Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Beauty Bloggers for Doctor's Without Borders

I'm excited to announce that Cult Nails is taking part in the beautiful KarlaSugar's BeautyBloggers.org to raise money for Doctor's Without Borders!

A Cultie had emailed me and asked me to reach out to KarlaSugar about participating. At that moment, I knew I had to. One of my goals for Cult Nails as many of you know is to give back to my community. But when I received this email, I realized the Cult Nails community is so much larger than just the local community I live in. We're worldwide. Then I started thinking about how we donated polish to a Girl's Scout troop in New Jersey, Polish to the HollyRod Foundation in California, Turkey's to those in my own community and many other things along the way and realized that Doctor's Without Borders is just another perfect way for us to give back and make a difference around the world! When you think of the world as your community and how much needs to be done, it is daunting, but little by little, a difference can be made.

From the Beauty Blogger's website - here is what they are about:
BeautyBloggers.org is the result of a collaboration between beauty bloggers and brands. In the spirit of the holidays, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to charity — but there’s only so much a charity can do with eyeshadow and lipgloss.
So we’re putting our (new) makeup on the auction block. Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders. Bidders anywhere in the world are welcome, and shipping is “free.” That is, the full amount of your winning bid will go to charity — the bloggers have agreed to donate the cost of shipping, in addition to the items themselves.
We’re raising money for Doctors Without Borders because women are always disproportionately affected in any disaster. This organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. Its focus is international, and it’s a charity everyone can support. They treat rape victims in Papua New Guinea; they make sure women don’t die in childbirth in Pakistan; they helped flood victims in Mexico and earthquake victims in Haiti. They work in 65 countries around the world, and your donation will make an immediate impact. Click here to learn more about MSF.
We’ll be collecting payment through a secure page set up with Doctors Without Borders.
The 2011 auction begins at 8 am CST on Monday, November 28, and ends at 5 pm CST on Monday, December 12.

Here is what I am donating:


Description: Cult Nails has pledged to MATCH the winning bid on this auction item (up to $250).

• Get It On Perfecting Base Coat: The perfect (strengthening, moisturizing) base coat to maintain healthy nails
• Wicked Fast Speed Dry Top Coat: Dries your manicure to a super shiny finish — wicked fast!
• Unicorn Puke: A sheer purple jelly with a ton of rainbow flakes. Perhaps the brand's most famous shade, only 275 bottles were made.
• Vicious: As seen on TeenVogue.com, Vicious is a purple creme polish that is fierce, yet classy. This is also the perfect color to wear under Unicorn Puke.
• Iconic: A deep berry creme with gorgeous red flakes and hidden gold shimmer
• Living Water: A deep blue jelly with ice blue and emerald green glitter. Inspired by the phosphorescent seawater, created by blogger Tierny.
• Quench: A sexy, classic red. Quench dries to an extremely high shine.
• Awakening: A muted teal with a rich creme finish.
• a Cult Nails glass nail file. These 5 1/2" Cult Nails files are 100% glass. Glass files can help prevent splitting for healthier nails. These files are non-porous and can be disinfected or sterilized. Each file comes in a black velvet case for storage and protection when not in use.

There are some amazing beauty items up for auction, so spread the word and place a bid. I know what I'm bidding on already, but I'm not saying! :)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Sale Has Ended!

WOW! What a sale! We have so many more new Culties now! Welcome to the Cult everyone! I'm so in awe of how many orders we got! We have a lot of work ahead of us!

We packed all the international orders received by mid day Monday last night, since with the customs paperwork and everything, these tend to take a long time for each order. We may have a few more of those to pack tonight if any more came in and then we will take all those to the post office tomorrow.

We got everything set up to pack all the other orders. We printed a bunch of QR codes and the prize ones. Now once we get a count of how many orders actually came in we will stick those QR codes in all the boxes so that it is totally random when we fill the orders. We want to make sure everyone has an equal chance to win and that all prizes are given out, so we had to wait until the sale ended to process any orders. Let the packing mayhem begin! LOL! We will actually start packing orders when we get home from work tonight.

I keep seeing a two questions pop up. 1st, will Clairvoyant be available again and if so at the sale price? Yes it will be available again, but no we will not honor the weekend sale price. The sale was for all in stock items only. Sorry. But we love sales, so that doesn't mean it won't go on sale again. I just can't tell you when at this time.

