Favorites - Day 4 - All about the Do

Sometimes the first thing people notice about you is your hair. Right now there are so many different hair trends out there from feathers all the way to bows. So today we have for you OUR favorite hair finds for you.

Kourt:
I recently when to a peddlar show with my parents and stumbled across a unique hair accessory. The cool thing about them is they are good for all ages. At least to me haha! Now I since I've been sick I haven't had a chance to wear mine out and let's face it I am not in the picture mood from the neck up LOL They are called Hair Spirals and you can find them here. Since I didn't include a picture of myself wearing them and what they look like in the hair I'll just put some pics here for you to enjoy :) I personally bought red glitter, silver glitter, purple glitter and gold glitter.

Gabbz:
So I have to say my favorite hair product would have to be my VO5 shampoos. Now I know what you're thinking, "but its so cheap?" Exactly! Why spend so much money on expensive brands that do the same thing? I mean you can't beat the under a dollar price. The one I've been using lately is the Still Experience Moisturizing Shampoo in Champagne Kisses. I've tried other scents and most of them smell amazing. I especially love that their scents aren't too strong and overpowering and don't make my head hurt lol. I think that's probably the main reason, besides the price, that I love this brand. The shampoo lathers great and leaves my hair clean and removes hairspray buildup. I also always tend to use the matching conditioner with each scent to help my hair and let scent linger in my hair a longer. I know there are many other types of shampoos for different hair needs in that brand so, I'm sure you'll find one suitable for you.

So what are your favorite hair products or hair trends?

Favorites - Day 3 - LOTION!!!!

After Monday left you drained I bet you want something to make you feel better, pampered even. What about your hands? You've worked them dry and to the bone. So what better than to lather them up with some lotion to give those calluses a little love. So today we have for you our favorite lotions.

Kourt:
Ok so I have a problem...I'm becoming a LUSH...not the drinking kind...but the kind who is swiftly becoming obsessed with the LUSH cosmetic company. I think I've said it, oh about 10 times already. I actually found my favorite lotion by accident when I was buying my cleanser at LUSH. The sweet girl who always helps me (HOLLA!!) threw in some free samples in my bag and their Dream Cream lotion just happened to be one of them.

This is how they describe the Dream Cream on their website: Incredibly soothing body lotion for troubled skin. Dream Cream is LUSH's best-selling product because it makes sore skin feel good again. Chamomile and lavender calm irritations, reduce redness and banish blotches.

Now, just like all their other products this is handmade and free of all the bad stuff. If some of you readers out there don't already know I have Spina Bifida and use a cane to get around. Well the cane causes me to have bad calluses on my hands which is just annoying to me because it makes me feel manly LOL. When I used this my hands felt as soft as cashmere and it's definately going to be my next purchase when I make another LUSH-y stop. The smell, if you're wondering, is almost non-existent to me (just don't ask my mom haha!) This retails for $25 for an 8oz jar which may seem pricely but hey if you find something that works for you then you can splurge a little ;)

Gabbz:
When it comes to lotions I really only buy them because they smell good. I don't really like a strong scent because I'm very sensitive to scents and tend to get migraines. However, I did find a good moisturizing lotion that smells Amazing!! It's by Bodycology and its in Vanilla Cupcake. Kourt and I came across it at our local grocery store because Kourt wanted a new lotion. She opened it and OMG...I wanted to eat it lol (Insert Kourt comment here: She almost took my hand off everytime I used it...just sayin'). It smells just like frosting. She ended up buying it and I decided not to. Everytime she used it at work, of course I used it too. I even threatened to take it from her a couple of times lol. I didn't take hers and bought my very own tube. I do highly recommend it if you like sweet or food scents and want your hands to feel really soft. Plus at most grocery/drugstores it only runs about $5 which is an added bonus if you're on a budget. I don't however recommend you use it when you're hungry lol...don't say I didn't warn you ;)

So there's our favorites now it's your turn to tell us yours!!!! Get to it!

