Cult Nails Blog: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Last Day to Sign Up for The Zoya Exchange!

If you haven't already participated in the Zoya exchange your last chance to participate officially ends today. For those of you still trying to decide which polishes to pick, I wanted to show you a few more Zoya's I love. I selected a lot of purples from the exchange, so why not show you three of the purple's I received.

First up is Malia. I have been wanting this one for a long time. I can't tell you how many other purples I have bought in order to hopefully quench my desire for this polish. While I found some amazing polishes in the process, I still had to get my hands on this purple. Every time I see it I want to change my manicure to this one. This is two coats.

Next up is Perrie. At first I thought this would be too close to Malia to justify getting, but as you can see this is not close at all. Perrie is from the 2010 Flash Summer collection. This purple definitely seems like a fun summery shade. This would be a perfect summer pedicure color. This is also two coats.

The last one I have for you today is Vegas Freeze. I couldn't decide if I wanted this one or not. But I couldn't get over how pretty it looked in the bottle. I knew this was a sheer polish, but I still had to try it out. I didn't layer this over anything so you can see the true brilliance of this color. It is a very sheer light purple almost jelly base with this amazing purple sparkle. I am wearing 4 coats in these pictures. I can imagine wearing this over a nude to get a true jelly look. I can't wait to try it and see how it comes out.

Have you ordered from the Zoya exchange? What colors did you order?

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Eclipse Tonight

I have read the Twilight books and really enjoyed them. When I read them it was before all the hype. I had been reading Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake series and it was getting just a bit too graphic for my tastes, and a friend recommended Twilight. It took a while to get into the first book. I am talking like 200 pages before I could get into it. I have this problem where if I start a book, I have to finish it, regardless of how horrible it is. I am actually reading a book I despise right now, yet I am forcing myself to finish. Why do I torture myself like this? Anyway, I digress, after the first 200 pages, I really got into the book. But it was a bit "young" for me, but I still found myself enjoying it. I recommended it to my daughter and she seemed to enjoy it as well. I even got my husband to read it. After reading the series the buzz was starting to come around about a potential movie. When the movie came out I took my girls to see it. My oldest who had read the books, and is a teenager became an all out Team Edward fan. So when New Moon came out I took her and her friend to the midnight viewing. That was a pretty funny night, mixed with all the teen Twihard's were women my age with their Team Edward & Team Jacob shirts. Even men! I guess for me it was funny since I am just not that into it. The next day I came to work exhausted! I promised myself no more midnight viewings. Well here we are again, Eclipse comes out tonight and I have my tickets for the midnight showing of Eclipse. I am bringing my daughter and 3 of her friends to see the movie. This time I am being smart though. I am taking the morning off from work so I can actually sleep after the movie and then I am working from home the rest of the day. How about you are you a Twihard? Are you planning on seeing the movie tonight or at all? Me personally? I am back to my Anita Blake series and a True Blood fan.

So for all you fans, whether it be Belle, Anita, Sookie or someone else, today's NOTD is Ulta For Bitten. This color was easy to apply and I am loving the Gothic Collection. I swatched it over a month ago and didn't like the pictures and just have not had time to redo the swatches. Overall the collection has some amazing colors for Fall. It applied smoothly in two coats and looks great!

This one was so hard to photograph. In these pictures it seems to lean brown, but in reality, the second picture with the flash shows the true beauty of this color. I love how dark and glittery this one is. I can't wait to show you guys the rest of this collection! I'll have to redo this one too.

Monday, June 28, 2010

How Time Flies!

I can't believe the weekend is already over! I need another weekend to get everything done! I had such a great weekend though. I went to my friend's baby shower on Saturday and then came home and had to get some things ready for Sunday, including making dough for home made doughnuts. Saturday night we took it easy and I just laid in bed and watched a chick flick. I can't remember the last time I laid in bed watching a movie. It was so nice! I should try to do that more often! We watched "When in Rome". Not the best movie, but it was cute enough. Then Sunday morning I got to get up and make the doughnuts with my daughter and they were delicious!

