Shorties: a nail and beauty blog

instagram

Monday, October 20, 2014 0

I have posted a few poorly taken pictures on instagram here

I am using instagram as my "too lazy to edit the pictures but don't want to forget the nail designs I did" album. :)

http://instagram.com/shortwidenails

Here are my nails with some fun NCLA nail wraps.

Enter Barielle's Sweepstakes For A Chance To Win!!

Thursday, July 24, 2014 0

*1 Grand Prize: Michael Kors Wallet plus $75 worth of Barielle products.

*10 Winners: $50 worth of Barielle products.

Sign up for our (Barielle's) mailing list and automatically be entered for a chance to win the Michael Kors wallet featured in our campaign plus a $75 coupon to Barielle.com. 10 Runners up will receive a $50 coupon code to Barielle.com

Click HERE to be taken to the entry form!

Here are some other great healthy nail articles from Barielle that you might love as well:

5 Ways To Fix Splitting Nails (infographic)

http://blog.barielle.com/5-ways-fix-splitting-nails/

5 Tips and Tricks To Get Your Feet Sandal Ready

http://blog.barielle.com/5-tips-tricks-get-feet-sandal-ready/

7 Ways to Picture Perfect Nails For Your Wedding Day (infographic)

http://blog.barielle.com/7-ways-perfect-nails-wedding/

Follow Barielle on these social media sites:

Facebook

Twitter @Barielle

Instagram @barielle

Influenster Canadian voxbox imPRESS press-on manicure review

Thursday, May 15, 2014 0

Influenster selected me to review the imPRESS press-on manicure voxbox. I received the box yesterday and immediately put the nails on.

What was in the box was two sets of press on nails.

On the left we have "Over the moon" and on the right we have "Holla!"

I decided to try on "Holla!" right away.

Each package contains 24 nails in 12 different sizes. The set also provides a "prep pad" for you to use to clean your nails. I suspect the prep pad is just nail polish remover or isopropyl (rubbing alcohol)

What you do is you choose the nail size that works for you and lay it out so that you know which press on nail goes on which finger nail. Then you prep your nails by removing old nail polish and using the prep pad to remove oils from your nails. Each plastic nail has look like it has double sided tape attached to it so all you have to do is peel off the sticker tab on the nail and press the plastic nail onto your real nail.

I quite like the press on nails, it is very quick and looks very pretty. My problem with the nails was that they were too long for me. I prefer shorter squarer nails so all I did was clip the nails with my nail clippers after I attached the plastic nails onto my real nails.

It is day two and I have not had any of the nails pop off. I'm hoping to keep them on until Friday when I go to work at the hospital. This will really test the lasting power of the nails.

***edit: they lasted 6 days with vigorous hand washing (I work in the hospital). These nails are awesome!

The nails do look kind of off if you look at them closely because you are applying plastic on top of your nails, you will see your real nail edge and then the fake nail edge. It will also look a bit thick. But this is only when you really take a close up of the nails.

I really like these nails and there are a ton of designs. My sister is getting married soon and I have asked her to consider imPress press-on nails for the wedding.

Prominent Future Twitter contest Winners will be selected on 4/25 - 5pm

Monday, April 21, 2014 0

Prominent Future is a new upcoming company that will launch in Summer 2014.

To celebrate their launch they are hosting a twitter contest (Winners will be selected on 4/25 - 5pm)

The prize is a Rose Gold sunset peace ring.

Rose Gold Sunset Peace Ring ($23.00): Popularize by Picasso, one of the most iconic symbols representing the spirit of American Boheme is the peace sign. This adjustable ring can be worn as above the knuckle or as regular ring. The open wrap around band makes this ring comfortable for all day wear. May every sunrise hold more promise and every sunset hold more peace."

All you have to do follow @ProminentFuture on twitter and then send them the following tweet listing your favorite artist, it can be nails, paintings, graffiti anything:

*Win this Rose Gold Sunset Peace Ring by following & tweeting @ProminentFuture My all time favorite artist is ________________.

You can find more about Prominent Future here:

https://www.facebook.com/prominentfuture

http://www.prominentfuture.com

Barielle Velvets Collection!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014 0

For Spring 2014 Barielle launched two collections, the Velvets and the Vibrants. Today I have the Velvets collection to show you.

The Barielle Velvets include six polishes: Uptown Girl, ,My Tan Blazer, Cream 'N Sugar, My Week Away, A Little Exotic, Sexy Mood.

