Silhouette of Roses

Hi friends! I have a new blog layout! YAY!! I'm sure you may have noticed that though, of course. Please tell me what you think. Need anything? Change anything? Etc.

In the meantime, here is some super duper simple stamping I did. School starts tomorrow, and I feel like my nail times will be halved. So that's sad. I needed to have SOMETHING on for the first day though, right? =) I'm excited though, this is my first real semester of my degree. Oh boy, 4+ long years to go. At least the campus book store sells Junior Mints.

Oooh, and look how long my nails are getting! I'm so happy, it's been a minute since they've been this long! Here's hoping I can keep it going! =D

This is Zoya Faye, and Venique Doninating Thigh Highs for the stamp. This polish is SO nice for a stamping. I love it a ton. The plate I used was BM 323. I truly want more plates, guys. Where did you get your fave plates!?

At first I thought this was super not so good. It looked too busy and messy. But as they do, they've been growing on me the lat few hours. Also I've already gotten compliments so, I'll that them!

Short post. Gotta get school stuff in order, and help the brother make waffles. Yups. Waffles.
Til next time!
♥Jo

Ipsy August 2015 Glam Bag

Hi all!! Today you will please to enjoy my FIRST ever cosmetic and non-polish review!
Well, I say non polish, but I got a bottle of polish in my bag. =)

"Bag?" you ask? Why yes! For those of you who don't know, Ipsy is a thing! It's a monthly subscription that costs 10 dollars. You receive a cute little makeup bag and 4 - 5 items chosen for you from their selection for the month(sometimes super lovely fill sized!!).

Right now there is NO waiting list!!!! You know you want this if you don't have it!

Sign up HERE!!!

Ahem... All of that aside, I am pleased to present to you my reviews for my 5 beautiful items from Ipsy! Before I do that, however, I'd like to give a rundown of how I will be reviewing cosmetics from Ipsy, and other other means.

• Scent: This matters a LOT to me. If I find a smell unpleasant of ANY product, I have a hard time using it. Is it my first most important feature? Probably, let's be fair.
• Ease of Use: Is it understandable to use with only the directions labeled? It is true a lot of products should be a given, right? Everyone knows how to apply lipstick! Right? That's actually incorrect. If this were the FIRST time I'd ever received a product, will I understand how to use it without Googling or prior knowledge?
• Effectiveness: Does it do as advertised?
• Consistency: Is the formula pleasant, and does it seem to STAY that way? It can need shaken (this is a polish blog, after all!!), it just needs to be nice and easy after that.
• Desire: Is this something I am pumped to have gotten? Would I purchase this again and recommend to a friend? Regrets? This may touch on cost, as well.

I won't be  directly reviewing if the product looks good on a human. Because all of us are very different! I'll comment if it worked for me(see: desire), or tell you what it may look good with, I just won't say "Wow, this green is bad. It should feel bad".

Let us begin!!!

Ipsy August 2015!

First, take a look at the bag. This one has a fun houndstooth pattern. It's nice and durable. It will probably be thrown into my ipsy bag drawer. =) No offense bag, I just have 25+ make up bags by now. Haha!
The bags are mostly approx 5" by 7". Also, most of them work GREAT for a Nintendo 3DS case! =D

Onto the pretties!

 Briogeo Blossom and Bloom Volumizer.

• Scent: Pleasant. It kind of smelled like beer??? And flowers?
• Ease of Use: Perfectly understandable. Spray throughout damp hair and blowdry. 
• Effectiveness: It's hard to say. My hair is so... volumized... anyway that products like this don't seem to do much. It did feel nice after a blow dry though. =)
• Consistency: Its a liquid spray. So nice.
• Desire: My desire for this product is none. As I said, it's not a product I need.

 Juara Face Mask.

• Scent: Not that great. It kind of smelled like an oatmeal lotion might, but slightly more not yummy.
• Ease of Use: Spread on, let sit, rinse off. Easy!
• Effectiveness: My skin felt softer, less tight after the rinse. It even seemed softer into the next day too!
• Consistency: Goes on clear, so your SO doesn't laugh at you! It's a nice formula!
• Desire: Nope. I have plenty of face masks that smell like freaking nectarines and heaven. This worked quite well, and I /might/ use it again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it.
  Note: This burned. For like a good minute or two it just burned. =( I probably should have removed it right away, but then it faded. So I just went with it.

 Skone Cosmetics Luxe Doubler Eye and Lip Pencil in Wine

• Scent: None really. So that's nice. The wood smells like wood. Haha!
• Ease of Use: It says lip/eye pencil on it. It comes with the assumption you'd need to know what those are. I should come up with a term for that so I don't have to say it in every review. =P
• Effectiveness:It's a super nice line! If it's very sharp, the line can be very fine. It didn't need any other coats (or go-overs!) to make it pretty.
• Consistency:I think in all my playing with it there was like 2 flakes. So it's nice!
• Desire:I love it! It's a great color and works well. If I were in the market for more lip pencils, I could see myself turning here!

