Category: Nails

Back to natural nails – Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil

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Less than three weeks ago I received my first Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil order and I’ve been using it daily since then. I ordered the Starter/Refill Kit and grip pads for opening the oil pen. I’ve seen so many convincing photos and read so many great reviews that I was very excited to try this product myself.

As you probably know, I’m going back to natural nails after having gel nails for over a year so my nails are not in a best possible condition and I can use all the help I can get. On this blog post you can see two week result on my left hand cuticles after using Pure Nail Oil.

Today I’ll show you the before photo along with the first three days of using Pure Nail Oil on my right hand nails. After I received the package I immediately removed my manicure and went for naked nails for three days. Pure Nail Oil comes with good instructions and I tried to follow those as well as I could.

The before photo is taken right after I removed my manicure so the nail polish remover probably added some extra horror dryness on my cuticles. I also hadn’t used cuticle remover for a bit and that shows as well. You can see the damaged part really well on my ring finger nail and it really looks like it could use a serious amount of moisturizing. That is what I’m trying to grow out and have healthy nails. There’s also some gel left on my index finger nail. These photos were taken over two weeks ago and this coming Sunday I’ll show you one month of growth on my right hand nails and you can also see the condition they are in now after using Pure Nail Oil for three weeks. But that is for Sunday’s post :)

Regardless of how bad my nails and cuticles look in the “Beginning” photo they were moisturized daily using lotions and CND Solar Oil. This is just how easily drying my skin and nails are. Use nail polish remover once and all the moisturizing goes out the window.

So here is the horror I started with…

 

Pretty, eh? :P
No, not really ;) So you can imagine how much Pure Nail Oil my nails and cuticles took in during these first three days. During day one I kept applying the oil like once an hour and it all went in so fast. After a couple of minutes my fingers and nails didn’t feel oily at all. So I kept adding the oil all the time and I was stunned how fast it absorbed. I didn’t use a huge amount at a time, just a drop.
The difference between Pure Nail Oil and Solar Oil was clear to me from the first application. Compared to Solar Oil this one absorbs super fast. Solar Oil also make my skin and cuticles feel kinda rough during application where as Pure Nail Oil makes them feel nice and smooth. Pure Nail Oil also makes my finger tips silky smooth. With Solar Oil I always need to use cuticle balm/cream to get the soft result. Pure Nail Oil is enough alone.
So needless to say I was excited already after day 1. The next morning I took “Day 1” photo before applying the oil. So in this photo it’s been about 12 hours since the last application of Pure Nail Oil and I have washed my hands at least a couple of times.

Quite a difference! My nails and cuticles looked different and they felt so smooth and well moisturized. During day two of naked nails I kept applying the oil quite often. Not as many times as the previous day but it was quite a few times then too. Still the oil kept absorbing fast and it was obvious my nails and cuticles still needed some extra care.

So here’s the result on the morning after “Day 2”. Naturally not such a dramatic change anymore but I was still able to see and feel improvement. This photo was also taken in the similar situation as the previous one, about 12 hours after the last application of Pure Nail Oil.

 

 

So I continued applying the oil for the third day. Now I didn’t really need to apply the oil as often as day one and two. I used just a drop of oil for each hand and massaged it in a few times during the day. I left my nails naked for the night so I could take my third and final photo the following morning.

And here’s my three days result of using Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil. I can still see clear improvement on the condition of my cuticles and compared to the “Beginning” photo the change in just three days is HUGE!

 

 

Since the three days of nail nakedness I’ve been keeping my nails polished and I’ve applied Pure Nail Oil on my cuticles a few times a day. I drop a tiny bit of oil on my thumb and then press my other thumb against it. Now I have a small amount of oil on both my thumb finger tips and I just rub it on all of my cuticles. So a little drop few times a day takes you a long way with Pure Nail Oil.

My manicures on my right hand now last up to three days which is long enough considering the condition my nails were in. The tips still have damaged part to grow out too. After I remove the manicure I apply oil on my nails and massage my nail beds and cuticles till the oil is absorbed. Sometimes I add another drop and repeat the massage. After all the oil is absorbed I wipe my nail with Cleaner liquid (alcohol) and do my next manicure.

Only time will tell if Pure Nail Oil is the answer I’ve been looking for to help my easily peeling and breaking nails. I will know for sure after all the gel and damaged parts have grown out. Right now I’m extremely happy with Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil and it’s hands down the best nail oil I have ever tried. NailCareHQ.com has a sale coming up first week of July and I really need to stock up on this oil so I never run out of it :D

 

 

***Pure Nail Oil was purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Born Pretty Store – Black rhinestone wheel review

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Today I’m back with another Born Pretty Store product review. This time I chose to test black rhinestones. These come in a wheel that has about 500 rhinestones in four different sizes in it for the price of $3.95.

