Essie Gel Couture

Hello everyone, no doubt you have all seen or heard about the new Essie gel couture line and today I have review of it for you. Personally, I have seen so many reviews and I really just wanted to try it out myself and see how it holds up. Some basics behind this two step system is that it comes with one color coat and a top coat. The main claims behind this line is that you are supposed to be able to get 14 days of wear and an instant gel-like shine. Which means it is another nail polish system that is supposed to give you a gel-like manicure without the need of a UV or LED light. An interesting feature behind the polish is that the barrel and brush are completely different from what you normally see from Essie. The brush is very wide so that you can do your whole manicure with a few easy swipes. In addition, the barrel is supposed to be curved in a spiral so that any polish on the barrel is deposited onto the brush in a way as to not flood your cuticles. 

Before talking about the formula and wear test I want to mention my experiences with the features of this line. The spiral barrel was only on the color coat which was really disappointing to me because it ruined the continuity of the bottles for me. The top coat can still flood your cuticles and cause your manicure to chip or peel from the cuticle line. So I did not understand why they did not keep the same barrel. In addition, while doing research on the line, I found that one of the reasons Essie chose the brush was that so it could form to different nails. You are supposed to be able to compress or flatten the brush by wiping it on the bottleneck to get the shape that you need. I felt that was really hyped up, the brush did not show any particular flexibility nor did it hug my nail spectacularly enough for me to attribute to this Essie brush only.

Two coats of hang up the heels

The formula of the nail polish was really lovely. It absolutely glided onto the nail and applied pretty evenly. This shade in particular is a gorgeous black with a green shimmer. The green is visible in direct light but this shade looks black otherwise. The top coat was a great success for me, it did not disturb the layer of color I had underneath and dried fairly quickly. I really loved the shine that the top coat gave me, so much so that I would use this top coat separate of this system. 

Day nine 

I did not make it to 14 days, but I really feel like this color would have lasted nicely up to that point. My nails first chipped in the morning of the ninth day of wear. Usually when I get a chip, the polish will just continue to chip away at that point, however I wore this polish until day ten and found that the chip did not spread. The tip wear you are seeing on my other fingers started being prominent around day four or five. But the tip wear was not enough to make my manicure look bad.

The reason I did not take a picture of day ten wear was because it looked the exact same as day nine. I only decided to end my wear test because I was tired of the color and the space between my cuticle and the polish was getting too big for me. Also, once it chipped I just wanted a fresh manicure. Overall, this polish lasted beautifully for me and I would 100% recommend it to others. I don't want to compare this to the Wet n Wild one step wonder gel because that is an unfair comparison considering this is a two step system. But in comparison to the Sally Hansen miracle gel, I enjoy this line ten times better. While both the systems last fairly similarly over ten days in terms of chips and tip wear, the miracle gel cracked on me. The Essie gel couture did not crack and in addition, the top coat for this line performed very well. Whereas the miracle gel top coat actually ruined my manicure. So if you are wondering which between the two works better as a system and overall, I would recommend the Essie gel couture. 

Now to discuss prices; I have seen the individual color coats and top coat retail for around $12-14 CDN. There is also a set which includes a top coat and a color coat for around $24-26 CDN. It is an investment to make but I do think you will be pleasantly surprised by the wear of this line. If you have tried out this line, leave me a comment about how you found it!

Pretty Woman Bamboo Cream nail treatment

Hello all,

I did receive the nailmedic treatment, bamboo cream from Pretty Woman quite a while ago and have been testing it out for you for a month! This bamboo cream is supposed to be a hydrating cuticle cream that can also help to strengthen your nails. Now the main claim behind this product is that it will hydrate your cuticles and improve the appearance of brittle and dehydrated nails. This product comes in a traditional nail polish bottle so you can brush it onto your cuticles and nails. Then you just need to massage the cream into your skin in circular motions.

The cream itself is not too thick and does not leave behind an oily residue. My favorite part about this cream is how quickly it sinks into my skin! I had just applied the product before taking this picture but it sunk in so quick. The cream always feels very cooling on my skin and smells very lovely and spa-like similar to their other products.

Most of the time, when I take the time to moisturize my cuticles, they get dry usually later that day because of how often I use and wash my hands. No big surprise there. But while using this cream, I noticed that the moisture lasted longer throughout the day.I really appreciated this because I felt like it really helped protect my cuticles from all the acetone remover I use. My favorite way to use this product was for my pedicure since they kept my cuticles hydrated for a longer amount of time.

