Saturday, June 29, 2013

First Look -Tarte Golden Opportunity

Hello Everyone

Here is another beauty essentials kit from Tarte, this one is appropriately named Golden Opportunity.
In this $10 kit you will receive the bronzer Park Ave Princess and the Brazilliance maracuja infused self tanner. You can find this reasonably priced gem at Sephora.


The next picture will allow you to see the color of the self tanner on my hand and the shade of the Park Ave Princess bronzer.


If you have a naturally tanned complexion,  please let me know if you typically use a self tanner during the summer months....curious minds want to know.
Thanks for reading

Pjd

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Rimmel Lip Review , Clean that sponge and WNTW

Hello Everyone

In this video you will see a demo of the beauty blender solid cleanser, a review of the Rimmel lip lacquers named "Show Off" along with other items I picked up recently.
Thanks for watching, subscribing and commenting.
Pjd


Monday, June 17, 2013

NOTW

Hello

Hopefully you were able to partake of the Zoya BOGO sale that ended yesterday. If not, here are a few fun colors that I have been rocking from Zoya.
First up is Rocky, a sweet light blue color,  that screams summer.

And on my nails, this opaque polish only needed one coat, but I still decided to double up.

Next up is another $8 Zoya polish named Malia:

I still adore Zoya, but please let me know which polish brands you love.
Thanks for reading.
PJD

Thursday, June 13, 2013

What's New This Week

Hey Everyone

Here is a little update of some of the items I picked up recently.
What new items have you snagged?

Thanks for watching:


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Did Sally Hansen Nail it?

Hello

 Is it me or has the world of nail polish and nail care been elevated to a level not seen since the emergence of the Lee Press On nail craze. Ok so maybe I am dating myself, but the point is if ever you wanted your nails to have a little extra pizzazz then this is the era for you. Not wanting to be left behind Sally Hansen has jumped on the textured nail polish bandwagon to give us the Fuzzy and Sugar Coat collections. Pictured below is  the Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat collection, each bottle features multicolored  flecks that are floating in a clear base polish.


The Application Process 
The colored fuzzies that you see above are swimming in plain old clear nail polish. If you would like, you can simply apply the fuzzies on to your nails and go. However, I think these polishes look best if you use a colored  base coat and then apply the fuzzy color of your choice. Since these bottles are filled with many individual fuzzies, you may find that while painting your nails the fuzzies are not evenly distributed, so you may be required to readjust the fuzzies or apply an additional coat.


The Removal Process
The textured polish removal process can be just as grueling as it is to remove glitter polishes. The fuzzy polishes leave those fuzzy little flecks on my fingers after I have removed the polish. I generally have to either wash my hands at the sink or have a towel nearby for a quick clean up job. On a scale of 1-10 where 10 represents great difficulty, I would rate the fuzzy removal process at a 7. The difficulty in removing the fuzzies increases as you apply more coats.

Price
I've seen the fuzzy polishes priced anywhere from $5.69-$8.99, so you may have to keep your eyes peeled if you're looking for the best deal. I purchased my fuzzy polishes from Target for roughly $5.69 and then I used my $2 off coupons...SCORE!

Comparisons
Before the fuzzies hit the scene you may have seen their distant cousins "effects" by Essie and "feathers" by Nails Inc. Although they may have different names they all seem to be the same product. I didn't purchase the feathers polish from Nails Inc but I certainly tried it on at the Sephora nail bar. Once the polish dried I didn't see a reason to fork over $9.50. The main difference is that the Nails Inc polishes are formulated without some of the harsh chemicals typically found in nail polish, so that may be worth the higher price tag. Nevertheless, the chemical laden Sally Hansen fuzzy polishes are offered in more colors than you would typically find in other feather/ effect polish collections.
So let's get to it, here are the fuzzy coats that I purchased.
The orange and yellow color is named "Peach Fuzz".
Here it is on my nails without a colored base coat:


In this next pic, I cleaned my nails then  I applied Kennedy by Zoya

Finally, I applied  Peach Fuzz over Kennedy


Next up I have one coat of the black and white fuzzy polish named Tweedy.

In the picture below I applied Trixi by Zoya, a high shine silver metallic polish.

Then I topped Trixie off with Tweedy.


As you may have noticed, if you use a light base, the white fuzzies may blend in a bit but the black fuzzies in the Tweedy polish really pop. The opposite happens if you use a dark colored base coat as shown below when I used a black polish, Zoya's Raven, as my base coat.


For more Sally Hansen textured fun, check out the full sugar coat line along with my swatches.



Below are the colors that I purchased from the Sugar Coat line. The green color is the only one that isn't pictured above, but you can see it clearly in the picture below.

Here are the colors that I purchased:


Sugar Fix
No ma'am this looked like white out that had congealed in the bottle, I didn't like it at all. It's only fair to state that I am never excited when it comes to white polish, so my distaste for this color wasn't a huge shocker. I was hoping that the textured nature of this polish could temper my aversion to white polish, but alas that was not the case. In fact the white polish even seemed to have a chalkier texture, which was equally displeasing.

Bubble Plum


I think a little of my cuticle oil may have trickled onto my nails giving it a shinier appearane, however the color that you see and texture is completely accurate.

Sour Apple

The sour apple color just looks delicious to me, this one may be my favorite.

Razzelberry

Previously I wrote a post about the blue Razzelberry Sugar Coat polish, but feel free to check it out again. You should look at my previous post on this color to get a better view of the texture of this particular polish. Click Here

In answer the to question posed in the title of this blog, I say eh, Sally did enough to stay in the  textured game, they are probably better than many of the store brand textured polishes that I've purchased. The Fuzzy Coat collection is on par with the feathers and effects textured polishes, but the sugar coat is a bust when compared to Pixi dust from Zoya. Although Pixi Dust is a different type of textured polish I am mainly referring to the quality of the texture. If you look at the Sally Hansen images, the sugar coat polishes seem to perform much better than it did when I painted my nails so that's a bit of a problem for me. Overall, it isn't horrible and it's a nice way to change up your look this summer.
So have you taken a dive into the textured nail polish pond?
Which brands feature your favorite textured polishes?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Broadway Nails imPRESS Press-on Manicure

Hello

UPDATE below.







As you may recall in my Influenster Spring VoxBox I received the Broadway brand imPress press on nail manicure for review. My first challenge was the color, I received the bright and I mean bright pink shade shown in the picture above. The nails were shiny as promised by the Broadway brand but I decided early on that since pink isn't my color I would paint over the pink color.   I haven't done this yet since I don't have to leave my home today, but I will do it before going to work tomorrow. I thought the mock nail polish bottled used to house the nails was a cute idea.
I applied the nails easily by removing the sticky tab and simply pressing the fake nails on top of my nail. It was nice to see how easily the nails were able to adhere to my natural nail. The most difficult part was finding nails that fit well on top of my nail. In this area I think this product failed, I don't think I have large fingers at all, yet they aren't too small either, I would consider my finger size and nail bed area to be average. Surprisingly though I had portions of my real nail peeking out from this fake nail.
 The instructions encourage you to go with a smaller nail rather than a bigger nail if you can't find your exact size and that's what I did. I suppose using a bigger size would have allowed for more gapping making it easier for the nails to fall off.
After getting the nails on I went to sleep totally expecting the nails to have popped off by morning but they were completely in tact.  I also have to mention that the nails were short so I appreciated that because my natural nails are not very long so I was comfortable with the length.
This product is supposed to come with 24 nails, I received 23, no kidding, I even counted several times. At any rate some people have been able to get two applications out of this product, which for the price wouldn't be so bad if only I could find my correct size. The product retails for $5.99 for colored nails and $7.99 for patterned nails.

I will update this post as the week progresses to let you know exactly how long this product lasts on my nails. If you are used to or like fake nails then you may want to use this easy on the go system. However, I didn't find enough nails that fit my fingers and there was also this oddly shaped extra piece of plastic at the tip of the nail which made it convenient to snag on just about anything. Perhaps you can make our that extra square, raised piece at the tip of each nail, if so, that's the snaggy section.

This definitely wasn't my cup of tea but if you have worn these nails, please feel free to share your experience.

Here is a link to the Broadway imPress nail site 

 UPDATE- these nails are hanging strong with no sign of letting go. They were applied on Sunday night, I washed my hair on Monday and still these nails have stayed put. I am writing this update on Wednesday evening and I think I can actually make it through the work week with these nails. At least regarding the staying power, these babies are tough!

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Tarte's Summer Essentials- First Look

Hello Everyone



In the video below I featured some summer essentials from Tarte. From brozers to mascara, Tarte has got you covered.




What are you throwing into your beach bag this summer?
Thanks for watching and have an awesome weekend.
 Pjd

Monday, June 3, 2013

Tastykake Kandy Bar Kakes

Hello



As you know from my previous video, I received the Influenster Spring VobBox, which included the new TaskyKake Kandy Bar Kake. This product was sent specifically for review purposes and product recommendations. This cake-like product comes in three flavors, I received the s'mores flavor. This is supposed to be the perfect combination of a familiar flavor rolled into a cake, and I must say that it did taste like a s'more.




The cake was cloaked in Hershey's chocolate, and the center filling was sweet yet light.  Please excuse the appearance of this cake, I accidentally smashed it a bit.



However, the actual cake portion of this product was dry, perhaps that was intentional to mimic the graham cracker of a traditional s'more.The cake portion was so dry that it was almost crumbling, and that's not what I expect when I decide to eat a treat that includes cake. I would have appreciated a more moist cake, that would have pulled the entire product together. 
My final recommendation to the TastyKake brand would be to make a moist cake, this was too dry to bear the word Kake/cake  in the product name.
If you're interested in this product here is the pricing information- retail single $1.69 family pack $4.49. Here is your link to the TastyKake site.
Have you tried this product? If so, please share your thoughts.
Thanks for reading
Pjd