These rhinestones are super easy to use for all kinds of nail art. You can attach them with top coat or nail glue if you want to make sure they stay on. Just remember that nail glue can make them stick real hard on your nails and it might make it much harder to remove the manicure.

 

 

Since I’m growing out the UV-gel layover on my nails I decided to do a design that covers the annoying growth line nicely. I used top coat to attach three different size rhinestones from the wheel on my nails near the cuticle (I chose not to use the biggest ones this time). The base color is Love, Angeline Lunar Love from my Monday’s blog post.

I love how this turned out! I think the black stones look perfect with the delicate pink polish.

 

You can buy these black rhinestones from Born Pretty Store and they also have a wide range of other nail art supplies. Born Pretty Store offers free worldwide shipping. Please use the code “NZL91” when you order and get extra -10% discount.

 

www.bornprettystore.com

 

 

***These rhinestones were sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Love, Angeline – Lunar Love

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Today I have my first Love, Angeline polish to show you. I’ve seen some beautiful swatches of this around the internet and I just needed to add this bottle to my collection. I have to say Lunar Love is just as beautiful as I thought it would be. This is a very pale pink crelly with light blue shimmer and iridescent glitters.

Formula was a bit on the thick side but not too thick, no need for thinner or anything like that. I applied two normal coats and I noticed that if I tried to be too particular with the application the polish started dragging a bit. So I got the best result by applying this fast and not paying attention on the possible unevenness of the first coat. The second coat smooth everything out perfectly anyways. You also want to have enough polish on your brush instead of trying to make the coats too thin. Dry time was very quick with HK Girl fast drying top coat.

Lunar Love is such a beauty!

On the photos my nail shape is starting to be a little funny cos the gel layover growth line shows through the polish. There’s not much I can do about that right now since I’m trying to grow that layover out. I’m hoping to start swatching on my right hand soon. I’m also thinking about different nail art options for this kind of situation where you might want to hide the gel/acrylic growth line on your nails.

So for this manicure I used a coat of Essie Nourish Me, two coats of Lunar Love and HK Girl top coat.

I bought my bottle from Norway Nails.

 

 

***This polish was purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Dollish Polish – Things Are Looking Very GRIMM

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It’s a dark and rainy Sunday here in Finland so this is a perfect polish to show you today ;) Dollish Polish Things Are Looking Very GRIMM is inspired by the TV show Grimm. If you haven’t watched that show maybe you should cos … ummm … well cos Detective Nick Burkhardt is pretty easy on your eyes (and it’s a good show) :P

Things Are Looking Very GRIMM “blackened forest green jelly is loaded with varying shaped glitter, all in shades of green giving it a very mythical and forest like feel. It’s a perfect fit for the chaotic life of Detective Nick Burkhardt and his endless hunt for Wesen!”

Formula is good and easy to apply. Since this is a jelly it takes at least 3 coats for good result but you can always layer this over black or dark green polish too. I love the depth that comes with multiple coats so I hardly ever layer polishes like this over another color. This one is definitely worth the three coats. Just wow!! Amazing glow and depth! Totally as drool worthy as Detective Burkhardt is ;)

On this manicure I used three thin coats of Things Are Looking Very GRIMM with HK Girl top coat. Remember to turn the bottle upside down for a bit before application. That will help getting the bigger glitter pieces out easier.

 

 

***This polish was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Back to natural nails – Growing out the UV-gel layover

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Wow! It’s been 3 weeks since my last post. I’ve been battling some minor health issues and low hemoglobin level. Cos of that I’ve been extremely tired. After taking my antibiotics and iron supplements I’m feeling a lot better again and I’m almost back to normal. I’ve still been posting photos on my IG and FB so some of you might know what I’ve been up to anyways :)

Today I’m going to show you how the nail growing project is going on my left hand. I still have the gel layover on my left hand nails and I’ll leave it be till it grows out or falls out, which ever comes first. I keep filing the length off once a week so I can keep them nice and short and have minimal stress on the gel layover.

Two weeks ago I also received my Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil order and I’ve been using it ever since. You can see a nice improvement on my cuticles and the part of my natural nails that is showing is looking nice and moisturized too. This is most definitely the best nail oil I have ever used and there will be a whole post about it coming soon.

So here’s the three week progress on my left hand. This first photo was taken June 1st.

 

 

And this photo was taken today, June 21st. You can see a good amount of growth (could always be more and faster if you ask me) and I’m happy with the way things are going at the moment.

 

 

So this is how my left hand is doing. I’ll have a post up about the right hand and one month growth next weekend. Next week I’ll also have a review of Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil for you plus some swatch photos of course!

