I'm heading to Las Vegas to attend CosmoProf today! I can't wait! I had no idea this was a blogger event. I'm going hoping to meet some people who can help with Cult Nails needs. When I found out a group of bloggers was going, I was stoked! I have to keep reminding myself that I'm going for work.

I racked my brain for the perfect manicure. I decided on a neutral one. I am still totally loving Time Traveler, so I instantly went to that one. Then I decided to add the new & improved Unicorn Puke to just my index finger. Love it! (I added some blue polish to the mix)

I will be posting tidbits while at CosmoProf on Facebook & Twitter, but I most likely won't be blogging until I get back. Have a great weekend everyone!



-- Post From My iPhone

I was wearing a dark purple creme polish when I was mixing colors and decided to layer it over that polish. I LOVED how this looked with one exception. See how alone it looks like blue flakes, over the dark color it looks more green. (In the bottle it looks green too!) It has too much of a Christmasy vibe with the green flakes. I really would like the flakes to be blue.

I am sending this one to the lab anyway with instructions to see if they can change the green flakes to blue flakes. If they can, I think it will be perfect. Well actually I would like some of the flakes to be a little bigger.

I warn all you polish companies now, take this polish and I will be vocal! I know a few polish companies follow my blog and some of my mixes are making it to other lines. Um I can tell you follow me, so when that happens it is obvious! Don't make me call you out as an unimaginative thief! Just sayin'!
OK with that out of the way, my daughter decided to try it over several other colors. The very left is over the purple I am wearing above which is a potential future color. OK who am I kidding, it is a future color, all my friends are asking for it, so I have to make it happen! The blue is the one I am working on for another blogger, so ignore that one, the third one is a berry with blue shimmer that failed miserably. You can't see the blue shimmer at all. Boo! The fourth one is over a light purple, the fifth is over a bright blue, the 6th over Quench and the last one is over the upcoming Time Traveler.

This shows it on a few more colors. The very left is all alone, the second one is I can't remember what color it is. The third is another take on the blue for the blogger, the fourth one is I can't remember, anyway you get the idea.
And this last one is how I am wearing it now. Over a light purple. I couldn't get the flakies to stand out in the photo, but in person it is intense! I keep getting asked about this color. I have had it on since Sunday. I am going to wait until tomorrow to change it. But I kind of want to put it back on. I was thinking I will wear it over Devious Nature. Let's see.

By now you all know that Cult Nails donated 600 bottles of My Kind of Cool Aid to HollyRod's 13th Annual Design Care Event. I was so honored to be able to include an item for the gift bags for this event and wish I could have attended the event and been a part of this amazing night for a great cause.

The HollyRod Foundation was founded in 1997 by Holly Robinson Peete and her husband Rodney Peete. The HollyRod Foundation is dedicated to providing compassionate care to those living with Autism and Parkinson's disease. The Design Care event raises money for this amazing foundation to be able to continue it's giving efforts.

As a donater to the event, we were able to attend the event. Unfortunately I had to choose between CosmoProf and the Design Care event. I so wanted to attend this event for more reasons than one. I would have loved to see my product in a gift bag and taken a ton of pictures and shared all the amazingness of the evening with all of you. But business wise as a new business CosmoProf is a must attend event. But if I attended the Design Care event I would have been able to catch up with and spend time with a friend I haven't seen in about 17 years! How cool would that have been? But again business or pleasure? Unfortunately business had to win (although I must admit, I think there will be a lot of pleasure at CosmoProf since I get to meet some of the best bloggers around while there!)

Anyway this is how you know someone is a true friend. My friend Linda ( on Twitter) who I haven't seen in over 17 years, agreed to go to Design Care 2011 for me. She is a busy wife and mom of three, is in the process of buying a house and is wanting to start her own foundation to help special needs kids as one of her own kids has special needs. (Which you know when she starts he foundation we will be there to support her all the way!) Yet, she agreed to stop everything for me, a girl she hasn't seen in 17 years and recently reacquainted with thanks to the magic of FaceBook! Is that not amazing? Linda tweeted along the way, and I wanted to share her tweets with you all. If you are on Twitter, follow and let her know I sent you!

Linda tweets about receiving some polishes from me. I was hoping she received the polishes in time for the event and they arrived the day before! Talk about close!

