Ohora Gel Nail Strips

I had been meaning to get these gel nail strips for a while now. We finally got around to picking out a few to try out. I am excited, because my nails are super brittle and break quite easily. I started taking prenatal vitamins to help strengthen them, but also, you know, you never know. *wink* I have a really bad habit of picking the skin around my nails when I don’t have anything on them. I’m trying not to self harm by picking at my skin, so I am hoping that these will make my fingers too pretty for me to want to mess them up.

N Dazzling for $14

I love how pretty these ones look. You have enough for 2 different manicures, but I love mixing and matching the different styles together. These have 30 pieces, so the really small ones, we are saving for Jenna. Martin will be able to do a gel manicure with him and I think that would be a fun activity for them to do together. I bought this pair for myself as I thought these would be perfect for Spring.

P Fairy for $11.90

I bought these cute toe nail manicure for the summer when it gets warm and I wanna wear sandals. I also bought them, because my boyfriend has a wide thumb where the toe nail pieces fit perfectly as the other strips he needs to trim sideways and trim to get it right. These are so pretty and purple is my favorite color.

N Goblin Moon for $11.90

I thought these were freakin’ gorgeous! My boyfriend has already claimed the dark purple plain ones as he has been looking for dark purple nails. They will be nice for him to mix in with his black nails as a pop of color on his mani. I will probably wear this mani first as I am the most excited for this one. It is exactly my aesthetic and right up my alley. It has all of my favorite things: moons, glitter, and its purple.

N Onyx for $11.50

I bought this set of black nails for the boyfriend as he is partial to black and it is more socially accepted for a man to wear. I plan on posting a story of our nails once we do them. I am so excited! I heard there is a learning curve, but we are not unfamiliar with polish strips. If anything, these will be much sturdier than the thin ones we are used to.

A couple of free samples.

Long Wood Stick, 50 pieces for $6

Prep Pads, 50 pieces for $6

The Essentials: Top Coat & Remover for $29.90

I bought these essentials so that we would have everything that we needed. I also wanted extras to make Jenna her own kit with our extra too small sizes. I bought the top coat to make our manis last longer, but to also fill in the gap when they start to grow out. It is always nice to have an easy remover as well.

With Love,

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January Manicure #2

My goal was to paint my nails 4 times this month and so far, I only managed to do them 2x. I plan to paint my toes Sunday and my nails, so hopefully I commit to that to achieve the 4x a month that I want to rotate through. This nail polish will be another one that I am keeping in my collection, because of how beautiful it looks on. It chips within 24hrs and is gone in only a few days. Its really an event polish or a sparkly topcoat over a different color. This is OPI Katy Perry Last Friday Night.

I’m a fourth of the way through the bottle and the above photo is with 2 coats of polish. It was a very easy glitter to remove, no trouble at all. In fact, I didn’t even have to use any remover. The polish literally popped off my fingers like I used a peel off base coat. So, this polish might have some kind of coating that makes it super easy to remove, which is also a pro to keeping it around.

With Love,

Manicure Saturday

I painted my nails this pretty periwinkle blue color last week and I really love the color of this nail polish. The formula isn’t the greatest though. I need three coats to make the color opaque. Even though, I did my nails in the early afternoon, the next morning, some of my nails had imprints from the sheets on them. It dried fast in between coats. I would say that it takes 2 to 5 minutes for this polish to dry if you try to do thin coats. This nail polish is the Sinful Shine with Gel Tech in Alfresco 1219, so it lasts about 5 to 7 days without chipping. It is a good nail polish if you want it to last the whole week. I will be keeping this nail polish in my collection.

With Love,

20 By 2020: Project Pan

Let’s start the year off right with a project pan announcement. I have way too much stuff and I want to get my money’s worth out of as much stuff as possible this year. I’d love to use up 1K worth of product in my collection this year. I’ll be focusing on that dollar amount as my goal this year instead of a finite number of empty products. Along with my empty posts, I will be creating a spreadsheet of items that I am using up with the dollar amounts over there. This series will just focus on the project pan and the progress being made on the items that I have selected. I have chosen way more than 20 items to start out with and over the course of the year, I hope to get it down to 20. I just have so many last little bits of things to use up that I’d rather start out with a ton of stuff to move out of my collection early for a nice motivating start. Let’s get into it!

