Sally Hauls

Hi!


So as I was saying in my previous post, I went to the new Sally Beauty Supplies that opened last month in my town. Super exciting, the people working there are really nice and knowledgeable, a very enjoyable shopping experience.

Here's what I came home with:

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

.: Hemp with Argan Oil Body Moisturizer. I was a bit skeptical at first, wasn't sure if it was gonna smell like hemp a whole lot, but turns out to smell simply divine! It's not an overpowering smell, and the smell stays on for about 3 or 4 hours. Almost 24 hours later, my skin still feels hydrated. (best impulse buy I've done in a long time!)
.: Cotton Gloves. I wanted to try these for a while now, putting a thick coat of body butter or heavy hand cream before slipping these on for the night. I tried them last night, and it really works! I had rashes due to cold weather on top of both my hands, and it's gone. Also, not sure if this is related, but one of my nails had a white spot on it, and it's a lot less noticeable now.

.: Pure Acetone. I was almost running out of it anyway, and it was on sale for $1.99. 
.: Nail Polish Thinner. One of my polishes is.. I don't know.. Too thick? Not sure if it's the problem for sure, but I'm gonna try thinning it. It's my last hope.
.: Cuticle scissors. Not that I cut my cuticles, but I'm hoping it'll be easier to cut the little silk patches for repair.

.: Bubble White. This stuff really works!! I wear 2 coats of base coat, to prevent yellowing, and I'm super paranoid when it comes to this topic. I usually brush my nails with baking soda every time I change my manicure, but if it's getting out of hand, I use this Bubble White product. I leave it on for about 10 minutes, and the yellow hue is gone.

.: Orly Des Fleurs. I was curious to try a pink base for a French manicure. I think it'll be too pink, from the small swatch I did. But we'll see.
.: Orly White Tips. My white from Sally Hansen is getting just too thick, and this one seem good enough to replace it.
These are my very first Orly polishes!

.: China Glaze Broken Hearted. Originally, I wasn't a fan of crackle polish. Until I had it on my nails! I tried this one over my existing (chipping) mani, and it looked great. I did a few tests with the brush stroke, to find out which way it cracks better. This goes on my nails next, that's for sure.
.: China Glaze Crushed Candy. This looks amazing too, it's unbelievable. 
.: China Glaze Liquid Leather. My only other black (from Aldo) is a little on the thin side, and has a beautiful shimmer in it. I just thought I needed a simple black.


This was my second time going to Sally's. The first time, about a month ago, here's what I had bought:

.: Supernail Swiss Silk patches. Works wonders. As soon as you put on the gel, it's completely transparent. And it's tough too.
.: Finger Paint Hue Left Me A  Message? This is my very first FP polish! Though it's a subtle color, it looks really good on my nails. I did one mani with it, that should appear over the next few weeks.
.: China Glaze Grape Juice. My very first CG polish! The shimmers in it look so good! It's a bit on the sheer side, but build up very nicely. I also did a mani with it, to be seen within a few weeks.
.: Wonder Bond Brush-on Gel Glue. This works better than just regular brush-on glue or just any nail glue I've encountered. I pair it with the silk patches, and it stays on for at least 3 changes in manicures. It's very tough on its own too, and doesn't take much time to dry (1-2 min tops).
.: Missing from the picture: 2 individual packets of Bubble White. I wanted to try it first before buying the bigger container.

Also, soon to come on my nails:

So there you have it! My most recent haul. I was tempted to buy more, though, because I saw a new Finger Paint collection, with giant flower rings on some bottles, and a few other China Glaze and Orly polishes that I wanted, but it'll have to wait another time.


Thanks for coming by today! Feel free to leave comments, questions, reactions, etc!


GabZ ♥

Holiday manicures

Hey!!


Whoo! Almost a week since I last posted! I guess time caught up with me, eh. 

Christmas is 2 days away, and for once I'm actually ready to welcome it with all my shopping done! I put up the tree on Tuesday, and we've put all the presents underneath it. I can't wait to see my Hun's face when he opens his main gift!! I really outdid myself this year, I think. 


Back to manicures! As promised, here are the manicures my sister-in-law and I wore to our men's job's Christmas party. 

 My sister-in-law's manicure

I forgot to take a picture of what I used, but I'll tell you. First, I put on a coat of Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Plus. Then I put on 2 coats of Joe Fig. Then I painted half of the nail diagonally with Maybeline Salon Expert #700 Black Is Black. I painted the other half of the nail with Wet n Wild Wild Shine #435G Sparkled. Then I did the little dots with the same black. I topped it off with 1 coat of Nicole's Top Coat Pro.

My manicure

What I used

I started up with 1 coat of Sally Hansen 4-in-1 treatment, followed by 3 coats of Apple Bottoms Club Queen. Then I used  Nail Star Two-Way Nail Art Pen & Brush in green to make the leaves of the mistletoe, and added 3 2mm red rhinestones. I topped everything with a coat of Nicole's Top Coat Pro.

I enjoyed doing my sister-in-law's nails. It was different working on someone else's nails. I didn't quite know how to position her hand to make it easy. I'm super proud of the result, as you can see the lines aren't straight, and the little dots aren't the same shape and spaced the same. But she was happy with her nails and I was super excited to have done my first manicure on someone else! 

I'm not sure if I'll write another post before next week, so I want to take this opportunity to wish you guys the best Holidays, to you and all your family. ;)

Ciao!