As far as strengthening went, I felt like this product really helped my nails but did not make them too stiff. They were still flexible and hydrated, providing me with a nice way to maintain my nail health.

As always, Pretty Woman offers free shipping on their website for all orders so you can try out this product without worrying about shipping fees. It retails for $8 US and even after using it for a month, I have not made a large dent in the bottle so it will last you! If you do decide to try it out, I would love to know how it worked for you.

Pretty Woman Foil Effects kit

Hello everyone,

Today I received a nail art kit from the brand Pretty woman which contains a black gelogic lacquer and four different pots of nail foils. The retail price for this kit is $7.99 USD which is the same price as buying an individual gelogic lacquer so the value is amazing.

The pots contain a silver, gold, copper, and multi-chrome foil and have 2 grams of foil each. In my opinion this is a great deal of foil to do your nail art with. The foil itself is very soft which I was not expecting. It does not break in your hands if you are trying to smooth it out and since it is soft, it molds very nicely to your nail. An added point of interest is that while handling the foil, my fingerprint was easily transferred to the foil creating a lovely effect. You can use scissors to cut the foil but I found using my fingers and nails did a well enough job. I did try to use a paper punch to see if I could cut the foil in the shape of a flower but the foil was too soft and it just ripped.

Now the instructions say to apply one coat of the gelogic color and let it dry then to work one finger at a time; applying a coat of gelogic and then adding the foil. This worked perfectly well as the shade in the kit, black, needed two coats to be opaque and the time to put the foil on the nail was very quick. I used a cuticle stick to transfer the foil onto the nail. Once the lacquer had dried, I attempted to push the foil flat but it was not perfect so I used two coats of top coat to keep it smooth. However, at one coat, it is still smooth enough that the foil is sealed and would not catch on anything so it is up to personal preference.

Two coats of black with the copper foil.

You can create really easy and amazing looks by mixing the foils, changing the color of your base and even how much foil you put on the nail. Removal can be tricky depending on how much foil you use. For the picture above, I found that the foil method was the best option to removing the foil without damaging my nail. I used my silicone nail clips with a cotton ball and nail polish remover and removed everything under five minutes. The leftover pieces removed easily enough with the cotton ball or even my cuticle pusher. If you applied less nail foil, then I found that the foil removed easily when I rubbed a cotton ball against the nail.

Overall, I really think the value in this kit is amazing since the price is the same as buying a gelogic lacquer or any other nail polish from Pretty Woman. You get a lot of foil, including a nice color variety, which is fairly easy to manipulate. Also this foil is something that works well with any kind of nail polish, you could even add it on top of a fresh clear coat to change up a manicure you were already wearing.

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel

Hello, hello everyone,

I have a review for you today on the Sally Hansen miracle gel system which includes a wear test. Now I know that this system has lots of reviews, some sponsored and some very negative ones. As for myself, one of my very close friends uses the miracle gel polish and the Sally Hansen insta-dry top coat. She works as a lifeguard and regular nail polish does not last on her as long as the miracle gel does. So I thought it was high time for me to test it out. I picked up the shade Pretty Piggy and I got the regular miracle gel top coat, not the 2x volume top coat.

This set typically retails for $15 to $17 CDN in various stores. The main claims behind this system is that you can get 14 days of color and shine without a light to cure it. Also it is supposed to be more chip resistant that regular nail polish while being easy to remove. I have prepped my nails using Pretty Womans nail detox and will be testing two top coats as well as no top coat.

Two coats of Pretty Piggy

The application for this shade was really lovely, it has the same brush as their complete salon manicure line so it covers the nail very easily. This particular shade was really opaque on the first coat and fully opaque on the second. The polish itself dried very quickly and with ease. Now, because I wanted to give an in depth review, I put the miracle gel top coat on my thumb and middle finger. On my pointer and ring finger I have used seche vite. And lastly, on my pinky I have no top coat.

So starting with the pinky, you will notice a crack near the tip and that was due to user error and does not reflect on the polish itself. The shine was a very good amount, the same as the miracle gel top coat in my opinion. As for the pointer and ring finger, seche vite dried very quickly and has a high shine finish. The miracle gel top coat on the other hand, did not work out so well. In the bottle I had noticed it was very thin and heard that it can smudge your nail so I applied a thicker coat so as to avoid smudging. It did not work at all. No matter how dry my polish was underneath, the miracle gel top coat smudged it so badly that it created patches if you look up close. Also even though my base color was dry, my brush still got stained pink. Dry time was fairly long, when I had thought it was dry I could still leave fingerprint marks and then smooth them out. The shine was also fairly nice.