The other is do we send shipping notifications. Yes we do. When we send the order, Paypal will automatically send you a shipping notification. YAY! For international orders, we have to manually enter all the shipping information, so sometimes that is a day or two behind as we are usually busy packing orders and updating all at the same time. But you will receive a shipping notification. If you pay using Paypal, you can log into your paypal account at any time for a status update as well. I also typically post on Facebook and Twitter when we are done packing and shipping orders. If we do that and you did not receive a notification, check your spam and if you still have nothing, please contact us! I would hate to miss an order! It hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it never will.

As for my mani - I'm still wearing Blackout with Clairvoyant on top. It is the start of day 5 with this mani and I have very little tip wear. With all the packing ahead of me, I have a feeling, it'll be my mani for the rest of the week too! Hope you all have a great day!

Blackout

Blackout with one coat of Clairvoyant on top - on my new stubbies.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Weekend Review

Hey everyone, hope you all had an amazing weekend! I basically took off the last 4 days from everything! It was so nice! I was off work and spent time with the family and didn't do much of anything else. We kept busy and I feel like I need a day just to sleep, but no worries, today has been a day of preparing to get all sale orders out. I only used my cell phone for pics throughout the weekend, so sorry for the crappy pics. But here was our weekend, minus Thanksgiving Day since I didn't take a single picture that day.
We went to Gaylord Palms ICE in Orlando which is an ice sculpture spectacular. Unfortunately it has been totally commercialized and disappointing. Here I'm wearing the parka they give you upon entering so you can take the 9 degree temps.

Since we're in FL, it wasn't really cold here, but I was still a little cold after viewing all the ice. I'm wearing a cashmere blend infinity scarf with a cute top from Express, jeans from Forever 21 and my awesome OzBootz. I've had these boots for years, and being here in the States, you can only get them online here at www.ozbootz.com. If you are an UGG fanatic then I highly suggest these. I won't get into why you shouldn't wear the "most popular" brand out there, but a friend from Oz schooled me years ago and I've worn these since. 



These are some pictures of the non commercialized sculptures. I was hoping the whole thing would be like this, but oh well.


 My daughter captured this picture in the hotel. Love how the sunlight is hitting right over the waterfall like this!

We decorated our tree and house and when I have more time, I'll take some pictures for you guys. In the meantime, here's our tree.

We also hit up St Augustine FL, which is one of my favorite destinations here. Here is my outfit of the day from that night. I'm wearing another shirt I bought at Express, a different pair of jeans from Forever 21, black Guess heels, a grey motorcycle jacket an my awesome Clairvoyant necklace made by GingerKitty Designs!

We came across a pirate having a drink at a small pub. He was nice enough to leave his stool for a photo op. Although after he pointed his gun at Juan and tried to take me in the bar, I was a little nervous! LOL!

Today before my in-laws left to go back to MA, we stopped for lunch at the port. Can you believe we saw dolphins? What a nice send off!



Now back to the real world. I have to hit the gym hard now, then more prep work for packing orders that will start tomorrow and picking up around the house. And possibly some holiday shopping if I can fit it in! Later ya'll!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Polish Extras for our Black Friday Sale

OK so many of you caught that there were some unusual polishes in this photo:

Early on when the Cult was very small I made a deal with the lab. (Sounds funny!) I was able to purchase just 100 bottles of a polish with a promise to buy the rest of the color within a year or they could sell my color. Well we all know now they can sell my color anyway - sneaky sneaky. But regardless I bought a few colors in 100 bottle increments as a test. I thought I could just add another 100 here and there as we got more sales. I wanted to reserve this option for the more basic colors. The colors that wouldn't be an issue over. Now I'm have a few colors that ended up morphing into other colors or I'm just undecided on. So Juan doesn't continue to bug me about "wasting money", I decided to include them in our Black Friday sale to get rid of them. (Hopefully). IF there is a huge demand, I may stock those colors as part of our line. I just haven't decided yet. Because they are so few, the three colors I am going to show you will have a limit of 1 per customer. And seriously if there is a demand, I will make it a core part of the collection in the future. I'm sure you will all let me know! :)

Enough talk - want to see the colors?

