Base Coats - Part Two

Welcome back to my mini series of nail care. Part One - Cuticle Care can be found HERE. Tonight we are moving on to Part Two of the series...

BASE COATS 

I would like to mention before I get started, that base coats vary greatly from person to person. Some base coats can work wonders for certain people and others hate that same base coat. Each individual has different body chemistry so I can't promise what works wonderful for me will do the same for you. I had to go through a lot of different brands of base coats before I found the ones that worked best for me.

MY FAVORITE GO TO BASE COAT COMBINATIONS: 

I wear a ton of glitter polishes, so having a decent base coat is very important to me. My favorite and top choice is Barrielle Camouflage. This bottle is super old and it now comes in the newer style bottle. It can be purchased at Transdesign in the newer bottle style. This works wonders for me. It goes on very thin and provides a nice sticky type base for me.  It helps to prevent staining as well. I have several polishes that have permanently stained my nails, which is no fun. This works great for anti staining.

I also like Orly Nail Armor, which can be purchased at Sally's Beauty Supply.
This is much thicker, but also works wonderful.  What I love about using this as a base is that it has a Ridgefiller built right in.  I have had really good results using this as a base coat.

Finally, is Barrielle Hydrating Ridge Filler. This can also be found on Transdesign as well. This is a nice hydrating base coat. I do get dry brittle nails some times, and this helps prevent that. This is much thinner then Nail Armour.

I also like to venture out...

When I want a less thick base coat for a simple solid creme polish, non glitter polish, I use Essie Feed Me. I really do like this one. You can purchase this is Walgreens and other places that carry Essie.  I usually use the next four bases for non glitter polishes

Essie Sensitivity Base Coat.  This is a mini bottle size. Another favorite here.

Poshe treatment base coat. I use this if my nails start to peel or show signs of breaking. This saves a step if you are wanting to treat your nails as well as apply a base coat.

Finally, Posh antimicrobial Base Coat.This prevents fungus on the nail. now granted I never got a fungus from a manicure...but anything that prevents fungus works in my germaphobe world lol.

I have tried many other base coats as well, but so far I stick with these. Variety is important to me. In no means do you have to own all these base coats in order to get a good manicure. Some people like to just use one kind for everything. I have not had luck that way. I do suggest you do use some sort of base coat. A lot of people skip this step but it really does help protect your nails. Especially if you are changing polish often like myself.

Here are some examples of combinations...

A glitter: Barrielle Camo, Nail Armour or Barielle Hydrating Ridge Filler.

A smooth creme: Essie Feed Me, Essie Sensitivity Base coat, Poshe Anticmicrobial

When nails feel week and and start to break and peel: Poshe Treatment base coat, Feed Me

 One of the only bases I plan to add in the future is an aqua base. This is supposedly excellent for all hologrphic polishes. I am not sure which brand I will go with yet on this. Once I decide, I will edit this post to include it.

Thanks for reading guys and stay tuned for Part Three on Top Coats, coming soon!

Maya Cosmetics Release...

Tomorrow, or actually today (since it's after midnight here) Maya Cosmetics is having a big new release. The release is scheduled for 4:00PM EST tomorrow, March 7th!

Tonight I'm showing you two polishes being released. First, SILVER LINING. This is a light blue-gray with silver shimmer and purple, green, and blue flakes. The shimmer is so beautiful on this and very noticeable on the nail. The following is two coats alone.

This is kind of a Raindrops dupe but not exactly. It does remind me of it very much. The formula was excellent and went on very easily.

Check out the shimmer!

The second polish is RUCKUS which is fuchsia, cobalt blue, light turquoise, and silver holo glitter in a clear base. I figured it would be awesome to layer over Silver Lining. 

I love the two together! The formula on this was no problems. I did add 4 drops of thinner, which I do with a lot of my Clear base glitters.

Check out the giant cobolt blue hex glitters. I just love those!

You can follow Maya Cosmetic on Facebook HERE.

The release of these polishes will be March 7th at 4PM EST.

(*the following polishes were sent to me for my honest review)

Cuticle Care - Part One

Due to popular demand, I will be doing a small series on my nail care routine. I get a lot of questions about how I take care of my nails and what products I use, etc. so this post will hopefully answer a lot of your questions. I did a post similar to this when I first started this blog, but it is now very outdated. At lot has stayed the same and a lot has changed. Since my routine and products are bit extensive, I'm going to break this post up into 4 Parts..

• Cuticle Care - Part One
• Base Coats - Part Two
• Top Coats - Part Three
• MISC - Part Four

 First up is ...

Cuticle Care  - PART ONE

 
I always start my cuticle care with cuticle remover. I let the remover sit on my cuticle area for a minute or two, and then I push back my cuticles (very gently) with a cuticle pusher. I use CND Cuticle Away as my cuticle remover. I like this particular remover because it is very gentle on my cuticles. I have very sensitive skin and any other remover I have tried turns my skin around my cuticles red and puffy, CND does not. I purchased this from Transdesign, but I do not believe they carry it any longer. I will have to find a new source myself once I run out. I can tell you that this bottle shown below is 3 years old. I use very little. 

Here are the tools I use to push back my cuticles and trim hang nails once the remover has sat on my fingers for one to two minutes.