Favorites - Day 2 - Just Another Neon Monday

Blah...yet another Monday has arrived and for most of you that means the start of a long work week (for me and Gabbz Sunday is our Monday lol.) Sometimes you need something to brighten your day. What better than a neon mani? Gabbz and I are all about bright colors, except when it comes to eyeshadow LOL Gabbz is neutral and I'm the color girl...But I digress...As you are typing away at your desk or working your hands to the bone you can take a glance at your bright nails and maybe feel a little happier. I know for us it's a little pick me up! So onto our faves....

Kourt:
So when thinking about this post I knew Gabbz would instantly pick a hot pink LOL So I gave it to her...I kind of fancy a bright yellow though. Yellow is a sunny color and I remember a year ago I got Sally Hansen's Lightening and everytime I typed and saw my bright nails I was in a better mood. Good moods at our job are key. I remembered a while back I had bought China Glaze's Celtic Sun because the brightness of it just drew me in, but I hadn't used it...Until today. I remember in middle school I would color my nails with highlighters (as Michelle over at beautybesties has also mentioned she's done) and when I painted this on it took me back to my good old days living in Hawaii. Michelle also mentioned a great tip about using a white base coat so the color would come through and not be so transparent (Thanks :)). So I dug around and found an old bottle of Loreal white polish and did 2 coats (the polish was terrible...it's now on a permanent vacation in my trash can LOL).  After that dried I did 2 coats of CG Celtic Sun. Being me I can't just wear a polish without a lil somethin' somethin' so I layered CG Fairy Dust and CG Techno on top and finished with CHI's top coat. Here is what I got...

This was taken in brighter light...

Gabbz:
So the color I chose to help me with my Monday Blues is China Glaze Pink Voltage. It is just so bright and wonderful. It makes my fingers glow lol. I have featured this color before cuz I just can't get enough of it, plus it's pink lol For this pick I kind of cheated and paired it with another favorite neon color. This one is also from China Glaze called Purple Panic. Purple Panic is not as bright but still a nice shade.
So here's the look....

Look how bright those colors are...this is with a flash. Sorry, my camera wasn't really picking up the detail in the mani but wanted to show you how bright the colors are.

Here you can see the design better...

And then with a top coat...

Now that you have seen our neon craze, is there a neon polish you love and would like to share? If so comment because we would love to see new ones!

Favorites - Day 1 - Skincare

Hey everyone!! Gabbz and I were brainstorming one day and we both decided we wanted to do a week of favorites from skincare to nail art.

So to kick off Day 1 we have for you our favorite facial cleansers.

Kourtz:
I just recently found my favorite cleanser at Lush. I am beginning to have an obsession with this store, it's getting pretty ridiculous. First it was their face mask and lip scrub, now I have fallen in "Lush" with their cleanser. Now before we get into it, Lush has different cleanser's for different skin types, so make sure you either go to their website or go to your local store and ask the staff because they are really knowledgable and can help you find the one that would best suit your skin type. I tend to have acne and redness in my skin so I went with Aquamarina. This cleanser looks weird because it is actually wrapped in seaweed. You can go here and see what I mean. It kind of looks like a sushi roll haha. I didn't buy a whole slab of it, I just got a piece of it and it only cost me $12.96 without tax. It's packed with great nutrients that help soften and calm your skin like calomine and aloe. All you do is take a pea sized amount and mix it with water and rub all over your skin and rinse. It definately made my skin feel clean. Like I said before, it looks and smells weird at first but after using it for a week now I love it. My Mom even noticed that using the cleanser paired with their face mask is helping my skin.

Gabbz:
So one of my favorite cleansers hands down is Purity by Philosophy. Mind you, I still use other drugstore brands to help with acne, but Purity is my fave. I love that it's gentle and doesn't irritate your eyes. It really makes your skin feel really soft. I especially like that it removes all makeup left behind from a makeup removing wipe. It even removes pesky waterproof mascara and eyeliner effortlessly. I know I sound like an infomercial, but I just love it. I have nothing bad to say about this product, I highly recommend it.

