At home gel manicure - Couture Gel Nail Polish

Melissa, the president of Couture Gel Nail Polish contacted me to see if I wanted to do a review of her at home gel nail polish kit and of course being nail polish obsessed I said yes!  I was definitely intrigued to try it out.

The lamp to cure your nails (I was silly and didn't take off the blue sticker before I took this photo but you are suppossed to take it off before using it which I did.)

The Base and Top coat that helps seals the nail polish

The five colors I chose:

Amethyst Crush
Chic

Cashmere 
Cranberry Cosmo

Pretty in Pink

I went for mostly pinks but a mix of creme, shimmers and glitter polishes.

I've done a manicure about 3 times with this kit and I love it every time.  The steps are super simple.  Basically, base coat - cure under lamp for 2 mins. Paint your color and then cure for 2 mins.  Top coat and then cure for 2 mins.  That's it!  Of course you need to prep your nails before hand like with filing and getting your cuticles nice and clean but I do that with any manicure.  I love how fast the process is AND it's instantly drying so you never have to worry about smudging.  Oh and one last step after you're done is to just run a cotton pad with rubbing alcohol on it over the tops of the nails and it removes the stickiness and creates an extra shiny coat for your nails.

Pros:

• Super fast painting to drying time
• No smudges
• Last up to 3 weeks without chips
• 75 colors to choose from 
• Not having to paint and repaint your nails every week if you don't feel like it.
• Auto timer on the lamp so you don't have to sit there and watch the clock, just push a button to start and the light will turn off when it's done.

Cons:

• You have to be really good at cleaning up your polish mistakes before you cure it, otherwise you are stuck with polish on your cuticles and it's not so pretty and not as easy to make clean lines like with regular polish.
• Peel off - I think this comes with practice too but I think I overpainted my base or top coat onto my fingers so one of the edges started curling up and then got caught on a shirt and then the whole gel polish ripped off my finger nail like a press on nail (don't worry it didn't hurt)
• Storage - I already have so much nail polish and little room to store it so to have to store the lamp is not helping but it's totally worth it for the chip free nails.
• The kit is pricey but if you get enough salon manicures it may be worth the savings.

I painted the majority of my nails with Pretty in Pink (my favorite so far) and an accent nail with Cranberry Cosmo.

I highly recommend it.  I've been so busy lately and haven't been able to pay attention to my nails so this has been a great solution for me to still have nice looking nails without having to take time out for a full on manicure every week.  You can get it here!

OPI Nail Polish - Germany collection review

I'm still holding on to the summer by painting my nails bright colors but have been on the lookout for some fall colors as I do love my darks as much as I do my brights.  I love dark reds, purples and blues for the fall so when I got these new colors from OPI's new Germany collection I thought I'd do a review.  My disclaimer is that I'm no where near as good as photographing or painting my nails as some of the best nail polish blogs out there (my favorites are All Laquered Up and Nailside) but before buying polishes I always try to see what they look like on other bloggers so thought I'd just show you guys what they look like on me.

OPI Germany Collection

 

Here's Suzi & the 7 Dusseldorfs, which I'd describe as a purple-pink shimmer.  I really love this color and will probably pair this with a silver accent nail next time.  This is two coats and it's perfect as is.  This one is my favorite!

Blues can sometimes look weird on my skin tone but I liked that Unfor-greta-bly Blue was not a deep shade of blue or too light either.  I also went with two coats with this but I found that one coat was really pretty if you didn't want too deep of a blue.

I do love a good dark red but with my pale skin (I took these photos before my vacation so I'm much more tan now but it won't last.) this dark of red just doesn't look great against my skintone.  Every Month Is Oktoberfest is a deep red but not quite burgundy.  I prefer the red of the Orly polish in Smolder that I reviewed here.  I did two coats here which probably made it a shade darker than I like it so next time I may just go with one coat.

Out of all the nail polish brands that I've tried, OPI has the best brushes and consistency.  It's not too thin or gloopy and applies exactly where you want it to go.  Overall, I liked the colors and the shimmer of this collection.  I think I'm going to try it out with a matte topcoat as they might look really pretty to take the shine out of the colors.

If you want to get inspired by some really great nails, check out my nail polish pinterest board! 

Disclosure: Products were provided by PR for consideration but do not affect my opinions in any way.

Dove Giveaway Winner!

THANK YOU so much to everyone who entered my giveaway!  Just a quick post to announce the winners.

I've chosen two winners and they are.. Portia G. and Colleen B.!  Congrats! Check your email as I've already sent both of you messages.  As soon as I hear back, I'll get the prizes out as soon as I can!