What is different about this collection release is that Barielle usually releases only FIVE polishes in one collection, now they have upped the collection to include SIX. The question is will their future collections be 5 or 6 polishes?

On to the swatches

First up we have is Cream 'N Sugar

I used three coats on my nails no top coat. I really like this polish as it works well as a french manicure base. It is a jelly pink polish that is leaves a squishie appearance on your nails. It makes the nails very clean looking. I could see myself using it with a small flower decal placed on the fingers.

Next I have My Tan Blazer. I only needed two coats for this polish to be opaque. I did not use a top coat on it. It is my type of color because I feel like it doesn't work with my skin tone.

Next is My Week Away. This is a fun polish because it has a green shimmer to it. I used two coats no top coat. I quite like this polish because it is a neutral dusty pink with a pop from the green shimmer.

Next is Sexy Mood. What a funny name. It amuses me. This is muted fushia purple that required three coats but I only used two in my pictures. I feel like three coats would have made a cleaner appearance. The theme for this collection appears to be muted and dusty.

Next up is A Little Exotic. This is the brightest color from the collection but it still retains the dusty Victorian style finish. I used two coats and no top coat on this polish.

Lastly I have Uptown Girl. This is a neat color. It is a pastel peach pink that required three coats. I like this color because it is quite unique and it works well with my skin tone. I needed three coats because there was some smearing issues when I applied the first and second coat but the third coat evened it out.

You can purchase the polishes here on the Barielle site: www.barielle.com

The products in this post was provided to me for review. Please see my disclosure page for more information

Barielle Vibrants Collection

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 0

This was the collection I was most looking forward to from Barielle. The Vibrants collection!!

Sadly I only have three polishes from the 6 piece collection to share with you because the polish Designer’s Shoe broke into several tiny pieces and covered two other bottles. I wasn't able to salvage the polishes ;( when I tried to open the other polishes they also broke.

So the first polish I have is:

My City Apartment. I wonder if they named the polish my city apartment because some apartments are made of concrete and concrete is grey? I don't know...anyways this was a wonderful dusty grey that only needed two coats. Barielle does a very good job making cremes. I did not need to use a top coat.

Next we have First Class Ticket. I used two coats. This is a robin egg creme blue that applied very well. There was not dragging when I applied it.

Fire Me Up is a beautiful orange-red polish that is part creme part jelly, a crelly polish. I used two coats and no top coat. There was no application issue and it dried very well.

You can purchase the polishes here on the Barielle site: www.barielle.com

The products in this post was provided to me for review. Please see my disclosure page for more information

St Patrick's day and glequins

Thursday, March 13, 2014 0

St Patrick's Day is coming up so I thought I would do something somewhat festive on my nails.

I applied two coats of Nubar Reclaim to my nails and then a slow drying top coat (Why did I use a slow drying top coat???? scroll down the post and see! ). Reclaim is the most beautiful holographic green polish ever, I have no idea why Nubar discontinued the color :(

http://www.bornprettystore.com/ sent me some glequins to review so I decided to use them for an accent nail.

**Sorry I should have rotated the image first..ekk

I used a slow drying top coat, while the top coat dried I used a toothpick and picked up the glequins I wanted and slowly placed them in the design I wanted on my nail

This design took a bit of time but I am pleased with the results so maybe one day I will cover all my nails with glequins.

China Glaze Sea Goddess Collection Swatches

Tuesday, January 28, 2014 0

Today I have swatches for 3 polishes that are part of the Spring 2014 China Glaze Sea Goddess Collection. These polishes were generously provided to me for review by nailpolishcanada.com

From left to right we have Seahorsin’ Around, Wish On a Starfish, Shell We Dance

First up is my absolute favorite: Seahorsin’ Around

This polish reminds me of a liquid sand version of OPI Catch Me in Your Net polish. I used two coats, no top coat or base coat. The polish applied smoothly and there was no dragging. It is very hard to describe the polish, it is a teal/ blue polish that looks like it also has fine teal/blue/silver glitter in it. What made me love this polish the most was that there was no staining when I removed it :)

Next is Wish On a Starfish

This is a pastel pink liquid sand polish with a gold sheen/shimmer to it. I think that it is a very beautiful neutral liquid sand polish that could be work appropriate. I used two coats, everything went on smoothly. It reminds me of China Glaze strawberry fields but a paler pink and with more gold shimmer to it.