Day three, my right hand (my dominant hand).

Day three, my left hand.

By day three my manicure was still looking very fresh with minimal tip wear on my right hand. On day four however, I did notice that the polish had started to crack on my left thumb and both of my middle fingers, which all had the miracle gel top coat. On day five, the cracking had also shown up on my right thumb and both my pinkies which had no top coat.

Day eight, my right hand (my dominant hand).

 Day eight, my left hand.

 By day eight, I had noticeable tip wear on my right hand and minimal wear on my left. While my manicure looked nice because there was no chipping, the cracking was really noticeable and ruined the manicure for me. It looked worn out even though the shine was still prevalent. And it was on all my fingers except for my pointer and ring which were topped with seche vite.

Day ten, my right hand (my dominant hand). 

Day ten, my left hand.

I did not make it to day 14 because the chipping on my middle finger kept spreading and the cracking of the nail polish just looked horrible in person. Overall, even after ten days, I thought it had held up nicely especially when topped with seche vite. The color was still vibrant and there was still a good amount of shine on all of my fingers. It also did remove easily.

The miracle gel polish itself, is definitely something I would recommend. Looking at the polish itself, I did not have any issues with it until day five which is pretty amazing considering I had no base and top coat. The color popped and the shine was still there to make it look like a gel manicure. To extend the life of the manicure, I would recommend you use either seche vite as I did or try your own top coat. I think if I had used seche vite on all ten fingers, I would have made it through 14 days without my manicure looking horrible.

As for the miracle gel top coat, save your money and effort. The top coat smudged my nail color to the point where it reduced the opacity of the coat I already had on; so it would be horrible for nail art. It also took longer than the nail color to dry. The worst part is that on me, it caused my manicure to crack two whole days before my finger that had no top coat! So save your money on the top coat and just buy another color you like.

I will for sure buy more miracle gel colors because I was impressed with the formula and wear time. When I want my manicure to last I will reach for this and my own preferred top coat. If you've used the 2x volume top coat or have used this system, I'm curious to see how you found it so leave me a comment below!

Marc Jacobs Nail Lacquer

So for my birthday, one of my friends gifted me a Marc Jacobs nail polish is the shade Jezebel. I decided to do a wear test of this polish to see if the high price tag is mainly attributed to the brand name or if the quality can justify it. The main claims behind this polish is that it is supposed to have a "wet look" to it and that the brush is supposed to optimize nail polish application because it is meant to hug the curves of the nail.

The application was actually hard for me, the polish did not glide on easily and the brush was not curved at the end so I did not find that it hugged my nail at all. The color was opaque for me in two coats but in mainly yellow light, you could see the patches where it was uneven so you may want to do three coats if you are picky. 

Two coats of Jezebel 

Overall, I was really happy with the polish, it had a very nice amount of shine to it but it was not high shine. I prepped my nail with Pretty Woman nail detox to ensure that there was no oil on my nails. I used two coats for my test and did not add a top coat. 

Day Six of wear

This polish lasted a very long time on my nails, I noticed tip wear around day three however I did not get any chips until day five. And the chip did not worsen the longer I wore the polish. I did get some dents and scratches in the nail polish but I find that happens to all nail polish the longer you wear it. The shine stayed pretty much consistent, it did not feel dull at all. One thing I did notice about the polish is that it was easily removed by rubbing alcohol which does happen to some of my other polishes. The main reason I ended this wear test on day six was because I wanted to change up my manicure.

In conclusion, I do think that $22 is fairly pricey for a nail polish however, this is a good quality formula and not just a branded item. Six days with just one chip and good shine is amazing considering that I did not use a base or top coat. Formula wise, this polish really stands out in my collection. If you have a nail polish lover in your life or are searching for high quality nail polish then this would be a lovely gift for you to splurge on. 

Leave me a comment below letting me know what is the most expensive nail polish you've ever bought or received as a gift!

Top Seven China Glaze

Hello everyone, after taking requests it seems like you all wanted to see my top ten China Glaze next. Unfortunately, China Glaze is a fairly new brand to me that I have been using for only two years. I own around 40 of them and they are mainly from newer releases and some from the core collection. Also for some reason, my local Sallys Beauty store actually closed down so now I don't purchase any China Glaze since they are not as easy to find for a good price. So all in all, I only have my top seven China Glaze to share with you. I have taken a lot of time to go through my collection to bump up the number to ten but for one reason or another, they did not stand out enough for me. Also just like before, I do want to include two polishes that had disappointed me so you can better understand the brand.

