Kell's DIY Nails

Illamasqua, Speckle. 2 coats. Here's the other Illamasqua polish I bought from the Imperfect Collection. I love these. Plus, isn't this just the perfect polish for Easter?!? A little later this week I will be posting the wear test results for my CND Shellac mani so stayed tuned. The formula on Speckle is just like Mottle; excellent. Again, I just want to exclaim how much I love these brushes; it makes application a breeze. I finished it off with a coat of Gelous and then Barielle's Manicure Extender Top Coat. I'm sure I will get lots of compliments like I did with Mottle; even some of my elderly clients loved it.  I love this sooo much!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter; I'm just happy I'm not working but I best enjoy it now cause I won't have another day off until April 18th! LOL There's no rest for the wicked and money don't grow on trees...

CND Shellac, Hotski to Tchotchke. 2 coats. I love painting my nails, but sometimes life can get a little hairy and you can't always find the time to do your nails regularly enough to keep them looking nice. For me that happens during tax season when I'm practically living at the office. It's a serious drag to feel as though you need to find some time to polish your nails yet you're not enjoying it. For a long time I have been following gel nail polish products. I even went and got a few them done at salons. Once I tried the OPI Axium Gel, then a generic that I couldn't determine the brand of, and of course I tried CND's Shellac. As far as the application and removal process goes I was drawn most to Shellac. However, when I went to a salon (listed on the CND website) and had an approved nail tech apply it, it was a total disaster. The application looked like it was done by a 7 year old and it didn't have the shine, nor the staying power; it started pe...

Sometimes a gals' just gotta buy a new bag... Photo from www.SusanNichole.com  I recently heard about a new (to me) company that sells 100% Cruelty-Free and Vegan handbags so I started following them on Facebook. Every Thursday they do a live giveaway on their Facebook/Twitter page. It's very cool and I recommend joining in on the fun. Last Thursday they also gave everyone a coupon code for 50% off a bag or wallet so I went just to see the current styles they had available and I found a slouchy hobo that would be great for spring and summer. Giselle is her name and I love the Mustard color. I've been thinking about a yellow bag for quite sometime but I didn't want to get too bright of a yellow because I hate changing out my bag if it doesn't go with my outfit. I needed one that would walk the line between primary and neutral and this one fits the bill. In this photo she looks a hair brighter than she is in reality. Of course I was concerned that the mate...

Illamasqua, Mottle. 2 coats. The great part of Tax Season is I actually work steady and earn a decent paycheck. Especially this year; I've had at least 40 hours a week... and a lot of overtime. Kind of hurts my commission in the end, but the moments I'm not working I can shop online and spend some of my hard earned cash. Usually, I can't splurge on pricey products because I'm rocking unemployment the rest of the year. I've especially noticed the new Illamasqua Collection, IMPERFECTION, popping up on blogs all over the place. I've never bought from them in the past but this new collection is really cool. I also dig the message behind it; celebrating who you really are... Imperfections and all. I splurged and picked up Mottle and Speckle. I'm not disapointed in the least; in fact I'm impressed and look forward to buying more of their polish. Not only was the formula killer, but the glitter has the perfect ratio and distribution on the nail and it ...

China Glaze, Running In Circles. 3 coats.  Sunlight. This is a stunning polish... I'm so in love with it. It's the most gorgeous shade of emerald green that lights up and glows. I was saving this just for the month of March and it is perfect. Not only is is a gorgeous color, it was a dream to apply. This is easily one of my favorites of 2013. Running In Circles is a green micro glitter in a green jelly base from the Cirque Du Soleil Collection. The base isn't too thin; you could probably get away with 2 coats but for photos I wanted to do 3. The brush and formula spread out nicely on my nail and made application a breeze. Dry time was average. It dried to a super smooth surface but I added a coat of Gelous and Seche Vite for staying power. I'm sure you could still find this lovely on the internet; I love eBay for finding polish.

On Tuesday, March 5th H&R Block had a 2nd Look Rally Day... Do you know what a 2nd Look is? If not, it's where we take a second look at a return that was prepared by another tax preparing service or done by the taxpayer themselves either by pen and paper or on an online tax prep site. Basically it's a way for us to show you how good we are at preparing taxes as well as to check your returns for accuracy and we just might find deductions or credits that were missed. It's a huge thing H&R Block has implemented because it gives everyone a chance to get know our service. Plus, we offer this service for Free to all new clients. For every new client who brought us a prior year return to look at, they got entered into a drawing to win a $25 VISA Gift Card. There was also an incentive that the Tax Pro with the most 2nd Looks in the Region (All of So. Cal) would win an Apple i Product of their choice. I had a ton of 2nd Looks to work on. I even had an awesome success story...

Pomegranate Nail Lacquer, Pennywisher. 2 coats.  Pomegranate Nail Lacquer, Pennywisher. Sunlight.   Sunlight, Sunlight, Shade.  Sorry for the lack of posting lately... I've been really busy at work and we had a really cool event at work the other day. I wish I could say more but I want to share it with you when I share the nails I wore for it. Anyways, I recently received some Pomegranate Nail Lacquers to review so I wanted to show you one of them. Pennywisher is from the new Royal Fairy Tale Collection and was my 1st choice since I have a puppy dog named Penny. It's a very pretty pale copper foil. It wasn't half as fussy as most foils but I had an issue with bubbling; I gave it plenty of time to dry between coats but I'm thinking my Barielle Hydrating Ridgefiller Base is getting a little old and thick and might be the issue. While the bubbles were annoying it's still nice to see that this foil wasn't plagued with brush strokes. I al...