Blue Nails for Autism

I've been seeing a lot of blue nails for autism so I also decided to do that to show my participation in this cause. I just have a simple blue manicure. I've had this manicure for 3 days now that's why it's not at it's best anymore. I used China Glaze in Hanging in the Balance for my blue base color. Then I used Icing by Claire in Twisted Fantasy. Twisted Fantasy is a blue jelly with multicolored hexagonal glitters. It's now that hard spreading the glitters all over my nails. After applying one coat I just wait for a few minutes to put another coat so that the glitters won't move around. I think I did 3 coats of Twisted Fantasy here to cover my nails with glitters.

I took this photos consecutively but it has different lighting. I guess it's just because of the angle of my hands on the second picture.

Glossybox Canada March 2013

I received my Glossybox yesterday and I can't wait to share with you guys everything that I got yesterday.

This is what the Glossybox outer packaging looks like.

This is the box itself. I really love this box. It's pink, very girly. The box is also reusable. It's perfect for additional storage solutions.

For me, Glossybox really has the best packaging compared to other beauty boxes. The tissue covers the products inside. It is tied with a pink ribbon and has a Glossybox sticker.

And. . .  the best part of unboxing, seeing the contents of the box! The 2 full sized products first caught my eye. I was also very excited to see 4 bottles of L'oreal products.

Glossybox message

This is the product info card. It enumerates all the products included in your box, including the price and a short description of the product. 

There were also a couple of coupons included in this month's box. I never really bother using coupons that I got from the other boxes, but this month's coupons are something that I can really use. One coupon is $3 off for any L'oreal Youth Code products. The other one is you get a free Biore Cleanser when you buy a Biore Pore Strips.

100% Natural mineral Formula. Cruelty free and BUAV approved vegan.

Value: $10.80

It's a nice grey shade, perfect for evening make up. It's not too dark when you apply it. It has a nice shimmer that will make the color of your eyes pop.

Gradually creates flawless, natural-looking colour.

Value: $12.99

I'm a bit hesitant in trying this products. I'm a bit tan and I really don't want to get any darker than my current skin tone. I read some additional information about this product from the Jergens' website. It was stated there that once you have achieved the skin tone that you like, you can maintain this by using the regular Natural Glow moisturizing lotion. If you don't, the color will wear off after 1-2 weeks. I would love to have even skin tone, but I don't think I'll be able to maintain it by using Jergens lotion because I like switching up lotions once in a while. I'll probably just give this product to someone else.

Boosts skin's natural powers of regeneration so it regains and retains its youthful apprearance.

Value: $29.99

Glossybox is being very generous. I got 4 of this L'oreal Youth Code Serum. It's 7.5ml each so 30ml in total.  A little drop goes a long way. It's very light and not sticky on the skin. It leaves my skin soft and smooth. I love this product!

Delivers perfect amount of sheer colour for naturally flushed 'just pinched'  cheeks and a sexy pout.

Value: $24.00

Honestly, I don't know how to do full face make up. Usually, I just put eyeliner, mascara, lipstick and that's it. So I will probably just use this product as a lip tint but not as a blush. The packaging is a nice small tube. It's easy to get the product out. It comes out dark but once you apply it, you'll see a nice red pigment.

Reinforces hair's naturally-protective layer, restoring your hair's beauty and protecting against future damage.

Value: $5.99

I've used some Tresemme products like their shampoo, conditioner and dry shampoo. Tresemme products are good and affordable too. Right now, I'm actually using a Tresemme conditioner. This Platinum Strength conditioner is deep conditioning that you can use once a week. I'll definitely use this one along with my Tresemme conditioner

I'm not a regular Glossybox subscriber anymore. I subcribed in July.2012 until November 2012 only. I cancelled when they increased their price from $15 to $21. I got an email with a 30% off discount code that's why I decided to order the March box. I only paid $14.70 for this box but the total value of the box is actually $83.77. It's totally worth it! Glossybox is definitely better than Glymm, the other beauty box I'm currently subscribed to, but I have to cancel Glossybox because it's too expensive for me. I would've stayed if they kept their price to $15, LOL!

