Hiatus

I've decided that I'm going to take a bit of a hiatus from FB, blogging, and nail polish in general. My husband works the most ridiculous hours and I don't have time to do anything for myself anymore. I work a FT job, plus having two kids doesn't exactly give much time for anything, since there's housework to be done and dinner to make. As soon as the kids are in bed, I pass out myself. If you are/were sending me products to review, I will still do that! :) Thanks for understanding!

Testing :)

Nothing To Disclose Purchased By Me Provided For Review

Oil Cleansing Method

Boo!! The weekend is almost over! It's snowing heavily here in Springfield, IL and a snow emergency was just issued for the next 72 hours. Maybe I won't have to go to work tomorrow! :P Fortunately, I went to the store this morning before the snow got too bad :) If anyone is in the path of Winter Storm Virgil, stay safe and warm, and don't drive if you don't have to! Or even go out, for that matter!!

Today, I'm going to do something different.. this will be a somewhat long post and picture heavy! :) I've been hearing a lot about OCM, or the oil cleansing method (<---- definitely read this! It is very informative!), and decided to give it a try! In my teen years and early 20s, I never really had issues with my skin. I could fall asleep with makeup still on and my skin was perfect! Two kids and maybe 10 years later (I'm 30!), my skin just went crazy! I have tried everything available on the market, except Proactiv and prescription strength treatments. NOTHING helps. I still get pimples here and there, but the biggest thing is blackheads and whiteheads. No matter what I use, nothing gets rid of them. My pores are so clogged with icky, they look huge! From what I've been reading, when you wash your face with cleanser, it strips away all of the oil on your face and essentially dries it out. Then your skin overcompensates and produces more oil, which clog your pores, entrapping everything in your pores, i.e. makeup, bacteria, dead skin cells. Doing this twice a day, every day, will wreak havoc on your skin.

I'm not going to go in depth with the OCM, especially if you read the article I linked to. I'm just going to document my experiences with the OCM and blog about them :) I have no qualms about posting pictures of my not-so-perfect skin sans makeup on here! :)

So on we go! We need two ingredients, castor oil and olive/sunflower oil, and something to store our mixture in! I bought my castor oil from Walmart.. you can get it in the laxative aisle. It was about $3 for a 177ml bottle. I also got sunflower oil, which you can find in the aisle with the rest of the cooking oils. It was also around $3. Take a look at those prices.. Around $6 for this oil cleanser. That's about how much it costs to buy a facial cleanser from the store, unless you use Clinique or Lush or whatever. (You're not freaking out yet, are you? Trust me! You can put oil on your face! :) ) 

To store my mixture, I just cleaned out an empty Garnier container. You can use whatever you want, just make sure it is clean!

And let's roll!! The first few pictures are with makeup on.. Ignore the pajamas! o.O (Mother's Day gift :P)

I don't know if you can tell, but I have some redness in my cheeks from skin irritation and blemishes.

Now here is day 2! These pictures were taken earlier today after doing another round of OCM last night before I went to bed :) Also, these were taken sans makeup :)

So far, I'm loving the OCM! :) My face feels cleaner, it's not dry and tight after "washing" it :) If there is any dryness, I take a little bit of the oil mixture and dab it on the dry spots. In the morning, I just use warm water on my face!

Have you tried the OCM? How has it worked out for you?

Happy St Paddy's Day!!

Happy St Paddy's Day!! :D I was recently sent some awesome decals from April at Make It Stick Designs for review and in exchange for my pictures and since green shamrocks were included, what perfect time to use them than for St Paddy's Day!!

I used 3 coats of China Glaze Running In Circles (which is a really gorgeous green glass fleck, but has horrible shrinkage), 2 coats of Wet n Wild Deadly Dose and 1 coat of China Glaze Angel Wings on the accent nail, along with the shamrock decals! 1 to 2 coats of HK Girl top coat sealed the deal!

April's decals are fabulous! She uses "high quality waterproof outdoor vinyl" and these babies are tough!! I tried to lift the shamrock to reposition it and it started to take the nail polish with it! I think next time I'll top coat before I add the decals.

You can purchase decals from April's Etsy store.. she has mustaches, high heels, Barbie profiles, chevrons, the list just goes on, and they come in a variety of colors!

Is anyone doing anything special today? I have corned beef in the slow cooker and my first ever soda bread is cooling on a wire rack right now :D

Nail Pattern Boldness Bigger On the Inside

Happy Tuesday!! One more day closer to the weekend! :D I've been on a huuuuuuge Doctor Who kick lately, and I'm currently stopped at the last two episodes of season 4. Since I got into Doctor Who, I've been wanting every single Doctor Who themed polish out there! :D

So today I bring to you Nail Pattern Boldness Bigger on the Inside from the Time Traveler Collection! <3 Bigger on the Inside is a gorgeous, gorgeous royal blue jelly with blue and silver micro glitters <3 This has to be, hands down, the perfect TARDIS blue ever! <3

I used two coats for opacity and HK Girl top coat to give it a glossy shine :)

Nail Pattern Boldness can be found on Facebook and you can buy NPB on Etsy and llarowe. Polish retails for $9 for a 15ml bottle, and currently only llarowe has the entire collection in stock :)

Are you a fellow Whovian? Who is your favorite doctor and companion?

Until next time! 

PS Do you like the way this blog post is laid out? Just messing around with things to see what looks better! :)

*Product was purchased by me.

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Plastic Wrap Nails Tutorial Using Square Hue Blond Ale and Patty's Pint

Happy Saturday!! Unfortunately, my two year old little guy probably has the flu, so it hasn't really been a fun morning :\

One of the questions I asked in the recently ended giveaway was what you wanted to see on the blog, and a lot of you said tutorials! Well, guess what?? I did my first tutorial!! :D There are a lot of tutorials out there in the nail polish world that are really, really great, and so many variations on how to do plastic wrap nails, but I wanted to try my hand at it and share with you the method that works best for me :) I hope some of you find this tutorial helpful and if you use this, please share your pictures on my facebook page :D

So, today we are doing plastic wrap nails :D This nail art is so simple to do, looks fabulous, and the color combinations are ENDLESS! :) Plus, you should already have this stuff in your house!

You will need the following:

• 2 colors of polish (can be contrasting, same color family, whatever you want). I used SquareHue Blond Ale and Patty's Pint from the March 2013 O'Hue Collection
• base coat and top coat (shown here: Nutri Nail Flex-Shield Nail Hardener and HK Girl Top Coat)
• acetone and brush for clean up
• plastic wrap (cut in half for 2 balls, if you need 2)
• index card, paper plate, or aluminum foil

1. Prepare nails by applying your base coat, then apply your base color. I painted my accent nails with Blond Ale and the other fingers with Patty's Pint. (I find it best to do nail clean up after each coat of polish). Let polish dry completely or use a quick dry top coat to speed up the drying process. If you make any small mistakes like I did on my ring finger, it's going to be covered up, so there's no need to go back and fix it :)

2. Have your index card/paper plate/foil ready so we can add our other color of polish to it.

3. Add a few drops of polish to the index card and use your balled up plastic wrap to dip in the polish.

4. Dab the plastic wrap on your card to remove excess polish.

5. Now dab the plastic wrap on your nails to get the marbled look. You may need to dab on your base color if you accidentally applied too much of your second color (which I did). Be careful not to dab too much, or the polish will come off your nails.

This is what it looked like after I did my nails :P

6. Clean up around your cuticles and any excess polish on your fingers, apply top cat, and you are done! :D

I had a lot of fun doing this tutorial, although it was a challenge for me to stop and photograph every step :) Let me know what you think! <3