Amazing glitters by Cirque

I have reached a 100 nail polish bottles this week! YAY. Here is my nail polish organizer:
 

And now, together with my friend Camila in Santiago, bought these amazing glitters by Cirque. They are a bit more expensive (13 dollars each), but we never saw nail polishes like these ones. 

 

This is Electric Circus:

This is Kaleidoscope:

 This is Le Invader:

And this is Lullaby:

Cirque is a line of hand-blended and high-quality nail polishes made in New York. They are free of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and contain essential oils (lavender and clary sage).

We are so exited to try them on! We'll be posting about them soon :)

Spreading the Cheer! The Nail Network Giveaway!! China Glaze Holiday Joy

Hey!

Long time no see! Just a quick post to let you know that The Nail Network is giving away the entire China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection!!!

Photo from The Nail Network

Enter here: http://www.the-nail-network.com/2012/11/spreading-cheer-china-glaze-holiday-joy.html

My 'cheap' obsession --Update

Hi there, this is an update of my "My cheap obsession" post. Specifically about how I storage my nail polishes. Few days ago my blogmate Camila found this video, now I have my nail polishes nicely organized and I can easily see all my 69 colors!

I bought an over the door shoe organizer from Amazon for 15 dollars. It has 28 pockets: 24 large and 4 small. I decided to organize my nail polishes according to their color and finishing type. I made 8 color categories: reds, pinks, oranges/yellows, greens, blues, purples, browns and whites/grays/blacks (I also keep 8 display wheels with the same colors); and 3 finishing type categories: matte, metallic and glitter. This way 8 x 3 is 24, and I fit them in the large pockets. I used the small pockets for the display wheels.

This shoe organizer is made out of clear vinyl, which is great to see your colors. However, when I looked at the Amazon's picture I though it had white background but it does not. My door is brown, so I put white paper on the back to make it white, that way I can see better the colors. You can get the same product or a different one, since it comes in different colors.

As for my 23 image stamping plates, I storage them in a photo album. It makes it pretty easy to search for the stamp you want.

I hope you enjoy these ideas.

Cheers,

I made a mess

I wanted to emulate the new caviar manicure. I went to a Michaels store looking for those tiny beads. I couldn't find them. But I found tons of glitter, tinsel glitter and embossing powder. Even though it is not intended for nail application, I ended up embossing my fingernails and I am here to tell you my experience.

I did not called this post "I made a mess" with no reason. There is stuff to improve before you try it.

Let's see. I started with a layer of a blue nail polish from Essie (sorry, I don't have the color name). Then, I applied the glacier opaque embossing powder from Recollections over a second layer of nail polish before it dried using a spoon. I repeated this with all my fingernails.

When I was done with it, I had embossing powder everywhere and it kept falling off of my nails. So I applied a layer of top coat to keep it in place. Bad effect! The nice embossing effect was gone.

Even worse, the next morning I had lost whole pieces from my right hand. I am not sure why this happened only in one hand. I did the same process on both.

*If you are thinking in the disaster on my pinky... well, I always do it this way. All that nail polish on my skin will go out after I take a shower. Shh, don't tell anyone my secret.

Things to improve?

1. Instead of using a different background color, use the same to get less of this messy appearance.

2. Instead of applying a mountain of embossing powder (left), you can try to sprinkle powder to get a... 'galaxy' effect (right).

3. Instead of applying dry powder, you could mix it with nail polish before applying. Not sure how this would work. Let me know if you try it!

OK. It's time to remove the mess and try something different.

Cheers,

How I take care of my nails :D

Hi internet! Today I want to talk about what I do to take care of my nails/how to deal with weak brittle nails... Just because I think that keeping your hands and nails in good shape is just as important as choosing a beautiful color.

Photo is from here

Ok so i used to have the worst nails, they chipped all the time and broken and it was just awful... until I started to incorporate this habits. Right now my nails are in good shape and so I can paint them and do anything I want!

First of all I ALWAYS use a base coat, this is really important because it protect your natural nails from the polishes you use, and also diminishes the stainig (and nobody wants yellow nails unless is a nail polish!). My base coat changes depending on what i'm trying at the moment and if you want to fill some ridges or make the color pop, etc! But the important thing is to always use one... I cannot stress this enough, seriously! Good options are Sally Hansen, China Glaze, OPI and Essie.

