French Tip Dip, I love you!

I love the look of a French manicure, but I am a perfectionist when it comes to doing my own. I like a neat, crisp smile line. I'm not a huge fan of manicure stickers, but they do work. I like doing my French manicures by hand, but it's tedious work for a perfectionist! I have to clean up the smile lines and make sure they are perfect! 

About a week ago I was introduced to a new way to get perfect tips with a neat little tool/system called the French Tip Dip. I was intrigued, but a little skeptical. I thought it would be decent, but i wasn't expecting perfection.

I took it out of the box, read the directions, and laid everything out. Then I followed the steps and ended up with a beautiful manicure that took about 15 minutes start to finish, including set up time!

Here's the kit:

The tool has 4 different sizes on it, so you can do any size nail. Even toes!!

The kit comes with:

Amazing French Tip Dip tool

2 dip jars

HUGE 1.12 fl. oz. Bright White tip polish

 .55 fl.oz. Sheer Genius base coat

.54 fl. oz 3 Minute Topcoat

100/100 file

 manicure stick

instruction card/ mixing pallate

case to keep it all together

It's really easy to use. Just pour the white polish into one of the provided jars filling the jar half way. Dip the French Tip Dip tool into the polish, with the underside of the tool facing up. 

After you have dipped the tool and wiped it gently on the side of the jar; place the tool on the tip of your nail where you want your smile line, and gently pull towards the free edge. Use a light touch, just barely touching the nail with the tool.

That's it! Just let it dry for 2 minutes, apply sheer polish, dry for 2 minutes more, apply topcoat and dry for 3 minutes and your done! It's amazing!! Here are some more pictures of my new best friend!! lol

I am absolutely in love with this kit and will use it as my #1 go to for French tips!

You can get your own kit here:

http://www.frenchtipdip.com/xcart/home.php?cat=249

My video review/demo of this amazing kit here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGyC2DglhwM

Thank You

Nail Whitening Manicure

Sometimes my nail polish obsession gets the best of me. Wearing shades of red, purple, blue and green takes it's toll on my nails. In general, darker shades have a way of seeping through even the best base coat. Long story short; my love of dark shades, have stained my nails!

Now, nail staining can occur for all types of reasons. Smoking, not using a base coat, using dark polish, not properly washing hands...etc.  You see, finger nails (toe nails too) are made of keratin. Keratin is porous and can absorb colored substances. 

There are many commercial products available that are made to whiten your nails. Some of them work really well, and others are just a waste of money.  I have tried some of the natural remedies out there as well, but the results don't wow me. 

When I want to whiten my nails, I have a method that I call the "Whitening Mani". It's quick, easy, cheap and works for me. You may not get the same results if your nails are very stained, but if you do this once every week or two you should see results.

What you need:

Small Bowl for soaking nails

2 Denture cleansing tablets

Nail brush

Nail buffer

Warm water

Cuticle Oil (or Olive Oil)

Before we begin, I need to show you the before. It's pretty bad, but trust me... it will get better!

As you can see, my middle and ring fingers have mush more staining. This is probably because I paint these nails as accent nails, usually with a darker color. My cuticles are also in need of some attention, so we'll get to that later!

Now we need to get our bowl of warm water and plop in our 2 denture cleanser tablets. I prefer the kind for smokers. They usually have more whitening ingredients. You can use any brand you like, and if you can't find one made for smokers that's ok. Even the kind from the dollar store will do! 

I used Polident for Smokers. It was 5.99 for a box of 72 tablets at CVS Pharmacy!!! Thats 32 manicures at $0.16 a piece!! A lot cheaper than the commercial nail whitening treatments. The nail whitening treatments at Sally Beauty are typically $1.99 for one pack. That's $1.99 for ONE treatment!! So, you can save $1.89 per treatment, or save $65.88 for 32 manicures! Yeah, that's what i'm talking about!!

Anyway, let's continue. Once you plop in the tablets and they start to fizz, dip your nails in and soak for 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes, I like to use my nail brush and scrub up.

Then I soak for another 2-3 minutes.

Once you are scrubbed up, wash your hands with a mild anti-bacterial soap. Dry your hands and if your nails are still stained, you can gently buff your nails with a fine grit buffer block. I didn't need to do this, but sometimes I do. It just depends on how badly my nails are stained.

Next thing I do is apply my cuticle oil.

If you don't have a cuticle oil, you have a few options. Coco butter, olive oil, shea butter or even just a good lotion. The key is to moisturize them! Massage the oil into your cuticles, use some hand lotion all over your hands and you're done!!

Wanna see the before and after? 

It's not a ridiculously huge difference, but they look a hell of a lot better! So for $0.16 i think it did a pretty damn good job.

So, try this for yourself and see. Who knew Granny's denture tabs could give you happier nails!!?

Bring On The Bling Dynasty!

Today I combined two OPI colors, and it was magical!!!

I love the gold (Bling Dynasty) from the Hong Kong collection. It's beautiful on it's own, but I thought I could spice it up with Bring On The Bling from the Burlesque collection!

 First, I applied 2 coats of Bling Dynasty.

It looks awesome on it's own, but let's try some more Bling!!!

I then applied two coats of Bring On The Bling.

It's Blingtastic!! I Love this combo!!!

I'll try more color combos with the burlesque glitters!!!

Glitter...I love you!

OPI: Bring On The Bling

Now usually I don't go for glitter polish but this one caught my eye and wouldn't let go! My camera doesn't do it justice, so I'll have to get a better pic for you guys tomorrow. It's a lovely golden/khaki color. There are bits of other colors in it as well. The gold in this polish aren't yellow, more of an antique gold. It's beautiful!

It takes about 3 coats to get the nails to look like the bottle, but it's sheer enough to layer over other polishes. I'll be playing with this one over the next few days, layering it over other colors and wearing in on it's own. I'll try to take lots of pics too!

I usually shy from glitters because they are so darn annoying to remove, this one however isn't too bad. Added bonus is that it seemed to dry a little faster than most of my other OPIs, so I am wondering if the formula is different. 

All 6 of the glitters from the Burlesque collection are amazing, and I will try to get them all. Today I could only get 2, I'd have gotten them all but my hubby bought me a new HD webcam today.. so I decided not to be greedy! lol

I'll swatch the other one tomorrow!

Good night lovelies! 

KONAD-LICIOUS' HUGE GIVEAWAY!!

Ok, so this may be the BEST contest ever! If not EVER, at least the best in the last 6 months!

Konad-Licious' page was awesome before, but she has totally upped the ante of the coolness pot with this contest! 

About 300$ worth of prizes! 31 bottles of polish, nail art products GALORE, water decals, manicure tools, make-up, MINX and......CHOCOLATE!

So if you want to follow a super nice blogger that obsessed with nail goodies like me, head over to her page! Hey, if you follow her you can also enter this great contest!

CLICK THAT LINK!!

http://konadlicious.blogspot.com/2011/01/konadlicious-huge-1000-follower.html