Noyah All Natural Lipstick in Desert Rose

• Scent: Pleasant. Like childhood. Playing with all of mom's lipsticks as a kid, this reminds me of those. Not a lot of lipsticks do that, though. It smells less chemically, however.
• Ease of Use: Haha! It does have directions it's so cute!! Open, Apply, Smile.
• Effectiveness:My lips are a different color. Works great!
• Consistency: "Note the creamy all-natural formula" it says.
• Desire: If I were a lipstick junkie, I'd be all over buying more of this brand. As it is, I just get little lipsticks through glam bags and they are all I use!

Trust Fund Beauty Elegantly Wasted.

We've seen this beauty before! Check out this post for a manicure using this polish. This creme polish was nice and opaque in two coats, but isn't the best self-leveler, so I went ahead and topped it with my trusty Seche Vite. I won't bore you with bullets on this one. I think by now you understand my love of lacquer!!

Thank you SO much for reading! PLEASE: If you are a beauty blogger, I'd love advice on cosmetic reviewing. I like to think I'm doing it a bit differently than others, but I don't want to be so far off the mark that it's not understandable!

Don't forget to sign up!
♥Jo

Elegant Chevron

 Hi lovelies!
I have a fun, simple mani for you today! I saw some ad for a bank credit card on facebook. The model has some pretty glittery chevron nails. I didn't find it again, but was inspired!

This is China Glaze I'm Not Lion for our pretty golden glitter. It's a nice texture glitter from the 2012 Fall collection, On Safari.  I haven't purchased any collections for so long. I miss new polish! Also on this pretty is my new friend Trust Fund Elegantly Wasted. This came with my August 2015 Ipsy bag.(sign up, not joking. There is NO waitlist at the moment!!!) By the way friends, this is a super secret sneak preview of my very first ever cosmetic review!!!! =D
You're so excited, I can tell! Stay tuned for that, it should be rolling out within a day or so. =)

I wasn't too pumped about the rhinestone. I wanted a pretty gold accent but find myself without, Aw well, it's not bad.


Also, just so you are aware, a few days ago I started using OPI Nail Envy. I'll let you know how that goes soon. Not like there isn't enough reviews for that, but I'll give you one, too!
Thanks for reading. I'm so ridiculously happy to be back.
♥Jo

Jenna Hipp - What's Hot Now The New Candies

Hello my friends!
I was out shopping with my brother for waffle mix and irons when I ran into this collection at Costco. I vaguely remember seeing it (or a similar one) a year or so ago and just walked right on. Oh how my wallet liked my polish hiatus. ;)

  I thought I'd grab this collection because "they must know about these!". The bottles are all 5ML, or .16 oz. Cute little square minis in a super cute package. I got home and immediately started swatching, of course!

Marshmallow Fondont. A yellow-ivory shade. Creme finish. This took 3 coats to perfect, but I could have gotten away with just two. This will be true for the majority of these polishes.
THis color is ALMOST the ivory I've been looking for for years. Someday...

Crème The Cantaloupe. This pastel orange, creme finish is a really great spring/summer color. Another good in two coats, but I ended up with three to be sure.

Pink Lady Finger. I kind of love this pink. This is a creme finish was beautiful in 2 coats. This is one of the colors I think will be in my next arts. =)

Voilet Eclair is the only finish in this collection that isn't a creme. As you can see its a shimmer/duochrome. Kind of. I mean it's pretty much a duochome, just not as 'duo' as many others out there. This was the worst formula of all of the polishes (the rest were all the same at just fine!). It was a bit more tricky, but very much turned out fine. this is 3 coats!

Très  Parfait. My absolute favorite in this set. The formula was pretty much a one-coater, but definitely needed two for swatches. However, it could easily be a polish to apply quickly before heading out and have it look just fine. My apologies the very slight color difference in these two shots. Still learning lightine!

Thin Mint. I have a bunch of mint shades already, but every time I see a new one I want it. I don't need it, but mint is so lovely I want them all! This is the only one with a name I want to criticize. Thin mints are supposed to be chocolatey!

Rose Tart is a bright creme that applied nicely in two coats. I used to hate these bright pink shades, but they are now my favorite pedi color!

American Pie was the hardest to photograph my my re-learning of skills. It was also the hardest to edit to be sure the color stayed true! I think I did okay, though. =)

Overall, this collection is super awesome! I picked it up at Costco for only $9.99! Very great deal for some super awesome colors. I am kicking myself now for ignoring it before, but I am glad I have it now.
Please, if anyone has any super secret special advise on lighting (besides outside, because I am never taking pictures when the sun is out =P), or editing, I'd love to hear it!
Also, 16 pictures takes foreeeever to edit! But so worth it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you can all get out and get this collection!
♥Jo

Dear Summer, Please Don't End

Hi all!
I got some winter blues the other day. Like, I was super sad because it's going to be cold soon. Ok, I mean in a few months, but still. I decided I needed at least one really good summer manicure to make me feel better, so her is a pretty!