So now that you've seen our favorites what are some of yours? We would love to get your feedback :)

Shades of Pink Animal Print Hello Kitty Mani

Hello Lovelies, Gabbz here...

So I have for you today a very cute mani. I have so many manicures that I want to try and couldn't decide which one to do. I have this cute Hello Kitty plush my Mom got me as a "Just because gift" and I just love it. I thought since I have all the tools (image plates, stamper, scraper and of course polish) why not do an inspired nail look. I must say I LOVE IT!!! It incorporates my love for Hello Kitty, the color pink and animal print.

It was a really simple look to do and got many "Oooo's" and "Aaah's" and "How cute" from many people lol. I used Milani in Hot Pink for all nails but ring finger. Hot Pink to me is a light almost milky pink shade with pink metallic micro glitter. I also used Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Twisted Pink. Twisted Pink is a medium shade pink with pink metallic micro glitter. Then I used a black polish to stamp, 2 different image plates and a yellow for accents on image.

So on to the pictures....

My inspiriation: Isn't she cute :)

This is my mani, pretty close

I used Seche Plus Fortified strengthener as a base and
also 2 coats of Hot Pink on all but ring finger

Then 2 coats of
Twisted Pink on Ring finger

Hot Pink and Twisted Pink w/1 coat of Seche Vite
Top Coat

I used Konad Image plate M57 and used C-1 in black to stamp the leopard spots
on all nails but the ring finger
(bought image plate at my local mall or you can buy them here or check if there's
a retail location near you here)

Also used C-1 in Black to stamp the
Hello Kitty image
(I bought this on ebay, which is no longer available,
but you can order a similar plate here
or you can purchase it w/as a stamp kit here)

After the images where stamped on each nail, I took a bobby pin
and dotted Twisted Pink in between each spot. I then cleaned bobby pin
and dotted SinfulColors in Melon Yellow for Hello Kitty's nose
and then cleaned bobby pin again and
dotted China Glaze Pink Voltage on the bow.

I really love this look. I've been wearing it for almost a week and I don't want to change it lol. I also must say that I really like this Konad image plate. I tend to used it A LOT and Im sure this won't be the last time you see me use it ;)


***I'm not affiliated with any of the websites mentioned above. Just thought I would share some places you might be able to get similar tools I used if you were interested in recreating this look. ***

Yellow Polka Dot Mani

Gabbz here again,

As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to change up my mani. I knew I wanted to do a look using my Bundle Monster image plates. I decided to do a Yellow Polka Dot mani inspired by the song "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Mini Polka Dot Bikini." Now there's no way in heck I would wear one so why not let my nails wear it lol.

For this look I used SinfulColors in Neon Melon. This polish is a super bright yellow, and like most neon polishes it dries matte. I personally don't like the matte look, so I always use a top coat. Another thing about this particular polish is that it's pretty sheer. I only used 2 coats because I knew I was going to stamp an image over it. I do reccomend that you apply more coats of Neon Melon if you're going to wear it alone.

I will mention that I did have a hard time getting the whole image to stamp on my nail. That's because the image is too small to fit on my nail. I even cut my nails shorter so I wouldn't have a hard time, but I still struggled. This is not the first time I tried using the dot image but this was the first time that I got good results. I was NOT going to give up. They still didn't come out perfect, but I liked how it turned out in the end.

Ok so on with the look....

