Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil Winner!!!

Thanks for all who visited and entered to win my Tropical Traditions giveaway! There were 24 entries in total, including all the entries on Twitter. So I counted them up, alternating between the comments on this post and the tweets and used Random.org to pick the winner.


Entry #2, a tweet from kandiedkeondra is the winner! Congratulations! Send me an e-mail with your name, mailing address and email address.
Thanks again to Tropical Traditions for sponsoring the giveaway and thanks for reading/subscribing to Polished Beauty Blog!

My Salon Tools Giveaway Winner Announced!

Well, there were only two entries in this giveaway! One entry on Twitter and one comment on the post. So I went to Random.org to pick a winner out of the two. The number generator gave me the number 2, so ArtsyAndi you are the winner! Send an email to lachelle AT polishedbeautyblog.com to claim your prize.

Reminder: I still have a Tropical Traditions coconut oil giveaway so find out more information and enter to win here.

Sinful Frenzy + OPI Blue My Mind

I'll admit, I've never been big on layering polish, especially glitter polishes. I'm like either the polish has it or it doesn't. However,lately I've been picking up some Sinful glitters that make me think otherwise. Frenzy is gorgeous all by itself:

I decided to layer it over one of my favorite blue polishes ever, OPI's Blue My Mind and I was pleased with the results.

Under my lamp + flash

Indoor + flash

With this manicure, I tried Posh Super Fast Drying Topcoat for the first time. I'd always wanted to try it but I had a bottle of Seche Vite and I had no need to get it. Finally, my SV has gotten impossibly low (and thick) so I decided to try Poshe. It dries just as quickly as SV and very glossy. It also smoothed this glitter polish so my manicure was very smooth to the touch. I have no complaints...I'm just glad that topcoats like Seche Vite and Poshe exist because I cant wait forever for my nails to dry. I don't know how I polished before without them!

Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil Review+ Giveaway!!

Coconut oil is not just for cooking; you can use it for your hair! You'd only have to do a quick search of the Internet to find many coconut oil "recipes" for the hair. Two of my favorite hair sites, Long Hair Care Forum & The Anti-Hair Slave both boast the benefits of using coconut on hair. Here is more info from OrganicFacts.net:

"Coconut oil is one of the best natural nutrition for hair. It helps in healthy growth of hair providing them a shinny complexion. Regular massage of the head with coconut oil ensures that your scalp is free of dandruff, lice, and lice eggs, even if your scalp is dry. Coconut oil is extensively used in the Indian sub-continent for hair care. It is an excellent conditioner and helps in the re-growth of damaged hair. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair. It is therefore used as hair care oil and used in manufacturing various conditioners, and dandruff relief creams. Coconut oil is normally applied topically for hair care."
source

So I figured I would try it out on my own hair. I currently switch back and forth between going natural (no longer getting a relaxer) and then giving up and simply "stretching" the time between my next relaxer. Regardless of what phase I'm in, I have new growth that needs special care. My new growth gets drier than the rest of my hair so I figured coconut oil could help me maintain it better and give it some moisture.

I've been using the coconut oil two ways.

1. Applying it daily to dry hair.
2. Applying it to my freshly shampooed hair, then mixing with conditioner. Put on a shower cap and let sit for 30 to 60 mins.

Both methods have been giving me good results but in different ways. For immediate results, option number 1 is the way to go. Immediately my hair was shiner and felt smoother. Coconut oil is a great daily moisturizer for hair in my opinion because it does not weigh my hair down. My hair is light and moves unlike when I use heavy hair grease or pomades.

Option number 2 is a great way to deep condition your hair and can be done with or without heat. Although coconut oil usually liquefies at temperatures above 78 degrees, I like to warm it in the microwave for less than 30 seconds. The warm oil feels great on my head and scalp. Then I put on my conditioner and shower cap. When its time to rinse my hair, it feels amazingly soft! After I blow dry my hair, it looks noticeably shinier than when I don't use coconut oil.

Coconut oil is amazing. Its natural and doesn't have any harmful ingredients that you cant pronounce. Its a great choice as far as money goes because you can buy a jar of coconut oil and it lasts a while. You can take some of it and put it in a spray bottle for your hair and then use the rest to cook with if you'd like.