Hair Care: 5

I have a ton of hair things open at the moment. I have two purple shampoos that I would like to use up. The Shimmer Lights, I use as a primer to strip my blonde hair of any remaining previous color. I use it on dry hair like a hair mask. Speaking of which, I will be doing my hair a different color again. I have three more semi dyes to use up that only last about a month before I can buy my demi colors again. The other purple shampoo is my “daily” shampoo to keep my hair from getting brassy again, so I don’t have to do the Shimmer Lights very often. The hair mask has like one more use left in it. The conditioner is two thirds empty and the Nexxus split end fuser has the tiniest bit left. So, we are starting out with five in this category. I’m not using any styling products at the moment, but that could change.

Body Care: 5

Again, we are starting out with 5 items in this category as well. I have a few foot masks left in this tube and I’d like to get a new one when its done. Its a lazy girl solution to a pumice stone. I have a quarter of the body splash left that I use after a shower and I have like 3 more to get through. Don’t know why I ever bought these. I’d rather use perfume. I have a fifth of the body butter left, so only a few more uses to go. I love the apple blossom scent, but VS is not CF. I have half of my Lush shower jelly left and I just want to use it up. It’s so annoying to use. Lastly, I like to go through 1 Summer’s Eve product every year, so I’d like to see this gone. Not my favorite scent, but it is nice especially during the winter when I tend to get a bit of heat rash on my legs.

Skin Care: 10

As you can see, we haven’t even hit the makeup yet and we are already at 20 items. I have a ton of skincare open right now, so I’d like to get through what I have before opening any new things. I have a third of my coconut rose spray and I think I’ll switch to Dean’s baby wipes that are so gentle and effective on the face for a bit. I pay $9 for 480 wipes, so I figure one pack should last me a good long time and be more cost effective in the long run versus buying the liquid and the cotton. I have a tiny bit left in the Paula’s Choice serum and then I have another serum to go through. I kinda don’t want to buy anymore until I’m 30, then I’ll invest in an anti-aging one. My Curology serum is only used when I see texture on my face or a breakout. Otherwise, my bc keeps my skin pretty clear. It just needs a boost sometimes. I have a morning serum that literally does nothing. I don’t find it particularly hydrating and I can just use a moisturizer.

I have the Curology cleanser and moisturizer. I just want to use these guys up. I would not purchase either. Overpriced for what they really are. I have a couple of more uses of my MAC cleanse off oil for when I wear a full face of makeup. I tend to wear that for work, because when I’m at home, let’s be real, I’m not wearing a full face. I have an eye cream that I hate and just want to use up. I have a tiny bit of the Lancer exfoliator left that I just need to push myself to use. Lastly, I have a facial oil that I would like to use up by the end of the year. I have my eye on the PIXI rose oil.

Makeup: 26

So, my makeup category is really a bonus, since it consists of 26 items. I am going to try to get this done to 20 over the next month, but no promises. The 4 nail polishes, I am counting as one. I just want to use all of these colors in January and see if there are any that I want to declutter from my collection. I will rotate another 4 in every month. I added the two different nail stickers as one, I want to use these up this month as accent nails to just use them up. I do enjoy nail stickers though. The potted lip balm is for home use that I hope to use up by the end of the year and the EOS is for my desk at work. The long BareMinerals palette has a highlight, blush, and bronzer. I only have plans to use up the bronzer. It is basically untouched. I have a mascara that I would like to use up and I feel like it is near the end of its life.

I have a brightener eye shadow pencil that I want to use up, because I have plenty of pencils to get through. I have a liquid eyeliner as well, even though I suck at a wing. I have three primers pulled in currently: a dewy one, a matte one, and a pore filler. I should be able to use the matte one up by Feb no problem. I already cut into the tube. I have my lip scrub that I have a third left and I’d like to just buy a new pot. I have my bouncy blush that I just want to use up on those no makeup days. It doesn’t layer well over foundation. I have a lip gloss, a liquid lipstick, and a bullet lipstick that I’d like to use up this year. I don’t think that is too ambitious and I am sure that I will be using these up to add new ones into the project.