From there I got to continue preparing things in the kitchen for the day since my brother and his beautiful family were visiting us from out of town for the day. Once he arrived, I just couldn't get enough of my adorable nephew and of course we all went to the beach and hung out for a while. While at the beach I got a "surfing" injury and I wasn't even surfing! I was helping my daughter get an over 8ft surfboard in the water. She wanted me to get it passed the break for her. Well one break caused the board to come flying and whack me in my hip bone. I honestly thought I might have broken the bone for a second, but the pain subsided within a few hours. Then once we were in past the break, as my daughter was hoping on the board to get it out a little further and a wave broke a little early and the she flew off the board and the board got all mixed in the break and I got hit with the board! Lucky me right?

Once we got back home and they left my energy was gone! I had nothing left in me! So now I get to go home to all my weekend chores tonight! YAY!

In the meantime - how about another S-he nail polish? This one is #427 and it is a holographic pink! Someone asked where I got these. I received them in an international swap, unfortunately for those of us in the U.S., I don't think we can get these here. So far the three I received I am loving though. I'll need to figure out a way to get more.

Isn't this polish awesome? I won't put it in my top favorites though, while it is cool enough, it just wasn't well enough I guess. But it is still cool! Well on to the busy week ahead!

If you follow me on Facebook, you already know about most of my weekend. If you don't, click on the Follow Me button on the upper right sidebar of my page and follow me!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

R3Daily is now on Facebook!

I created a page for my blog! YAY! I remember when I started this blog that I hoped that I would get to 250 followers by June. I created the blog as part of a bigger picture in my life. I had always wanted to do nails, and somehow my life took a different turn. Not a bad turn, I went to college and have a good career, so how can I complain. But I never lost my passion for doing nails. This blog gives me a way to put some of that passion out there. The people I have gotten to know on here are amazing and I am so glad I took the plunge and started it. Now here I am creating a Facebook page for my blog! I had no idea this was even an option! It just seems like another great opportunity added to make this blog even better.

So if you have a Facebook - go like my page and help me spread the word! I spent a little time putting some pictures up there, I will work on it more this weekend to get more photos on there. I am already running late and need to get ready for the day. I hope to see you all on "The FaceSpace" as we call it in our house.

Here are just a few of the photos I put on my page:

Essence Sundancer

Color Club Out & About LA Splash Purple Blowfish

SpaRitual Love Revlon Punch Chrome
I have more photos on the R3Daily page - go check them out! Here is the link:

Friday, June 25, 2010

Best Excuses for Calling in Sick to Work

I have been in either a management position or human resource position for several years now and I have heard my share of stories for why people call in sick. It never ceases to amaze me. Did you know you don't need to give any more details other than, I will not be in today? I mean it would be nice if you didn't just leave that for a message, perhaps say, I am not feeling well or there was an emergency. But the rest of the story, no one needs it. But people really do like to give the whole story. The more story they give, the more BS it usually is too. Here are my top 10 favorites:

I can't make it in to work today because...

10. I went away for the weekend and decided to stay one more day.
9. It snowed last night and now my car is stuck in the garage because my garage door is frozen shut.
8. Two weeks later this individual had the nerve to call in again but this time she said she left her car outside so she wouldn't get stuck home, but now the front door to the house was frozen shut! She must have lived in an igloo!
7. I got arrested last night for drinking and driving and I am still in jail. (This was true - but why would you ever admit to this? Why not just say, I don't feel good?)
6. I am still drunk, so I can't drive. (Not the same individual by the way)
5. I had a co-worker once call in sick. He was good, he didn't leave any other details. The problem was it was New Years Eve and he was shown on the 6 o'clock news getting a breathalizer. Oops! (again not the same person as 7 or 6!)
4. I have a job interview for a better job. SERIOUSLY? They didn't get the job, but they didn't last where I worked much longer either.
3. I ran into an employee once the day after Thanksgiving at the mall. I was actually meeting the employee's boss at the mall (we had taken a planned vacation day to do some Black Friday shopping). When the boss arrived I told her I ran into her employee. Turns out the employee called in sick with food poisoning that morning! Uh oh!
2. I just need a mental health day. (This is one of my favorites! This was also given by a co-worker. To this day I wish I had the nerve to call in sick and use this as my excuse! Because honestly - who doesn't just need one of these every once in a while. But I usually just call these days VACATION and plan for them)
Number 1 is my all time favorite as of right now. I chuckle every time I think about it. It was on a Friday.
1. I can't come in today, because I am going to be sick this afternoon! Who knew we had a psychic working for us?! What amazing planning!