So now that you've heard about coconut oil, wouldn't you like to try some? Tropical Traditions has offered to send one lucky reader some of their virgin coconut oil!

How to enter:

• Leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address.
• Subscribe to Tropical Traditions newsletter and let me know you did in a comment on this post
• Send me a tweet on Twitter that says "I want to win the Tropical Traditions coconut oil giveaway!

This contest will end on midnight CST December 26th. Good Luck!





Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

My Salon Tools Giveaway!!!

The holidays are here and gift giving mood is in full swing! Need some last minute gifts or gift ideas? Maybe you want to give yourself a Christmas gift, I know am planning my MAC shopping trip for after the holidays. Well, My Salon Tools has offered to give one lucky Polished Beauty Blog reader a $25 gift certificate to use!

My Salon Tools is one of the newest eCommerce retailers specializing in professional-grade salon tools. Including hair straighteners, shears, blow dryers, and cosmetology school supplies.

They have just marked down their entire inventory of Kamisori shears for the Winter season, so start shopping and saving today!

There are two ways to enter:

• Become a follower of my blog and leave me a comment on this post telling me what you want salon tool you want most at My Salon Tools.
• Follow me on Twitter and reply to me saying "I want to win the @mysalontools giveaway!"

This contest will end at noon (12:00pm) CST on December 22, 2009. I will announce the winner on either Dec.22 or Dec 23. Good Luck!

Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion

So this is my first Sephora by OPI polish and I am very happy with it. I love the long handle and the bottle shape. It looks so much NOT like an OPI polish and I like that about it for some reason. I picked Ocean Love Potion, from the Mermaid in the Shade collection, because I have nothing like it in my stash. Of course, I could have picked the infamous 212, but this cheery blue called my name from the swatch lineup. Actually they have a pretty decent range of colors in the Sephora by OPI collection which you can check out here.

I thought this would be the perfect polish to make me feel better about my new shorties. I had to cut & file my nails down after taking off my falsies, so I'm back to my natural nails. This is two coats because this was pretty opaque and topped with Seche Vite.

American Apparel Nail Polish Launch

I got some information in my e-mail today about American Apparel's new nail polish line. Here are some pictures:

Taken directly from the press release:

American Apparel Nail Lacquer is priced at $6 per bottle and is available in a 3-pack for $15. It will be sold at American Apparel stores worldwide as well as online. The nail polish is DBP, toluene and formaldehyde-free. The full color palette, ingredients and photographs can be found in the American Apparel web store.

Looking at the first picture, I am most interested in that mint green (Office) and that gray next to it (Factory Gray) on the top row. I found out from the press release that "Office -- was matched to the color of an accounting notepad found on the seventh floor of American Apparel's headquarters. Factory Grey is the actual shade used to paint all floors of the company's manufacturing operations." I think that's pretty cool, so I want to get my hands one some of these. source

If you're interested, you can check out swatches or order these on American Apparel's website.

Sinful Pinky Glitter + Orly Passion Fruit

I bought four Sinful polishes because they were BOGO free this weekend! Unfortunately they are no longer having this sale, but they are always at my local stores 2 for $3. Here is the first one I tried out, Pinky Glitter, on top of Orly Passion Fruit. This is only one coat of Pinky Glitter so the glitter is kind of subtle.

With Orly Passion Fruit:


In other news, I've ordered my first Sephora by OPI polish! I cant wait until it gets here to show you guys. Plus I have 3 samples waiting on me in that order + a YSL mascara sample! I'm really starting to like that store and that is only my first Sephora order...can you believe it?

Zoya Hot Lips Review

At the beginning of November, when Zoya did their Hot Lips Promo (In case you didn't know about this promo, it pays to follow Zoya on Twitter!) I took advantage of the deal and got three of the lip gloss that I had been wanting to try. Although I took note of this event and made a mental note to order, but I almost forgot really close to the deadline. So, I ended up picking three very quickly and was almost disappointed when they came to my house looking all alike.

L to R: Kiss Kiss, Starlet, Sweet Tart

One of the main reasons I wanted to do a review on these was that when I was searching for swatches, I couldn't find any on brown girl skin. :-( One of the problems I have when buying lip gloss is wondering if the color will actually show up on my lips. So first, here is a picture of them swatched on my arm:

Same order, L to R: Kiss Kiss, Starlet, Sweet Tart
They actually look the same in the tube kind of, but different on the skin. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the color showed up on my brown skin, so go Zoya for making these glossy lip balms that actually show up well on all skin types!

