So Ugly They’re Cute Nails? You Be The Judge!

Hey Everyone!

Today I have another polish from the Orly Flash Glam collection to share with you. I’ll be showing you Sashay My Way. One time someone told me I was “adventurous with color” when it comes to my nails. I always try different colors, never worry about them clashing and just really enjoy trying different combinations. Since they bestowed that title upon li’l ol’ me I felt like I needed to live up to that. So- even though I thought it might be quite hideous when I thought about pairing this gold multi glitter with chartreuse I told myself “Hey, Nicole! You’re adventurous with color! Go for it!!” And so I did. I’ll review Sashay My Way after the pics.

So Ugly They’re Cute (?) Nails:

Look at that sparkle! This is a little blurry on the bottom, but you can see how pretty that glitter is.

Sashay My Way and OPI Did It On Em

Color:

Sashay My Way is a gold hex and bar glitter, mixed with a little bit of holographic hex glitter in a clear base.

Formula/ Application:

Like the other glitters in this collection, this polish is a little thick but not problematic. I actually think the thickness of the base helps the glitter to not be quite as rough as other glitters. The bars sometimes want to stick up a little or hang off the end, but while the polish is wet you just have to smooth em down or tap them back onto your nail. This is not unique to this polish- bar glitter takes a little extra patience. I can just imagine Cynthia at Of Life and Lacquer throwing up on herself right now just THINKING about this glitter. Some of us nail polish freaks just ARE NOT into glitter… and I guess that’s ok ;p

Yes, Please!or No, Thank You:

Yes Please! I like the different types of glitter, I’m a fan of bar glitter and I think the holo bits really give this polish a different look. The holo pieces are what made me think I should layer it over the chartreuse. Now, do I think THAT is a winnning combination? Not particularly, but I’m all about contrast and having some gaudily clashy and sparkly nails is A-OKAY with me! Lord knows I only wore em for ONE day!

Do you think these nails are so ugly they’re cute… or just “so ugly!”? And- are you a lover or a hater (or maybe a love/hater like me!) of glitter? Let me know in the comments below Thanks for reading and till next time- Happy Polishing!!

Orly Flash Glam- Mermaid Tale Review

Good Morning!

Today I want to share a quick review of Mermaid Tale with you all. I teased you a little when I first bought the glitters from the Flash Glam collection and now I’m finally ready to post the swatches.

Orly Mermaid Tale:

2 thick coats of Mermaid Tale, alone

Mermaid Tale layered over FP Inkblot Blue

Color:

Mermaid Tale is a mixture of green (I would guess 90%) and turquoise micro, small round and medium hex glitter. It’s in a clear base which makes it versatile enough to wear alone or layered over any color of polish.

Formula/Application:

This is a little thick, but not problematic. The glitter is dense and would reach full opacity in about 3 healthy coats. I stopped after 2 on the first picture because I was realizing I wanted to put this over a base color and didn’t want to waste any more polish. What? I’m a hoarder!! haha. I almost always put a base color under my glitter, even when I wear it opaque because I hate having that naked front edge of my nails. Glitter just doesn’t wrap tips, y’know? And I HATE how naked tips look. Okay, okay, I’m a hoarder and OCD. :p

Yes, Please!or No, Thank You:

Yes, Please!!! I love the slightly different colors of glitters and the three different sizes of glitter. Even when layered over the blue polish it was super sparkly. I can see myself wearing this alone very, very soon

Let me know what you think! These polishes should be available where ever Orlys are sold starting today! Keep your eye out for my reviews of the rest of these glitters. Thanks for reading and till next time- Happy Polishing!!

The Famed, The Fantastic- Revlon Whimsical

Hey There Polished People!

A while back I was soooo lucky to receive a bottle of Revlon Whimsical in the mail from a Twitter friend. We didn’t swap, she just was so nice to send it to me. Random act of nail polish loving kindness!!! She overheard (overread?) my conversation with another friend and just offered to send it to me. It was shocking and soooo sweet! Her and I hadn’t even been chatting before that. Anyway, I don’t know if she wants to be outed so for now I just want to say THANK YOU and “you know who you are.”

I had looked FOREVER for Revlon Whimsical so when I got it I was hyped to try a billion different things with it. I hope you all like pictures! The first thing I thought I was going to do was layer it over ChG Secret Periwinkle.

2 coats of ChG I’ve Got A Secret Periwinkle

4ish layers of Whimsical over Secret Periwinkle

I did not like this color combination so I thought I would try just using Whimsical on its own, layered to opacity.

This is, I kid you not, 6 or more layers to reach relative opacity.

I realized I’d made a mistake trying to wear it un-layered. I hated the color, hated that it wasn’t even really opaque so I decided let’s try to matte it. Matting a color sometimes hides a VNL, and it makes a color look frosty so I thought that may be a good option.