The yellow is Feel Me Up. There is a funny story behind this one. First I'll explain, the picture is not the best for color accuracy. This color is the exact color of a buttercup to me. So below is a picture of a Buttercup. That is exactly the color of this polish! I wanted a buttercup colored polish soooo bad, so you have no idea how much I love this one. But it just never seems like the right time to release it. I have collections thought out through Sept and no where does this fit. So maybe it is just getting released now?

So anyway - before we get to the Feel Me Up story, let me tell you a little more about this polish. This is from when I was on my jelly with a creme finish kick. (AKA Quench and Awakening). So the first coat is very sheer, this is three coats to get to full opacity. On the bright side it is not streaky like many yellows. I am wearing it with Get It On base coat and no top coat. 

Now on to the name. I told John we needed to call this one Fill Me Up. He gave me a funny look and so I sang: "Fill me up, buttercup..." and he laughed and said um it's "Feel me up, buttercup". Then I laughed. Feel me up? Seriously? There is no way, so we looked it up and it's "Build me up, buttercup" Oops! We were both wrong! But Feel Me Up stuck! 
Love buttercups. I don't know why. They remind me of my childhood. I remember picking them by the handfuls and putting them in dixie cups in my room. I loved how smooth and shiny they are and how delicate and tiny and the color! WOW! 

On to te next one. This is the one I call smurf blue. In real life it is not so vibrant. It is a bit softer with some purple undertones. My camera just can't handle taking pictures of these bright colors for some reason. This is really close to what it looks like though, so I let it go. I kept mixing this one and ended up with Time Traveler, so I just let this one go. But now looking at this picture - WOW! This one we decided to name it Tied Up. John and his dad thought it went well with Feel Me Up and Black Out. They even joked that we should name the bad Devious Nature Rufi. Sick humor. Kind of funny at first, but having been ruffied before, I find no humor in it. I will tell you this - DO NOT EVER lose sight of your drink at a club. EVER! I was lucky, I had the where with all to call Juan right away and got home safely thanks to a friend. But it is still very very scary. But that's a story for another time. So no we will not be naming the bad DN Rufi. 

As for application, this one is the same with the first coat being sheer and this being the second coat taking care of that. Now for me I can do Quench and Awakening in two coats, but I know a lot of people say they need three coats. So I will call this a three coater. I do my first coat a little on the thin side and then once that dries I do the second coat a little on the heavy side. Just my technique. You might prefer three thin coats. 


The final color in the line up is Black Out. Not quite black, more of a slate grey. In my mind I was thinking of all the lights going out and there being a black out. Everything is kind of hazy but not exactly black. In Juan's mind, it was someone blacking out. LOL funny how a name can mean different things to different people. I love love love this color. I wear it all the time! I have frankened so many colors with this one. It is not all unique, but it was a must have in my line. I frankened this one to Mind Control and I have another version with gold to green shimmer, and that one WILL be released one day! So since I really love this one, I think it will become part of the core line eventually. But I wore this one so much and frankened with it so much, I think I am down to about 80 bottles. Well maybe 85 or 90, but I need to hold some back. I just can't part with all of them. So sad, I know!

Application on this one is again sheer on the first coat and opaque on the second. (maybe third for you.) I told you I was on a kick with the jelly at first with an opaque creme finish. I think I might be done with that kick. Well maybe not, I really love how those colors turn out!

Lastly is the Bad Devious Nature. We thought about renaming this one, but in the end, it would have been WAY too much work. Believe me we know! When Clairvoyant came it arrived as Claire Voyant! I was sooo pissed! The lab tried to tell us to sell it as a mistake. Not happening, we made them send us the correct labels and sat there and paid friends to help us remove all the labels and put the new labels on. NOT FUN! So when faced with this task for the bad DN, we just didn't have it in us. SO we will either have a bingo dot over the bottom label or a line through it. Something. Yeah, we plan on doing that today, so we'll see which way works best. Probably just a line through it. 