 

 

***Kiss Bliss Pure Nail Oil purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Back to natural nails – Beginning of the nail growing project

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Since I filed my nails shorter I’ve started to miss the feeling of my own natural nails. Also at the moment I find maintaining the gel layover a little bit too time and energy consuming. That lead to a decision of starting this “Back to natural nails” project. I’m going to start by growing out my right hand nails first. While they grow I keep the left hand nails in swatch photo condition and covered with gel. I’m trying not to fill the left hand nails anymore either and just file the gel layover thinner as the nails grow. I might have to use soak off gel polish to cover the growth line when I’m swatching.

My right hand nails are almost gel free now. There’s a tiny bit of gel left on the index and thumb finger nails. Those parts will either grow out or peel off, time will tell. A bit over half the length of the nail bed is now grown out (hopefully) healthy and the other part is quite damaged by gel and the removal of the layover.

Of course it’s going to be annoying for me to have ultra nubbins on my right hand and normal nails on my left hand. The polish won’t match most of the time either. I’m usually very particular about both hands having the same length and shape nails. Now I just have to believe it’ll be worth the trouble tolerating the situation for a bit and hopefully have my own natural nails back growing nice and healthy soon enough.

I’m going to be using some of the products I’ve already used before and found them working great for me and I have also received some new products to test.

I also just ordered Kiss Bliss Pure Nail Oil Starter/Refill Kit from NailCareHQ.com. I’ve heard great things about this product so I can’t wait to try it on my own nails.

This is where I’m starting from:

 

 

As you can see, my nails are super short and not in a great condition. I’m trying to keep them as short as possible minimizing the risk of bad tears and breaks. One of the new products I’m trying is Duri Rejuvacote. I’ve read great reviews of this product and I’m pretty excited to try it. Though I’m not going to use it as the instructions recommend, as a base coat and a top coat. I don’t see a point in doing that. So I’ll use a couple of coats under my base coat, polish and top coat.

I also don’t believe there’s a base coat/treatment on this earth that will fix damaged nails. Once your nail is damaged it’ll remain so until the damaged part grows out. I’ll just hope this product, used in balance with others will help my nails grow stronger in the future. So I’m not expecting a miracle healing for my paper thin nails while using this product.

Since I’ve noticed that excessive use of nail strengtheners/hardeners will do me no good I will also use other treatments like Essie Nourish Me and Sally Hansen Nail Rehab base coat. I try to keep a good balance using different products. Most important product to try and use will be the Kiss Bliss Pure Nail Oil once my order arrives.

 

I also need to take care of my cuticles and hands so for that I’m going to rely on familiar products like LUSH Lemony Flutter and Charity Pot. For cuticle removal I like to use Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover. It works great for me and I use it about once a week.

I’ll be using CND Solar Oil on my nails and cuticles until the previously mentioned Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil arrives.

 

Naturally there’s other products I use too but I’m not gonna start photographing and listing every single thing here right now. Those products will probably appear on future posts as the nail growing project moves along.

Another important thing is to always keep my nails polished to protect and give them some extra strength. First of all I will always keep my nails moisturized with nail oil. For my manicures I’ll be using 1-2 coats of Duri Rejuvacote/Essie Nourish Me/Sally Hansen Nail Rehab (switching between these three), then a coat of Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu! base coat, 2-3 coats of nail polish and HK Girl top coat.

 

So this is the beginning of my “Back to natural nails” project. I’ll post regular updates with photos and info on how these products are working for me. This is a project that will take months instead of weeks and require a lot of patience so you might see some crying and whining about this on my social media sites ;) As well as nubbins swatches and possible broken nail disaster photos :P

I’ll leave you with a Dollish Polish teaser (since you can’t get this polish anymore). This is Lipstick Around Your Dipstick from Dolly Does Polish collection.

Cos them nubbins need some love and awesome nail polish too:

 

 

 

 

***Duri Rejuvacote, Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, Stuck On Blu! and HK Girl top coat were received for free. Other products mentioned on this post were purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

 

Dollish Polish – It’s So Fluffy, I’m Gonna Die!

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Dollish Polish polishes recently arrived to a Finnish webstore CesarsShop.fi and I received a few polishes to review too. Today I’ll show you the supercute It’s So Fluffy, I’m Gonna Die!

” A very pale pink crelly, loaded with tons of pink glass flecks and also has circles, hexagons and squares of every size and pink shade imaginable! This shades is so fluffy, you’ll wanna squish it to death!”

The formula on this was just perfect, smooth, glossy and self leveling. I LOVE this! When I swatched this I didn’t even want to take it off cos it was so cute and pretty! For the photos I applied three thin coats of It’s So Fluffy, I’m Gonna Die! and HK Girl top coat.