My Yellow Polka Dot Mani

SinfulColors Neon Melon w/Seche Vite Top Coat

Here is how it looks when it dries
Seche Plus Fortified Strengthener under 2 coats of Neon Melon

Here it is w/1 coat of Seche Vite Top Coat

The materials I used to Stamp Dots with
C-1 in Black, Bundle Monster image plate #19
and Konad Stamper & Scraper

And the finished Look: topped off with 1
coat of Seche Vite

So there you have it. I really like this color of polish. It's super bright and a fun summer color. Do you have any neon polishes? If so, which one is your fave? Let me know below :)

L.A Colors Bright Pink & Kleancolor Starry Night

Hey Gabbz here,

So the other day my Mom ventured to the dollar store and bought this really pretty color from L.A. Colors called Bright Pink. I was really surprised she bought this color. My mom is not a big fan of the color pink. I know how crazy is that!! I guess my love for pink has finally rubbed off on her lol,

Bright Pink is a very nice opaque cream polish. The one thing about this polish is that it dried matte. Which made me think it was a neon color(it didn't say it was on package). Also, I personally don't think it looks pink. Once dried it looked like more of a coral color. I will say that this color sure was bright. You will see in the pictures below that it made my fingers glow lol.

Now, I couldn't just wear a cream polish, I had to add a little something something to it. So I topped it off with KLEANCOLOR Starry Night. This polish has a pink base and tiny silver and pink glitter. The best part of this polish is that it also has holographic strips of confetti. Sorry if that's not what the material is called but I will call it confetti. In different angles the "confetti" would flash colors of pink, orange, blue, purple, green and many more. One thing is for sure, I will be wearing this polish on it's own.

Enough chatter on to the pics.....

L.A. COLORS Bright Pink & KLEANCOLOR Starry Night

This is 2 coats of Bright Pink under
Seche Plus Fortified Strengthener

Here it is w/out Top Coat

And with 1 coat of Seche Vite Top Coat

Here's Starry Night on a nail wheel (soooo Pretty!!)

1 Coat Starry Night over Bright Pink

With 1 Coat Seche Vite Top Coat

So what's the verdict? Do you think it's Pink or Coral? Do you prefer this color alone or with a little glitter over it? You know me, I love me some glitter lol. Plus, you can't go wrong with a little glitter in your life ;) Thanks for stopping by!

Revlon Crazy Shine - Review

Hey everyone, Kourtney here :) Hope everyone is having a great week!

Today I have for you the Revlon Crazy Shine nail buffer. This is something else I saw from the lovely Michelle over at Beauty Besties. You should all check out her blog, it's amazing and she is always introducing products that are new and sometimes different that I always wanna try...I wanna be like you Michelle lol!!

Anyhoo...My Mom actually bought this for me when we went to ULTA because I was on the hunt for it...How nice right? Well I didn't use it until last week (I've had it about a month now LOL). I was amazed at the results...

It comes packaged like this:

First you use the rough side to buff your nails...

Then you flip it over and use the smooth (white) side to give it the topcoat shine.

They say it's supposed to give you a topcoat shine that will last you 3 days...I didn't test the length of time because I painted my nails after I used it. But when I took off my polish it still shined like I had just put a topcoat of polish on.

Here is what my nails looked like after using this product:

They were so shiny and it looked natural! I really love this product and definately would recommend it. You can get it at drugstore.com for about $3.50.

Have any of you used this item? If so did you like the results you got?

Lush Cosmetics Cupcake Facial Mask

Hey everyone! Kourtney here...I had a rough time today trying to get pictures of products and nail swatches...I took them with my Mom's phone because hers is better quality but when I e-mailed them to myself the e-mails were all blank...I'm talking enough pictures for 5 posts...Ugh! Technology sometimes can be a pain. So I ended up taking a few pictures over with my phone, for this post specifically. So onto it...

A couple weeks ago I was reading Xsparkage's blog, which is one of mine and Gabby's favorites, and she was reviewing Lush's Lettuce Facial Mask, see it HERE. I was instantly intrigued because I have battled skin problems in my lifetime and it's frustrating. I'm 27, I want to have beautiful glowing skin LOL. So my parents decided to get me out of the house for a day (for those that don't know I've been battling kidney and bladder problems for a few months and am pretty much bedridden) and they ended up taking me to Lush. I could have bought so much in there! You couldn't beat the prices either!! Another thing I liked is that at this particular store the sales girls were so knowledgable about the products. I was ready to get the Lettuce Mask (but it was sold out) but the sales girl said the Cupcake mask would be better for my skin. So I took her advice and purchased that along with their Sweet Lips lip scrub :) Review on that later.

