Beauty is Easy » manicure

Lady In The Street And A Freak In The…Lippmann Nail Lacquers

Storey — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:33:23 +0000

I just got in night and day samples of new nail polishes from Deborah Lippmann: Waking Up In Vegas and Bad Romance. They are as far apart in the color world as any two colors could be and I can’t pick a favorite between them. Waking Up In Vegas is their best selling “greige” that was hot this spring. The grey-putty color was worn by Lady Gaga in her Vanity Fair photo shoot and is sure to remain a very hot color as summer’s bright colors give way to falls more muted shades. I love this as a professional, yet edgy manicure color and as a great neutral pedicure.

Bad Romance is a disco-ball sparkly deep purple. Normally, I wouldn’t be into a color this sparkly, but the deep shade and big, but not too big sparkles keep it looking just this side of sophisticated. It’s moody shade is perfect for the cooling weather.

Whether you’re a good girl, a bad girl or a little of both, these colors will be your new favorites this coming season.

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Longer Lasting Mani? Rimmel London LYCRA Wear 10 Nail Polish

Storey — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:36:21 +0000

When I see claims that a nail polish is going to last 10 days, I really don’t expect it to. Sure, if you didn’t really use your hands or get them wet, you might get away chip and wear-free, but that’s just not going to happen. So when I tested out Rimmel London’s LYCRA Wear 10 Nail Polish, I didn’t really expect it to last a full 10 days. Luckily, I wasn’t disappointed.

The idea behind this polish is that Xtra Life™ LYCRA® fibers and micro-minerals, create a durable, flexible shield to help protect your manicure thereby limiting chipping and cracking. The ultra-fine, ultra-flat micro-minerals also fill in tiny imperfections on the nail surface to give a smooth, shiny finish. I’ll agree with the supy smooth, super shiny finish. I tested out Hot Gossip, a bright, shimmery red. I applied 2 coats (after a base coat) and even though one coat looked good and gave pretty good coverage, I went for two for depth and lasting power. I topped it off with a top coat and let it dry.

For the first 5 days, my nails looked good and then on day 6, I started to notice wearing at the tips followed shortly after by a chip. But I’m not disappointed. The polish still did last slightly longer than polish normally does. And even after it started to wear away at the tips, the color was still super bright and shiny. The polish comes in 21 shades ranging from pale colors like Champagne and Cashmere, to more bold colors like Hypnotise. And at less than $3.50 a bottle, a 6 day manicure is a killer deal.

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Celeb Worthy Manicure In A Flash: Start Me Up From The Lippmann Collection

Storey — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:32:56 +0000

Deborah Lippmann is a celebrity manicurist. She’s buffed, shined and polished the famous tips of Sarah Jessica Parker, Mariah Carey, Cher, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill, Fergie and my personal style icon, Gwyneth Paltrow. Ten years ago, she launched her own line of polishes and nail treatment products. I tried out a handful of them in her Starte Me Up kit a few weeks ago. This handy kit comes in a zippered pouch and gives you all the tools you need to give yourself a salon worthy manicure at home:

Cuticle Remover – with lanolin for clean, healthy cuticles
Cuticle Oil – ultra-hydrating cuticle treatment with jojoba and vitamin E
2 Second Nail Primer – primes the nail for a longer-lasting manicure
Rehydrating Base Coat – with aloe vera to hydrate dry, brittle nails
Baby Love – baby doll pink lacquer
On A Clear Day Top Coat – high-gloss with sunscreen
Smooth Operator – washable 4-way nail buffer

It also comes with a step-by-step instruction card on how to use all the products. I sat down to watch tv one night with the kit to see if I could get away with using only the kit to give myself a fabulous manicure. The kit was super easy to use and the small brushes made painting my nails a snap. The Baby Love pink polish is very sheer, which is great for helping to hide imperfections like a missed spot or a chip. The only things I found I needed in addition to the kit were a file to shape my nails before hand and soap and water to rinse of the cuticle remover. The instructions didn’t say to rinse it off, but I’ve had to with every other remover I’ve ever used. Plus with a product that is softening and dissolving dead skin, I didn’t want to take my chances with leaving it on.

The manicure looked great – nice and shiny. A few days later the edges started to peel up, so I removed my polish and gave the kit another go. This time I was sure to use plenty of the 2 second primer. This time the polish lasted for 4 days without peeling – which is a pretty typical salon manicure lifespan for me. I think it didn’t get enough of the cuticle oil cleaned up on the first manicure, which prevented the polish from sticking well to my nail.

A couple great things about this kit is that all of Lippmann’s products are free of some typical and nasty polish ingredients: toluene, formaldehyde and DBP. It’s also super portable: all of the liquids total less than 3 oz so they can go in your carry-on – just be respectful to your fellow passengers and don’t actually do your nails on the plane.