Here are the differences between the real Devious Nature and the impostor. On the index and ring finger is the real Devious Nature. On the middle finger and pinky is the bad batch. The lab tried to tell us that this is an acceptable range. Um I don't think so! Not only is the color off, I only need one maybe two coats of the original. This new one is more like the polishes above. Very sheer in the first coat and covers in two coats. But in the photo you can see some VNL (Visible nail line) so I probably could have used three. The color has NO purple base. It is straight up bubble gum pink! Which is great, but not my Devious Nature! There are PLENTY of this bad batch. So you can order 100 if the mood strikes you on this one! LOL! 
Phew! What a post! So anyway, These will all be available for our Black Friday sale, but I have no idea how long it will last. And as a reminder, Feel Me up, Tied Up and Black Out will be 1 per person. If you order more than one, we will refund you any that you ordered more than the one. We want to keep it as fair as possible for everyone who might want it. Sound fair? Cool! Good luck to those who want one of these colors. If you miss out and must have these colors, let us know via Twitter, Facebook or Email so we know to buy more if there is enough interest. Fair enough? Cool!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Anthony Robbins Basket Brigade

Some of you may already know that I joined the Anthony Robbins Basket Brigade this last weekend. A lovely girl by the name of Jacqueline put it together in our area.  A good friend of mine sent me an email asking if I wanted to get involved. She sent me the list of everything that was still needed and I couldn't believe how many items they still needed. I immediately emailed Jacqueline and she asked if I could get about 40 turkeys. I agreed without hesitation. Later as I was standing there at Wal-Mart picking up the turkeys, I realized how ironic it was that a vegetarian was donating all those turkeys! Who am I to judge! LOL
Look at all those turkeys!
I feel as if I have been so fortunate this year. I took a leap of faith and started Cult Nails and while I am still working a full time job, for me Cult Nails has thus far been a success. If it continues to grow at this pace, I may be able to quit my job by the end of next year and make my dream of working for myself a reality. In the meantime, I feel you get back in this life what you put into it. I love making people happy. I love making a difference, even if it's just a small difference in others lives. With the Super Powers collection having done so well in pre-sale, I felt that we could take that and make a difference in the lives of several families. Even if it is just a small difference that allows them to sit together over a Thanksgiving meal this coming Thursday.
Juan and Me


SO today I am thankful to all of you who have made this possible and I am thankful for Jacqueline who put this whole thing together. I'm also thankful for all the volunteers that showed up on Saturday to make baskets and deliver them to over 80 families in our community. I love seeing a community come together! I hope to be able to do things like this more often in 2012.
How'd this picture get in there? LOL! Juan left the Basket Brigade for about an hour so he could bring all these to the post office. Round 1 of 3 of the pre-sales. Round 2 went to the post office yesterday and if all goes well the final round goes to the post office today!

Monday, November 21, 2011

9 Days of Thanks - A Catch Up Post



I have been so out of it last week. Which of course ended with me being sick in time for all the Super Powers collection to arrive. I missed activities that I had planned and everything. But now I'm back, so let's start by catching things up today!

Day 12. I am thankful for my health. Because in spite of getting sick, overall I am healthy and that's a good thing!

Day 13. I am thankful for the sunsets here. They are amazing and pink and orange all at once. And one day I am going to turn that amazing sunset into a light orange polish full of pink shimmer! Can't wait!!






Day 14. I am thankful for good food. Well maybe not always, because the weight seems to be sticking around just a bit longer now a days. But having just had an amazing meal at a friends house, right now my full belly is totally thankful!

Day 15. I am thankful for a clean house. That seems few and far between lately. I work all day and then come home and have to work on Cult Nails, so I don't get to keep the house as clean as it used to be. I would be more thankful for a maid service, but something in me just can't bring myself to do it. Although at this point, I really should get someone to come help out with this mess! So when the house is clean - I am totally thankful!

Day 16. I am thankful for bubble baths. You have no idea how much I love a nice long hot bath with a good book and a glass of wine. I used to take a hot bath a few times a week to end the night, but lately I'm lucky to get one a week. How I cherish that alone time!


Day 17. Piggy backing on day 16, I am totally thankful for all the authors out there who write amazing books. I love to read! I used to read about 2 books a month, right now I have been reading the same book for over 2 months! :( But I hope I can enjoy a good book more often soon. If you know of any I should read, let me know!

