Products I Am In Love With

It's been a long time since I've been here.  My nails are finally looking decent again and hopefully, I will start posting some pictures again soon.  I have been polishing my nails fairly regularly and I've tried some new products that I am absolutely in love with.

The first one is Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel.  I have a lot of glitter polishes, but truthfully I don't wear them too often because, like everyone else, I hate removing it.  It takes forever and I always end up with little glitter pieces all over everything.  So when I saw this product, I had to try it and it is amazing.  This is how my last glitter mani came off.

This was two coats of Glitter A-Peel, my new favorite base coat, two coats of Julep Jackie, two coats of Julep Firecracker, a coat of Gelous to smooth out the glitter and then my new favorite base coat.  It sounds like a lot of product and I guess it is, but I had no issues with application or drying time and it really didn't feel that thick.

My manicure wore about the same amount of time without chips using the Glitter A-Peel as it does without it.  I noticed that if I'm really using my hands a lot, doing things I shouldn't be doing with my nails like opening cans or trying to open boxes, it can cause the whole sheet of polish to just pop off, which happened to me today while I was getting ready for my cookout tomorrow.  That was me though, not the product.  Showering or washing dishes did not affect my manicure in any way other than normal wear and tear that you would get with any manicure.

I use it on my toes too, even when I use regular polish.  I can never seem to get all the polish off my toenails and it always seems to get stuck on the sides and I have a horrible time getting them clean.  This solved that problem for me.  Thanks to Glitter A-Peel, I can wear my pretty glitters on my fingers and toes again.  I love this stuff.  I may need to buy 10 more bottles.

Then there is my new favorite base and top coat from KBShimmer.  I love her polishes so when I saw she had a new nail prep solution (Nail Prep pH Balancing Pre-Polish Nail Treatment), base coat (Basic Training Nail Polish Base Coat) and top coat (Clearly On Top Quick Dry Top Coat) I snatched them up.  I love them.  Using all three of the products has made my manis last much longer without chipping.  I've been trying different top and base coats, trying to find one a really like, and I believe I finally found them.

The base coat is slightly sticky and my polish adheres really well to it.  The top coat leaves my polish super shiny and dries very quickly.  The nail prep dries quickly also and seems to really help everything stay on the nail surface better.

These three products are definite keepers in my book.  I don't ever want to be without them.

And now I have to go do my nails again since my mani peeled off. :)

Jolly Holly

Here is my Christmas Day manicure.  Not very creative but still I thought it was pretty.

I tried a new product today.  When I ordered my polish from Maya, I noticed they also had a new Smoothing Coat for Glitter, so I picked up a bottle.  I didn't have a chance to try it until today.

I really think it made a difference.  I used a base coat, two coats of China Glaze Jolly Holly (a perfect Christmas green IMO), one coat of kbShimmer Candy Cane Crush, one coat of the Maya Smoothing Coat for Glitter and a coat of Seche Vite.  Using the Smoothing Coat and the Seche really made my nails smmoth and even.  I think one more coat of Seche would have made them perfectly smooth.

The smoothing coat is not a quick dry topcoat and is recommended that you  use it under a fast dry topcoat.  I did and had no issues with the dry time.

The Chine Glaze went on perfectly as usual and dried very fast.  The topcoat of Candy Cane Crush gave it a nice contrasting look but I wish I had been able to pick up more red on the crush.  It still looks all festive and Christmassy anyway.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Nails

I have had festive nails for the last week or so for the holidays.  Red of course, my favorite color.  First of all I have a plain red manicure using Julep's Ellen - a very nice red creme.  It applied flawlessly and covered in two coats.  I love the color. :)

Later this week I did another red mani with Catherine by Julep - another glorious red polish.  I have a lot of red polish.:)  I followed it with two coats of kbShimmer Candy Cane Crush - a clear base with red and white hex glitter of varying sizes.  You can't see the red glitter because I layered it over red polish, but I think I am going to use it over green for Christmas Day.

And the best part?  The Candy Cane Crush smells like peppermint!  The scent lasted quite a while too.  It made me feel all happy and Christmassy.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

It's Not Christmas Bells You're Hearing...

...it's the ring of the cash registers taking all my money for awesome indie polishes.

Nail Mail today.  And this is stuff I ordered before I knew that there would be so many Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales in the indie polish world.  I don't even remember what I ordered, so my packages will be a surprise for me.  What I do remember is that I was able to try a bunch of indies I've been wanting but could not (or thought I could not) get at the moment.  So, I am very excited to see what shows up in my mailbox in the next few weeks.

Today I got a package from kbShimmer.  She has beautiful polishes and bath products.  In addition to the polish, I got three Georgia Peach bath bombs I can't wait to try.  Maybe this weekend I will pamper myself with a nice bath and manicure courtesy of kbShimmer.

Anyway, on to the loot.  I picked up four of her holiday polishes along with the bath bombs:

Aren't they beautiful?  I got:

Candy Cane Crush, a clear base with red and white hex glitter and I think there are some fine white and red glitter as well.  Very Festive!

Berry Christmas - a berry base with fine red glitter.  Of course I had to buy a red polish! :)

Cocoa Nut - a chocolate brown with fine red, gold and I think I may see silver or possible green glitter in there as well.  I think this is the one I am most anxious to try.

And finally, We Three Blings - a clear base with gold irridescent glitter.  It looks very glamorous to me.

All of the polishes look amazing and the bath bombs smell wonderful.

More to come as I bought a lot of polish this weekend.  Now I am off to decide which polish to try first.  Decisions, decisions. :)