Sally Beauty March Haul

This is the first time that I'll be doing a haul on this blog. I know, I won't be able to do many hauls because I usually just buy things that I need, I only buy stuff that are on sale, and... I don't have the money to do too many hauls! LOL!

I have a Sally Beauty Club Card and I've been a member for over a year now. The membership is so worth it because of all the savings and great deals that I get there. For only $5/year, (that you can also redeem because they will give you a $5 coupon), you get discounted rates on all of their products. I also got a free item when I renewed my membership this year.

Last March, Sally Beauty Supply Canada had some really good deals especially on China Glaze polishes. It was 2 polishes for $10 for almost all China Glaze stock. The Avant Garden collection was also included in these promotion. I would've taken advantage of this offer, however, my local Sally's always run out of the shades that I want. So I just got some of the regular China Glaze polishes. I have pictures down below. I will be making a separate post for the swatches of these polishes.

Aside from the polishes, I also got some nail essentials. I bought Poshe topcoat. This is my favorite topcoat so far. I used to love Seche Vite, but I stopped using it because it contains toluene. Toluene is a toxic chemical that helps the polish to be applied smoothly and adhere better on our nails. I can say that Poshe is as good as Seche Vite as a fast dry topcoat. It also flattens and evens out bumps whenever I have several layers of polishes. It also makes my nails super glossy. It is just like what Seche Vite does based on my experience, but Poshe is non-toxic which makes it a better choice than Seche Vite.

I also bought 2 bottles of Beauty Secrets pure acetone. This is the first time that I tried using pure acetone. It was on sale so I got 2 small bottles. The 2 small bottles was cheaper than the bigger bottle and there is more content. Using pure acetone, made my life a lot easier! Clean up was a breeze. It was very helpful especially because I did the 31-day nail art challenge last month and it helped me produce neat nail art designs.

Lastly, the item that I was most excited about, China Glaze Matte Magic! I thought China Glaze already discontinued this product and I was really surprised to see this on sale. It was just a mini bottle and it was 2 for $10 as well, just like the polishes. I got it just in time, because my Essie Matte About You has already dried up. Matte Magic really does its work. There is no shine at all once you apply it on your nails. I just noticed that it dries a little longer compared to Essie Matte About You.

I hope you enjoyed this haul. I'll be posting the swatches as soon as I can.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge Wrap Up

I can't believe I finished the 31 day nail art challenge. It was definitely a challenge for me. Changing polishes everyday is tough. You need to work on a new design. You also have to remove yesterday's design no matter how lovely it turned out to be. For this post, I just want to share the "most" and the "least" among all 31 designs:

Most favorite challenge:

Of course, it is my Day 13 challenge, Animal Print nails. I also repeated it on Day 31 where I have to recreate my favorite challenge. I just love this design. It's so easy to do and it just looks so great I can't stop staring at my nails.

Least favorite challenge: 

My least favorite is from Day 25 entry, Inspired by Fashion. I just don't like because I'm not really into fashion. I was excited with the other "inspired by" challenges because I love books, movies, music, etc. With fashion, I don't really have much interest and it was the challenge that I wasn't really looking forward to do.

Challenge with the most time spent:

This is definitely the Tribal Print from. It has a lot of details on each nail. I think it took me at least 2 hours to do this challenge. It was really time consuming but I like how it turned out.

Challenge with the least time spend:

I'm not really sure exactly how many minutes I spend on each challenge, but for the manicure with the least time spend, it would have to be the first few challenges. Days 1 -6 are all about just one color, so I just swatched one polish on my nails. It only took me less than 30 minutes to do each swatch. The colors are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.

Surprisingly awesome outcome:

I'd have to say this is the Galaxy Nails. It was actually my first time to do galaxy nails and I was totally clueless about it. So I just dabbed several colors on my nails. Everything was so random and I didn't think I'll be able to make it look like a galaxy. Surprisingly, it turned out great and it really looks like galaxies.