: "My package from @soo freakn cute!! Loved the packaging...hence my other reason 2 go get my mani/pedi"

Linda chose Devious Nature for her mani/pedi color. I can't believe she took the time to get a mani/pedi before the event! 

: "My color of choice for this special weekend...*drum roll pleeze!* Devious Nature...waaaahooo!! Gorgeous!"


Ok, I'm a little distracted by the rock on her hand to pay attention to the nails! 

: "Pretty in Pink yet Devious by Nature ;) better get your "Devious Nature" from  #Fabulous"

The fashion show starts:

: " watching  & hubby Rodney getting ready to start the Design Care Fashion Show"


If I was there and had the money, this puppy would have gone home with me instead of Ozzy Osbourne! He's so lucky I don't have it like that! LOL!

: "Awwh look at Ozzy the Rescue Yorky @ @ Design Care Auction $10k takes this puppy home"


My friend Linda is on the right. Is she not gorgeous? She was able to bring her friend with her to the event who is equally as gorgeous! 

: "With my girl @ @ @ Design Care event thanks @ Amazing Nite"


So a big thank you to my girl for attending and tweeting along the way! I owe her big time! But hopefully next time I get to attend the event and see an old friend!

Can you think of any other questions you would like answered? If so post them here and I will try to include them for you!

I just wanted to do a quick post today. Last night the girls and I had some running around to do and a promise to go to Redberry for some frozen yogurt. When I got home from work, the last thing I wanted to do was change from work. I'm lazy like that. But since it was hot out, I did throw on some shorts and thought, wow this is a cute little outfit I got going on here. LOL! My darling daughter offered to take some photos using my phone, so the quality isn't that great, but you can still.

Pop icon Madonna and her daughter Lourdes, nicknamed Lola, will expand their Macy's fashion brand to include the teen Material Girl Beauty line for Fall 2011. The Material Girl collection currently consists of apparel, swim, footwear, handbags and jewelry.

The brand extension includes scented body lotions, washes, body mists, lip glosses, and nail polishes with product names, such as Sinful Sugar, Midnight Magnolia, Wicked Watermelon, and Flirty Fruit. The line is priced from $7 to $20. Additional eye palettes are planned for later in the season.


The Material Girl beauty line was inspired by Lola's favorite bands, designers, fashion trends, and style icons, including her mother, according to Macy’s Inc., in New York. Material Girl beauty products will be sold in Macy's stores and online at www.macys.com/mstylelab beginning mid-August. 

What would be your power? The Fall collection isn't even out yet and already I have the Winter collection in the works! The collection doesn't have an official name yet, but it is tentatively Super Powers. I always envision Time Travelers to travel through a murky black haze and hence the name for this one.

When I wanted this black grey for the Fall and it got edged out for everyone's desire for Awakening, this one got put as the basic for the Winter collection. I LOVE this color! I can't quite pull off black. It just seems a little too teenager for me. I remember being a teenager wearing black polish because it was such a "dangerous" color. You know the color you weren't allowed to wear because only hoodlums wear...

Anyway, since I can't quite wear black without feeling like an old lady trying too hard, I decided on an almost black instead. The next question was to shimmer or not to shimmer. I temporarily ruled out the shimmer, since I have an idea for that one for later. So this is a nice rich creme. I have been wearing it all week and don't want to take it off!

Wanna see?


So there you have it, Time Traveler! What do you think? Do you wear black polishes? The names of the other polishes if they come out as planned are: Mind Control, Truth Serum and um, oh crap I forgot the other name! Darn it! I need to find a way to travel back in time so I can remember! I hope Juan remembers cause it was awesome! LOL! Care to take a guess as to what Mind Control and Truth Serum might look like?

If you have been following my blog for a while, you would know that I hadn't had a professional cut or color in almost 3 years, when in April I decided it was time to go to a professional. I had her trim my hair since I was a bit nervous about finding a new hairstylist and for the fact that I would have to admit that I had been doing it myself for the last few years.

When I went in she gave me some tips for cutting it at home since I told I wasn't sure if I was ready to go back to a stylist, but I wanted to give it a shot. See what happened was I had a great stylist when we lived in VA, but when we moved here I was too scared to find someone new, and I realized I actually enjoyed styling my own hair, so I went for it. I also stopped having a problem with split ends which has plagued me for as long as I can remember. So I was worried. Needless to say, I think she over processed my hair during color, because after that cut I had dryness issues like crazy. I was starting to lighten my hair and I don't know if it was too light or what it was but my hair was not doing well at all!