 

 

***This polish was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

CND Vinylux Spring 2014

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Today I have something to show you that was a totally new concept for me, CND Vinylux polishes.

“VINYLUX™ is a breakthrough polish system that endures a week of fashion perfection…without a base coat! Exposure to natural light secures the patent-pending technology, creating an enduring, long-lasting polish. While ordinary polishes become brittle and deteriorate over time, VINYLUX dries naturally to a flawless finish and strengthens its resistance to chips over time. VINYLUX is available in 71 fashion-forward polish colors and 60 colors that match popular CND Shellac™ shades.”

Since I have the gel layover on my nails I haven’t had opportunity to test these properly yet. I have now removed the layover from my right hand nails but they are in a horrible condition and paper thin so testing these on my nails wouldn’t be realistic either way at the moment. So this time I’m just going to show you swatches of these polishes and the test results blog post will follow in a near future.

I received five polishes for review but I’ve also seen the spring collection with six polishes. I really had no issues with application. All of these were a little streaky on the first coat and evened out nicely with the second one. They are also opaque with two to three thin coats. All photos are taken with Vinylux Weekly top coat.

 

Mint Convertible – two coats with Vinylux Weekly top coat.
Sun Bleached  – three coats with Vinylux Weekly top coat.
 
 
 
Desert Poppy – three coats with Vinylux Weekly top coat.
 
 
Clay Canyon – two coats with Vinylux Weekly top coat.
 
 
Sage Scarf – two coats with Vinylux Weekly top coat.

 

***These polishes were sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Jindie Nails – Just Say Glow

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Hello lovelies! It’s already Tuesday again. Time just goes way too fast! I meant to get this post up a couple of days ago but it was such lovely weather during the weekend I just had to work on the yard as much as I could :) I have so much going on right now and things that need to get done asap. Without going to details I won’t be doing much yard work later this summer so I gotta get a lot of things done now :)

So I might be a couple of days behind on my schedule but here we go. This is another polish from the upcoming Jindie Nails Recover Me collection, Just Say Glow. I have previously shown you K.I.S.S. and the swatches of the rest of the collection can be found from Jindie Nails FB and IG (links at the end of the post).

Just Say Glow is “a semi-sheer gold toned rose pink polish with gold and copper shimmer and hexagons.  This one is pretty on its own and can be opaque in about 3 coats.  For a more subtle look, you can layer this over many colors for a pretty, golden shimmer and gold glitter/shimmer topper.”


I applied three coats of Just Say Glow alone. This looks amazing starting from the first coat. If you’d like to just have gorgeous shimmer and some glitters on your nails and don’t mind clearly visible nail line then one coat could be great for you. I think I’ll be wearing this with just one coat this summer. The look was so fresh and delicate that way. Three coats give you more opaque and glowing result. Again I like the glow and depth that comes with applying multiple coats of polish like this so I chose not to layer this over a creme. However I did test it that way too and it looked amazing over OPI Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around (from the Brazil collection).

Formula and application were flawless. For this manicure I used three coats of Just Say Glow and a coat of HK Girl top coat.

This is available right now at jindienails.com. International customers can find an authorized distributor here. You can also check out Jindie Nails social media sites on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more swatches and latest news of amazing upcoming polishes and restocks!

 

***This polish was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Born Pretty Store fluorescent square studs review

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Hello lovelies! Today it’s time for another Born Pretty Store review. I like doing nail art but I feel like I never have time. So doing these reviews for BPS sort of force me to do some nail art from time to time :D This time I got some square fluorescent studs to test. These come in a wheel that has both neon-ish and pastel studs in it.

 

For this manicure I used Glitter Gal Bikini Babe pastel pink creme as a base color. On the ring finger I used the studs from Born Pretty Store sealed in with Glitter Gal Gloss Boss top coat. This top coat is thick-ish gel like finish so it’s perfect to use with studs. It’s also not a fast drying top coat so it doesn’t damage or make the studs bleed color like a fast drying top coat might do.

For all the other nails I did a gradient on top of Glitter Gal Bikini Babe using IsaDora Sugar Crush polishes 134 Bon Bon (light pink) and 135 Cotton Candy (lilac).

 

 

 

You can use these studs in so many different designs and they are super easy to use. I usually just press them on to the wet polish and seal with a top coat.

You can buy these square studs from Born Pretty Store and they also have a wide range of other nail art supplies. Born Pretty Store offers free worldwide shipping. Please use the code “NZL91” when you order and get extra -10% discount.

 

 

www.bornprettystore.com

 

***These studs were sent for review, all the other products used on this manicure have also been sent to me free of charge. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.