First off it smells amazing!! It smells like chocolate pudding. Now the thing with these facial masks is you have to keep them refrigerated and they only last about 3 weeks. I've been using mine every other day after I cleanse my skin with my Clarisonic. My skin always feels so soft and fresh after I use this mask, I think I'm in love LOL And I haven't had any breakouts, which is what my skin is prone to.

Let me show you some pics of what you can expect if you choose to purchase this:

 See it looks like chocolate pudding. And it feels so cool because it's been refrigerated :) Extra bonus!

And just for fun this is me wearing the mask LOL I always say I look like a white person wearing blackface like in the olden days. I scared my mom once with it. She happens to like it too :)

The mask itself cost $5.95 which is a great price and you're getting a 2.1oz pot. The cool thing is if you keep 5 of the pots you can take them in and get a free mask! How awesome is that? Free is always fun! Now the cupcake is specifically for oily or spotty skin. It is a cocoa mix with spearmint oil to cool, vanilla to calm redness and Rhassoul mud to deeply cleanse. I can't say how much I love this product!

To find your local Lush Cosmetics store go to Lush Cosmetics and go to their store finder.

Water Marble Mani

Hey Guys it's Gabbz...

So for today I will show my 3rd attempt to do a water marble mani. As I mentioned in other posts, I like watching youtube to get ideas on manicures. Well, I stumbled upon a channel that shows some great water marble manis. The channel I watch is SimpleLittlePleasures. You can click here to access her channel.

A couple weeks ago we had an employee event and the blouse I wanted to wear was teal and black and it had some kind of heart tie dye design at the bottom. So what better time than to try and water marble on my nails?  Plus I wanted a cool design especially since some of my coworkers have become fans of our blog and always ask to see my nails. So I searched her channel and saw this cute heart mani. You can click here to see the tutorial. Mind you, it didn't come out exactly like her tutorial but I love the end results.

So on to the pictures.....

This is 2 coats of Sinful Colors Mint Apple
under China Glaze Base Coat

The 3 colors I chose for this mani
C-1 in Black and Sinful Colors in Gorgeous and Mint Apple

Here's what you will need: a bowl full of room temp filtered water,
your polishes of choice (with cap unscrewed), tape and
something pointy (I used a bobby pin).

Now to start your bullseye
I used a drop of Black first

Then I did 1 drop of Gorgeous right on top of Black

Followed by 1 drop of Mint Apple over Gorgeous

Continue that process until you get the desired bullseye. I think
I did about 4 cycles.

Take your pointy item, in my case my bobby pin and start

dragging the polish to make a design.

Make sure your fingers are taped up to make clean up
a lot easier.

Once you find the perfect design. Dunk your finger at an angle
and use the bobby pin to clean up. I ended up using a Q-tip to clean
the water before I lifted finger out.

And this is what it might look like after.

This is what it looked like after all have been
marbled and the tape has come off

Then I cleaned up and this is my right hand

This awkward shot is my left hand lol

Here is the finished look :) I used 1 coat of Seche Vite Top Coat

And because I like the way that looked I decided to try again, This time with my favorite color combinations Pink and Black lol

Here are the items I used for that look:

China Glaze Base Coat, Milani Hot Pink,
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Twisted Pink (my fav), C-1 Black and
Seche Vite Top Coat

Taaadaaa!!! lol I used 2 coats of Milani Hot Pink as a base. Then
I alternated with Twisted Pink and Black for the bullseye. Then I followed it
with 1 coat of Seche Vite.

So what do you all think? I will tell you it was time consuming but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy. Another thing is that it does use up quite a bit of polish, so that's why I used my less expensive polish for these two looks.