I ended up chopping about 3 inches off my hair. Not happy! Well the hair grew back well almost, like it always does, and I went back to cutting it myself and as you know everyone Else's! LOL!
 Here's a little photo history of my hair.

At a FL blogger get together. My hair at the very beginning of the lightening stage. See how long my hair was?

After I had to cut over 3 inches off

Some of it grew back, but we're not there yet!

Had to throw this one in, Juan looks so hot in this picture! What a cutie! 

So what do you think? I am absolutely loving it and plan on keeping it this length for a while now. I think this suits me perfectly and I am loving the color too. It makes me look so refreshed! For those of you who want to know what color it is, I used L'oreal Superior Preference in UL61 Ultra Light Ash Brown for dark hair. I have used it twice now, the last time about 4 weeks ago and this time just on my roots except the last 5 minutes.

As for what's on my nails, that is the black/grey I wanted for the Fall collection. Everyone else seemed to want the teal that is Awakening, so you guys won that round! But look out for more pics of this later this week. You'll have wished I chose this one! LOL! No worries though, it is going to be part of the Winter collection! And ironically it seems to work perfectly in the summer! I think it's going to my new go to shade!

Last night a few friends went out as a small going away for a friend. A few friends smoke, I am dead set against it. But I think to each their own, don't blow your smoke my way and we are fine. My friends are very respectful of that. But last night at a restaurant, we were sitting out back where they allow smoking. Even though we were OUTSIDE all I could smell was cigarette smoke because so many people were smoking. DISGUSTING!

In spite of all the cigarette smoke around us, I had a nice time, Had to wash my freshly washed hair again though. Not cool!

When I got home I decided to check and see what the effects of second hand smoke are. What an eye opener! It is almost just as bad to be subjected to second hand smoke as it to smoke! Even if my friends or fellow restaurant patrons are not blowing the smoke around me, the carcinogens are still reaching me and filling my lungs! Essentially if you can smell it, you are breathing it! Did you know that? And did you know it is worse because what you are breathing is unfiltered, compared to what the smoker is breathing? Yuppers!

The same effects a smoker will have on their skin and face, I will have, although to a lesser degree. Thanks but no thanks, I work to hard to keep my skin nice to ruin it with that!

But seriously, that is just a light hearted side effect. Let me shatter the glass for the rest of you!

Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 different chemical compounds, 50 of which are known cancer causers.

Non smokers who are exposed to second hand smoke on a regular basis are 20 - 30% more likely to develop lung cancer. (Case in point - Juan's grandmother was a smoker, Juan's grandfather died of lung cancer.)

Non smokers increase their risk of heart disease by 25 - 30% when exposed to second hand smoke.

Second hand smoke is attributed to 50,000 deaths each year!

Second hand smoke increases your risk of migraine headaches!

Children of smokers are more likely to suffer from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). They are also more at risk for respiratory infections like bronchitis and pneumonia, asthma and asthma attacks, ear infections and chronic cough.

Did you know that studies are now showing that second hand smoke could be linked to breast cancer? Scary!

These are serious side effects from hanging out with smokers! I always thought to each their own, but no more. My good friend and neighbor is a smoker, we hang out a few nights a week, always outside and she is always smoking. No more. If she wants to hang outside with me, it's fine, but I will have to walk away when she is smoking. She is considerate to not smoke in my direction and if my kids are there, she will actually walk away, but within view and smoke, so my kids aren't exposed. Come to think of it, when she does that, I don't smell a thing, she walks that far away! If I asked her to do that though, we would always just be there looking at each other or talking so the loud the rest of the neighborhood can hear! Doesn't sound like much fun. I am not going to stop her from smoking, that is her business, but I am going to eliminate myself from the situation. I have decided after last night, that it just isn't good for me or my body. I need to be around a long time, and the exposure is just not worth it to me. I'll just ask her to text me when she is done and I will come back. Might be a small inconvenience for me, but so worth it if you ask me.