Also, Dove was kind enough to send me a few samples of the Dove Clinical Protection and I wanted to do a more thorough review.  As I mentioned I've been hitting the gym up to 5 times a week lately so it's definitely gotten a lot of use and made to work!  It's got a great clean scent and definitely keeps the sweat away.  The best part is, I don't have to worry about being the stinky one at the gym.  If I could, I would pass this out to everyone in my yoga class.  HAHA!  I love yoga but with all the deep breathing, sometimes all I can concentrate on is on how the person next to me smells (and not in a good way).  It's probably the close proximity and the large amount of people in the class which probably doesn't help, but at least with my Dove deodorant, I don't have to be the stinky person! (or at least I hope I'm not!)

Thank you to Dove for supplying the giveaway prize and for the samples!

Butter London Lippy!

I'm not one to match my nails and toenails when painting my nails.  I like mixing it up!  However, have you ever thought of matching your nails to your lips?  I haven't but when I saw the Butter London Lippy and the matching polish, I loved it!

 Trout Pout Lippy and Nail Polish | Yummy Mummy Lippy and Nail Polish

I tried out Trout Pout which is a vibrant peachy-orange and Yummy Mummy which is a beige-y nude.  I loved the combo so tried a scalloped mani.  It didn't turn out as well as I'd like but wanted to show you the colors.  They really go well together and Yummy Mummy is a great color on it's own for the "mannequin nail" trend.

click here for my bow ring!

It's really pink in that picture but Trout Pout is more orange in person.  It's a lovely color and really great for the summer.  And swatches of the Lippy glosses to show you that it comes out pretty true to the color shown in the tube.  On the lips, they are true to the lip gloss consistency of being more sheer which I liked.  So although they are pretty perfect matches in the tube, if you wear them together nobody will really notice that you are wearing the same color on your lips and nails, it just coordinates in a good way.

Trout Pout is my favorite on the lips as it's a perfect glossy peach that looks great on it's own or layered on top of lipstick.  Yummy Mummy makes my lips look a little gray so I don't wear it alone but it works well to neutralize a too bright lipstick so I have been wearing it as a top gloss for my lipsticks.

These are my first Butter London polishes and I really like how creamy they go on.  I barely needed a second coat!  The Lippy glosses are really smooth on and are a bit sticky but not as bad as MAC Lipglass sticky.  The one thing that I did not like was the fragrance of the lip glosses.  It's almost a fruity scent, reminds me of watermelon candy.  If you aren't a fan of fragrances in your make up then probably stay away but if you don't mind it, I do recommend these glosses. 

Here are the other colors in the collection.  I definitely want to get another but can't decide which one, I love all of them!

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by PR for consideration but does not affect my review or opinions in any way. 

Oh and I posted on how to do DIY Polka Dot nails so check it out!  It's easier than you think!

Three Custom Color Review and Giveaway

This week inadvertently turned into a beauty week with my Beauty faves and my hair tutorial, so I thought I'd end the week with a review of a fabulous lip palette and a giveaway!

Three Custom Color Specialists asked me to pick out something from their website and I veered toward the lipstick because I've always heard great things about their lipsticks but when I saw this lip palette, I had to have it.

 

It's the Shimmering Lights palette and I just really loved the range of colors from the nudes to the reds to the pinks.  When I got it though, what I really liked about it was just how sheer the colors really were.  I've been trying the whole bright lipstick thing and finally after seeing several pictures of myself, decided that I prefered light to nude colors on me better.  I won't give up the hot pink lipstick as I think it's still a lot of fun but for normal daily wear, I stick with a much more natural color for my lips.  I did a little swatch of all the colors here and as you can see the color variation isn't too dramatic so all the colors are great for blending and layering.  If I want a nude with a hint of pink, I can do that or if I just want a more pink tone, I just layer a few of the pinks together.  They all go on very sheer, in the below color swatches I had to go over at least 3-4 times to get the color to be that noticeable.

The lipstick itself is very moisturizing and with the brush that's included, it's really easy to apply.  I hate too stiff lipstick brushes so this one applies just the right amount of color.  I would totally recommend this palettte to someone like me that likes to stick to natural shades.  I like to play up my eyes more and I've found that all these colors go great with a smokey eye.  The palette is small enough to fit into my purse quite nicely and the mirror is a great size.  Oh! and the lipsticks do not have any sort of fragrance which is always a plus in my book. 

I've never used this brand before but I am very impressed with this lipstick and looking around on the website, I want to try a lot more stuff!  I'm a huge fan of palettes so I am thinking of ordering their Perfectly Pink lip palette next and also love their Daytime Drama Collection palette as well.

Well, I wanted to give you guys a chance to play around with this brand as well so I'm giving away a $50 gift certificate to 3 Custom so that you can choose something fab for yourself!

I'm trying out the Rafflecopter giveaway widget so hope you guys like it and this will hopefully be an easier way for me to track giveaway entries and pick a winner!





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