Two coats of Too Yacht to Handle.

Lets start with my first China Glaze, I saw this polish on a blog and I was under the impression it was a limited edition collection so when I found it in a random booth at the mall for $12 I bought it right away. Then I found out it was in their core collection and available at Sallys for around $6 I felt a little bad but the color is amazing. In my honest opinion, if you are someone who is just starting to experiment with neons, this is one of the first colors you should get. This is because for this shade to truly be neon, you will have to layer it over a white base to make the color pop. However if you wear it on it's own, you get a bright but wearable blue.

Three coats of Flip Flop Fantasy

As I mentioned before, I am relatively new to the world of China Glaze so I have never seen the original version of this shade, but the current shade is definitely gorgeous. I think the best thing about this shade is that you do not need a white coat of polish to make the color pop. You can absolutely get the color in the bottle onto your nails. I will warn you though, the formula on this can be very tricky, it does dry matte so you get a quicker dry time. However, if you continue your coats too soon, the polish tends to drag itself off and create patches which will just need more coats to cover. So it is beautiful but just make sure you wait in between coats.

Four coats of Highlight of my Summer

This shade has the same formula as Flip Flop Fantasy, I didn't wait long enough for the coats to dry so I had to do four coats instead of three. But I love this shade, it is a stunning bright light green and contrasts very nicely with my skin. The color is well worth the effort of properly applying this shade.

Three coats of Frostbite

This is the last one that has a tricky formula, it needs the three coats and ample dry time in between. It is amazing! This color takes on another life when you get it on your nails instead of  looking at it in the bottle. I love it for my toes in particular.

Two coats of What's She Dune?

This is an unexpected favorite of mine. I actually bought this in a set of three thinking that this would be the shade I would end up giving away but it turned out to be the only shade I liked. I fell for this shade and it was the first time I thought that a cream/beige/nude color looked good on me. The formula for this is amazing, you might be able to get away with just one coat if you do it thicker.

Two coats of Ruby Pumps

This next one probably is not a surprise to you since it is one of China Glazes well known polishes. I adore red nail polish and the fine glitter in this one really works for me. This was one of their polishes that I thought was completely worth the hype. I have gotten friends to try this shade before and they ended up loving it.

One coat of Wood you Wanna?

My last favorite China Glaze I want to share with you is an amazing one coater. If you can still get your hands on this shade, I would say go for it. It applies so smoothly and dries very quickly. I can get a full manicure done with this shade in 5 minutes because it is so easy to work with. Also the shade is very beautiful and like nothing in my collection.


Now I have tried a good amount of China Glaze polish and while I was not able to pick ten of them for my favorites that does not mean I did not like a lot of them. I actually only have two disappointing shades and it was mainly due to the formula.

At Vase Value is a fairly frustrating polish; the color is absolutely amazing but the formula is really lack luster. Even if you wait for each of your coats to dry, this polish still pulls on itself leaving major patches. I have tried doing a thicker third coat but even then it does not the best and a fourth coat can just make the patching worse. So I do love the shade but the formula really puts me off.

Thistle do Nicely is an amazing neon but again fairly patchy where a fourth coat is not always helpful. However I find that if I use this on my toes, its easier for me to ignore the imperfections in the application. I do not reach for this for my fingernails though.


Overall, I think China Glaze is a great brand. I always try to buy them from Sallys when they are buy one get one free since I get to try more. I do have a lot of lemmings on my list from China Glaze and I hope to find more that I can leave. I would love it if you left me a comment telling me what your favorite China Glaze shade is or if you have any recommendations. Also, which brand would you like to see next?

Pretty Woman NYC

Here are the last of the polishes I received from Pretty Woman NYC, I do want to take a moment to thank the brand for their generosity. I had tried their polish on my own and fallen in love with their product so I am very grateful to have this opportunity to share just how great this brand is. 

I have five different polishes to share with you today and there were was one thing I wanted to bring to your attention. If you read my original post about Pretty Woman NYCs polish called "Pouty" you would know that one of the reasons I loved the polish was because of the brush, it was a medium sized brush but it was very dense and applied the polish quite easily. The story is not the same with these polishes unfortunately, I do not know if their standard brush is as dense as Poutys brush was or if they are all of regular density. If you own any polishes from Pretty Woman NYC, leave me a comment down below about their brush!

Three coats of Neverland Chrome

This polish if from their chrome collection and it is fully opaque at two coats, however the third coat does deepen the color a good amount. The formula on this was a little thicker than the usual consistency of polish but it was still easy to work with.