Shiny v Matte

I actually really liked the matte Whimsical (although most of my Twitter followers voted “shiny” Go figure!). What I didn’t like about it is that between the number of coats I needed and the polish itself, even after an entire day (yes, 24 HOURS) Whimsical wouldn’t dry harder than fresh candy corn. At one point well after the 24 hour mark, I pressed my nail against something and seriously rubbed an entire nail’s worth of polish off. It was annoying to say the least. Do not wear Whimsical alone to opacity. You will be sorry. The next, final, most obvious and best way I wore Whimsical was layered over ChG For Audrey.

2 coats of Whimsical over For Audrey

In the end- I LOVE Whimsical and I’m so thankful a little nail fairy helped me obtain it. If I ever find a bottle in store I’m picking it up because when layered over the proper color it’s sooo cute. I felt like I should go to a baby shower with these nails They’re so cute with blue and pink and just enough glitter in that light blue jelly base that it just looks really nice. It’s a low effort jelly sandwich. If you can find it, I definitely recommend you pick it up. Als0- I hear it is a dead-on-dupe for Deborah Lippmann Glitter In The Air, so I guess if you wanna blow 20 bucks instead of 6… you could go that route as well.

Do you have this polish? Do you like what I’ve done with it? It’s nothing too unique in the end, but y’know… sometimes if it aint broke, I just shouldn’t try to fix it! Let me know how you like it! Thanks for reading, thank you to my nail polish fairy, and as always- Happy Polishing!!

My Love of Badger Balm

Good Morning Polished People,

Man, at risk of sounding like the whiniest person ever- camping pooped me out!! I would have killed to not have to work yesterday. Today I don’t work so hopefully I’ll sleep in.

Since I was too tired to put together a legit nail art/swatching/etc post I want to share with you all my love of Badger Balm.

Here are some of my badger balms:

From top left clockwise they are: the original Badger Healing Balm, Sleep Balm, Cheerful Mind Balm and Stress Soother.

Besides the ones above I own the bug balm and I just received my order of Headache Soother balm. All of these badger balms are organic and are made mostly of olive oil and beeswax. Then depending on the type of balm they have different essential oils. My current favorites right now (beside the healing balm) are probably the sleep balm made with lavender and bergamot (smells like shaving cream to me, this is the reason I’ve been smelling my hands like a creep) and the headache soother made with lavender and peppermint. I love the cheerful mind balm (sweet orange and spearmint) and the stress soother (rosemary and tangerine) too. I use these as cuticle creams and massage them into my cuticles and hands. I also put some on my pulse points and just breathe them in. When I work my summer job it can sometimes be very loud and stressful and just sensory overload, so when I get home I come into my bedroom, rub some of the cheerful mind or stress soother on my temples, maybe a little even under my nose and some on my hands and nails and just lay flat with my eyes closed for a bit. I let myself enjoy the stillness and silence and it makes me feel so much more relaxed.

Now, the Badger Healing balm is my all time favorite. The smell is a little medicinal (it’s made with sweet birch and wintergreen oils) but its a nice scent and this stuff is magic. I use it on my hands and cuticles all the time, I’ve put it on blisters and scratches, I’ve put it on little rashes and allergic reactions and it’s often the only thing that helps. Just recently I had a strange allergic reaction to something I’d used and my skin all over my face, particularly around my eyes was papery feeling and WHITE because it was so dry. I put my good old Badger Balm all over my face and right around my eyes and it was the only thing that made my face feel good. And the amazing thing is that I have oily skin and this didn’t break me out one bit. This balm has natural antiseptic ingredients so I think that may be the reason my skin loved it so much. I sometimes use this as eye cream because 1) you’ll never find anything more hydrating and less irritating and 2) it has castor oil in it and castor is an oil that helps grow thicker, longer eye lashes. Everyone’s skin is different so I would definitely recommend you try a little of this before you slather your face like I do, but my skin is really sensitive and is not bothered by Badger Balm at all.

You can find Badger Balm products in some natural food markets (New Seasons/etc) and at BadgerBalm.com

I swear by this stuff. In fact, I can hardly stand waiting so I’m gonna put my stuff on and go to sleep right… this…..

ZzzZzzZzz

Please tell me you’ve tried Badger Balm. Till next time- happy polishing!!!

Edit:
Just FYI here’s a picture of the bug balm (the badger is super cute!):

Here’s what all the balms look like inside:

And last but definitely not least, my headache soother balm:

Bye for real now.

I Just Love A Good Hand Salve

Hey Everyone!

I’m back from camping today and I’m so happy to be home. If you read my camping rant post you will probably be relieved to know that Bubba did ride in the trailer (in his kennel of course) and it was soooo nice. Helped me arrive much less grumpy than usual, and I’m sure it was a lot comfier for him as well. We had nice weather, had a relaxing time and stayed up till day light. I hope you all had a nice weekend and took a minute to appreciate all the veterans and current soldiers and their families. <3

Since my skin got dried out from camping I thought I'd share with you some of the products I like to use. Below you'll see the stack of salves/ creams/ etc that I just keep by my bedside!