Here's my favorite of the bunch, Kiss Kiss, on my lips:

• The consistency of these are really thick which is great in my book. They are really moisturizing in my opinion, since its been really cold here in Texas lately (yes, I said that) and my lips haven't been feeling dry since I keep one of these in my bag.
• Another thing that I ended up loving was that they are applied using the ball at the end of the tube. I wasn't too fond of that at first, but since I use them on the go a lot, its convenient for application when I'm not near a mirror.
• I thought they were really small at first but its okay because a little goes a long way with this product.
• One thing that I didn't like, and this may just be my personal experience, is that on my favorite one, Kiss Kiss, the tube split open right under the cap. It is a slit going halfway around the opening so when I squeeze the tube, the product oozes out of that slit as well as the ball tip. I have to be careful about either not squeezing too hard or using that product that comes out of the slit.

Overall, I felt these were great. They moisturize and give your lips nice color and really isn't that what all great glosses and balms do? Well these do and they are a good buy. You can check out more swatches or order them here.

P.S. Did you notice this is my first non-nail related review? You're welcome to leave any feedback in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Disclosure Statement

This policy is valid from 06 December 2009

Here's my disclosure statement. I will be putting a link to this post somewhere on my blog!
**EDIT: You can find this link for future reference right under the About Me section, above the followers box**
_______________________________________________________________
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact lachelle AT polishedbeautyblog.com.

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog may be compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.


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Recent Manicures

I just wanted to show you what I've been doing with my nails lately. As a college student, I dont have the money to buy every new collection that comes out so I have to come up with inventive ways to be happy with the polish I currently own. Lately, I've been doing my manicures weekly. (gasp!) because I've been so busy with school this semester and I just haven't had time to do my usual 2-3 polish changes a week. One thing I've found that helps me keep a chip-free manicure all week is fake nails. I've been using Nailene nails, here's a picture I twittered of them:

My polish never chips on fake nails and I can play around with the length. With the ones pictured above I actually don't clip them because they come to a perfect manageable length, but when I want longer nails, I usually use some Kiss nails.

So,to do something different to my manicures, I've been painting one nail a different color from the rest of the nails. Like an accent wall, ha! See...

Claire's Black and Sally Hansen Celeb City

Also with Sally Hansen Deep Purple and SH Celeb City:
A note about that polish I'm holding in the last picture, Nailene Acrylic Strong Protecting Topcoat. I underestimated that topcoat. To my surprise it dried very quickly and glossy. You can never have too many quick drying topcoats in my opinion.

So what do you think about painting one nail a different color? Would you try it?

Upcoming posts on this blog:

• I'm going to try and post my review of the Zoya Hot Lips glosses I ordered when they were doing their Twitter promo.
• A review of coconut oil I'm going to use on my hair.
• My experience with my first MAC foundation
  

Now I know these are not nail related posts, but I fully embrace all things beauty so I want to try and branch out for a little. Keep reading and we'll see how that goes!

LA Girl Rockstar | Punk

I'm on the fence about this one. I think its just because I thought it was purple in the dimly lit store I bought it in. There's a dusty old grocery store in my town that still has price stickers on everything but is a hidden gem filled with OPI, Orly, China Glaze, LA Girl polishes and all kinds of nail treatments. So I put up with the less than ideal lighting conditions. Now Punk is a gorgeous color for what its worth, I just expected a purple. So here it is...

With flash indoors:

It looks different here:

Punk is a blue polish packed with blue and purple glitter. It took three coats to achieve the color in the bottle. I want to try other colors from this line, a lot of them are really unique looking. You can check out the rest of the colors at Cherry Culture where they are on sale for $2.80!

Nailene Goodies! Review...

So I was sent some products to review from Nailene and look what a pretty bag they came in:
The contents inside the bag:

So I'm pretty excited about these products, but especially the Couture nails (style 71165). They have black zebra tips and they are really cute. However, the first set of nails I tried was French finish, the third box from the left (style 77484).