Day 18. I'm thankful for my neighbor. She knows who she is. I wouldn't be able to a lot of this without her. We have Thursday night wine nights where we decompress from our week. When I am so busy I can't think, I can call her and ask her what's for dinner and she cooks for my entire family! Heck, I don't even need to ask sometimes. Sometimes she calls me when I get out of work to let me know she is cooking dinner! She is amazing! We are thinking of buying some pre-packaged meals that we can just heat up throughout the week from a local chef service, but my neighbor thinks we should hire her to do it instead. I think we might need to make that happen, she's an amazing cook! And yes I do return the favor and cook for her too! I'm just am not as good at it as she is.
Breakfast I actually made for my family and neighbor! We lovingly refer to this as Fat Sunday Breakfast. Yum!
Day 19. I'm thankful for humor. Because when it all just gets to be too much a good laugh is always good! Plus I do enough stupid stuff to keep people laughing for a long time! LOL

Day 20. I'm thankful for the nice weather. It is still in the 70's here during the day and high 50's to low 60's at night. Just perfect for the Fall for me! I am not a fan of the cold weather, so I love it.

Day 21. And lastly to full catch up on my 30 days of giving thanks, I am thankful for a good cup of coffee. Because I have been needing a lot of it lately. Juan recently got me a Keurig and man that thing is awesome for a quick coffee on the go! Love all the different flavors coffee I can make as the mood strikes!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Black Friday - Cyber Monday Sale!

Some big announcements for everyone! 1st the Winter Collection will arrive this weekend and we will start wrapping the polishes so we can start getting them all out to those who ordered during our pre-sale event! WAHOO!!! Everyone else waiting for the collection, it will go on sale starting November 25th!

Now on to the Black Friday - Cyber Monday sale! Starting on Friday November 25th - Monday November 28th, 2011 we will be having a fun sale on our site!

All polishes will be available for $7.75 each. All nail treatments will be $6.00 each and nail files $10.00 each! WOW! I have to admit I tried to talk Juan into making the prices a little higher, but he insisted on these prices! You have him to thank.

We are toying around with adding some limited polishes. We have about 100 of the slate grey, 100 potential yellows and 100 blues that ended up morphing into Time Traveler instead of the bright blue we thought it was going to be. And possibly the "bad" colored Devious Natures. Which are really about a shade off and more thin (think Quench). So you may see these included as part of the sale. Once I know for sure, I will definitely post more information and pictures.

But wait there's more! LOL! I couldn't resist. We are hosting a sale give away! Everyone who orders during the event will see a Quick Response (QR) code sticker in their box. You will need to get a QR reader for your mobile phone in order to play. If you do not have a QR reader or don't know what one is, may I suggest you google it. I know this might sound mean, but I just won't have the time to answer questions relating to what a QR reader is or what if you don't have a QR reader. Wow - that does sound mean! I apologize in advance for that. Also this give away is only eligible for those in the U.S. There are so many rules and regulations to overseas contests, that we just can't offer it internationally. Sorry. You still get the great rates internationally, just not the game piece. :( This one bumed me out, hate having to make those decisions.

ANYWAY - now that the details are out of the way - here is what we are giving away!

We will be giving away 5 manicure sets that will include Get It On Base Coat, Wicked Fast Top Coat, one Cult Nails polish and a nail file.

One lucky person will win 1 bottle of Unicorn Puke, a GingerKitty necklace and an all new Cult Nails T-Shirt!

Pretty cool right?

I don't have pictures of the T-shirts yet but the front will sport this picture:

and the back will say: What's on your nails? and our website. We will have t-shirts and tank tops to choose from. We are only making about 30 of each right now because they are proving to be quite expensive. I am still waiting on the final cost of the shirts and once I have that, I will put a few for sale. I can't imagine a huge desire for the shirts, but if there is, I'll order more. For the most part I envision these as giveaway items.

I think that answers all possible questions that could come up from the sale. If I missed any just ask here and I will try to respond quickly.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Blogger Spotlight - Polish Vixen

So I've been a little MIA this week. Can I just say it has been a little crazy up in our household! Crazy in a good way. Normal household duties, mixed with some not so normal household duties like cleaning the carpets and grout in the tiles. Blah Blah. Then there is the making of hundreds of boxes in preperation for the polishes coming in this weekend and cutting a bunch of squares for said polishes. Now they just need to get here and we will be good to go! Of course this week I have been battling yet another headache. So frustrating. I think it's everything we have going on. I am just looking forward to Saturday so I can maybe sleep in a little. Well maybe, I have some volunteer stuff I am doing on Saturday, and we start hopefully wrapping polish burritos on Saturday and my friend is having a get together in the evening. Well maybe I can get a nap in somewhere instead? I guess there's always Sunday right? LOL

Anyway I have another blogger spotlight for you. This one is Polish Vixen. I follow this blog via my RSS Reader and I really like her pics. She did an amazing stamp design with Living Water this week!

