that was done he filed my nails and proceeded to break pieces off the rest of them and then painted them saying, your nails will be weak for a while so expect them to break easily. I was so upset. I understand that the techs make money based on how much you have done, but I am a generous tipper, even when I don't spend a lot, and had he done a quality job I would have tipped him well. I nearly cried on the way home. I was so upset and I will NEVER go back there again. I should have complained as soon as he started trying to pry off my nails, but some stupid part of me kept quiet and that stupid little man gave me a burn, cuts and ripped off a scab on top of ruining my nails, it was truly insult on top of injury.

If something like this ever happens to you, at a salon or restaurant or any kind of business, speak up immediately, don't do what I did. I want to kick my own butt for it. 

So now my precious nails are torn to shreds right as I had a work holiday event, my birthday, and Christmas and New Year's Eve with all their parties coming up. I'm going to have to figure out a way to rescue my nails. I would show you how bad they look, but it's truly awful. I might do a nail rescue video and you might see them there.

Have you ever been through an awful experience like this? Did you speak up and if so what did you say? I didn't want to make a huge scene.