 I know Juan likes the seedy bars and the outdoor restaurants, so I can't really 100% eliminate my risk to second hand smoke, but I pray that Florida wakes up and bans smoking in public places. In the meantime, since we don't go to those places all that often, I guess I will just deal until FL gets their act together.

I know many of you may be smokers, and I plead for you to quit. But having lived with Juan when he was a smoker and being constantly on him, and forcing him to quit and living with him while he tried. I know it is not that easy. Fortunately for me it only took about 4 years for Juan to get it and quit smoking. I love that he doesn't smell like smoke anymore! Unfortunately for me, whenever we hang out with smokers he smokes a cigar and there are a lot of smokers here in FL. Grrr! I need to find a way to get him to quit that now! But for those of you who smoke, think about what it is doing to your body and those around you. Maybe, just maybe this is the push you need to quit. Don't worry I won't mind if you're bitchy for a little while, while you quit. I made it through with Juan, I can make it through with you too! :)

So take what you will from my little PSA here, but it just really got to me last night for some reason and I am over it! Before I step off my little soap box, let me leave you with some of the sites I got this info from:

Wicked Fast! I have been working on a top coat for a while now. Unlike my polishes I want it to be a bit thinner, but not so thin that it's watery. I want it to have some self leveling properties to help hide mistakes. I want to be able to reapply it to freshen up a manicure if I so choose without making the manicure so thick it starts to peel. I want it to be non-yellowing. And I want it to dry Wicked Fast! Several months ago I posted that I thought I had it. But turns out the one I loved was the one with Camphour in it. Boo! Everytime I tried it without the Camphour, it just didn't dry as fast. It was like it would dry in five minutes, but have an almost tacky/dry feel. It frustrated me so! I found myself continuing to use what I had left of the version with Camphour, down to the last reachable drop! I called the lab and asked if I could please have a few more bottles to continue my "testing". So the top coat will have Camphour in it. Camphour can act as an irritant to some people. Hopefully since it is a top coat, that is reduced.

I gave a bottle to my cousin and one to my friend and neighbor. Both are cleaning fiends who wash their hands like a million times a day! They don't wear gloves when they clean and they are rough on their hands. My cousin wears nail polish occassionally, but I have given my friend the polish bug. The problem is she has an 18 month old, so she almost always ruins her manicure before it even dries! If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed she can't stop singing the praises of Wicked Fast!

Devious Nature with Wicked Fast Top Coat. Sorry I was testing and didn't clean up yet!

Can you see how shiny it is? Devious Nature is already shiny, but this just makes it look like it's still wet! I kid you not when I tell you this, I started by applying it on the pinky of my left hand and ended on the thumb of my right hand, and by the time I put the top coat on my thumb, the pinky was dry to the touch! AMAZING!!!

It's official the Hypnotic Collection Pre-sale begins tomorrow!!! Wahoo! I am getting so excited! I am actually going to receive some of the collection early next week since it is already ready. Unfortunately the rest is still in production and I will be receiving it in batches over the next several weeks. This time around we are offering pre-sale for the entire collection only. The collection will be all four for $30. So that is 25% off or 1 free, whichever way you like to look at it. It will be the only time the collection will be this low in cost. While the 4th of July sale was great, I don't foresee doing another huge sale like that. We are going to reserve the big sales for pre-sales from now on and then we may offer smaller sales after that point. Well I shouldn't say that, I do want to offer a good sale over Holiday weekends, but they may not be this good. I keep going back and forth on that one!

We are trying something a little different with blogger packs this time around. We had 8 blogger packs available and we selected 4 bloggers who had reviewed us in the past and 4 new bloggers which are all International. We selected 3 of the 4 bloggers, because they are my blogger idols, the ones who got me into the whole blogging thing to begin with and the fourth because I love blog and pictures and she has agreed to let me use her pictures on my site! WAHOO! It was such a hard choice because we sent packages to so many other bloggers last time and they did such an amazing job, but because I am going to CosmoProf I want to be able to give the bloggers attending some polish, it leaves less that I can send out.

Unfortunately I won't have enough polish to give each CosmoProf blogger the full collection, but they will be able to at least get one or two of the colors. My goal is to be able to switch who we send out each collection with a few mainstays each time. So many blogs, so little free polish! We added 4 International bloggers because they seem to never get any of the review stuff and they do a great job, so I wanted to spread some of that review packs around. Who knew selecting bloggers for review would be so difficult! I get at least 3-4 blogger requests a day. I TRY to respond to all of them, but I do check out all the blogs and keep a list that I check out when making my decisions.