Here is her picture of Living Water. She has some amazing application skills and her nails are fabulous and chic! Do you want to see her stamping design? Well, I'm not going to show that one! You have to go to Polish Vixen's blog to see that silly!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thank You to all our Veteran's

Today here in the U.S. it is Veteran's Day. It is a day for us to remember those who have fought for our country's freedom. I think most countries have a similar holiday and I believe today Canada remembers their Veteran's as well.

Our country was built thanks to soldiers fighting for our freedom. I do not take this lightly. Many people are against any wars, but this country would not be here if not for the battles waged and won. In order to continue to grow and maintain our freedom, we unfortunately have to keep fighting for it. It is sad that in this day and age, we still have to fight to stay free. We are civilized human beings, why can't everyone just live and let live? Unfortunately there is still a huge need for our military, maybe more now than ever before.

But today is a day to honor and remember those that have paved the way for us. Those men and women who fought (or maybe just aided those who fought) for our freedoms. I know so many heartbreaking stories of men and women who left for that fight and never came home or came home incomplete is some way or another. My heart aches for those families and yet I am thankful I am not one of them. Our soldiers are brave enough to enter the military not knowing what their future will bring, but knowing they are fighting for all those who live in our country, to live how they want to live - free! They leave behind their spouses, children, parents, families and friends, not know if it will be the last time they get to hug them and tell them "I love you". Their bravery allows the rest of us to stay behind and live free. It allows those who protest, that very right and yet knowing this, they still do it willingly for those individuals just like they do for the rest of us.

They have become brothers and sisters with those fighting next to them and take a bullet to save the life of someone they maybe just met. They have risked not walking their little girl down the aisle one day, or not being there to see their son graduate. They have risked not ever having the opportunity to find love and create a family. They have risked not being by their families side in times of need or times of joy.

Many came home to a life very different than the one they left. Adjusting to missing body parts, burns or worse nightmares. I have a friend who waged a war with drugs just to stop the nightmares. I have a friend who waged a war with alcohol just to stop the nightmares. Our veteran's go through so much just so we can stay free. Today I am thankful for our Veteran's! Every day I am thankful for our Veteran's. I am also thankful for all the soldiers here and abroad who are fighting by doing their job, whatever that job may be in the military, all so I can have the freedom to live my life - The American Dream! While our government may not be perfect, for those who see the potential and know it's worth the fight, I thank you, I salute you, I give you a standing ovation and yet none of that comes close to being enough.

For all of you who have lost a loved one, who have been married or are married to a soldier or veteran. I thank you too, because I know how hard it is to stand beside that soldier never knowing when or if he will get that call to duty. Thank you!

I hope everyone takes a moment to remember all those who have fought for you and your freedom.

Happy Veteran's Day!


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Outfit of the Day

Here is an outfit I wore last week. I love this outfit! I can't wait to wear it again!

Lace shirt from Francesca's Collection. Similar style 
Navy blazer from The Gap. Similar style here
Ankle jeans from Forever 21
Heels (that inspired Power Thief) from Carlos Santana
Bag from Jigsaw-London
Necklace from Francesca's collection. Similar style here
Earrings from Claire's?
Bracelets from Alex & Ani 


10 - Today I am thankful for my body. Sounds strange I know, but 3 months ago I decided to get serious about working out. But it took over 2 months for me to get serious! I thought paying for the gym each month might make me more accountable. I started with a weekly Pilates class that I look forward to all week.  It took a little while for the rest to kick in, but for the last three weeks, I have been serious. I have been taking these Strong classes and they kick my butt every time. But I find that I am looking forward to them all day long the three days each week that I take them! I used to work out a lot, and I have dabbled in and out for the last year, which many of you know. But I think I found the kick for me. It's a struggle to push my body to the next level, but I feel so good when I am done and I am already in just three weeks starting to see subtle changes taking place. So today I am thankful for the body that is pushing me through this and enjoying the hard work! Tonight it's beach walk night. I'll walk about 3 miles or so and it is so hard on the sand, yet so refreshing! Oh and did I mention, I haven't had but a handful of headaches in the last three weeks? Hmmm is there a connection? I think so! Wish me luck for continued working out success! Should we start a club and help hold each other accountable?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Story Time with Maria

When ever we are in the car, whether it's a short drive or a long drive, a question always seems to come up. I don't know why, but I love looking them up and informing the entire family. They have dubbed these sessions "Story Time with Maria". My oldest daughter suggested that I share these stories with you my faithful followers. Juan jokes that he is going to start typing them up and write a book with all my informative "stories". So today I bring you Story Time with Maria!