I wanted to enjoy my brand new highlighter, so I added it into the project. I have no plans for this highlighter, but if I hit pan on it, I will be extremely happy. I want to use up this eye primer that I think is pretty unnecessary. I usually just use my concealer. I have a perfume, With Love by Hilary Duff, that I am SO CLOSE to finishing up. I love this scent, but I will be happy to say goodbye to it. I have a mini Fix + to use up in Lavender that I recently purchased that is good for after powdering and before makeup. I have my big jar of finishing powder that I would like to use up this year. I am keeping the jar though and just filling it with a different powder. It’s too pretty to throw out.

I have a cream eye shadow in a very nude shade that I can wear for work and use it up quickly that way. It has a tiny bit of shimmer. I have my Kat Von D concealer that I want to use up, because I no longer support her and her anti-vax ways. I have my Hourglass and Anastasia stick foundations to use up. Last but not least, I have a little liquid highlighter that I like to mix into my moisturizer for a bit of a glow.

So, I have a 46 item project pan currently. I’d like to get down this project to 36 by Feb (before adding items in if necessary). I am a bit ambitious in this project this year, but then again, I always am. Really isn’t much of a surprise to be honest. If you are doing a similar project, please leave a link to your blog down below so I can check it out. You think I can do it? lol. I think I will use up 20 in 2020. I’m more worried about the 1K net worth.

With Love,

Product Inventory

I am back kinda. Not sure how often I will be posting on here, but I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday whatever and however you choose to celebrate the end of the year. Yesterday, I decided to tear up my room and make an inventory spreadsheet of all of my beauty related items. What I found was very shocking to me and some things weren’t all that shocking at all. I decided to make a product inventory spreadsheet to catalog everything that I own, so I know what I own at the tips of my fingers. This way, when I use something up, I can update my spreadsheet and delete a number and can better tailor what I own. On the other end, when I buy something or receive something, I can add that onto the spreadsheet as well. I will also be creating a spreadsheet with what I’m buying (including money spent) and what I’m using up (including money “utilized”) this year.

One thing I discovered is that I have way too many nail polishes. 45 to be exact. So, this year with my project pan. I will be working on trying out every nail polish and seeing if it is a formula/color that I want to keep in my collection. If I’m not happy with it, I will declutter it. I cannot possibly use up 45 polishes anytime soon and I rather work on the colors/formulas that I like to pan than to just pan for the sake of panning. I also have way too many samples. I will be working on using up my samples and making it a conscious effort this year.

I thought it was also surprising that I have 12 blushes and 10 highlighters. I will be working on these during my project pan this year on using up/hitting pan where appropriate. I feel like highlighters are easier for me to use up, because I love them. I use it everyday even on no makeup days. It is the one makeup item that makes me truly happy (besides lippies). Speaking of lip products, I have 37 of them. I know, I know. It sounds bad, but I do go through lip products. I can for sure get through 10 next year. I’m hoping to get through 16 which would be half of what I own. As long as I am consistent, I believe that this will be possible. And you know, when I move, I won’t have someone telling me that I can’t wear something.

I also have 16 sheet masks. I want to get through at least 1 a month, because I do love sheet masks. You can never have too many, right? Through this inventory, I counted 13 different perfumes. Ideally, I would like to have 4, one for every season. I will be working on the bottles that are almost used up and mini sizes as well. I am pretty sure that there is only one bottle in my collection that is practically full. It is the oldest in my collection and filled with so many good memories. It’s hard to use it up, because it brings me back. It’s a bit bittersweet with the memories now. The perfume still smells just as beautiful though, probably due to being in a blacked out bottle.

I will be making a separate post about 20 in 2020, which really turned into a rolling project pan for the year. I have a lot more than 20 items, but I plan on cutting the number down to 20 as items start to be used up. I just need the extra motivation sometimes. I have hair, body, skincare, as well as makeup in this project pan. I included my spreadsheet in case you want to take a peek. I have a total of 68 categories on the list.

