Favorites: February 2014

January and February down, bring on March and Spring! Seriously though where did the first two months of 2014 go?

Today I have my favorite products of February to share with you guys.

Up first are some hair prodcuts that I received from BzzAgent and have been testing out. It's the Neutrogena Triple Repair shampoo, conditioner and a leave-in treatment. Not going to go into much detail because I plan to do a full review of them. In short, I like them.

I have been loving my Eclos Moisture therapy Regenerative Cream during the cold months. This moisturizer is too thick for me to use during the summer, but it's perfec

Review: Fing'rs Heart 2 Art Lace Up Nail Art Kit

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I discovered Fing'rs products at my local Walmart towards the end of 2013 and they sold out pretty quickly and never got any new products in, but luckily while I was shopping at Walmart a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon some clearance items and found this little gem! It's the Fing'rs Heart 2 Art Lace Up Nail Kit and it was only $3.50! The kit comes with three tiny (.54 fl. oz.) bottles of polish and two lace applique sheets, each sheet has 10 appliques.

As soon as I got this home I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, a gradient mani then apply the appliques. I thought the white space on the appliques was clear, but they are completely open, only the black lines. This made it a tad bit difficult to get them off the sheet and on to my nails. I had to be extra careful so I got the whole applique with out it tearing. After I messed the first one up I got the hang of it and the rest went quite smoothly. After applying the appliques I had to use a file to file off the excess, this process went much smoother than I thought it would and did not leave any jagged edges.

The only other issue I had was the applique that would be for the ring finger was quite small and did not cover up my whole nail, all the other fingers fit just fine.

Overall I am very happy with this little kit, I was able to achieve such a cool nail look. Wear time has been pretty good with these too, I honestly thought they would peel up or have random pieces that would stick up, but with a good coat of top coat, I had no issues with them.

Oh how I wish my Walmart would keep little kits like this in their store all the time LOL

Have you tried any of the Fing'rs Kits? What did you think about them?

TIOT: Zoya Happi

I got my TIOT posts out of order, was supposed to have posted this a couple weeks ago, oops. So today I am bringing you the last polish I got from that amazing Zoya deal earlier this year, Happi, and it's a beauty! It's a medium tone pink with hints of gold, so pretty!!

Just look at that hint of gold!

The application of the polish was great! I did have to use 3 coats to get it to the opacity that I wanted and even with the 3 coats I can still see my nail line. I think I will be using this a lot on my toes this spring.

I have my TIOT posts jotted down all the way till the middle of June! Hopefully I'll keep them in order, but knowing me I'll make little changes here and there LOL. I can tell you that next weeks TIOT will be I Only Shop Vintage from Sephora by OPI.

Duri Cosmetics: Tutti Frutti

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I wanted to share the rest of the Tutti Frutti collection with y'all today. This is an awesome collection of 12 polishes for Spring, there is a mix of pinks, reds, oranges and fuchsia shades and they range from light to dark.

The 12 colors Tutti Frutti Collection are:
Jamberry - A bold saturated clear pink
Queen Mangosteen - A deep radiant rich mid-tone lavender pink
Dragon Fruit - A multi-faceted, vivid, bright fuchsia-based pink
Peach Buzz - A modern twist on peach with a bubblegum pink finish
Raspberry Sorbet - A plump berry mash rich in raspberry and pink hues with a hint of rosebud
Plum Seduction - an eccentric high wattage plum-fuchsia matte
Orange Karma - A vibrant exuberant juicy orange
Wild Berry - a cool, clean, moist red berry hue
Strawberry Feeling - a luscious strawberry pink metallic
Cherry Merry -  a ripe, reflective cherry red
Apple Temptation - A bright and light sweet apple candy red
Currant Temper - an addictive raisin-plum with metallic glimmer

Jamberry and Raspberry Sorbet: I really love both of these colors and love the look I was able to create for Valentine's day using them.

Orange Karma and Plum Seduction: Lovely water marble

Born Pretty Store is Giving.....

Away free nail art wheels and it is super easy to enter! Head on over to their post about this on their blog HERE for full details.