Most hated outcome:

May water marbles is not my thing and would never be. I was really disappointed with my Water Marble Nails. This was already my 3rd time doing water marbles and I also learned a lot of different techniques to achieve a uniform design. However, everytime I try to do it, it just doesn't turn out well. It's really frustrating.

This month-long challenge, inspired me to do better in nails art and also to start this blog. I just feel so happy that I made it!

April Fools Day Nails

Pardon the pictures as they are a bit disgusting. LOL!

For today's nail design, I decided to do something weird. I found this tutorial a few months ago and it was originally for halloween. This is Packapunchpolish's Ripped Flesh nail art. You can find the video here:

I used Essie in Russian Roulette which is perfect for red blood nails. For the nude color, I used Cocolily in Nude Snow. It is actually a nude shimmer polish. After putting nude snow, I decided to put a thin layer of L'oreal in Sweet Nothings to lessen the shimmer appearance from Nude Snow. The matte top coat that I used here is Matte Magic by China Glaze. I just used a dotting tool to "rip" the flesh on my nails.

It actually turned out pretty well. When I rode the bus early today, I saw some passengers who noticed my nails and I can tell by their facial expressions that they were grossed out. There was also another lady who was surprised when she saw my nails. She said that at first look she really thought it was real.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!

Day 31: Recreate your favorite challenge (31-Day Nail Art Challenge)

Today's the last day of the challenge! Out of all the 30 designs that I did for the whole month, my most favorite is the Giraffe Print Nails from Day 13. That was the first time that I did giraffe print and I really liked how it turned out. I also got some compliments with that design. Someone even thought that I used nail wraps for the design. I also changed it up a little bit because instead of using a pale yellow base color, I used a gold glitter polish. I just did the same steps in creating the giraffe print. Here are my giraffe print nails:

This blog doesn't stop here. I have a lot of ideas and input that I want to add here. So, I'll see you around!

Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial (31-Day Nail Art Challenge)

I'm almost done with the whole month of challenge, whew! For today's design, I decided to do cutepolish's Ladybug Tutorial. You can find the video here: 

So I just followed the steps in her video. The polishes that I used are Essie in Russian Roulette for the red base color, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black out and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On for the details of the ladybug. Here are the photos:

I'll see you tomorrow for the last challenge!

Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural (31-Day Nail Art Challenge)

For today's challenge, I decided to do Frankenstein Nails. I used Icing by Clair in Laser Light Show which is a metallic yellow green shade. I makes the design lighter and night scary compared to using a darker green polish. It's also perfect for spring! For the hair and the mouth I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out. I designed the hair using a dotting tool and I used a striping brush to draw the lines for the mouth. Then for the eyes, I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On and Black Out. I put the white polish first using a dotting tool, followed by the black polish. There you go!

I'll see you on Day 30!

Day 28: Inspired by a Flag (31-Day Nail Art Challenge)

For today's challenge, may inspiration are racing flags. They are just your regular flag with black and white squares. I decided to change it a little bit by using different colors. It actually turned out to be racing flag/checked pattern nails, lol!

My pink base color is Maybelline in Chiffon Chic. I love this color. I've been looking for a bubblegum pink crème polish and this is the loveliest I've ever seen. The darker color that I used is Sheswai in What. It's a dark brown crème with a hint of violent. I applied Chiffon Chic first. Then using a striping brush dipped it in What and drew a horizontal and a vertical line on each of my nails. Then I filled the 2 opposite spaces using a dotting tool.

I'll see you on Day 29!

Day 27: Inspired by an Artwork (31-Day Nail Art Challenge)

Today's entry is really challenging for me. I'm not really into artworks such as painting, sculpture, etc. So I just browsed on the internet and I came across this website, Art Works Gallery. It features Western Canadian artists. I chose "Shadows, R0105" by Martin Quen. This is the picture of Shadows:

I just decided to use the topmost part in today's challenge. I used all Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes here. My base color is White On. I dabbed a little of Mellow Yellow on the lower center part of my nails then I used Black Out for all the lines. It's not really 100% like the painting, but it's the best that I can do for now. Here's the outcome:

I'll see you on Day 28!