The cuticle 'pusher' pictured on the left was also purchased at Transdesign. I love this pusher because of the hook end which comes in handy for cleaning under the nail. The cuticle clippers show on the right are from Sally Hansen and can be purchased at any Drug Store. I only use the clippers to clip hang nails. I never EVER NEVER clip my cuticles. I have tested this out and my cuticles will grow back harder and more fierce if I clip them. The skin gets tough and unmanageable. It may look neat and clean when you first do it, but in the long run it is not worth it. Once I started using remover and a pusher, my cuticles grew very little and were much more manageable and pliable.

I always sanitize my tools prior to use. I'm a HUGE germaphobe, but when doing anything to your cuticles you should always use clean tools. I purchased Mar-v-cide cleaning solution and a container from Sally's Beauty Supply for cleaning my tools. You just dip them in the solution for 10 minutes, and then they are ready to use.

After I 'push' the cuticles with the scoop end of the pusher, I end up with a lot of remover and dead skin on my fingertips. I head to the sink and do some scrubbing. 

My scrubber of choice is California Mango Buff. This scrub is gentle and cleans things up really nicely and I love the smell of it too. It gets rid of the cuticle remover and dead skin very well. I purchased this at Sally's Beauty Supply. You can use any kind of hand scrub for this step.

I then move on to disinfecting. YES, disinfecting AGAIN. This is what germaphobes do lol. I spray my fingers with disinfecting spray, Sea Breeze. If you have ever went to a professional nail salon they would have sprayed your hands with this after cleaning your cuticles. I was thrilled to find out that Sally's Beauty Supply carries this as well.  I love the smell of this stuff and it makes me feel confident that if I pushed any dirt, germs etc under my cuticles, I will not get any weird infections. In my mind, my fingers will get infected and fall off otherwise, of course :) 

My final step is to apply cuticle oil and lotion. I first apply the cuticle oil and then I seal it in with the lotion on top.

My choice items are Barielle Intensive Nail Renewal Oil and Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme. In the 3 years I have been doing my own nails I have tried CRAZY amounts of Oils and Cremes. I have tried every one available on the market, and these two work best for me. The oil is very light and not too greasy and the butter seals things in very nicely. My cuticles have improved 100% since I started using this combination.

This is something you do have to experiment with. Everyone's skin chemistry is different and will react differently to varies products. A lot of oils were extremely greasy and actually drying out my cuticles and making them very hard. It took me a while to find my winning combination. I wish I could say this combination will work for everyone, but I'm afraid you will have to experiment on this part.

I hope this is helpful. After I let the oil and lotion sit for awhile I will go wash my hands and move on to applying a base coat...

Stay tuned for Base Coats - Part 2 coming soon!

Swatches for Trelly's M.I.S.C. Under the Sea

Today I wanted to share my swatches of the much anticipated Under the Sea Collection from Trelly's M.I.S.C. This collection will be released on March 11, 2013 over at Trelly's M.I.S.C Etsy's Store.

UNDER THE SEA inspired by...The Little Mermaid

This collection is so fun and amazing. If you are going to purchase a collection for 2013..this should be it. I fell in love with it as soon as I received the bottles. 

 There is so much georgeous packed into this collection....

KISS THE GIRL

 That song always runs through my head when I think about The Little Mermaid. Below is 3 coats of Kiss The Girl all on it's own. It covered really well. This polish reminds me of the beach and the ocean. It's got a combination of teal, yellow/green, and smaller dark glitters. I love how the glitters showed so well, even with 3 coats.

GADGETS and GIZMOS

 I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty!!! This is a combination of glitters in a clear base. This is 2 coats of Sation Love is in the Heir with 1 coat of G&G. The colors in this one are so fun, blues, pink glitters in hex and square shapes. There is also smaller scattered glitters.

Under The Sea

This is 1 coat of Under The Sea over 1 coat of Sation of Cast a Spill on You. This is also in a clear base. I tried something a little different here, and I love the way it turned out. While the base coat was still wet I added the Under the Sea and swirled my brush a little. I LOVE it!!! It looks just like flowing water in the sea! Amazing!!!

DINGLEHOPER

The magic dinglehopper that us humans use to do our hair lol! I love it and it makes me giggle when I hear the name of this one. FUN!!! This is 3 coats alone. What I love about this one is the orange colored glitters (both hex and bar shaped). The color reminds me of Ariel's beautiful hair.

POOR UNFORTUNATE SOUL

This is super gorgeous and is in a black base. I did layer it over black, but you can leave it on it's own as well. I love the deep purple glitters in this.This is a perfect representation of this part of The Little Mermaid.

I'M NOT A GUPPY

This is my favorite of the entire collection. I LOVE THIS. It even has heart glitters. This is 3 coats on it's on and it covered just fine. PERFECT!!!!

Make sure you follow Trelly's M.I.S.C on Facebook and release info will be updated there!

(*The following polished were sent to be for my honest review)

New Release for Trelly's M.I.S.C.

Super Exciting News from:

There will be two NEW collections that will be release March 11th, 2013!!See them here first!

UNDER THE SEA

& 

SPRING 2013

Under the Sea will contain the following six polishes...

all inspired by The Little Mermaid

The second collection is the Spring 2013 collection!

These will be officially released March 11, 2013 at Trelly's M.I.S.C Etsy Shop

You can keep up to date on release information at:

Trelly's M.I.S.C on Facebook

Check back soon -  I will have swatches up all this weekend and into next week prior to the release.