Here they are individually:
Lets start with what I love about these nails.

• There's 36 nails in 18 sizes, that means you, yes you should be able to find nails that fit!
• On the back of the box, it says they are designed "flex to fit" either flat nails or high arched nails.
  
• The pinkish tint to the nails didn't even look weird against my skin tone

With that said, on to the pictures!


Above: The nails on my pink DayMinder. Yes I plan my life in pink. Or I like to think so.



I think these nails look great! The whole process took me less than 30 minutes and I've noticed that I can get a week's wear from Nailene nails. Overall, I think they are one the best at home nail kits you can buy. They get an A from me. You can find out more about Nailene at their website. Do you wear fake nails? Ever tried Nailene nails? Let me know!

I'll be posting the other nail kits pictured above later so check back later if you'd like to see them!

Hard Candy Polish Shopping Tip

If you didn't already know, Hard Candy is back in the nail polish business! I cant wait to get my hands on them, especially this baby:
However, I haven't seen them at my local Wal-Mart! I don't know if you've had success at your local store, but there is a solution! You can order them online at Wal-Mart's website and the good news is that they are just 97 cents to ship!

Hope this helps anyone where these are hard to find. Happy Shopping!

Nailene Deluxe Salon Acrylic Kit Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I did it folks. I tried acrylic nails. The pictures that I am going to show you are of my second attempt. The first time I tried the kit was this past Saturday and let me tell you, that was not pretty. I figured out what I didn't like about the kit and what I could improve the next go around. Now this second attempt is still not perfect, but I promise you its better than the first time. You don't want to see that, trust me. *shudders* On with the review!

First, let me show you the kit.

This is how it looks all nice and new in the packaging. You can find it any almost any drugstore, Wal-Mart, Target or online places like Amazon.
Here is my kit, opened and the additional tools I bought. I will explain later why I bought the extra stuff.

Contents: Clear acrylic powder, acrylic liquid, ultra quick nail glue, primer, buffing block, nail file (not pictured), dappen dish, manicure stick.

The back of the kit where you can store nails:
It came with 20 clear tips and 20 white tips.

The additional tools I bought:

L to R: Oversize nail cutter for acrylic nails, flat acrylic brush, extra white nails tips.
I thought it was really hard to clip those long acrylic nail tips with regular fingernail clippers,so I had to get the oversized ones like you see in the salon. It made the process so much easier the second time around because it eliminated trying to cut the nail in a straight line and excessive filing. You still have to file your nails with the oversize clippers but not as much. When I used the regular sized fingernail clippers on the nails, my nails looked like a crooked picket fence, no lie! I also bought another nail brush because I thought that the brush that was included was small, so the new one was bigger, flatter and wider. I thought that helped with application of the acrylic. Not pictured was nail glue I used because the glue in the kit was horrible. When the nails weren't busy sticking to my skin, they were coming off my natural nails.

Okay on to the nails. Here's the finished product. Again, not perfect! Left hand:

Right hand:
Can you tell that this hand's nails are a little shorter?

Side view:
Blurry pic of both hands:

My overall experience with this kit was good. Once I figured out what I needed to change, the application went smoother. Once thing I do highly recommend is those oversize nail clippers, they shaved 30 minutes off of the total application time, it went from a two hour ordeal to a hour and a half. I must say though, expect to to spend some time buffing your nails once you finish applying the acrylic. Some of my nails I applied a bit too much acrylic and it takes some time to buff out the uneven lumps, although I didn't get them smooth as I would have liked it. The truth was I was little tired so I just decided they would do. Also, I found that Seche Vite doesn't work as well on these nails as my natural nails, it didn't give me the shine that I wanted so I used Zoya Armour. There were some really good, detailed instructions included in the kit that I think would help anyone who is a beginner (like me) that wouldn't know what to do.

Bottom line,I would recommend this kit. It gets a thumbs up from me! Anyone else ever try to do their own acrylics? Or do you want to try your hand at acrylics but haven't? Let me know!

My attempt at a gradient manicure

Notice, the key word in the title of this post, attempt. This was much better in my head, but not so great in translation. I like the new color I made though. Here are the colors I used:

Zoya Malia as the base, China Glaze Grape Juice as the second coat, Sinful Colors Purple Diamond as the third coat.