Basically you just have to share the banner they provided on 2 of your websites and leave a comment letting them know you have done so and include your email address. For extra prizes you can write up a small blog post sharing the news!

Born Pretty Store has an awesome array of nail art supplies at amazing prices and shipping is always free!
You can check out all their nail art wheels here: http://www.bornprettystore.com/show.php?filter=new_arrivals&cid=414

Water Marble: Duri Cosmetics Orange Karma & Plum Seduction

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The past couple days we have had warmer weather and it's making me long for Spring even more so I thought I would do a fun and colorful mani that would look great for the spring and summer. I used Orange Karma and Plum Seduction from Duri Cosmetics 2014 Summer collection called Tutti Frutti.

Orange Karma is a gorgeous bright orange cream polish and Plum Seduction is a beautiful Fuchsia-Purplely color that dries to a matte finish. Plum Seduction reminds me a lot of Sinful Colors Dream On, need to do a comparison post on them.

I will have to say Orange Karma worked great as a water marbling polish, but Plum Seduction did not and I think it was just because it's a matte finish and it dries quicker than regular polishes. Overall I like the finished look that I got.

Please excuse the cell phone photo, my regular camera hated these colors and would not cooperate to save my life. I seriously took over 30 photos of this nail look and the was the best photo out of the bunch.

Duri Cosmetics nail polishes can be purchased online for $6 a bottle.

Mish Mash Challenge: Seasons

Welcome to the final installment of the Mish Mash Challenge! This has been a super fun challenge and has definitely challenged me with my nail art.

I was talking with my hubby about the theme for this week, which is seasons, and I was asking him what he thought I should do for it. Well he came up with an awesome idea then asked if he could paint them too, and I was like sure! His idea was to paint each nail to reflect a different season. He did all of my nails free handed!

On my index finger he painted a flower to represent spring. On my middle finger he did a beach with a palm tree to represent summer. On my ring finger he did a tree with all the colored leaves to represent fall. And last but not least on my little finger he did a snow scene for winter.

He said he didn't like the way it came out, but I think he did a really great job for all of it to be free handed and him being a nail novice! What do you think?

Be sure to stop by the other ladies and check out what the did for seasons!

An InLinkz Link-up

TIOT: China Glaze Rare & Radiant VS. Finger Paints Bombshell

Today I will be comparing China Glaze Rare & Radiant from the Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection and Finger Paints Bombshell from the Vintage Glam Collection. I've had Bombshell since last year and used it a few times and really liked for the duo chrome finish that it has. Then I was browsing on Amazon earlier this year, (possible even the end of last year) and seen Rare & Radiant from China Glaze and it caught my eye, put it on my wish list and finally decided to purchase it  a few weeks ago. Now I have two polishes that are identical!

Let's have a look at the polish in the bottles first, I can't see any differences. Can you?

Valentine's Day Nails

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♥♥♥Happy Valentine's Day♥♥♥

Valentine's Day, the perfect day to break out all the pink nail polish, what am I talking about any day is a good day for pink polish! My Valentine's Day mani features two new polishes from Duri Cosmetics Tutti Frutti Spring/Summer 2014 collection, Raspberry Sorbet and Jamberry.

Jamberry, I want to say is a baby pink by just looking at the bottle, but it's just a little bit darker looking on the nails. It's a cream polish that dries super fast. When I first applied this as my base color I didn't really like it, but the longer I wear it the more I like it. I think it would look cute on the toes for spring.

Raspberry Sorbet is a super pretty, darker pink color, that in my opinion looks like it could possibly be a jelly polish, I will need to experiment with it a little bit more. This one took a little longer than Jamberry to dry, but I love it!

Another thing that I love about all they Duri polishes I've tried is that they all dry with a nice shiny finish to them. I do apply a top coat over it just to protect my mani though. All Duri polishes retail for $6.00 and are available at Duri.com as well as salons and specialty stores nationwide. Duri polishes are also free from DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde.

On to the mani! Like I said I used Jamberry for my base color then I used Raspberry Sorbet to stamp cute little hearts on using Mash plate number 48. Even though I smudged my hearts a little I still really love this mani, I just think it's really cute and so appropriate for Valentine's Day.