Product Inventory

With Love,

Project Polish: July

I am so horrible! I never got acetone the whole entire month! Now, I have bought it so there is literally no excuses not to do my nails. I am painting my toe nails as I type this and my nails will be done tomorrow night as tonight I am taking a shower. If I paint my nails at 7:30, then by the time I go to bed at 10, it should have enough time to set. I have four colors still picked out though that I want to try. I will let you know which ones I declutter as I go through all of my polishes.

On a different note, my camera is totally acting up. It had finger prints on the lens. So, I took a wipes and cleaned it. Now, it is developing photos on high brightness and I don’t know how to fix it. There isn’t even a setting for that! I did a little research and found out that the Canon Powershots are notorious for dying prematurely, because of the sensors that they bought from a third party. So, I have a wonky camera and none of my photos of my empties are coming out right. I’m going to be playing around with it, but I don’t have a $100 to drop on a camera. I love taking pictures of Dean so this is a real bummer. I’m going to try charging the battery up and giving it a break for today. So, I can’t really upload my empties with photos or anything.

Not sure what I am going to do, but some posts will not show up until the end of the month or I might have to combine two months of empties together…..

With Love,

Project Polish: June

I only managed a manicure and a pedicure for the month of June and then I ran out of acetone and kept forgetting to pick some up at the store. I am hoping to paint my nails and toes at least 4 times in July. At this point, I am not sure that I will be finishing any nail polish if I don’t pick up the pace. I just find myself not enjoying the colors that I have selected much now that we are half way through the year. So, I am making a change to my project pan. I will be going through the rest of the nail polish that I have in my collection this year. I am going to be weeding out colors that I no longer enjoy and formulas that do not suit my current lifestyle. I will be featuring what I loved and will be decluttering every month based on what I was able to try that month. Danielle, if you see a color that you want that I am decluttering, just let me know. 🙂

As you can see, I did a pedicure and a manicure this past month. I enjoy each color and I will continue to pull in the pedicure color every month. It is SUPER close to being used up and I want to have at least one polish done this year from this project for me to consider it a success. I picked out 4 colors from my collection that I would like to use in the month of July.

From left to right: I have Julep in the Bombshell formula in Gloria, Laushine in L002, Maybelline Express Finish in Sunset Seas, and finally, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Extreme Wear in Sun Kissed. These shades all screen summer to me. Here’s to hoping that I can at least do two manicures and pedicures to equal the 4 times that I wish to do my nails. I think 4 new polishes every month is a good number to do my nails. If I remember and am consistent, I think it would be feasible to do for the last 6 months of the year. If I can declutter colors and formulas that aren’t doing it for me, I will be in a better position next year to do an actual project polish.

With Love,

Project Polish April Update

Uh, so confession, I only did my nails twice last month. Don’t worry though, because by the time you read this, I will have a fresh mani and pedi and possibly an empty polish. Not really empty but just too goopy to use anymore. I don’t have nail thinner and I don’t want to wait on a project for nail thinner and I can only get it from Sally’s. I have to make an order online and that is not until I need more dye for my hair again. It could be a few months from now. So, the nail polish that will be panned probably by the next update is my texture polish, which doesn’t do well with thinner anyway. I have found that thinner doesn’t work on texture polishes. It thins the base polish, but it does nothing for the texture bits so there are still gooped together.

There is a HUGE different in the glitter polish just from using it once on my nails with two coats over the blue and I mean, there is good progress on the blue too. I need to get a new sharpie though for nice thin lines. So, my texture polish looks half full in the bottle, but the last time I used it, it was getting pretty goopy. I think I can get one manicure and pedicure out of it. If I still feel like it could be good, I will go on using it. I will try it on my toes first to see how goopy it is. If I have a hard time on my feet, I will call it quits on this polish, I really like it though, very cotton candy pink.

I think I will also use my lilac polish this month and I want to get use out of the orange polish as well. I think if I keep my mind to it, I can paint my nails more often than I have been. How are everyone else doing with this challenge? We are a quarter of the way through the year and I am only close to finishing one polish. It is a lot harder than it looks. Cherish on Youtube makes it look so easy.