For today's NOTD I chose to show S-he #387. This is a bright coral pink creme. These polishes applied great in two coats. This is a great summer color. As soon as I received this one, I immediately put it on my toes. Unfortunately it chipped within a week! I can't imagine how fast it would chip on my hands if on my toes it chips that fast! Still a beautiful color though.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

CND Shellac Mani's and Pedi's and a Little Minx

So the day finally arrived! It was time for me to get my Shellac Pedicure. My friend and I went to the only "local" salon that offers CND Shellac or Minx. It is about a 30 minute drive for me, but SOOO worth it. We went to Kai's Cottage in Titusville Florida. Kai was amazing and so is her salon. Kai had a wheel of all the Shellac colors and she even layered some Shellac colors together to create new colors. So we actually had more choices than just the 12 colors CND Shellac comes in. She also had two books full of the Minx options and another photo book of some manicures and pedicures she has done in the past, which served not only as inspiration on what to choose, but also did not help with my indecision! It was so hard to decide what I wanted with the infinite choices Kai offered. Here I am looking through the Minx book in the first picture and enjoying my pedicure in the second picture. (Be kind, I am makeup-less here - this is what I REALLY look like. I should have done my makeup before I went.)

Kai was great at explaining our choices and how we should maintain our manicures. (Cuticle oil or a rich moisturizing lotion daily - were you expecting some big secret? HA!) I opted for Minx on my big toes and Shellac on my other toes. My friend had just received a pedicure over the weekend, so she had Minx applied to just her big toes as well and left the rest of her toes alone, since they were already painted.

Here is a picture in the middle of my manicure after the Minx has been applied. I opted for the pink camouflage. Look how tiny my nail beds are on my feet!

Here is some surprising Minx information we found out. The Minx last about 8-10 days on the nails. Obviously with some women experiencing better or worse wear depending on their personal daily routine. Kai said most of her clients however fall in the 8 - 10 day range for Minx manicures. That is longer than I actually anticipated with Minx. But here is the kicker, Minx on toes have lasted her clients up to 12 weeks!!! She even showed us some pictures. Now I have to say I don't recommend this! After 12 weeks of leaving the Minx on the toes it looks like a French Minx Manicure! Just imagine 12 weeks of unfiled growth. Most of her clients leave the Minx toes on for 2-3 weeks successfully though. After hearing this and seeing the proof in her pictures I felt confident using both products in one pedicure.

The Shellac application looked fairly easy. First Kai applied the base coat and cured it for 2 minutes. While one foot was curing, she worked on the other foot. After the base coat, she applied the first layer of Shellac Color and then cured, then a second layer of color, and then cured and finally the top coat and then she cured. Once that was done, she swiped the toes with alcohol and it was done. I LOVE my pedicure.

Here is my full pedicure. I chose Shellac in Tutti Fruti for the pedicure color.

Here is my friend's and my feet together. She had the flower Minx on her big toe and OPI Peru B Ruby on the rest of her toes.

My friend's pedicure

Next it was time for our Shellac Manicures. My friend chose Red Baroness for her manicure color. Can I just say this color is amazing! I wanted to copy her and get this one so bad! But maybe I will make that my next one instead. Here are two pictures of her manicure. You can see in the first picture it really looks just like nail polish being applied. The second picture shows her completed manicure. Doesn't she have amazing nails? I was so jealous!

Here was a cool picture of my friend curing her Shellac manicure. I couldn't resist taking the picture. She must have thought I was a nut taking this! Ha!