Three coats of Fairy Chrome

This stunning polish is also from the chrome collection and is absolutely beautiful. I really love green chrome and this one is no exception. Similar to the one above, this is opaque at two coats but the third coat deepens the color. It was fairly hard to photograph but the polish does have a pink, almost fuchsia shift to it.

Three coats of Pale Yellow Ceramic

Pale yellow ceramic has a "ceramic" or demi matte finish to it, so it is not a flat matte. Matte polishes are always fairly hard to work with since they dry so quickly that you don't have enough time to make your strokes even. I found that while two coats made the color fairly opaque, the third coat was really needed to make everything nice and smooth. I do want to make a disclaimer that the bristles on my brush were slightly bent which made it a little harder for me to get rid of the streaks. So you might be able to get away with just two coats. And this is from the ceramic collection.

Three coats of Relationship Goals

This bright bubblegum pink is from their valentines days collection and is stunning. It is very vibrant and I did not have to layer it over a white for it to be bright. This is a lovely color and I just love the way it contrasts with my skin tone.

Two coats of Cherry Bean 

I like to save the best for last and this polish from the Nude collection really stuck out to me. First of all, I enjoy the concept of having a nude collection and while this is not the "proper" nude for my skin tone I find that it still flatters it very nicely. This is almost a smokey taupe, it has more grey than purple and some brown as well. This had a great formula and was really easy to apply. 

Overall, even with the difference in brushes, I still enjoyed these polishes. I would have to say my top two colors have to be pouty and cherry bean they are fairly unique and have amazing formulas. If you have tried any Pretty Woman NYC polishes that you think I should try, leave me a comment down below.

Pretty Woman NYC Gelogic

Hello all,

Today I have a review and wear test of Pretty Woman NYC gelogic line. Their gelogic system is a two piece system which consists of a color and a top coat. The claims made by this system are that their formula resists chipping, cracking, fading and peeling. They do not make any claim for how long this polish will last, it is simply long lasting. Other claims from this line is that one coat should be enough for it to be opaque, it is self leveling and plumping, it dries quickly without a LED or UV light and that it removes with acetone nail polish remover.

For my review, I actually tested the gelogic line using only the color coat because I did not have the titanium top coat that comes with it. I did prep my nails with the Pretty Woman NYC nail detox since the instructions said to clean your nail with nail polish remover. So before I get into the details and results of my wear test, there are a few things I want you all to keep in mind while you read my review. At my job, I am constantly opening drawers that have no handle so I have to reach my fingers in; this eats away at my nail polish quite quickly. I have found that even with using my favorite base and top coat, my nails will have significant wear after one shift and definite chipping after a second shift. So I change my nail polish very quickly because of that and when I am working, I am putting way more "stress" on my polish than with usual wear.

Two coats of Something Blue

The application of the gelogic polish was easy enough, while I do think it was very opaque at one coat, I did two coats. Also even though this shade has a lovely shimmer running throughout it, I found the application was still smooth. I would agree 100% that it self leveled and it dried very quickly. As to the polish being plumping, I really noticed no difference from a regular nail polish. Even though I did not add a top coat to this polish, it had a fairly nice shine to it where I felt I did not need to add a top coat.

Five days of wear

I have to say I was blown away by the quality of this polish. On me, with base and top coat, regular nail polish lasts two work shifts before showing major chips forcing me to change it. I wore this polish for five days, through four shifts at work! I was able to get double the wear of my nail polish by using this gelogic color as opposed to regular nail polish. You can see that the major chips are on my index and pointer fingers while my ring and pinkie finger still only have tip wear. Adding the titanium top coat would also help prolong the wear of your manicure. Overall, I have to say that this gelogic system met all of their claims. The color did not fade or peel and I found it very resistant to chipping and cracking. It also removed easily with my acetone based nail polish remover.

The gelogic polishes have 9.5 mLs in them as opposed to Pretty Woman NYCs regular polish which have 10 mLs. However, they are the exact same price ($7.99)! So it really is up to you which formula you want to try without the worry of it being much more expensive. Also remember that Pretty Woman NYC has free shipping regardless of your order size! If you've tried any from their gelogic line or if you want me to pick up the titanium top coat and put it to the test, leave me a comment down below.