My take: slip a thin nail file into the kit, have some water (or for super portability a handiwipe) available and you have the makings of a great manicure!

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Storey — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:32:09 +0000

Is Your Nail Salon Safe?

Before you go barefoot, check for these healthy-pampering-place clues

Manicures and Pedicures are a great way to relax and pamper yourself – but it can actually be dangerous if your salon is unsanitary. This guide will help you know what to look for and what to run screaming from.

Read the signs

[sniplet Amazon]

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Bold and Demure Winter Colors From Essie

Storey — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:56:13 +0000

Even though my tootsies don’t see as mught light during the winter as they do during the summer, I still like to keep them looking nice for yoga class. And then holiday parties roll around and you can wear sandals and show them off. I love wearing dark polish in the winter, but I prefer it on my toes – I just don’t have the time to mantain a dark manicure with my hectic schedule.

Essie has some great new shades for this winter – some bold and dark and others light and demure. I love the combo – sassy on the toes and pretty on the fingers. My favorite dark shade is Damsel in a Dress, a super dark purple with a silvery sheen to it. It’s so dark that it is almost black, but the slightly lighter shade takes the edge off and makes it wearable. Gold is a color that can only be gotten away with in the winter and the Shifting Power can give your tips a very sexy, and not at all tacky, gilded look. I’ll definitely be wearing these to all the holiday parties this season.

Get free shipping from Essie.com, now through December 1st by clicking on this link!

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Instant Manicure: Broadway Nails Real Life French Nail Kit

Storey — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:47:56 +0000

I’ve never been one for fake nails (except for before the age of 12 – they were the bomb then!). I guess I hadn’t really checked out the offerings in a long time, because I’d always thought they looked very fake and witchy. But checking out Broadway Nails Real Life French Nail Kit, I was surprised at how nice these nails look! The shape and color is very realistic. They aren’t witchy at all and come in a variety of short lengths.

The cool thing about these nails is that they have an easy application, clean break tab, which is a little tab on the tip of the nail that you can grasp to help you place. Using the glue provided in the box, you put glue on the inside if the fake nail and on your nail. Holding the tab, you place the nail and wait a second for the glue to dry. Then you twist and break off the tab. There’s a little bit of tab left, so you use the provided file to file it down. You can also use the file to file the sides of the nails, before applying them, to get a perfect fit.

I didn’t wear the nails for more than a few days, but the box says they’ll stay put for 10 days. And I believe it – to remove the glue, I had to soak my nails in polish remover for a few minutes to get that glue to loosen. Although not something I would wear on a regular basis, I will definitely try these again. They’re perfect for a quick “manicure”. If you have an event to go to and want to look polished (pun intended!) or you are traveling and want to do your nails in your hotel room or you just want to have a french manicure, but don’t have the nail length, time or money to have it done in a salon, definitely check these out!

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Storey — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:12:42 +0000

TotalBeauty.com content:

Trendy, Tacky and Wacky Celebrity Nails

Think You Know Who’s Who? Play this beauty game by matching celebrities to their hands, from chipped polish to crazy acrylic nail designs

We often check out celebrities’ hair and makeup but we don’t always think to look at their nails. Turns out we should be paying more attention. Here we bust stars wearing everything from extra long and red faux nails (yikes!) to short and dark chipped polish. We even discovered a nail biter in the group. Test your knowledge and see how well you can pair the celebrity to her nails.

Guess the nails

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Manicure Savior: Borghese Perfecto Smudge Smoother

Storey — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:00:04 +0000

Nothing is more frustrating than smudging a freshly painted nail! You put in all that time and effort and now you have to start all over. I had worked out a pretty good way of dealing with smudges, involving running a remover soaked q-tip over the smudge and then attempting to patch the area – but I often end up getting the remover on other nails or the patch job looks just that – like a patch job.

Borghese has come out with a great solution to the smudge problem – Perfecto Smudge Smoother. It works similarly to my q-tip trick, but with a lot less mess and no polish reapplication. The formula comes in a nail polish bottle, but is made with oils. It smoothes down the smudge, helping it to blend in with the surrounding color. It’s also gentler than remover as it is free of toluene, DBP, added formaldehyde.

I thought the formula worked pretty well. It didn’t make a smudge totally disappear, but it helped make it less noticeable. I also used it to smooth down bubbling polish – which worked great! I still think that applying a new coat of polish over top of the smoothed smudge gives the best final look. But since this product contains oil, I suggest waiting until it dries, washing the oil off the nail and then adding a fresh coat of color.

Do you have any manicure rescue tips?

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