Want a manicure that lasts almost a month? Sure you do...

Ladies. I finally broke down and got a shellac manicure last month. "Last month?" you're thinking..."Why is she just now talking about it?" Uh, because that's almost how long this stuff lasts. I'm not even kidding. It. Is. AWESOME. I totally forgot to take a picture the day I got it done, but let's just go ahead and review my THREE WEEK pics below:

Other than the new nail growth, which results in some peeling at the bottom, it still looked good as new. Was I careful with my nails during that time? Nope. Cleaned, cooked, worked (I work on a computer all day so there is a lot of typing going down), did everything I normally do. Nails still looked great! Regular manicures usually chip on me within, oh, two days.

So how is this better than acrylic or other fake stuff? Well, it is cheaper and easier to maintain for one. You don't like it you can have it removed the next day. Most importantly, it did not damage my nails at all. In fact, it made my nails feel thicker and stronger the whole time I had the polish on. I did go back to the salon to get it removed; you can't really get it off with normal polish remover. The lady there had me soak my fingertips for about a minute in this SUPER strong-smelling polish remover (she put a towel over the bowl so the smell wouldn't knock us out), then she gently scrapped it off and buffed my nails back to normal. This is where the shellac can sometimes go wrong. I had a friend get nail damage because the manicurist scraped too hard and into the nail bed. If you are having it removed and you feel like they are scraping too hard, just tell them to back off some.

I would also recommend you stick with lighter tones. The growth won't be as noticeable as it would be with say, dark red or plum. I only suggest this because it is more expensive than a normal manicure. This was $35, but I found out another, smaller salon near me does them for $25, so I would do some shopping around. When this first came out I think some of the salons had issues with taking this stuff off, leading to nail damage. It seems like now they are all up to speed though on the new technique, so you should be good to go. If you are nervous, try asking around. Find a salon where someone else has had it removed and make sure they didn't have issues.

I am a total nail color junkie, especially in the fall, so I can't commit to the price and single color all the time. I will definitely do this again soon though, most likely before a string of work meetings, volunteer events, and big conference I have in October, allowing me to have perfect nails all the way through each event.

www.cnd.com

If you'd like some more info, visit the CND website. This is the brand that most salons seem to carry right now. Have any of you tried it? Do you love it? Any recommendations to add? Put it in the comments!!

Yellow nails!!

Bringing you some Earth shattering news. Painted my nails pastel yellow for the first time tonight. I know. Try to contain your excitement. I've neen obsessing (OBSESSING) about it since I saw the lead singer of Paramour rocking them in Shape magazine last month. Anyway I just love them! It's my new neutral! This is Sunshine Sparkle by Revlon, and it was $4.79 at Rite Aid! Sally Hansen and LOreal also has similar shades. Enjoy!

Random of the day

Just popping in to show of the nail polish Santa put in my stocking. I can always count on the following things being in there: socks, a toothbrush, body wash, a nail file (sparkly red this year), and nail polish. This color is called "Grey Suede" by Revlon. I'm kinda digging it, even though it's just a neutral. It is EXACTLY my skin tone, thus goes with everything. (Sorry it's not the best photo quality, it's from my phone camera.)

Hope everyone has a great New Year!

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure new colors

Just left Rite Aid and Sally Hansen Salon Manicure brand has got some really, really cute colors for late fall/early winter. I tried to find a pic online, but couldn't find any!! Sorry about that.

Anyway there are a few shades of "greige" (grey/brown that I PROMISE you will get you compliments), chocolate brown, a gold glitter one (it's not trashy though, it's cute and fun), and some fun mauve/wine colors. $6.99 a bottle....and p.s. Rite Aid appears to have lower prices than Walgreens. Go check it out!

Chanel's fall nail polish line

So the break up with summer is going well. I have quite enjoyed the purple polish on my toes, and plan to hit up the greige nail polish this weekend.

While I CANNOT afford Chanel ($23 a bottle? No thanks) THESE are exactly the colors I'm loving this fall. I would recommend you all check out Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure ($7.50 a bottle at Walgreens). They have a great selection at a MUCH MUCH better price.

Photo courtesy of Allure.com

Here's the Allure blog post: Chanel's New Fall Polishes are Here!

Excellent tips that I didn't know about....

Esp the swiping of polish remover before the base coat even if you don't have polish to remove.

