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,

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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,

September Project 200 Pan

It is the end of October, so you know that I am finally getting around to telling you what I used up last September. If you have read my 15 to Jess post, then you know that I am up to 115 out of 200 items. I only have 75 more things to use up by the end of the year. Now, I know that this is very much of a stretch. I would have to use up (not including September) 25 items in October, November, and December. I really do not use up that many items in a month. I thought that I could do it, because in the beginning, I had so many minis. As the year went on, items started to decrease in numbers and I am very happy to have gotten rid of a bulk of the clutter. I am happy with my current number 115, but I want to still push for that 200. I’m not going to use things for the sake of an empty though. I am using my items and enjoying most of them.

MAKEUP:

116/200 I painted my toe nails this bright red orange from Julep in the shade Gloria from the Bombshell collection. I will be keeping this for the toes. It is more red than I like for my fingers. Painting my nails is a miracle which is why I’m counting it as an empty to motivate myself to paint my nails more. Next year, I am actually having 2 nail polishes in my finish 19 in 2019. This shade will not make it in there though since I can only use it on my toes. It is a pretty color though.

BODY CARE:

120/200 I am not counting Dean’s Shampoo/Body Wash as he goes through them pretty regularly. I finished off two of my dad’s body scrubs. He leaves a lot in there, because he doesn’t want to work hard to get the last bits out. I get roughly two weeks of body scrub out of each bottle that he wants to throw out. I count them, because I am not using my own body wash most of the month. My dad never liked this lotion. I finally finished this huge bottle. I used it at night after a bath/shower, because it is unscented. I like to use scented body lotion during the day. I FINALLY used up my Bio-oil from my pregnancy days. This did nothing for my current stretch marks, but it did help against stretch marks during pregnancy. I didn’t get any stretch marks until I started to loose the baby weight. That is how I got my original stretch marks from my teen days. Any time I lose a lot of weight fast, I get stretch marks. I really want to try a stretch mark cream and a cellulite one, because I have both thanks to Dean. 🙂

HAIR CARE:

124/200 Hair care was where it was at this month. I redid my grey hair, although it is looking more brown toned than the icy grey that I was getting before. This is the last time that I am doing grey, because I think I will need to lighten my hair again. I’m going to do a smoky blue and maybe a purple. Since I have this darker ash vibe, I still want to play with color and maybe I can be a bit more vibrant but dark at the same time. I finished a one time use foil packet of a hair mask and it was okay. I used up this scalp scrub that I did not understand and all it did was dry up my hair. The Infusium 23 I received from Influenster for review purposes and I really didn’t care for it. I am sad that my Aussie conditioner is done. It is my favorite conditioner, but they are not CF. No repurchases in this category for me.

SKIN CARE:

126/200 I got the little deluxe sized sample of bronzing face lotion from Danielle and I really liked it. It gave a natural tan look to my face and never looked orange or fake. I didn’t care for the Kiehl’s face gel. It wasn’t moisturizing enough and I don’t think it did anything for my acne. It also pilled up ANYTHING applied underneath it. I ended up using this on my legs and it helped with razor bumps. There are cheaper things you can purchase for that though than this moisturizer. I really want to try their midnight recovery oil/serum thing. I’m not turned off by the brand. I just don’t like this product.

MISCELLANEOUS:

I finished up two pens. Both my favorite: PaperMate Ink Joy pens, but the orange is the gel pen. I am IN LOVE with the gel pens. I will repurchase another pack once I’m down to my last few ones. They have lasted two semesters so far with only one causality out of 10 pens. We finished up a mini toothpaste from the dentist and a pack of 100 cotton rounds. I am currently working on a huge bag of cotton balls. We don’t use them and they just sit. Honestly, I don’t see much of a difference between the two. I might switch to cotton balls, since it is more cost effective.

126/200 That is not bad for the end of September and nine months into my year long pan project. October isn’t looking too promising, so I think ideally, I would want to hit at least 150 to 175. 200 is looking farther and farther away. I’ll be relooking through my collection. I think there is one more color corrector that I need to declutter, but I pretty much did most of my decluttering already of items that I am not a fan of. I might be resubbing to Sephora PLAY in 2020 if my 2019 project pan goes well. That was my favorite sub box and I have been keeping an eye out in case I wanted to buy any months after the fact.

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,

A Mermaid Worthy Manicure

Happy Manicure Monday ladies!

I absolutely love how this manicure came out! I painted my nails last Tuesday and it didn’t start to chip noticeably until about Friday. That is a long time with traditional polish. I got so many compliments and the nails went really well with my new hair color.

I put down one coat of the Julep Nail Color in 2282 American Beauty Amy and then I put down one coat of the L’Oreal Glitter Polish in 605 Sparklicious. It catches the light beautifully and it is such an icy Winter combination. I realize that it isn’t Spring appropriate, but it complimented my hair, so I don’t care. I think this week I might so the light lavender Julep nail polish again for a more Spring manicure.

With Love,

Manicure Monday

I love this color blue by Julep. This is two coats of Julep’s American Beauty in Amy. It is a muted gray blue that is very flattering with my skin tone. I did notice that it is the same color as the stalls in my work’s bathroom though. lol. I can see getting a lot of use out of this color, because it applied very smoothly and dried down fast. I look forward to trying out that orange one now, which I think will be perfect for Summer. I honestly do think that I will finish most of these nail polishes by the end of the year. I am motivated!

With Love,