The manicure:

I think I'll try gradient manicures again, but with other colors. Pink and blue come to mind...

____________________________________________________________

** A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS LEFT ON MY BLOG*

I've been really busy with school and projects lately so I may be slow to responding. However, I DO appreciate all the comments you've left! Thanks for stopping by!

Santee Sky Blue

Sunlight

Indoors

Another day, another Santee polish. Now I normally don't go for pearl/metallic finishes on my polishes because I don't like the streaky appearance they give. However, this blue was just so pretty to me I had to get it. I keep wanting to call it Ice Blue instead of Sky Blue and I don't know why. This is four coats + Seche Vite! Why four coats? Well I could have stopped at two, but it was still too pale for me, so I did three. However, I hit my nail on the table and made a dent in my polish. So there goes the fourth coat. In the end, I like the depth that four coats gives this polish color. It dried pretty quickly. I still don't think I care for this type of polish though.

Santee Black Hole

Here's a polish I picked up a beauty supply store. It was a buck and I figured it was worth it! I thought it was a good chance to try out a color I wouldn't normally pick, being that it is brown. How did it work out? Well let's see...

It's a nice medium brown with golden shimmer. That being said, I have no idea why the name of this polish is black hole. Black? Not hardly. In fact, in these pictures it looks a little red to me. Go figure. This was three coats. This is my first time using Santee polishes and I think they are good quality for a dollar. This one required three coats to get to the opacity that I like but that's not a big deal. It also dried fairly quickly. I have two more Santee polishes to show you, so stay tuned to check them out!

Essie Pink Parka

Here is the other polish I received from my Twitter friend, RebeccaKaz! How did she know that I loved pink? Hot, neon, retina burning pink? Hmm, is it that obvious? I honestly squealed when I got this out of my mailbox!

This is three coats of Essie Pink Parka from their Fall 09 collection + Seche Vite. It dried quickly and matte because its a neon. I used three coats because it was kind of thin, but those three coats were absolutely worth it! I love that they released this for a fall collection, because I promise you I will be wearing this even in the dead of winter. Finally, someone gets it! I knew I loved Essie for a reason.

CND Colour Effects

While browsing around CND's website to check out their new release, Colour Effects, I found out that you can request/win a sample. Just visit their website by clicking this link to request yours. The offer is open to residents only in the United States and there will be 1,500 lucky winners who will receive a bottle of Colour! You will have to fill out a short questionnaire to enter.

While you're on the website be sure to play with their demo of the color effects! Also check out Mary's post at Body and Soul Beauty about the effects she made.What do you guys think about this new concept? At first, I didn't get what the deal was, but after seeing the possibilities I'm sold!

*Picture taken from http://fashionindie.com/get-yourself-800-new-shades-from-cnd/

Essie Matte About You + My Favorite Purples

One of my lovely friends on Twitter, RebeccaKaz, sent me Essie Matte About You topcoat! So this post is possible because of her! Thanks again! I love Essie's Matte About You, I mean its a great solution to the matte nail trend. You can use it to make any nail polish you already own matte. It has a smooth velvet texture when it dries. There's nothing I don't love about this topcoat! So while looking through my stash, wondering what to try it out on first, I came across Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl. I also gathered 3 more of my favorite purples to try out. Here they are:

L to R: Zoya Hope, China Glaze Grape Juice, Hot Topic Iridescent Purple, Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl

The before picture: 2 coats of each polish with no topcoat:
L to R: Daddy's Girl, Iridescent Purple, Grape Juice, Hope

These polishes are already so gorgeous, lets see them with Essie Matte About You.

I love all of these polishes with the matte topcoat! But guess which ones are my favorite?

Zoya Hope + Matte About You. Isn't this a great purple to matte? I didn't cover all the polish with topcoat though,so a little glossy polish still remains by my cuticle. Besides that, I love this!

I saved the best for last. Hot Topic Iridescent Purple is already gorgeous. With the matte topcoat, I think it becomes even more dramatic. I love it. I'm going to do a whole manicure with this one and the Essie topcoat. You can see the purple and blue shimmer in it as well.

I'm sold on Essie Matte About You. That's coming from someone who didn't like the matte trend at first! Did you love these purples with a matte topcoat? I did!