Pretty Woman NYC Treatments

Hey everyone,

So about a month ago, I got a nail polish in my Ipsy bag from the company Pretty Woman NYC. I did a full test of the polish and fell in love with it; you can read my original post here. The lovely people at Pretty Woman NYC were kind enough to supply me with some more of their products to share with you! I can assure you that even though these products were given to me, my reviews will still be 100% honest. I was allowed to pick out eight items from their website and I did select a good variety so as to get a good grasp on the brand overall.

Now this review is going to be on two of their nail treatments I had selected and how they performed for me. The first item I picked was their soft scrub, what drew me in with this item is how unique I thought it was. Here is an excerpt from their packaging:

"A nail and cuticle cleansing scrub containing microspheres, vitamin E and aloe vera. While providing exfoliation and smoothing to the nails and cuticles, Soft Scrub also generates hydration and nourishment and releases the vitamin E encapsulated within the moisture beads."

I have never seen a scrub for your nails and cuticles before that also promises hydration so I was definitely interested in seeing how this worked. I have been using this product for about two weeks now and want to show you just how it works. So for my demonstration, I actually rubbed some CND scrubfresh on my nails, if you are unfamiliar with scrubfresh it is essentially a way to dehydrate and cleanse your nail for shellac to better adhere. I was able to see the dryness on my nail fairly easily and then I applied a generous amount of soft scrub to my nails.

Starting with application, the scrub is easily applied just like a regular nail polish, my only issue was that I had to fish for the pink beads in the product. I would get around 4 beads total when I applied the products to both my hands. However, this product is amazing in terms of hydration. It honestly feels like a gel and it sinks in so easily. The instructions say to wipe away any access with a cotton pad but I never have any access, it all sinks into my nails by the time I am finished both of my hands. There is no oily residue so you can continue doing anything without being afraid of ruining stuff you touch. I have to say the scent is also a bonus, very spa like.

My favorite way to use this product has to be on my toes though. My toes are very unappreciated because I am quite lazy when it comes to taking care of them. I always forget cuticle oil or to use cuticle remover. But with Soft Scrub my cuticles look smoother and my nail plate and the surrounding area is wonderfully hydrated. I have put polish on top without cleansing my nail and have had no issues with nail polish peeling. 

Overall I love this product for my toes and think it is a wonderful way to maintain a healthy look and feel to your nails.

I also picked out something I thought was going to be gimmicky, and I think the only other brand I have seen with this product is Formula X. It is from their nail medic line and it is called Nail Detox; a nail cleanser and primer. I'm sure you have heard that you should cleanse your nail plate before a manicure to remove any oil or residue that could make your manicure come off quicker. Usually I use nail polish remover or just wash my hands before painting them. My issue with that is when I use my acetone remover, I dehydrate my nails too much and when I wash my hands I just want to put on hand cream again. So a nail cleanser sounded right up my alley.

Let's start with the packaging; you do get 15 mLs which I appreciate and the square shape of the bottle makes it feel more high end to me. This product does have a false lid but you can decide to keep it or take it off. The application was really easy because it is in a nail polish bottle again. My only issue was that I kept wiping off one side of the brush out of habit and so most of the liquid would come off the brush. But that is user error and not related to the product itself. Here is an excerpt from the packaging of the nail detox:

" An advanced nail cleanser and primer that eliminates impurities caused by environmental stress and preps the nail for a manicure, cranberry and lemon extracts purify the nail and lifts away embedded grime, soap bark extract and witch hazel detoxify the nail plate, helping to return it to a natural, balanced state."

I love using this product as opposed to nail polish remover. While it does have alcohol in it, you really can't smell it so it doesn't bother me. My nail is nicely cleansed without being dried out. My favorite way to use this is to only apply one coat and I do cap the tips of my nails with this as well. I have seen my manicures last longer when I use this product. Sometimes I even skip using a base coat because it's an extra layer that I just don't want but when I use this nail detox instead, my manicure still lasts.

Overall, I would say that the nail detox is a wonderful product because it helps cleanse my nail plate without over stripping them or drying out my whole hand. The great thing is that both of these products retail for $7.99 USD on Pretty Woman NYC's website and since they offer free shipping on all purchases and they ship internationally, you really can just pick one time to try out. If you only want to pick up one product, I would suggest their Soft Scrub since it is great and very unique! I hope you enjoyed reading this, I will have another post about some polishes I got as well so stay tuned.