From top to bottom, left to right they are: Dionis Blue Ridge Wildflower goats milk cuticle cream, Burt’s Bees Almond Milk beeswax hand creme, A&D ointment in an old lipgloss tub, JR Watkins aloe and green tea hand and cuticle salve, Original Badger Healing Balm, CND solar oil cuticle oil, Burt’s Bees lemon butter cuticle cream, and good old petroleum jelly. I use all these sporadically. The one I use the most is my Badger Balm (I LOVE this stuff) but I use all of them whenever the mood strikes me. I like oils and creams/cremes/salves because they stay on my skin longer and really make an impact. I don’t mind if they’re kind of thick or oily feeling because I put it on before bed and just let it soak in all night. I have personally found that when I’m using these products and keeping my cuticles hydrated and healthy, not only do my nails LOOK so much better (let’s all admit it- crusty cuticles look sick) but also I swear my nails grow faster. I don’t know a lot about nail anatomy but I feel like it makes a huge difference. Plus, the smell of these products is so good it’s like aromatherapy as I drift off to sleep. Right now I’m itching to get this post done so I can apply my chosen product of the night (Badger sleep balm) and smell it. In fact, I’m gonna wrap this up and do a separate post on all my Badger balms later so I can use them now. I love this sleep balm so much I can’t even bear to wait.

What do you use on your cuticles? Do you stick with one product or do you like to have a variety to choose from like me? Have you tried Badger Balm? How about the Dionis goats milk stuff? That was my favorite till I discovered Badger Balm. Badger wins out because all of their products smell are organic. And they’re fantastic!!! Till next time, thanks for reading and Happy Polishing!

Yellow and Green Gradient (aka Oregon Ducks nails)

Hey Everyone,

Today I have some yellow and green gradient nails that I tried immediately following my green gradient nails from yesterday. The funny thing about these nails is that I just wanted two contrasting colors, and then when I was done my husband was like “Hey, Oregon Ducks nails.” The University of Oregon’s colors are yellow and green and their football team, which is quite good, is the ducks. The day I wore these nails I subbed in a 5th grade classroom and I forgot that the teacher is a U of O alumnus and is always hard core repping her team to her students. When I got there the kids were hyped to see me (I love this class) and then they thought I was EXTRA cool today cuz they thought I did Oregon Ducks nails just for them! Haha. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was accidental! I love that class cuz I have been able to sub for them quite a bit, and they’re just a cool group of kids, and they think I’m like some extra-cool sub or something!! I hadn’t seen them for a while (cuz I was tutoring instead of subbing) and their teacher said that when she told them it was me who was gonna be their sub they were like (and this is a quote from her!):

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!!!”

Hahaha. THAT is the reason I love working with kids.

Oregon Ducks/ Yellow and Green Gradient Nails:

This is blurry and with crappy lighting but it makes my gradient look smoother! Haha. Also- look how gross and wide my nails are at the ends! I’m so glad I chopped these suckers off RIGHT after I did these nails!!! Ahhhhh shorties, I love you!

All the above pictures have:

• base coat
• 2 coats of ChG Sunshine Pop
• Sunshine Pop and FP Inkblot Blue (yellow and blue make green!) sponged on using this method
• a coat of Seche Vite.

These nails were executed a little better, but I still need to try a finer sponge and try sponging the nails twice to smooth out the gradient. Overall, I was pleased with these though and the kids thought they were EXTRA awesome!

How have your gradient attempts turned out? And how do you think mine looks? Let me know what your gradient experience has been. Some of you are gradient masters, and I hate you. Despite my hate, please share your tips!! Haha. Till next time, Happy Polishing!

My 2nd Go At A Gradient…. Kermit-The-Frog-Approved!!

Good Morning Polished People,

Everyone has been doing gradients for weeks now, but not I! I have been far too chicken. I’ve done one decent gradient but I didn’t wear a base color so it was too sheer and it completely ruined it. I just don’t seem to have the freehand skills to pay the bills. It doesn’t matter if it’s painting art or sponging, I can’t do it! When I saw this newer tutorial from one of my top two nail blog idols, Sammy, from TheNailasaurus.com I thought “Hey, I might be able to try this again.” So I did and I’ll show you my 2nd attempt ever and my first attempt with this method.

Green Gradient Nails:

These nails started as my Kiwi Cool-Ada nails, and then I sponged Kiwi Cool-Ada and FP Inkblot Blue on them for the gradient effect.

Kermie gives this first attempt a thumbs up!! Better luck next time, but not too bad for a first try!

I need to try using a finer sponge (I used a kitchen sponge this time) and possibly try sponging each nail twice but overall I am “okay” with this attempt. I didn’t like how the edges stayed the base color though, but I remedied that for my next nails that you’ll see tomorrow.

Let me know what you think of these nails! What are all of you in the US doing to celebrate Memorial Day? Anyone gone camping like me? Talk to you all when I get back in the land of cell reception and internet!