As soon as my friends manicure was done, I had to just smudge my fingers across her nails. I mean they just look so wet, even though we knew that yes they were dry, I couldn't help but test it out. It was amazing. While getting her manicure we were talking about how every time we do our nails we need to go to the bathroom while they are still drying. She is 33 weeks pregnant right now and of course as soon as her manicure was done, she made a bee-line for the rest room. She came out of the rest room and exclaimed: "Look I just did my nails and I then I went to the bathroom and they didn't even ruin!" I think this should be CND's new challenge. Forget getting your keys out of your purse, can it pass the bathroom test? YES IT CAN! HA!

CND shellac is flexible, but I have to say my nails do feel a bit harder though, which is an added bonus in my opinion. There is no buffing or filing of the nail bed for application or removal. Kai explained that removal is done with acetone applied directly to the nail to avoid damaging the skin around the nails and then using a wood cuticle pusher to just gently scrape the polish off.

Here is my Shellac manicure. I selected Fedora for my manicure color by request of Amy. (Thanks for the suggestion Amy! I am loving it!!!) This color looks almost black, but really is a deep burgundy. It is hard to imagine that 10 years ago this color was considered cutting edge and now it is a classic color!

I wanted to add a picture of the side of my nails too so that you could see how thin Shellac really is. It is no thicker than polish! Look how thin it is!

I of course am wondering if I can last two weeks with the same color on my nails. But I guess we will see. I am looking forward to updating you all on the results in two weeks. I will be going back before my brother's wedding in July. We are driving from FL to MA and will be gone for about a week and a half. I won't have to worry about my nails while I am on vacation. YAY! I also think Shellac will get me in the salon more often for pedicures since I try to go 2 weeks without having to redo my toes. Now maybe I can get 3 or even 4 weeks out of my pedicures! Plus Kai's skills are amazing, I think I can do with a monthly pedicure pampering at Kai's Kottage. For my manicures I think I will only get the Shellac when I am going on vacation or maybe even for some big events, since I always seem to chip them right before anything major. I like to change my polish color on my hands to much to commit to one for two weeks at a time though, so we'll see. But for those women out there who want beautiful nails and just don't have the time to touch up a chipped manicure every few days, this definitely seems like it will be the answer.

If any of you in FL and within 45 minutes or so of Kai's Kottage in Titusville, I highly recommend you plan a visit. She is amazing! Tell her I sent you! :)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Les Contrastes de Chanel Fall 2010 Polishes & My Franken

I am apparently a little behind the curve with this one. Chanel has announced it's Fall 2010 collection. Of course I am mainly interested in the polish. So I figured that is what I would show you.

The polish colors for this collection are Jade Rose (Light peach) and Paradox(Greyed purple). I have been wanting a greyed purple for some time. I made a franken of one and thought I showed it here, but after doing a search I realize I haven't. I mixed Ulta Devious (or maybe it was Celebutante - I can't remember now. Looks like Devious to me) with a medium grey polish.

But I wanted something darker. I intended on mixing a darker grey and adding a bit of a darker purple, but I just never got around to it. I have even looked for the color I imagined in my head, and still have not found what I am thinking of. Rescue Beauty Lounge posted on her Facebook asking what polish people would create and I said a dark purple grey. I was just hoping somehow my idea would somehow make it to her polish line.

Now it appears that Chanel has read my mind and is trying to make it happen. Paradox is already being described as what will be the "it" color for the fall. From the look at the bottle, I am not to excited - but looking at the polish on the model - it seems to be exactly what I am looking for. Why it looks so drastically different on the model vs. the hand, makes me wonder which is real and which is photoshopped (my luck and the odds are that it is the model's hands). I have such high hopes for this polish. I am hoping this is the grey purple I have been looking for. Of course that means that cheaper alternatives will be just around the corner too. Which is a plus since spending $25 for a bottle of polish is hard to justify. But still, I can't wait!