No Flash

With Flash

What kind of manicure did you do for Valentine's Day? Any plans for VDay?
Hubby and I already celebrated VDay when we celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 10th! I think today we will just go out and play in the snow :)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Snow Day

I didn't have a post scheduled for today, so I thought I would share some of my snow photos with y'all! I live in the mountains of NC so I'm used to the snow, but this is the biggest snow we've had all winter. We got around 6 1/2 to 7 inches of snow last night.

My little car is not going anywhere for the next few days

The river across the road from my house always draws my cameras attention

I spotted a little bit of blue sky :)

Mountain across from my house

My front yard

Did you get any snow in your area?

Mish Mash Challenge: Black and White

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The moment I received this snowflake stamping plate from Born Pretty Store I knew I wanted to use it for this weeks challenge, I was thinking night time snow! I love how my mani turned out and the plate worked great! I used my Konad scraper and stamper with the plate and the scrapper did cause the plate to get some scratches, I should really use a gift card, but I feel like I don't get as clean of a scrape with the gift card. The stamps came out really clear on my nails, I'm quite impressed with this plate and see myself getting a lot of use from it.

I used Pure Ice Blackout as my base color and used Snow Me White from Sinful Colors to stamp with. Snow Me White is my all time favorite white stamping polish, it works so good and does not seem to smear/smudge when I apply my top coat.

Wanted to add that this plate is only $2.99 at the Born Pretty Store and you can save an additional 10% off your order by using coupon code: SMBW10

Now let's check out what the ladies did for Black and White!

TIOT: Zoya Zuza & A Award

Today I am showing another polish that I got from the Zoya promotion earlier this year and I was also nominated for an Award! So today's polish is Zuza, oh my goodness so gorgeous! It is actually a little more teal looking in person than it is showing up in these photos. Either way it is still super pretty, and has a gorgeous silver shimmer to it. I just love it!

The formula was good, I did have to work a little quick with it though, I was having some dragging issues. Other than that it went on great. Wear time was great too, never had any chips just a little tip wear.

Haul: Big Lots

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If you have been following my blog for any amount of time, you know I love shopping at Big Lots! I got to stop by there on Monday and I found some great deals. I went in there looking for two things Sephora by OPI polishes and some Hot Chocolate and I found both items plus a couple more things.

I found three Sephora by OPI polishes that I liked, I Only Shop Vintage, Ruby Without a Cause, and It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat! Each of these were only $1.80! I Googled the It's Real 18K

Mish Mash Challenge Week 28: Animated Movie or TV Show

Truthfully I was going to skip out on the challenge this week because I had no clue what I could do for Animated Movie or TV Show. I pondered on it a while and thought I could do Minions from Despicable Me, then I thought I can't do that it won't turn out good. Well I sucked it up and did Minions anyway, how can I get better at nail art if I don't do it, right? I am quite please with the way my Minions turned out, they are not great but they are not horrible either.

I used NYC Lexington Yellow for my base, I used 3 coats. For the Blue I mixed Sinful Colors Snow Me White with Sally Hansen Blue It. I also used Creative Fantasy from China Glaze to add some purple dots to represent the purple Minions from Despicable Me 2.

Have a look at what the other challenge ladies did this week:

TIOT: Zara

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Back in the beginning of January I made a purchase from Zoya, they were having an awesome sale 3 polishes for $12, who can pass that up! One of the polishes I purchased was Zara, a beautiful shade of purple full of gold shimmer. Zara is one of those rare polishes that looks just as gorgeous on the nails as it does in the bottle, if not better.

The formula on this polish was great, no visible brush strokes or balding of the polish. It was pretty much opaque with 2 coats, but I went ahead and use 3 coats. The first coat dried pretty fast, each additional coat took a lot longer, but was so worth the wait!

Indoor Lighting

Indoor Lighting 

All the following were taken outside in the sunlight

OMG how gorgeous is Zara? Love it!
Next Tuesday I will be trying on Happi also from Zoya!