It was hard to not decide to not send packs to some who have done reviews for me that I think should keep getting packs, but unfortunately I just don't have the packs to give this time around. :( I set aside 15 blogger packs. 1 for the winner of the Facebook Likes, 8 for reviewers, and 6 for CosmoProf. I can't afford more than this.

I keep getting asked how I select which blogs. As for how I make my decisions, here are some of the things I look for. I look at the quality of the pictures and the nails in the picture. I look at how clean the nails are painted or swatched. I look at the overall blog page design and writing style. I look at how often you blog and the comments you receive. Then I look at followers if you have GFC. But the number of followers doesn't have to be high, sometimes I develop an emotional attachment to the blog and find a new one I love, and that means a lot to me too! I have now learned to ask for statistical information on the blogs as well. How many unique visitors does the blog get in a day, week or month. This is a business, so maximum exposure is good. But again, it isn't the only thing I look for and sometimes it doesn't mean anything at all. If I like the blog, and they have 4 followers, I may still send some polish. Unfortunately if you email me now, we have already made our selections for this collection though. But I thought I would include it here.

Anyway, I was going to include the press release here, but I clogged this post with rambling, so I will post it separately. :)

So I trim my hair myself because well, I'm cheap. It looks good enough, but I wouldn't call it a true professional looking job by any stretch. My kids ask me to cut their hair all the time. Since they see me doing it, they think I am good at it. I have botched my own hair a few times as well as my daughter's, so I'm not sure why they keep asking me to cut it. But never the less, they always come back asking me to wield the scissors over their hair! Recently a friend asked me to cut my style layers in her hair. I begged her not to have me do it, but she insisted. So I cut her hair and it came out awesome! Oh boy did I dig myself a hole. I mean I have NOOO license or education! I look for the haircut on YouTube and watch several videos, I look at pictures and then I pick up the scissors. That's it! With my own hair I figure the worst that happens is I end up going to a professional the next day. No big deal.

Then last week my daughter asked me to give her "the scene" hair cut. (Do a quick google search - you'll see exactly what I am talking about.) It is a cute choppy looking style. I cut it and I have to say while the first day I was a bit worried at how it looked, now every time I see it, I think it looks amazing!

So yesterday was my youngest daughter's birthday and my friends birthday (and incidentally her husband's birthday too!) I offered to cook dinner for everyone's birthday and after dinner my friend ( on twitter) insisted that I have some wine with her. How could I say no. After a few glasses of wine, my friend looks at my oldest daughter's hair and exclaims that is the style she wants and insists I cut her hair. I tell her she is out of her mind as it would be a drastic cut for her. She pulls the birthday card and so what was I to do? I cut her hair!

My youngest daughter's birthday cake! She said she wanted a Twinkie cake - who am I to argue? But it's cute though right?

I had planned on coloring and cutting my own hair tonight - well since that wasn't going to happen, I guess at least someone got a new haircut! Want to see?

Here is the before:

Ignore the mess on the counter. If you can see behind Judafish, there is a baby eating chips(another friends totally adorable daughter), she is sitting on my daughter's lap, who just loves making a mess! LOL!

She's cute right? She had just finished telling me she wants to grow her hair long as she is growing out a bob she had. Now she wants the scene haircut? Oh boy! Let me have some more wine!

Here is the after:

new hair cut and some crazy streamers in the background. (We go a bit nutty in our house for Birthdays. The night before someone's B-day, we decorate the dining room all crazy, so when the birthday girl or boy wakes up, they get to see the decorations and know how much we love them! No party necessary!)

The back. She is turning her head a little, so it looks uneven, but I didn't touch the length at all, it is just the way she is turning her head.

ADORABLE if I do say so myself! And just a bit rock n' roll and sexy edgy too, if you ask me! Now I really want to cut my hair!

So what do you think? Did I do good? If you like it, send her a quick message on letting her know what you think. She is new to the Twitter world!

Would you trust me with the scissors on your head? If people are going to want me to cut their hair, I think I need to go get some edumacation on hairstyling and get a license!