All photos inside, with flash.

This is Zoya Jolene (bottle), and Zoya Jancyn. The gradient kinda workedish. Not too bad though. I'm REALLY pleased with the stamp. Its BM 318 with Julep Eileen. It's a very nice stamping polish I've decided. I'm pleased I didn't forget how to stamp so much.=) However, If I redid this it would be with a stamp over the gradient, and not just a solid color. Middle finger is Zoya Miranda Pixie Dust. I so love texture polish. I need like a thousand more!!!!

Sorry short post. But that's cool, right? =)
♥Jo

Burnt Look - Zoya Gradient

I really truly want to redo my nails every hour or so right now. It's like this blogging thing is taking over again and wants to be my top priority! All right, I'll let it have it's way for the time being! =)

As I said before, doing all things nail art is as if I'm relearning the technique. Turns out, nail art isn't quite like riding a bicycle! I tried some water marble, and ooooh boy. I have NO idea what I could have done so wrong! Nothing was working! The polish wouldn't 'bullseye' properly, too much falling to the bottom of the cup, and if I did manage to get a few drops right, they dried long before I could design it! I've been incredibly successful with marbling before, so I suppose practice practice practice.

Having said all that, gradients have been a challenge, too. However, this one at least turned out nice!
Here is some 'first try in years' gradients!

Outside natural light. With flash.

Outside natural light. With flash.

Flash indoors.

I don't like that middle finger, the gradient line is a bit harsh. That ring finger though!
This is Zoya Aurora, a beautiful purple holo. Not holo like some holos with tiny fine glitters, These glitters and bigger but ooooh so pretty. The black is Zoya Storm. I wanted to blame the lack of good gradient on the polishes, and that the glitters 'rise' when the sponge is sponged. But it's not their fault, and I know it.
I think this kind of looks a little burnt! It especially looked so in the darker light that I did them in. I think it may even make it a day or two!

Of course, the top coat is my go to top Seche Vite. Is there a fancy new topcoat out there now that I need to know about?

I feel that I have remembered everything about editing my photos. I think. I still have never mastered lighting. Outside daylight is best but it's much more difficult considering I only ever do my nails at night! I'm practicing that, too.

What is the next style, design, or technique I should relearn or try? I'm thinking stamping. Oh boy. ^^;

♥Jo

Guys! Look what I did!! (Don't get tooo excited, though!)

Hi everyone!
So I'm sitting here for months thinking, "Oh I'll make a blog post soon, just gotta wait til my nails aren't so short and gross.."
And then I said, naw, make those nails pretty! So I did some Gelish and fiberglass overlays, made them a little longer and painted them. YES!! =D

Here you go with pics. I'll explain in a minute...

Okay so here is the thingy, I haven't blogged in.... almost 2 years now?!?! Or has it been that? Anyway, I forgot how to take and edit pictures. So I had to sit here for evers trying to reteach myself that. That was fun. Hey, it didn't turn out so bad!

I also forgot how to pretty much do any kind of nail art! So here we have Zoya Blaze french. The lines aren't straight, and the silly sticker(I don't know the brand, sorry...It's a sticker from my early days of collecting nail pretties) is super haphazardly placed. But you know what? I did a pretty!

I want to talk about Gelish for a minute. This is a thing that I have picked up and started to play with. I have yet to read anyone's blogs and posts about any sort of gel nails, so if you have some bitchin posts, PLEASE drop a link below so I can learn all about the awesome gels! In the meantime, let me give you a small rundown of what I did with it.
I picked up some horseshoe nail forms and a roll of 12ft ASN Fiberglass wraps from the beauty supply store.
First, I applied a thin layer of Gelish Foundation. Cure.
Then I applied a piece of fiberglass over the still sticky nail (double adhesion awwww yeah!). Gotta make it longer than the natural nail.
After the fiberglass was in place I applied a thicker coat of foundation over the whole nail, and onto the form and longer fiberglass. Make it MUCH thicker on the overhang (omg, is that what it's called? Two years is a long time...) so that it looks pretty natural. =) I can't go too think because thick fake looking nails are ew. You have to let that sit a second or two to soak into the fiberglass to hide it. Cure.
I then buffed the nails at this point because I kinda suck at keeping them not bumpy with the fiberglass, then applied the Top It Off and cured.
It took foreeeever because I was being picky with each nail trying to make it look nice. I think it turned out ok. =) I left it at that so that I can paint them whatever color I want and remove the polish with a non-acetone remover. Yay!
I don't anticipate always having the gel extensions on, but if I ever get breakage (if I ever get nails ^^'), you guys will never know. =D

Anyhow, I am already getting ready to remove the French tips (I made it ONE WHOLE DAY!), so I'll be blogging all about my adventures in relearning to nail art. Stay tuned.

Love you all! <3
Jo

Ps.. In the last two years, have I missed any super special new tricks that Blogger has? I'm out of the loop...