From Allure.com. Manicure Tricks Too Good To Skip

Dear Summer, we're breaking up

Dear Summer. It's not you. It's me. I just can't handle the extreme heat, humidity, and daily rainstorms anymore. I appreciate you showing up after that super cold winter and all, but we've reached the end of our road together. I know August isn't over for 3 more days, but I'm done. Plus, I'm interested in someone new. His name is Fall.

Fall took me out, showed me all these adorable new clothes. He bought me skinny jeans yesterday at the mall. And a scarf. He showed me lovely purple/violet eyeshadows on the horizon. He showed me BOOTS. Boots I tell you. I can't resist that. (Side note--Fall is a little metrosexual. He may even be gay with his love of makeup and fashion. I don't care. I love him anyway).

But oh Summer...he really got me with this. NAIL POLISH. I kinda obsess over nail polish in general, but this fall's colors are basically bowling me over. I adore them. More than I adored coral and turquoise blue polish. This fall it's all about greige, eggplant, browns, and mauves! See for example, the Essie collection ($6.50 each, $17 for a four pack at Nordstrom):

Courtesy of Just Beauty Supplies

And this runway look from CND in 2010. This, my friend, is the color GREIGE. It's my new fav color.

Courtesy of Allure Daily Beauty Reporter

Now, I'm no big spender on nail polish. OPI and Essie are the top of my price point at $9 a pop. If I was, however, I'd buy Chanel's Paradoxal ($50)

Photo courtesy Amazon

So here's what I have for fall in my current collection (I told you I was already interested in Fall)

Left to Right: Revlon Plum Night (good copy of Chanel Paradoxal, $6.99 drugstores), OPI Matte Lincoln Park After Dark (on sale $6 at Trade Secret), Sephora by OPI Meet You for Drinks ($9 Sephora), Sephora by OPI Metro Chic ($9 Sephora), Sephora by OPI Under my Trench Coat (My absolute FAV. It is impossible to find an outfit this color doesn't go with. $9 Sephora).

Here they are on. Same order L to R. The OPI matte collection might not be for everyone, since you are not supposed to use a topcoat. However, if the matte just throws you off, add that topcoat and it looks like normal!

I will probably get something from the Essie collection (maybe the brown), but for now I will work with what I have in transition. My toes went plum last night. I credit the drop from 97 F to 80 F as the final break point for me. YAY FALL!!

p.s. Summer, check back with me around, oh, April and May 2011. You know how flighty I can be. I'll want to get back together by then.

Lemming alert...Essie Turks and Caicos

Sometimes, I am a beauty product lemming. If I read or hear enough about one thing, even if I know it is probably just a fad, I have to seek it out. This is one of those products. You may have seen this in Allure, or online on different blogs as I have been for a few months now.... It's in the new spring 2010 collection from Essie and is called Turks and Caicos. Yes, it's mid-July I'm late joining the party. Truth be told, I wasn't sure where to buy Essie. Found out I can get it at Trade Secret, Paris Parker Aveda, ULTA (sometimes), and essie.com. It's $8 a bottle, so same price range as OPI.

Anyway, I'm glad I was a lemming, cause I really love this color on my toes for summer. I'm going to the beach this weekend (HOORAY), so I needed something bright. It reminds me of Tiffany blue.

As far as application goes, I think I like OPI or Sally Hansen a little better, but this is still a good product. I definitely needed a base coat, two coats of color, and a top coat though. I probably could have even done with THREE coats of color, but oh well. Overall, I'm pleased with this purchase.

Excuse the lovely foot shot...I really wasn't sure how to take a decent pic but show off the color. Hope it's ok!

Review: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure

Hi gals. So I've been to Sephora AND Rite Aid today, so hopefully over the next few weeks I will have a bunch of reviews. I've been a bit of a slacker lately, I know, but this girl is trying her damnedest to stay on a beauty budget. It was tough in Sephora today, but I do have a few finds and a list of things to try soon! Anywhos.

In keeping with my budget, I tried Sally Hansen Total Manicure today. $10.99 at Rite Aid. It is supposed to be every coat of a normal manicure in one bottle, and I think it lives up to its name! I tried "I Pink I Can", shown in the picture. In two coats, I got shiny, even coverage. It has a good application brush that covers almost the whole nail in one swipe, which is very good for getting a smooth coat.