With Love,

Nail Polish Collection 2018

Okay, since I have a Project Polish going on, I will only be doing my nail polish collection once this year. I will not be revisiting it, because the only polishes that I am currently using are the ones that are in my Project Polish which are 3 color polishes, one glitter, and one texture polish. I will be doing a new collection post next year, because I am hoping to use up a few of these items and it is good to keep stock of what you have every year no matter if it only has changed a little. Keeps me accountable.

These are my nail polish accessories. As you can see, I have a ton of crap from cuticle treatments, to fake nails, to a lot of nail art supplies. I want to use up some of these items if I feel so inclined. I am working on one cuticle cream right now and I am eyeing some of those nail stickers for when I get bored of my plain manicures.

One is my top coat and the other are little beads that you can put on your nails.

1 Polish

These are my oranges and the Julep is in my project pan this year. I don’t have a lot in this color family, but it looks very pretty on my nails. I would like to invest in more oranges, but I need to use up the majority of my collection first.

5 Polishes

I am a huge fan of glitter for a good reason: it is very shiny! I love a good glitter on the nails. I have the L’Oreal glitter in my project pan and if I finish it up, I want to move onto another. I honestly have too many glitters. I really only need one in my collection at a time. My ideal number of polishes is 10 in a perfect world, so I am going to try my very best to get it down to that number.

12 Polishes

For purple being my favorite color, I don’t have many of them at all. I find that I don’t like the color very much on my nails. I only need one purple in my collection.

14 Polishes

I have a fair amount of greens. If I have time this year, I want to try to work on the mint green one. I could probably use up the minis if I put them in a project pan next year. I try to do my nails and toes twice a month at the very last. I am actually due to be painting them tonight. I don’t see there being a problem getting this down to two greens.

19 Polishes

I am not a glitzy gold nail person, so I want to use up all of these polishes. The OPI is a crackle polish that looks great on top of blues and greens. I think I will throw it in a project next year to try to use it up. I don’t want to keep any of these in my final 10.

22 Polishes

These are my pinks. I am not really a pink nail girl, but I do enjoy it. I am trying to use up the sugar coat one this year. I would like to keep one pink in my collection.

26 Polishes

I live for blue on my nails. It looks even better with a tan. I want to keep at least three blues in my collection. I love the Sinful Shine gel color blue and the Hard Candy. I love a lot of these blues. It won’t be hard for me to use up the blue Julep in my project pan this year. I have already used it three times this year. Out of my 5 polishes, if I could finish up three, I would be very happy. Finishing 5 might be a bit too much for me based on the last four months of progress. We will see.

34 Polishes

Red isn’t my color. I need to move these out by wearing them on my toes. I will pull one of them into a project next year to move it out of my collection. I don’t want to keep any of these in my final ten. You can bet I won’t be buying any red anymore unless it is a glitter. It is the only way that I kinda like it.

40 Polishes

Nudes are my final category and I would ideally want one or two of these. I have the lavender one in my project. A pink nude looks better on me than a bright pink in my opinion. I want to try to get some more nude/brown shades as well.

I have a total of 45 polishes that I want to cut down to 10. I have a lot of work ahead of me and I know that I don’t need to buy myself any in the mean time. I’m hoping to be down 5 next year and start out with 40. Next year, I am going to pull in a bunch of minis to try to use up. Maybe, I’ll choose like 10 polishes next year or start out with 5 minis and add more as I use them up. I have a newfound excitement for painting my nails. It gives me a nice creative outlet and a little bit of meditation time.

With Love,

Project Polish March Update

I am super late with my March Update, but I promise that April’s update will be in the beginning of May like it is supposed to be. I only used one polish this month, because I only did one manicure. March was super busy for me and a struggle to find any time for my nails. First world problems, I know.

I took this at an angle with my camera, but the bottle was straight. With one measly manicure, I did make noticeable progress, so I am pretty happy about that. So far, I have done a manicure and pedicure in the month of April and will be doing a second set this week. Usually, my pedicure lasts the month, but the polish combo from Manicure Monday chipped off my toes as fast as my fingers. I love painting my toes, so I don’t mind. It is going to be hell removing that glitter though.

With Love,