Jade Rose Paradox

*On a side note - I got my mani and pedi last night. I got a minx/shellac mix pedi. (minx on my big toe and shellac on the others) and a shellac mani. If you follow me on twitter, I posted a sneak peek of the pedi last night. By the time I got home last night it was almost 11pm, so I haven't downloaded the pictures yet. I will post my review and pictures tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

My S-he Manicure

I can't wait to finally get my Shellac Pedicure tonight! For sure I will be taking some pictures for you guys! The cool thing is I just looked through my swatch pictures and I have 15 photos of different colors. So if I decide to go with a Shellac mani, I have enough in between swatches to show you a color a day while I test out CND Shellac. Pretty cool. I was actually planning on posting 3 different S-he colors today, but since I may add in the Shellac Mani if the nail tech has time, I am going to hold off and just show one. Wait until you see this color!

This is S-he 384. This is a deep purple color with blue shimmer shining through. I was so impressed with this color.

This applied smoothly in two coats. This was fairly easy to apply and the color was just amazing! In the close up of the color though I notice the begins of bubbling. I didn't do more than swatching, so I wonder if I just applied to thickly or if this polish would end up bubbling. That would suck since this was a pretty amazing color otherwise.

Monday, June 21, 2010

OPI You Don't Know Jacques

I started my nails Friday night and by Sunday they still weren't done. I just wasn't feeling it this weekend. Hence no blog posts this weekend. I was just needing a break I guess. I am not seeing anything new that is capturing my attention at the moment. There are some polishes I would love to try, but spending the money on polish is just not something I feel like doing when I have so many polishes sitting in drawers. I am thinking of selling off some of my collection and then seeing what I feel like I might need. I thought about swapping some of it or maybe doing a combination of a sale and swap or something. In the meantime though a lot of magazines are starting to put a bit of the fall fashion collections in their July magazines and I was feeling the colors. (Can you believe it - summer is barely here and already the fall fashions are coming out!) Browns are going to be huge again this fall and I thought I would break one out that I haven't shown here yet and haven't worn in at least 6 months. I gave myself a good manicure too since my cuticles were really in bad shape. I mean I really neglected my hands for the last few days. On to the manicure.

I forgot how much I love this color. This applied perfectly in two coats for full coverage. The quality was great and easy to use. Would love to see more brown variety polishes from OPI in the future.

By the way tomorrow I go for my Shellac Pedicure! I can't wait! It looks like my friend is getting a minx manicure - so I was thinking of adding either that or a shellac mani if the nail tech has the time. Let's see what happens. I can't wait for tomorrow evening. Maybe that will get me back in the nail mood.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Babbling Brooke's Amazing Give-Away!!!

Babbling Brooke is having a HUGE giveaway to celebrate her blogs 2nd birthday. Be sure to check it out at www.caracita.com. Look at the AMAZING prizes!

Friday, June 18, 2010

You Guys Are Awesome and so is Zoya!

I just have to say that the comments I received yesterday were awesome! Here I am stressing, trying to figure out what to do and you all came up with some alternatives I didn't even know were there. I think that is just amazing! This really is a community. I love that! I may just ask for your opinion more often now. Save myself some stress.

Today I am showing you the Zoya I kept on after all my swatching. It is Zoya Maria. I chose this one simply for the name since it is my name after all. It is a good thing I love nudes! This one did not dissappoint either!

These were taken in indirect evening sunlight. This color applied smoothly and I did three coats. I probably could have gotten away with two coats if I wasn't taking a picture of it, but I knew the camera would somehow need that extra coat. Look how glossy it looks! This color is a nude with a hint of pink. I absolutely love it! Not to mention the name is perfect too! ;) Zoya does it again!

By the way did you know Zoya has their own blog? They do! You can check it out here: http://zoyanailpolish.blogspot.com/. They have up a sneak peak of one of the colors for their upcoming Fall 2010 Wicked Collection. The color they show is Cheryl and it is a "sparkly metallic warm brown". You have to check out this polish! I don't know that I can wait for them to release this collection! I am already dying for it just from this sneak peak! Oh Zoya - you are making my heart ache!

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