Beauty Updates + Sally Hansen Giveaway

I just got back from a wonderful trip to Kroger. They marked down a lot of really great beauty products from popular brands like Covergirl and Maybelline.

I'll be doing a few reviews of the products AND will be giving some of them away to (the very few) readers ;P

Starry Nails

Hello again~

I still don't have a camera, but this cellphone pic seems better than the webcam ones.


For this project, I picked up another Super Star by PURE ICE to mix with the crappy GCOCL paint. I have a nice printable yellow now. :)

Using a base coat of Love Nails by SINFULCOLORS, apply 3-4 coats (this polish is very thin, but SHINY~~~).

I say to use that many because the stamp template will be divided for placement. What I mean by this is that we only use a portion of the stamp at a time. This can cause so leftover unwanted stamp images to smudge onto the nail. If this happens, take a Q-tip with polish remover and lightly remove the leftovers. You should have enough base layer that it won't completely remove your base.

Using the star design from template m11 (see below), space the stars across your nails. I mixed mine up between the outline and the second largest star. :)


If you haven't been following, this template is from the set from the BPS:

Free Hello Kitty Nail Stickers

Hello!

I just wanted to spread the word about these adorable little Hello Kitty Nail Stickers.

They're free! Just retweet the tweet and enter the link into your comment section during the order. :)

Follow the link for the instructions.

http://www.bornprettystore.com/free-hello-kitty-sticker-twitter-n-17.html

Salux- Japanese Beauty Skin Wash Cloth

Okay, so I've finally gotten around to making a post about something other than nails.

This cloth is AMAZING and is GREAT for pedicures.


It exfoliates your skin so easily. My skin feels baby soft after using. :D It's won an award in Japan for how wonderful it is.

Now, I first saw this when I was browsing through the the reviews at Makeupalley and thought "that looks so cheap, why does it have such a high rating?" Last time I checked it had a 100% for it's feedback.

Among the hundreds of reviews, a few but rare negative comments were things like "I scrubbed with this thing but it was horrible, unless you intended on taking off a layer of skin" or "I showered like this and it felt like I was washing with a plastic bag".

Here's the deal: there are specific instructions for use with these cloths.

1) You do not "scrub" your body. The cloth is made so you just wipe yourself with it and it scrubs your body without almost any effort.

2) The packaging specifically says "Keep SALUX away from the direct flow of water". You're not supposed to shower with it like a loofah (in all honesty, this is WAYYY better than a loofah). If you shower with it, of course you'll feel like you're showering with a paper bag. It's not supposed to be soaked. Your body needs to be wet, not the cloth.

Keep in mind, this originated in Japan. In Japan, generally you clean yourself off before entering the bath or shower.

3) Don't buy online unless it's from a proven authentic shop. There are MANY bait'n switches online, especially on Amazon. I'm not affiliated, but others from Makeupalley said http://www.saluxshop.com/ is authentic. Your best bet *and cheapest* is to go to your local Asian grocery. The first place I checked was the one down a couple blocks from me. I was so happy that they had it. :)

4) Avoid the off brands like Italy towel and such. They're usually a little cheaper, and I've heard that they only sorta work and are not nearly as effective. But, if you have a few bucks laying around, I always encourage experimentation. :)

I was amazed with how quickly it dried. It's long enough so that you can clean your entire backside without having to reach. Hold it like a towel wrapped around you and pull it left-right (or right-left if you prefer ;) ).


Stay pretty girls!

~Cupcake Party~

Who doesn't love cupcakes? I received this sucker from a friend, and I thought it would make a cute nail project.

Here's an upclose shot of the sprinkles. I took these first two photos with a friend's cellphone hoping it would show up better than the webcam (I still don't have any funds for a real camera yet, sorry!).

And below is a photo of all the nails via crappy webcam:
This project is so fun and really easy to do! All you need is a cute base (mine was Oasis from SINFULCOLORS), a thinner brush polish (ART DECO's Blue Glitter), and a glitter polish (mine's from L.A. Colors).

If you can't tell from the photos, you just use a base color for the whole nail, the glitter from the top of the cupcake, and then draw in the cupcake holder lines with the thin brush polish. I added rhinestones from the BPS store.

This is the one I used:

But if you really care about your rhinestone action, I'd actually recommend a different one. These ones are cute and really effing cheap, but I'd pay a little extra from something with a little more variety in color. I want this set next:



See what I mean by variety? I kind of felt limited in color usage with this project and had to repeat colors.

Anywho~ I'm looking forward to the next project. Take care~ :)

Porcelain Tea Party Perfection

Do you remember the old porcelain tea sets your mother gave you to have makeshift tea parties with Mr. Teddy and Mrs. Kitty?

Continuing with our trendy white nail base, I thought we'd attempt porcelain tea party nails. :)

Now, I'm pretty new to nail art. I've been learning a lot of things like how not waiting long enough between coats will leave your polish with tiny bumps and air bubbles. :(

I've also been learning how to mix the GCOCL nail polish in order to use them for stamping (which I did! :D ).

You might not have heard of this brand (it's Korean), but I had some leftover polish from ETUDE HOUSE. It was a light turquoise BL501 and I mixed in the blue GCOCL for the purpose of this project.

Mind you, I don't have much to work with right now. I have 4 PURE ICE polishes that work wonderfully for stamping, handful of runny, non-stamp-able polishes and a handful of very dry but pigmented polishes. Mixing the runny SAN FRANSICO by SINFULCOLORS with the Green from GCOCL, we also managed a stamp-able green tint.

See the photo below~


As you can see, my first attempt wasn't exactly perfect, but it's getting there~

Now I noticed for this stamp template, M73 ( not to be mistaken with m73), the colors might run together. If you have shaky hands or hard to control nail polish, you might consider stamping the flower and the petals separately. That will give you more control over your placement of the stamp and its appearance.

Also, I didn't take a photo of my other hand, but you can double up the roses on your thumb finger (so there are two back to back diagonally). It looks adorable. :)


If you'd like to purchase this particular template, it comes in a 12 pack:



Here's an up close shot of the available templates in this lot: