The Caviar Manicure (updated)

Well ladies, I couldn't resist I had to get my hands on the $25 limited edition caviar manicure by Ciate.
In the video below I will demonstrate how to apply this polish but don't fret it also comes with detailed instructions as well. It is a totally simple process to make your nails pop in 3D.
In this kit you will get the base coat polish which really can be substituted with your favorite nail polish. The you get the actual beads, the funnel to return excess beads to the bottle and a tray used during the bead application process.

Although this special manicure comes in three colors, I opted for the black with the purple and teal pearls. In the video I discuss the issues I have with this kit, but overall I really like this unique look.
Check out my other pics:

Ciate recommends a 15-20 minute drying time to ensure that your beads are set properly.
I will continue to update this post throughout the week to document my beaded journey but so far so good. My nails are completely dry and I was distracted doing other things so I am not sure if it took 20 minutes or more. It has not been about 4 hours that I've had my beads on and I have not seen any beads dropping off of my hands. I have in fact washed my hands several times and everything is still in tact.
Do you think you will buy this 3d nail product or will you find your own beads in a craft store and try this look on your own?



UPDATE
I don't want to call Sunday Day 1 because I applied the manicure in the evening so it wasn't on for too many hours before I went to bed.
Let's call Monday my first official day. Ok here goes, the very next day my nails looked different. After taking a shower, applying lotion and doing all of the things that we do during the day, I noticed that the shine of the pearls began to diminish- how disappointing!!!! I must admit that the beads have some real holding power because they really remained in tact.  Here is a pic of my Day 1 (some of you may want to call this Day 2).
This picture was taken with flash:

Also please keep in mind as you look at these pictures the fact that I coated only one finger with a clear top coat- the finger next to my pinky finger. Although it is recommended that you DO NOT apply a top  coat, doing so helped to preserve the appearance of the pearls. On the video posted above you will note that I didn't like the appearance of my nail with the top coat because I thought it looked a bit dull when compared to the nails with no top coat. However, after considering the downward spiral my other nails took I am starting to reconsider my thoughts on applying a top coat.
If you look at the picture the one with the top coat actually looks brighter than the nails with no top coat. Now let's look at my nails with no flash used on the picture.

Do you see that the nails look a bit dull? Do you notice anything else? Let's look at a day 2/ 3 picture to examine my nails a bit more.
If you notice the nail with the top coat is the only one that maintained the appearance of the multi colored pearls!!! What eventually happened is that after hand washing, showers, and washing dishes, the pearls on my nails looked like little silver balls. What happened to my purple, and turquoise balls? Well that colored coating pealed off to reveal not so exciting silver balls.
The ONLY nail that maintained the color of the pearls is the nail with- yes, you guessed it, the nail with the top coat.

I experienced chipping on one hand (index finger shown below) but it really was my fault. I hit my finger on something and when I pulled back I saw the damage.  All of my other nails have really held up and today is day 4 if you're counting from Sunday and Day 3 if you count Monday as my first official caviar day.

Since this polish has raised little pearls, you may experience a little snagging on some materials or even your hair, nothing too major but I wanted to mention this issue.
Would I buy this again? Nope, I would likely purchase some micro beads from a craft store and call it a day. I would just look for beads that don't look too cheap. Or I would use this product and make sure that the day I do my nails with this caviar look is the night that I am going out so that my nails look fresh and my pearls shine.
Thanks for watching/reading.
pjd

NOTW (a retrospective of the last few weeks)

Hello
 I have been doing a few things with my nails yet I've failed to post the results so here we go.
One week I applied Zoya's Dree over my nails as shown below. This is a one coat really opaque polish.

But that wasn't enough so I decided to throw on a very sheer Zoya color named "Manhattan" over Dree. It is a sparkly polish without that hard to remove glitter.

I was then left with the color shown below:

I tried this whole ombre effect and ummm yeah I need help but you can at least take a look and maybe even a laugh at my attempts.

First I did a purple look using the color Charisma from Zoya as the base coat, then the dark purple towards the top is another Zoya color in Jem, then the very tip of my nail is an Orly color named  Space Cadet. Sorry I didn't have the pics of the bottles of polish.

My next failed ombre attempt came with I used Yummy by Zoya and then placed a sparkly blue polish from the OPI Muppet's collection named Gone Gonzo.

Now I am wearing an iridescent gold green from the company named Ciate. They are the makers of the caviar manicure which I would love to purchase but I don't want to spend $25- ok I'll admit it, sometimes I can be a cheapo..lol. I guess I should think of it this way, for $25 I would be getting a bottle of nail polish, the actual nail beads and a funnel used to apply the beads. How much is too much for polish? If you haven't see the caviar nails, I will post a pic below but for now, let's get back to my golden green nails. With just the slightest movement from my fingers my nails go from gold to a shade of goldish green-lovely. The name of the color is oil slick.

 
Now here is the caviar manicure- pic courtesy of the Ciate website.

SICK, right? And it's limited edition so I have to get it, right?  Ok I just convinced myself to buy this..lol. The only prolbem is this polish takes 15-20 minutes to dry. :-(
UPDATE I bought it!

On the Small Screen

On another note, I can't get enough of Scandal. Although i didn't like the fit of Olivia's pants last night, I do appreciate the twists and turns of this made for tv drama. When Olivia get's right in someone's face and ever so calmly explains how she will destroy the person, I get warm and fuzzy inside..lol "It's my name on that door." I heard that OOOOOlivia!!!! If you haven't watched the show yet, please check it out online to catch up and then WATCH each new episode.


In other news, I can not stop listening to this song!

Thanks for reading.
Pjd

Eyeko Mascara Review

Hello Everyone
Below you will see some pictures of my lashes before and after applying the Eyeko Curvy Brush mascara. This UK based mascara has found it's way to the US in Sephora stores, and of course online at Eyeko.com and sephora.com. This $19 mascara features two ingredients that I am not used to seeing in mascara, shea butter and keratin. The curvy brush on this wand coupled with the aforementioned key ingredients work to curl your lashes and keep them curled for 12 hours.
I review this prodct in the video so check out some pictures before and after.
In this picture you are looking at my naked natural lashes. As you can see there is a natural slight bend to my lashes already. I do not use an eyelash curler ever.

Here are my lashes from the front, where you will see that they don't stand out too much on their own.

Now I've applied one coat of the mascara can you see more of a curve to my lashes?

This looks like more of a curve than you see in the first picture before I applied the mascara.
You may also notice that some of the mascara got onto my skin.
Here is a close shot:

In the next picture I only have the mascara applied on my eyelashes on the right side of the picture. Do you see a difference between my natural naked lashes and the lashes with one coat of the curvy brush?

This is what I meant in the video when I said that this mascara gives me a very natural look, you can tell that something may be doing on but it is not dramatic. For those who like the natural look I like this product may be a winner for you.
However, for those who want more of a dramatic eye, you will have to go in for layers 2 and 3. Check it out:

Here my lashes even appear to have more volume on the right side of the picture.
I have to say that I did not experience any clumping with this mascara.
As i mentioned in the video it is very wet which is one reason why I think you can see the mascara on my skin, if your eyelashes touch your skin while the product is still wet, it will be deposited on to your skin.
There is a tool that they provide in the package for anyone who buys their mascara and this tool will help to prevent the transfer of product from your lashes to your skin. (tool shown in the video)
Due to the formulation of this product, adding multiple coats, does not leave my lashes feeling brittle or weighed down.
Here is coat 3

When you compare my lashes on the left (naked) to the lashes on the right, you do see a difference.
Here are my lashes all done up on another day.

Have you tried Eyeko mascara?
Thanks for reading/ watching.
Pjd

WNTW, NYX cosmetics and a Body Scrub Review

Hello

In the video below, I compare the Sephora brand sugar body scrub to the Bodycology brand body scrub which you can find at Target. I also showcase my first lip colors from the brand NYX.

Here are swatches of the lip colors on my lips. Out of seven products, I only adore 2 and can stomach one so the remaining 4 are a disaster.

This first color is in the color "Tea Rose.

This color looks like a pasty pink and I hate it. On the web this color looks like a light brown. The formula of the product feels great though.

Up next is Honey Nectar which also looked brown online but turned out to be another pasty pink (this one is even worse).

Here is a better shot of the color Honey Nectar.


Now we come to the color Rosie Brown, a frosty colored light brown.

Below you will see the color Merlot. I was expecting a nice berry wine colored lipstick but got this instead.


Next is a color that I liked named skin tone. This is not a lip gloss, it is called xtreme cream. It is like melted lipstick, it is full coverage and definitely heavier than a gloss.

This needs a nice deep brown lip liner thrown in the mix, but I can make this work.


The following shade Monte Carlo is one of my favorites.
This is Monte Carlo after it dried, a soft red matte color.




Finally, my other favorite color is Maison, a great brown girl nude.
Even though I purchased everything for half price, this is an inexpensive brand. See for yourself , official NYX site or for a slightly reduced price buy NYX products from Ulta. Ulta always seems to have a big sale with 50% off or buy one get one free, so if you want to try NYX, I would suggest you keep the ulta store on your favorites list!

On the Small Screen

Who watched Scandal starring Kerry Washington? If not, I won't ruin the first episode which aired last week, but she is the go to lady if you need to spin a story or get your public image on track. She knows her stuff but we also learned that at times her judgment may be a bit clouded by the one person who she seemed to love.

I like the show and I will continue to watch, I am also enjoying her outfits thoroughly. I enjoy seeing Columbus Short on tv too... :-)

thanks for reading/watching.

Carol's Daughter Chocolat

Hello

Here is my review of the Carol's Daughter Chocolat hair care line.

thanks for watching.

Pjd

What's New This Week? and swatches

Hello Everyone

I picked up a few products as shown in the video posted below. I wanted to also share with you some swatches of the lip colors and nail polish shown in the video.


First up my weekend nail polish was Minka by Zoya as shown below. Although I like Zoya polish, this particular one can have a streaky finish with just one coat so I needed two coats to really do the job.
Moving forward, my nail of the week now is Blagger by Butter London. This polish only needs one coat, it is thick, rich and I love it! It is certainly not one of those thin runny polishes. Cobalt blue is an it color for me.

Now for the lip swatches:
I picked up the Covergirl lip blast flipstick which features a dual sided tube of lip color. I purchased "flashy" which has a hot purple color on one end and a dusty, pinkish color (of which I do not approve) on the other end of the stick.

Here is a picture of the side that I am not fond of (the light pink side)
this picture was taken with the flash on.


Here is the same color with the flash off.



Here is the pretty side of the flashy Cover girl flipstick

Here is a picture of my lips with both the light and dark colors mixed for this flashy colored lipstick. The darker shade is powerful and almost has an iridescent appearance which takes over- but I'm ok with that since I'm not fond of the lighter shade. You can also mix the colors in a variety of ways to suit your needs.

In the video I also show you a new Sephora brand lip balm named "unique pink", a color that automatically adjusts from clear to your perfect pink shade based on your ph level. Don't expect any deep color, it is a lip balm but you get a light appearance of color. My color becomes a light rosey shade.

Now here is my new Nars color named "New Lover". This one is going to quickly become a favorite spring time shade.


Now on to the three Sephora brand lip vinyls. Surprisingly, these were tough lip colors for me to capture in photographs. While the pictures did show that my lips were shiny, it was hard to get it to show the shimmery aspect of the lip product, so I did the best that I could. These pics were taken on my camera phone since I need to charge my camera battery.

I purchased the vinyls in three colors, Raspberry Vinyl (left), Fancy Red (center), and Fuchsia Fever (right).
Although these colors look like you may be rocking glitter, there is absolutely no feeling of glitter on your lips. The formula is creamy in nature and not sticky. It's shiny and bold, maybe too bold for me. :-) I prefer a light coating of this lip product over a lip stick, something about wearing the vinyl alone is a bit overpowering for me.

Here is Fancy Red

Raspberry Vinyl

And finally Fuchsia Fever
Which products are you loving at the moment?
Thanks for reading and watching.
Pjd