Why do feet stink? Yes this was a question that came up in conversation, and so I just had to know.

Well let me tell you, it's kind of gross really! Your feet sweat. Duh - but you knew that, didn't you? But did you know that there is a bacteria on your skin that eats the sweat and then excretes the waste? Yuppers! And that excrement is what stinks! So essentially that smell is bacteria poop on your feet! GROSS!!!

Now everytime I smell stinky feet, all I can think of is that person is walking around with bacteria poop all over their feet! EEEWWWW!

Aren't you loving the introductory story time? Kat felt strongly that this be the first one I share!

Day 9 - Today I am thankful for my feet! LOL! Because without them, I wouldn't be able to get all these fun shoes! And I LOVE shoes! My feet carry me everywhere and I love dressing them up every day. So thank you feet!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Nail Strips?

As I look to enhance the Cult product offerings, I have been looking at nail strips. These would be more of an "accessory" type product for the line. Mainly, I would love to wear these, but since I am really focusing on wearing only Cult products, I want to get some. I like the idea of the designs these offer and the potential wear on them. I have tried several and none have been what I am looking for. I think I may have found a winner though. But I am wear testing them, so I don't know 100% yet. It will be several months before I know if I have a winner. First off I have to test each of the different types. Some are designs, some have glitter, some are all glitter and some are all solid. They wear up to 14 days, so this could be a long tortureous test for someone like me who likes to change my manicure often.


I know nail strips have been around for a while. But I haven't tried them yet. But what I like is that these are real nail polish strips. They are stretchable, so I was able to stretch out the middle finger to fit perfectly. I also then took one that was too big on the ring finger and filed around it. I want to see optional ways of using these and how they would work. I didn't use a base or top coat, and that is really weird for me. I wanted to use both so bad. I can't feel them on my nails at all, but knowing they are strips, I feel like they're going to peel. Let's see what happens. I keep getting asked for these from friends and family and a lot of people I randomly meet along the way, so I think this would be a perfect addition to our product offerings.


I am loving this design! I can't stop staring at my nails! My daughter wanted to wear these and I had to block her! Oh no - this design was made for me! Thank you very much! LOL

8 - Today I am thankful for Marie Claire Magazine. I have a ton of magazine subscriptions, but one of my absolute favorites is Marie Claire. I can read through that magazine in a sitting. I love that it includes real life reads along with fashion. I especially love the "What I Love About Me" feature each month. (Hey Marie Claire! You need to come where I live, the girls here are cute & fashionable!) But the Marie Claire @ Work addition that I received yesterday, was the best yet! I enjoyed a nice hot bath, a glass of wine and my Marie Claire last night. The perfect evening.

Monday, November 7, 2011

You are the Supermodel

By now many of you already know I filmed a few segments for the You are a Supermodel TV show. It was a pretty interesting experience and boy was I nervous! Hopefully I'll have more opportunities in the future and get better. I kept mixing up what I wanted to say. It was strange having someone in your ear telling you how much time you had left to talk. I wanted to say so much and flubbed a bit, but all in all it was pretty cool. In case you missed it somehow here is the first segment.



Gotta love that face in the still! LOL! And what is up with my hair? UG! It looked good when I left the house, but by the time I got there the humidity had other things in mind. Oh well.

So now to back track to the things I am thankful for.

5 - This one is from Saturday. I am thankful for the opportunities I have had with Cult Nails, like being on You are the Supermodel. WOW! Who would have thought I would be here doing this today!

6 - This is Sunday's. I'm thankful for my friends. I have so many different friends and got to spend time with some of them over the weekend and it's always fun to just be able to let your hair down and hang out, whether it's over a few drinks in the rain, or over a fattening Sunday breakfast, or while shopping. Love them all.