My top ten OPI

Hello everyone, today I am going to be telling you all about my top ten OPIs currently. Before we get into my top ten I do have some disclaimers along with some stats about my collection for you. So as way of a disclaimer, I would say the vast majority of my collection is from older OPI collections. This is because OPI retails for over $10 now and the best sale they ever have for their core collection is buy 2 get 1 free which isn't the greatest discount. Their limited edition collections however, can be found for $6 or under at Sally Beauty, Trade Secrets, or Winners a few months after they've been released. So I tend to gravitate towards the discounted ones since I can get more of them and they're on their way out so it would be hard for me to find them again. However, once in a while, I do like to splurge on myself and purchase any OPI color for full price, but not necessarily from the core collection.

Now for some stats, I have 121 OPI polishes in my collection, the most I have of any one brand. I have 103 full sized polishes and 18 minis excluding any duplicates. Now picking just ten, was pretty hard for me. Each and every polish I've purchased has a story behind it and I appreciate for different reasons. Even a month from now, some of these polishes could very easily change but for now they are what they are. The last thing I want to let you know is that as with the good, there are polishes from each brand that are not as good. I do love OPI, and they were my first "high end" purchase when I was younger. However, there are some OPIs that have disappointed me. So for the sake of giving you a well rounded picture of how amazing the brand is, and what kind of issues I find with them, I have also included 5 disappointing colors. And the reason I only chose 5 is because out of 121, only 5 were disappointing to me.

Without further ado, here are my top ten OPIs in no particular order.

Here is two amazing coats of Green on the Runway. I fell in love with this polish from the moment I wore it, I had nothing like this when I got it. And this polish was actually a birthday gift from my niece, she had bought me the entire mini set of the Coca-Cola collection the summer it originally released. I loved it so much that I bought myself a full size bottle.

This is two coats of Coca-Cola Red and I have always loved re nail polish. I think it's very classy and something every skin tone can wear. And the reason I chose this one to be in my top ten was because of the formula. While I love reds, I personally don't appreciate cherry reds because in my experience they always turn out to be too jelly for my preference. This polish however is such a bright red creme with a very easy formula. This one was also from my niece and I have yet to find it in a full sized bottle. I will say that another OPI red I love is Big Apple Red.

Here is two coats of Ski Teal we Drop, This polish has an amazing formula and I just adore the color. It applied so smoothly and has a great tone.

Two coats of Koala Bear-y, first off I love the name. This formula is the reason why OPI is an amazing brand. This is almost opaque in one thin coat but it doesn't have a thick formula, it doesn't streak and dries quickly. I could have easily switched this with OPI Pink Flamenco because it has the same amazing formula, it's just a lighter pink.

This is three coats of My Gecko does Tricks. Now I'm not usually a big fan of three coaters, I have to be willing to spend more time on my nails if it's a three coater. But this polish applied so smoothly and dried so quick that it wasn't hard to build it up. Also I was very surprised at how this tone of green still flattered my skin tone.

Two coats of Hello Hawaii ya? So I remember hunting down and paying well over the standard pricing of OPI to find I'm feeling Sashy from the Miss Universe collection. I was convinced that it was the most beautiful purple and then I found this polish. First of all, the application is amazing, two really smooth and easy coats. But the main reason I love this is the combination of purple and grey. This polish has just enough grey to make it a very neutral purple and it looks stunning.

Two coats of Give me Space. This one just sneaked it's way into my top ten, it is relatively new to my collection and the first time I wore it, it felt so thick. But I gave it another chance and when I wore it outside in the sun, it was beautiful. Definitely different that the usual OPI I see.

Two coats of Jade is the New Black. I think this is a color that a lot of people would love, it is a cult classic for OPI. I got this on my birthday for myself and every time I wear it, I get a lot of compliments. It is a great mid tone green and again, great formula.

Two coats of My Dogsled is  Hybrid. I did have a few favorites from the Nordic collection, but this was the one that I found myself picking up most often. It is a lovely sea green creme and as I've been saying for the others, it has a really good formula.

Last but not least, is one coat of Push and Shove. I would recommend this polish for everyone as well. It is such an intense metallic with minimal steps. It does come with it's own special base coat but applies fine on your bare nail. I don't like how quickly this polish fades because it's only a one night polish but since it's easy to put on, I am okay with it.


Now for my 5 disappointing polishes; a quick disclaimer here is that these polishes are not necessarily bad polishes, they just didn't live up to my expectations or the hype. I did not swatch these because I didn't want to put them on my nails again and I had a bad nail break.