Second I use a non-acetone nail polish remover. I've heard that acetone weakens your nails and the skin around them (and of course your cuticles!), and I don't like oily nail polish removers... I just really hate the texture! I've been using the Sally Hansen Fast&Gentle Nail polish remover (the pink one!) for dry and brittle nails and I just LOOOOVE this product!!! It removes the polish fast enough but i doesn't leave your hand and nails feeling uncormfortable, the smell is no too strong and... is pink! I've tried the blue and the green ones also from Sally Hansen and still prefer the pink one, I just think it works better. It works even with really dense glitter polish... If you ever tried to remove glitter polish you know that is really anoying and i think this nail polish remover does a great job!

 Sally Hansen Fast&Gentle Nail polish remover

My third tip is always use a file to smooth the edges of the nail but put special care on smoothing the sides of your nail ONLY on the direction of grow... Someone once told me this helps growing your nails faster and stronger and since then I've been doing it and seems to be working for me! I like the Sally Hansen Handle me with care nail file, because i tend to prefer fine nail files and this one is perfect for me... is fine and it last a really long time without falling apart like other nail files do.

Sally Hansen "Handle me with care" 

 I also use a hand cream every night and when needed during the day. Right now i'm using the RoC ENYDRIAL hand cream for the night and the Vichy essentials hand creme for the day. The first one i use it only at night because is a really rich hand cream and I hate the smell. The Vichy one on the other hand is a really moisturizing cream that does not leave my hands feeling greasy and it has a subtle rose smell that i really like.

Roc Enydrial Hand Cream

On days when i'm feeling like needing extra care i apply the Sally hansen cuticle cream with apricot oil on my cuticles before bed. I'm not crazy for this product, i still prefer the Lush Lemony Flutter cuticle treatment but i'm trying to finish the Sally Hansen one before buying other product.

Sally Hansen Cuticle Massage Cream

Finally, when I'm doing everything, and i still have an episode of brittle nails i try to eat jelly, and it always do the trick for me :) I think that's everything that i do for my nails... I also try to take multivitamins at night but i must admit that i'm not the most consistent person with that...

I really hope this post was helpful for you ;)

Love

Camila
@Kamo_Valenzuela

I visited the Street Fair Cosmetics in NYC

It may have been my fault, but when I read about the Street Fair Cosmetics I though it was only about cosmetics. Whatever. Also, they didn't answer at what time was the fair when I asked. Whatever. Well, I happened to be in New York City this past Saturday so I got some nail polishes.


In this fair people was selling all kind of stuff -sunglasses, earrings, hats, clothes, food, drinks,... and cosmetics. There were only two spots selling cosmetics. I was disappointed. I was also disappointed because they had few nail polish colors and they were old, sticky, exposed to the sun, separated in two layers, ...eww! I only bought, Maybelline, L'oréal and Essie and for a good price, yay!


These are the nail polishes that I bought:

Grand in Green By Maybelline $3

Owl's Night By L'oréal $3

 Amazon's Flash By L'oréal $3

Angora Cardi By Essie 3 for $10

No name? :( By Essie 3 for $10

No name? :( By Essie 3 for $10

Little Brown Dress By Essie 3 for $10

Golden Nuggets By Essie 3 for $10

No name? :( By Essie 3 for $10

plus... Trick-or-Treat By Art Stuff $1

In conclusion, I would recommend this fair, but don't attend too exited about it.




Cheers,

Seduced by Mr. Darcy

So, this is my first blogpost :D and is going to be a Mani of the day (MOTD). This one was inspired by this book: An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Aidan... seriously is amazing <3 if you loved Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice you will love this book, is the same history of Pride and Prejudice but from the point of view of Fitzwilliam Darcy <3

An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan

Anyway... this is about nails! I used two coats of China Glaze in Seduce Me on my nails (after my base coat) and Essie Luxeffects in As Gold as ir Gets on my accent nail, finished off with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat and this is the final look. 

I love to do my accent nail on my ring finger so I try to do this everytime I paint my nails. I loved this combo inspired by the book cover, it just looks so classy <3

 

I LOVE this colour... is amazing and I think it compliments very well my skin tone. Formula wise is a great polish, is really opaque so one coat is enough but i always prefer to do two so it lasts longer. 

China Glaze in Seduce Me

As Gold as it Gets is flakes of gold glitter on a clear base and was part of the Essie's Holiday 2011 Luxeffects Collection. This one is such a pretty polish, the colour and texture are amazing, is not too dense... just amazing <3

Essie Luxeffects in As Gold as it Gets

A close up so you can see the tiny golden flakes in this polish

Hope you liked it


Love


Camila
Twitter @Kamo_Valenzuela