Beauty tips for Women – Thanksgiving / Autumn Leaves Manicure

With Thanksgiving happening just around the corner I wanted to try my hand at doing a Thanksgiving manicure.  I was defiantly inspired to try by all the awesome nail art that has been popping up on facebook and instagram.

I decided to make a turkey but my own nails were to short to pull off the look, so I tried my idea out on a practice wheel.  I think my little turkey came out ok for a freehand design and I felt inspired to try out an autumn leaves design as well.  I really liked how the leaves came out so I decided that I would do these on my nails.

 

I started off with painting my nails China Glaze – Kalahari Kiss. 

Then I added a coat of Sinful Colors – Pumpkin Spice.

I went through my stamping plates and selected 3 Bundle Monster plates to make the leave designs: BM04, BM05 and BM19

Next I selected the polishes to stamp the leaves with. I really wanted to get that autumn feel in the leaves when they are changing colors.  So I wanted to see if I could mix the colors on the stamping plate to get that effect.

From left to right:
Color Club – Red-ical Gypsy
Essence – Wake Up
Sally Hansen – Rapid Red
Ulta – Envy
Rimmel – Hot Coca
Seche Vite
Sinful Colors – Pumpkin Spice (didn’t stamp with it, just forgot to remove it from the line up)

I started off with my right hand since I always have a hard time stamping or doing any designs on my right hand.  The pinky, index and thumb were stamped with the leave image of BM04.  On the ring finger I wanted to try the full leaves image from BM19.  This plate is from Bundle Monster’s first set so their full images are small and never fit my full nails across. So I ended up having to try and add to the side that was left bare.  I think it came out ok. On the middle finger I stamped the solid image of a leave from BM05.  My nails are not long enough to fit the leave and stem in nicely so I tried to cover it up with the other leaves from BM04.

Taking the lessons I learned from stamping my right hand, I opted to leave out the image from BM05 on my left hand.  I still used the full leave image from BM05 but when I stamped it I took individual leaves to rearrange them so that it would cover my whole nail across.  I think it came out ok.  I gave the manicure a good topcoat of Seche Vite.

I shared my manicure on Bundle Monster’s facebook page and I got a nice compliment from them and others who liked the manicure.  I’m very pleased that it was liked and for all the encouraging words.

Beauty tips for Women – Migi Nail Art Pen Halloween Set

This beauty product review is of the Migi Nail Art Pen – Halloween Set.  I won this set through their Facebook contest.  I received the Migi Nail Art Pen set on Halloween, so I didn’t have a chance to do any nail art for the occasion.

The Migi Nail Art Pen – Halloween Set is made up of 4 polishes that are linked together in pairs with a connector ring.  Two polishes are glow in the dark polishes.  Which are described on their website as “2 Very cool High Quality colors that glow in the dark for hours”.  I also got a black and orange polish.  They are enclosed in a cute clear case, which contained an instruction booklet.

Located within the instruction booklet is a very important tool, the Cleaning Pin.  It is taped onto the page and can easily be missed.  This is used to unclog the tip of the nail art pen should that happen.  It is supper thin and can easily be lost.  So what I did was remove it from the book and with same tape, I taped it to the inside of the clear case the Migi Nail Art Pens came in.  The booklet also contains a practice sheet, which is a cool thing.

I uncapped each polish to get a look at the nail art pen tip.  That is when I noticed that the orange polish had leaked and there was a bit of the polish all around the pen tip and inside the cap.  The remaining polishes were fine.  But I did notice that the cap of the orange polish was not the same as the others, which had vented caps.  I don’t know if this is why it was leaking.  But I cleaned up the nail art pen tip and it didn’t seem to be bent or broken.

Upon swatching the polish I noticed that the orange bottle was half full and the polish inside the bottle didn’t match the outside orange color of the bottle.  The polish was more of a pastel pink color rather than orange.  I tried my best to get a picture of the half full bottle.  Here is a swatch of the polish.

The formula of the orange polish was thick and streaky.  It made it a bit hard to work with.  That disappointed me but the black polish was the total opposite.  It went on smooth with no problems and is actually a very nice black.  I decided to test out the pen part so I started off with the black.  Making dots and lines was super easy but I need practice.  You have to squeeze the bottle to get the polish out the fine tip and figuring out how much pressure is the key.  Once I was done with the black and placed the bottle upright the polish continued to bubble up at the top.  I had to wipe it down a couple of times before it stopped.  On the other hand the orange polish took a bit of time to come out but I had better control to make the dots although my lines came out a bit crazy on both.  I know my design is not good but it was more to test the features of the pen than to really do anything else.

I did not test the glow in the dark polish for this review.  The issues with the orange polish sort of dampened my spirits to try something else.

I contacted Migi Nail Art about the issue with the orange polish but have not heard back from them.   I mentioned to them that I would be reviewing the product on my blog.  In all fairness, I did not open the set to test it until 10 days after receiving it and it was a set I won; I don’t expect them to replace the polish.  But should they respond about the issues, I will update the article to reflect it.

Despite the issues with the orange polish’s color and formula, I think this a great product.  I just I think received a defective orange polish.  I like that I have more control than I would have using a striper brush to make detailed designs.

I give the Migi Nail Art – Halloween Set, 4 brains!

Update 12/2012
I heard back from Migi Nail Art and received two orange polishes.  One polish was a wonderful orange but the second polish had the same issue of that pastel pink coloring. Not sure what to make of it happening a second time but at least one of the polishes turned out to be orange.

Beauty tips for Women: Smitten Polish – Confection

Today I’m doing a beauty product review of Smitten Polish – Confection.  The description from Smitten Polish’s website is: “Several sizes and shapes of matte glitters in blue, green, pink, purple and yellow, suspended in a milky white base.”

I only did two coats; but if you want opacity, then three coats would be best.  No problems with the formula, it went on smooth.

It simply is beautiful.  It is one of those nail polishes that makes you happy or at least it does me.  There is something about Confection that reminds me of Katy Perry’s California Gurls video, the whole candy scenery, her dress and it just comes across as pure fun.

So check out Smitten Polish on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SmittenPolish and on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmittenPolish

I give Confection 5 brains!