Alpine snow, OPIs classic white from their core collection. I got this from a 10 pack at Trade Secrets and I'm really happy I got to try this. Now I had heard that it was a two coater and it lasted nicely on the nail. Unfortunately for me, I found that it took three coats and it had a pretty thick formula. I think the most disappointing aspect to me was that for this mini bottle, which is only one fourth of a regular bottle, I had to add nail polish thinner 3 to 4 times to be able to use it. And that doesn't sit well with me for a mini. I'm not sure if it's because it's a mini that I had problems with their formula but Alpine Snow just didn't live up to the hype for me.

From that same mini pack I also got Cajun Shrimp and was really really disappointed. I had heard so many great things about this color; it was opaque in nearly one coat, it was a nice bright red/orange creme. This was a jelly formula and didn't get opaque even after 3 coats. I have no idea why my bottle is so drastically different. I would be willing to try this again if I could get a good deal on it, but as it stands now, I wouldn't even recommend this to someone.

Suzi's Hungary Again is a beautiful bubble gum pink. After three coats, this was not opaque at all, it had patches and didn't build nicely. So again, another pass for me.

Superstar Status is an interesting polish but it was ultimately disappointing for me. The mix of gold and silver glitter was in an uneven proportion and I found that the longer I wore it, the more I found it looked bad on me. If you wanted nails for a night out, this would be perfect but seeing this polish up close and for long periods of time it just doesn't sit well on the nail plate so it was disappointing for me.

I have no idea why the DS series is more expensive than the regular line so when I found DS Titanium for 50% off at Trade Secrets I decided to give it a try. This was very sheer and wasn't opaque after 3 coats. The main reason this disappointed me was that for a DS series polish, I thought it would be a step up from their regular formula and I found it was sub-par.


Overall, I still love OPI and I buy OPI without hesitation when I find them for good prices. I love their brushes and the shape of their bottle. I'm not a huge fan of their minis since they are hard to use but I still use them. Feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite OPI is or even one that disappointed you.

Pretty Woman nail polish

Hello all,I hope you are having a great day. So in my April Ipsy glam bag, I received a beautiful fuchsia nail polish called "Pouty" from a brand named Pretty Woman. And I have to tell you, I was blown away when I saw the polish. On Ipsy's website, the color looked similar to another color I owned and simply wasn't exciting me. However, when I got the polish in my mail, I fell in love. Pouty turned out to be a bright fuchsia that practically looks neon on your nails and screamed summer.

Two coats of Pouty

Lets talk about the application of the polish and the formula. I have tried plenty of nail polishes before but I feel like the brush on this one was fairly unique. In terms of size, I would say it was a medium brush but to me, it felt more dense than a typical nail polish brush. This density helped the brush fan out a bit more so that you could coat most of your nail with one swipe. Something interesting I noticed about the formula was how much it reminded me of a neon. But if you visit Pretty Woman's website, this polish is not specifically labeled as a neon.

However, after the first coat I noticed that the polish dried down matte similar to a neon. And so I tried layering this over a white base to see if the color would change, however it stayed the same. Therefore I would have to say Pouty is a bright fuchsia that borders neon. This polish was opaque in two coats for me and surprisingly it dried shiny. In some lights or angles I could still see my nail line but I was alright with it.

As for the wear of this polish, I did conduct a wear test on my Cinderella hand. Some things to keep in mind as you view the pictures is that to truly test the quality of the polish itself, I wear no base or top coat. In addition, this is my dominant hand and I don't wear gloves when I do the dishes.

Day three

After wearing the polish for three days, I only had tip wear on all of my nails. This is fairly natural and doesn't speak against the quality of the polish.

Day four 

My troubles with this polish began on day four. I found my first major chip on my middle finger. Now since my middle finger is my longest finger, the fact that it chipped first was not surprising to me. However, it is important to note that the polish chipped four days into my manicure. As you can see in the photo, I also broke my middle nail but that is not related to the nail polish.

Day five

I ended my wear test on day five because I was unhappy with my thumb, pointer and middle finger. Now I did file down the nail on my middle finger which left some tip wear but it just seemed to keep chipping off, even after I took my picture. I had a chip near the middle on my pointer finger that also kept increasing and too much wear on my thumb. 

Overall, I would say that the Pretty Woman nail lacquer in Pouty is good. The color is fairly unique and application was very easy. This polish did last five days on my nails by itself, if you used your favorite base and top coat you would probably be able to get a longer wear. Now these polishes retail for $7.99 USD but they offer free shipping on all orders which is amazing and is something I don't see often. However, if you are a part of Ipsy, you can get these beauties for $5.99 USD! If you aren't signed up for Ipsy, feel free to use my referral link here. Hope you enjoyed this review, and if you have a favorite Pretty Woman nail polish, tell me in the comments below.