Lastly I have Shell We Dance

This one is a raspberry pink with no gold shimmer to it. It has small pink glitter in it. I used two coats. The first coat was a bit patchy to apply but the second coat evened out the application issue. I felt that the polish was a bit thicker than the other two polishes.

Also don't forget about the sale NailpolishCanada is having on the Sea Goddess collection

The full collection (all 6 shades in a set) is on sale for $37.70 (regular $47.70) until Feb 15th.

You can see the sale here: http://www.nailpolishcanada.com/products/6-pc-sea-goddess-collection-by-china-glaze.html

China Glaze Spring 2014: the Sea Goddess collection

Thursday, January 23, 2014 0

"Discover the hidden treasures of the ocean this spring with China Glaze® Sea Goddess. Six vibrant matte and glistening glitters take you from the sandy, sunny shore to the depths of the sea where the mermaids play"

For Spring 2014, China Glaze is releasing 6 fun shimmer liquid sand polishes. They are:

Shell We Dance – Flip those fins across the sea floor in this bright rose pink with silver and pink glitter

Sand Dolla Make You Holla – The tide meets the sand in this white polish filled with fine multi-colored glitter

v Wish On a Starfish – Make dreams come true with a light pink and gold shimmer polish

Tail Me Something – Listen carefully to the whisper of the secretive sea in this glistening light lavender

Seahorsin’ Around – Splash around in this mermaid-tail turquoise with soft gold shimmer

Teal the Tide Turns – Swim through a seaweed maze of light teal with green glitter

NailpolishCanada is having a special sale on their website for the entire collection.

The full collection (all 6 shades in a set) is on sale for $37.70 (regular $47.70) until Feb 15th.

You can see the sale here: http://www.nailpolishcanada.com/products/6-pc-sea-goddess-collection-by-china-glaze.html

NailpolishCanada has generously provided me with three polishes from this collection to review for you guys so get ready to see swatches in my next post. I will be swatching: Wish On a Starfish, Seahorsin’ Around, Shell We Dance

Back logged swatches

Monday, January 20, 2014 0

I have had this post as a draft for a very long time and today I am finally posting my swatches. I just haven't had the time to edit the pictures and it was taking me forever to upload the pictures. Today I have uploaded all the pictures. Please forgive me for my lack of cropping on the pictures. I didn't crop or edit the pictures in anyway. I don't even have watermarks on them...oh wells

Left to right: Zoya Zara, Zoya Mimi, China glaze Strap On Your Moonboots, China Glaze When Stars Collide, China glaze Heat Index, OPI I Theodora You

First up we have Zoya Zara. It is jelly lavender that has gold shimmer in it. It took 4 coats for me to get full opacity. Even in the pictures you can still see the VNL (visible nail line). It had a very smooth application

With Flash

No flash, natural light

Next is one of my favorites Zoya Mimi. This is a glass flecked purple that is the purple version of Zoya Charla/ OPI Catch me in your net/ Zoya Ivanka. I used 3 coats in the pictures. It had a very smooth application

With Flash

With flash

No flash, natural light

Next up are the two china glaze polishes from the hologram collection. I already own most of the china glaze OMG collection so I didn't think I needed the hologram collection. I did get the two colors that I thought were unique, a dark blue and a maroon purple

First is China glaze Strap On Your Moonboots. I used three coats, if you were careful I think you could get away with two coats. I had a bit of dragging when I applied the second coat; therefore I had to use three coats to even out my application.

With flash

with flash

No flash, natural light

Number two is China Glaze When Stars Collide. I had the same application issue as I did with China glaze Strap On Your Moonboots. There was some dragging on coat two so I applied a third coat to even out the application.

With flash

No flash, natural light

Next we have Heat index from the China Glaze Sunsational Collection

I got this polish because it is extremely bright and has a JELLY finish!!! I really like jelly polishes but a good jelly polish is hard to find. Just look at the squishie-ness of the polish! I used three coats. I never wear this polish alone, I like to layer it with glitter polish underneath to make a glitter sandwich effect e.g. rainbow glitter (OPI Rainbow Connection) or black and white glitter (lynnderella connect the dots). etc

with Flash

with flash

No Flash, natural light

Lastly we have OPI I Theodora You. I love love love this polish. It is the perfect neutral pink. Very smooth application two coats. After some crazy funky designs/ colors on your nails, you may want a neutral cleanser color for your nails, this is the go to polish. It is very elegant and beautiful