GabZ ♥

Weekend Haul, Viva La Nail, Stamped Kisses

Hi!!


Since this will be pretty picture heavy, I want to apologize in advance. I have tons of new goodies I received/bought over the week, and I wanted to show you guys!


First, I want to say that Viva La Nail rocks, big time baby! Remember my last post about them? It was missing a water decal, and they kindly offered to send it to me. Well imagine my surprised when I got a whole new sample pack in the mail this week. I am so impressed with their customer service skills, and I will definitely buy from them again. Here are the stickers and decals I got this time:

Last weekend, I got to Rimouski, and while my sister-in-law was shopping for shoes, I went into the dollar store. Here's what I got:

 Ultra fine glitter!

 To store the glitter without a mess

 Different shape rhinestones

And when I came looking out for her in the Aldo, look what I found:

"Twilight Rendez-Vous Prune Givrée" & " Hit The Pavement Perfecto"

Now after that, we went to Winners. Have you ever been to one? Last time I went, I bought 5 Borghese polishes for $15.99, when the original price for just one of these babies is $13.99 at my local drug store. I think it's like the equivalent of Marden's in the US. Well this time, here's what I found:

Can you believe it?! Sèche Vite for $7.99! I thought I'd have to buy it online, as I don't have a beauty store in my area (the closest is like a 3hr drive..) So that's why I bought 2 bottles.


I also got these:

And this pack also came with 2 packs of stencils:

And then on Monday, I went to the mail box, and I picked up my stamper/scratcher combo:

So of course, with all these new toys, I had to try them on! Here's the mani I did 2 days ago:

This is 1 coat of Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro, with 2 coats of Twilight Rendez-Vous Prune Givrée, 1 coat of Sèche Vite, stamped the kisses on BM02 plate using Hit The Pavement Perfecto, topped with another coat of Sèche Vite. I realize the stamping isn't that visible, but it's just because I thought that if I'd mess up the stamping, I wouldn't have to redo my mani. I have 4 nails with a little bandage, and I didn't want to spend time to redo them all again!

Twilight applied a little streaky for the first coat, but a second coat evened everything out. As for Sèche Vite, I have to say I now understand what all the fuss is about. Wow! By the time I was done my thumb, my pinky was already dry to the touch. The only downside to SV is the tip shrinkage.. It may just be a reaction to the Twilight polish, but I think I read another blogger having the same reaction. So.. If anyone has any tips to prevent the shrinkage, it'd be much appreciated!


So here's the giga post for tonight! Thanks for reading me, and for taking the time to come by!

Next, there will be the Holiday manicures I made last Friday, for the my Hun's and brother's Christmas party.


GabZ ♥

Harry Potter Nails

Hi!


I know this is a bit late, since the movie Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows came out last Friday, but here was I was sporting to that event:

Here's what I used:

- Apple Bottoms Gold Mine
- Joe Fig
- Rimme Base Coat Top Coat Pro
- Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black



Though the idea of putting the snitch on my ring finger is all mine, I have to admit that the rest of the manicure was inspired by Dollface's tutorial for her Griffondor nail art, that you can see by going here: Click! I liked the idea of flickers of red over the gold, and putting out the scar over it was pretty nice too. But I didn't want to make multiple scars, just one on each nails, and I thought black was popping out more.


There you go! Stay tuned for next post, about my birthday nails!

Slanted black French

Yo! 
Today's design is inspired by micky2515's mani on Youtube, that you can watch here: Click! I was ecstatic when a lady at the store noticed my nails and told me they looked good! It was the first time someone had noticed my nails and made a comment about them. Felt great!

For this, I used:
- Sally Hansen 4-in-1 treatment as a base coatf
- The cheap eBay liners in black and white
- Maybeline Salon Expert #700 Black Is Black
- L.A. Colors Art Deco NA903 Silver Glitter
- Nicole by OPI Top Coat Plus

I had waited at least an hour before putting on the top coat, but it still dragged some of the black polish all over the nails.. Oh well.. Now I learned that it can't be trusted for French manis!  

Migraine obliged, I'm gonna stop it here, and go to bed before my head explodes. See you next post! 

Very first nail arts

Hi guys!


So today, I will talk about my very first attempts at nail art. As I previously stated, I've been doing this for only about a month.


My very first try was on my toes. I was tired of my toes being all pink, so I needed a change. I decided to paint my toes all black. Now, that in itself wasn't bad, but made my feet look dirty. So I needed to do something else. I had my trusty French tip pen with me at the time, so I just did some diagonal stripes on top of the black. Here's what it looked like:

 

For this, I used:
- Sally Hansen Complete Care 4-in-1 treatment (as a base coat)
- Maybeline Salon Expert #700 Black Is Black
- Nailene Pearly White French Tip pen
- no top coat


Sorry for the appearance of my toes!

 


For my first attempt on my finger nails, it went a little better. I already had the pretty shiny green on my nails, but was getting tired of it by itself. So I painted half in diagonal with black, and did some little dots using a toothpick. Here's what it looked like: 

In a dark room, with a flash



 





In a bright room, no flash.


What I used:
- Sally Hansen Complete Care 4-in-1 treatment (as a base and top coat)
- Rimmel 60 Seconds #819 Green With Envy
- Maybeline Salon Expert #700 Black Is Black





Hope you guys enjoyed it! See you soon! :D