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Saturday, February 21, 2015

Swatch Saturday: Julep Lorenzana Review


Julep's Lorenzana is one of my favorite neutral colors. A mushroom grey, it goes on opaque in two coats and is a great base for a lot of my leopard nail ideas. I also wear this color by itself a lot when I want a clean, professional looking color on my nails. 

Do you have a favorite go-to polish? A favorite "professional" color?

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own and the products shown here were purchased with my own money.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Valentine's Day Nail Ideas

So if you have been following me on Instagram, I have been posting some Valentine's Day nail looks over the month of January and February. Here are all the looks gathered in one post.



Friday, February 13, 2015

Best Nail Polishes of 2014





Best High End Polish:
YSL


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Nail Art: SnailVinyls Review


Lately I have been all about Instagram. It's the perfect platform to post nail art as well as connect with nail bloggers and nail art enthusiasts around the world. Recently I discovered SnailVinyls and ordered some of their nail vinyls to make my manis look even cooler. Basically, just to be clear, everything I'm about to review, I bought with my own money. If you ever see girls on Instagram post their vinyl pics, it seems easy peesy. Reality, I've found, is much different. Vinyls definitely have a learning curve that comes with them. My first attempt at vinyls looked a lot like this(notice the big blob on the  watermarked finger):


They can be a bit frustrating to use the first time, so I wanted to share some helpful tips for using vinyls with you guys in case all you nail artters out there decide to venture out and try them yourselves:

1. Wait for the bottom coat of polish to dry BEFORE applying the vinyl (in my case, the blue coat).

2. Use a makeup sponge to gently dab on the polish to the nail over the vinyl. It works much better than trying to paint over the vinyl with the polish. If you don't use a makeup sponge, you end up with my epic fail above.

3. I did find that removing the negative space on the vinyl from the paper is a bit annoying. I had to punch out each little Morraccan symbol so that I would get a clean vinyl for stamping. Maybe the company could cut the vinyl out a bit deeper to assist with this problem.

4. If you mess up (I used three vinyls for this look), using vinyls can start to get a bit expensive since each vinyl comes out to be about $0.31 a piece. However, keep in mind that a manicure that costs two dollars is still cheaper than going to the salon.

5. SnailVinyls in particular has free US shipping and easy international shipping.

Overall, I like my vinyls, but I'm going to need a bit more practice. Personally, I can see myself reaching for my stamping kits more since I think nail stamping is a bit easier (and cheaper overall because you don't need to keep buying plates or stampers).  What are your thoughts? Have you tried vinyls? Do you find them easier than I did? Any tips or tricks?




Monday, February 9, 2015

Mani Monday: Coach Purse Inspired Leopard Print

Here is a nail look that was inspired by a Coach purse. To see the purse, check me out on Instagram @makeupandmasala


Saturday, February 7, 2015

Swatch Saturday: Julep Ada Review


Julep came out with a new polish for the February Maven box named Ada. Ada provoked my curiousity since it was described as a "bright rhubarb fizzy". What in the world is a fizzy, I thought. Apparently a fizzy is just over-glorified specks in the polish.

While the polish is a nice color, very flattering on brown skin tones (and paler skintones I imagine), and is opaque in two coats, I do not think this one is worth your hard earned money girls. My OCD/perfectionist self hates the fact that I can never get an even balanced smattering of speckles. Thus, to me, it looks as if a kindergartner did my nails. Not the professional vibe I was going for...sigh. Please Jane, can you make this a creme color? Do any of ya'll know dupes that are similar to Ada but have creme formulations?

What are your thoughts on Ada?