7 - This one is today's. I'm thankful for my kids. I have some great kids! They may not be the neatest kids, but they are amazing. They make me laugh, they make me scream, then they make me laugh again. I wish I could have 20 more. Now that I think of it, I'm good with the three I have, I don't need 20 more! I have the best kids in the world and maybe, just maybe when they read this, they will do some laundry and clean... :)

Friday, November 4, 2011

30 Days of Giving Thanks

I have been seeing some blogs and people on the Face Space (Facebook) sharing 30 days of thanks. I am loving this idea and thought I would jump on the bandwagon! Since I'm a little late to the game, here are the first three. Number 4 is in my previous post, cause I'm crazy like that. And while I don't blog every day anymore, I will make every attempt to at least blog the things I am thankful for, or at least catch up when I do blog. Deal?

1. I am thankful that Halloween is over and all that candy will disappear. (Hopefully not in my belly!)


2. I am thankful for my job. It may no longer be my dream job, but I still enjoy it. But had it not been for this job, I would never have been able to start Cult Nails. I also have the fortune of working for a company that is doing well in these tough economic times and that means that I work with an amazing group of people who make that happen everyday! Pretty darn lucky if you ask me!

3. I am thankful for my Keurig. I know kind of shallow, but Juan finally bought me a Keurig for work. The coffee is sooo much better than the office coffee and now I don't have to stop for coffee every morning, thus saving money! I can use a K cup twice, so for $7 at the commisary, I can have a months worth of coffee! WAHOO!! (Another money saving tip. Use the $5 off purchase of $15 or more at Bed Bath & Beyond, get two K-Cup packs that are $11.99, use your coupon and only pay $18.98 for 36 coffees, use each k-cup twice and that is 72 cups of coffee at just .26 cents per cup.)

Side note - if you ever need help breaking down the cost of a purchase (or justifying it for that matter), just let me know! :)

Like I said better late than never, so join me - what are you thankful for today?

Pre- Sale Going on now!

By popular request, we decided to offer the Super Power collection on Pre-sale. We will still be doing a Thanksgiving sale, but decided on doing the presale for those who wanted to ensure they got their polishes. We are only offering pre-sale as a collection for now. And yes this is the best price, it will be a little more over the Thanksgiving sale and then back to regular price for a while. We will be sending the pre-sale polishes out on November 29th at the latest. We should have the polishes in hand by the 25th, so that gives us time to wrap them and get everyone's packages together.

Time Traveler: The perfect royal navy opaque jelly! It is a polish full of contradictions! It applies like a jelly but is opaque in just two coats. I say royal navy because depending on the light it will pull royal blue or navy tones. It's the perfect twist on the vampy colors we all wear during the cooler months. I knew this color would be part of our collection one day, but it was a matter of when. But once I posted this one up on Facebook, it was evident that it needed to be part of the Super Powers collection.




Clairvoyant over Time Traveler.


Power Thief: This is a color that I did for me and only me. LOL. I found a pair of shoes that are a taupey brown color with the silver/pink/blue shimmer that is in Let Me Fly and My Kind of Cool Aid and just had to have those shoes. Even more I needed to make those shoes into a polish! The end result is a milk chocolate brown polish with amazing shimmer.

Clairvoyant over Power Thief. I honestly did not think that Clairvoyant would look good over Power Thief but it looked friggin' Amazing!

Mind Control: This was the hardest to capture on film. In person this ones leans more magenta than purple. But for some reason everytime I took the picture it wanted to lean purple. GRRR! I need to try this again when the sun comes out.

I haven't been able to capture the color shift you see in the bottle on the nail. I do capture the magenta to purple, but if you look closely there is green in there too. But it's not apparent on the nail. So bummed. Although when I created the color I didn't even attempt to put that green in there. That was just part of the shimmer I used, and afterwards I thought, darn it, that would have been cool to show up on the nail too. Maybe next time! LOL



Clairvoyant over Mind Control


And here is Clairvoyant(formerly Unicorn Puke). The star of the show. From left to right there is one coat on the index finger, two coats on the middle finger, three on the ring finger and 4 on the pinky.

So there you have it - the Super Powers Collection. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to www.cultnails.com and reserve your set now!(It's the featured item on the left of our shop)

Oh and 4 days late - but I wanted to post 30 days of things I am thankful for like I am seeing so many others do. So I will do a recap on the first three days, since I am late, but the 4th thing I am thankful for is all the Culties! You guys have no idea how amazing you are! I am thankful for so many women (and men) who are loving what I do and allowing me to make my dreams come true! Thank you! 
Newer Posts Older Posts Home