I've got it on my toes and nails, so we'll see how long it lasts! So far, I'm very pleased. Two coats got me exactly what I normally get with four (base, two color, top). I mean, it's not OPI, but it is very good for Rite Aid. I would say it's better than Revlon, which is my other drugstore go-to brand.

I think this is also great for vacation/traveling. You can touch-up easily with just one bottle. Also, I have eighty-bajillion pregnant friends right now...just think gals, your husband may not be all about pampering you a pedicure with 4 complicated coats...but two? Even a dude can do that. :)

They have lots of cute colors, brights and neutrals...and I saw a NEON YELLOW that LG aka Keisha would LOVE. Neon!! I'll be interested to see what the fall colors are, but the summer ones are very fun! :)

Enjoy ladies!!

Update: Day 2 of manicure with two coats. I have shopped, cleaned, cooked, used a drill, used a hammer, went to the gym, worked on my computer all day (read:lots of typing) AND did laundry. Manicure status? One tiny chip in my thumb, and that was my fault for trying to pry something open. I fixed that this morning, and it looks good as new. Great product!

Dandelions and Under My Trench Coat

First, try ever so hard not to be uber-jel of my no makeup-wearin, pageboy hat hair, just got home from a road trip, bad laptop camera look. K? Thx...just pay attention to the products..

So some sweet friends got me Sephora gift cards for my bday in August and I FINALLY spent them last weekend. I got Under my Trench coat...which may be my fave fall nail polish of all time. Seriously. It's kind of gray, kind of khaki and goes with every outfit I wore last week. Every one. I have it on my nails in the pic, hopefully you can see the color...if not I previouslt discussed it here. There's a better pic on the Stephanie's Closet blog. It was $9 at Sephora.

Second, I bought this blush called Dandelion from Benefit. It's actually more of a brightener than a blush. It's very light pink. I had it a year or so ago in a little sample kit from Benefit and have been meaning to replenish it ever since I ran out. So I did! It's nice in the fall because it brightens up skin when things get kind of dull and such out. In the summer it just adds to the normal glow. It's $28 at Sephora, which may seem pricey for blush. But the box actually lasts a long time (my sample size, which was 1/4 the size of this one lasted almost a year!) and it comes with a brush.

I also finally got a small travel size of Living Proof for curly hair to test out. So far the verdict is good. I wore it all week, and my hair stayed pretty wavy and looked decent with little curling iron effort in the morning (I only had to touch up the ends before leaving the house). I don't have a pic at the moment. I recommend buying the travel size if you really want to try this brand (they have straightening stuff too) because it is a little expensive...$14 for the travel size alone. But so far, I'm impressed.

and while we're on nails

Here's a blog from The Fairest with a Q&A from celebrity manicurist. Tips for picking the correct nail color, application, etc...all HERE.

OPI fall stuff

Ok. So I'm so stupidly obsessed with OPI's fall line. Grey's, khaki's, purples, greens, so fun! Sephora's website is having problems so I can't find any good pics at the moment (two words: Film Noir. It's their fall line. It's FAB). But I found this color--Under my Trench Coat--on another blogger's site: Stephanie's Closet. I think I will shell out my $9 for this. Pricy? Yes. Worth it? YES. And the way I see it--they don't go bad. I do recommend going into your polish bags and shaking all of them every once in awhile. They do tend to separate. And with a pedi costing at least $25, $9 for MANY pedicures and manicures is a good thing!

As for the regular OPI, their Spain and France collections are so great. SO GREAT. Some of my favs from the France selection are above (pic from OPI site).

Also, you can buy OPI at Amazon.com. Strange, but they do have quite the selection. They have some retired colors as well. Prices seem to be the same as Sephora and OPI online, but at any rate...lots to choose from!

So treat yourself to a mani/pedi at home. Happy fall pampering, gals!

OPI--forest green?

This was in Allure mag, on Allure and Lucky online pages, and now in my Sephora email. I'm not sure what I think about it. I LURVE OPI for sure...but forest green and dark greens are their new thing for fall. What do you think? Too dark? Too much? I'd love to hear thoughts!

p.s. My friend LG and I were discussing how really the cost makes the difference with OPI. It's expensive, but it REALLY is good nail polish. Now that they are issuing fall colors, check out the local beauty supply places in the malls for sales on summer and spring colors. They may even have sets on sale soon. I'll post if I find any good ones!