Kell's DIY Nails

Zoya, Aurora. 2 coats. With Gelous & Seche Vite. A little blurred to show the holographic particles. My husband picked this out for me when I was stumped with too many choices (Too Much Good Stuff!). I must say I am very impressed with his selection. Aurora is from Zoya's Ornate Holiday/Winter 2012 Collection . It's a purple jelly packed with holographic particles. It's much more dense and opaque than the Gloss Collection Jellies. I got great coverage in 2 easy coats. Of course the formula is butter with it being a jelly; I didn't have any application issues and dry time was excellent. I topped it off with a coat of Gelous & Seche Vite . I had excellent wear with this mani as well. It lasted me a good 7 days with very minor chipping at the end. I would gladly recommend this to anyone and everyone; it looks great and the wear time was impressive. I used my favorite base coat; Barielle's Hydrating Ridge Filler .

* I interrupt your regular polish programming to introduce a new cruelty free body lotion that I think you will like. * One of the toughest parts about going cruelty free is finding products just as good (or possibly better) as the ones you previously used. Over time we find which products we prefer and we become in a way 'married' to these brands. One of the products that proved to be the hardest to find a CF replacement for was my Vaseline Aloe Protection SPF 15 Body Lotion. While many of my products were easy to replace and I had the switch accomplished in a matter of a couple of months, I was still using my old Vaseline Body Lotion for several months. Finally, on yet another online exploration I found Alba Botanica's Very Emollient Body Lotion with SPF 15 Daily Shade. I like to use this everyday so I love the generous 32 oz. bottle with convenient hand pump. When I first found it online is was a little pricey ($24.99) but I ended up finding it at Swanson Health P

Without Top Coat. With Gelous & Seche Vite Top Coat. This steely blue gem is from the Holo Glam Collection . The moment my Nfu-Oh Aqua Base arrived, I put it to good use. I will tell you... Aqua Base is everything I had hoped it would be; Not only do I love the ornate little bottle it comes in but I also love the brush and the formula. The brush is a medium width flat tipped brush and it fans out over the nail nicely. The consistency applies much like my favorite base coat, Barielle's Hydrating Ridgefiller; effortlessly and with perfect precision. It made applying Take A Trek so much easier and more opaque. No issues with drag or bare spots at all. FANTASTIC! I do have a bit of bad news though... I recently picked up a new bottle of Gelous and come to find out they replaced the brush with an extra wide brush. GAH! This is no good since I have narrow nail beds on my pinkie and ring finger. Good thing was I hadn't thrown out my old bottle so I just swapped the c

Time to break out my stamping supplies! First I had to clean off an area on my nail table because its getting cluttered up with all kinds of nail polish. I've been doing some organizing but at the same time it seems I make a bigger mess than what I started with. Anyways, I used Bundle Monster Plate BM-308 ; it has two different citrus images. One is a full nail stamp, and the other is just a small stamp. I started with a base color of OPI, Sparrow Me The Drama from the Pirates of the Caribbean Collection released in 2011. I swear I just had to have this pink because I loved all the swatches I saw but after getting it on my nails I'm so not impressed. I think my skin tone does nothing for it and vice versa. It just looks like a boring mauve on me. Meh. Also, the formula was streaky; I used 2 coats but still have some visible nail line and it didn't self level. This photo shows without top coat since I was going to be stamping on top of it anyway. I know I was supposed

Back in the Summer of 2009 I was sitting at the reception desk of a dead-end job. The sad thing is I was lucky to have the job because the job scene was in the toilet. It was quite possibly the most boring job I have ever had except for the fact that there were 3 salesmen whom I bonded with and we found ways to keep ourselves occupied and entertained. Of course we had to make sure the branch manager and his pet monkey (the counter salesman) didn't catch on to any of it (we were known to play pranks on those two). We were kinda like 'The Office' but a little less obvious and there was no office romance (unless you counted the branch manager and his pet monkey). I spent much time goofing off on the Internet. Before you ask; No, there was nothing else for me to do. I already did it all. I turned that office around as far as organization and filing was concerned. I even kicked ass in doing all the customer service stuff (talking to unhappy customers, returns, all that junk).

I have been drooling over the Catherine Arley Holographic Nail Lacquer for quite sometime. Just a few months back someone had this on their Swap/Sell Board so I went for it. These holos were originally released back in 2010. Catherine Arley is a Turkish brand so it can be a bit difficult to get your hands on these. I'm a lover of all things neutral so I love this light beige. Formula was actually very, very smooth and I love the brush; it fans out over the nail with a very soft touch and it was a breeze getting a nice line at the cuticle. The formula is very sheer; I used 3 coats here. However, dry time was excellent and I didn't use any top coat with this so that super shiny, glossy finish you see there is all from the polish. I had a little visible nail line but nothing that bothers me in real life. I didn't use a base coat for this swatch because I don't have a good base for holos. Amazingly, even with 3 coats I did not experience any drag or bare spots. Thi

#MintManisForTaliaJoy #TaliasLegacy Today we honor a very special little lady who lost her battle with cancer last Tuesday. We honor her by wearing mint on our tips. I haven't had time to do my nails lately so I did a collage of all my mint manis. Starting on the Left; Top to Bottom: Essie, Navigate Her Barielle, Ocean Breeze with Stardust glitter top coat Barielle, Positive Zen-ergy Now for the Right; Top to Bottom: Barielle, Mint Ice Cream Cone Wet n Wild Megalast, I Need A Refresh-mint To learn more about Talia, her YouTube Tutorials, and her legacy check out these links: http://angelsfortalia.com http://www.youtube.com/user/taliajoy18 http://www.today.com/style/cancer-stricken-covergirl-talia-castellano-dies-13-6C10651620 May you Rest In Peace, Talia.

Back in 2010 I was taking the H&R Block Income Tax Course. Next to the H&R Block where I was taking the classes was a Beauty Supply Store. It was actually a great place to go dusty hunting; lots of old Jessica Nail Lacquers and they even carried Zoya. They always had the current OPI collections out and one of them was the Burlesque Collection. I know a lot of people were hoping that these glitters would be like the Alice In Wonderland glitters, but they just weren't quite there. I did however, take a liking to Sparkle-icious. A clear base full of small hexagon glitters in gold, blue, and fuchsia. It has good coverage in just one coat as you can see in the photo. I layered one coat over Revlon, Cherry Crush but it can easily be built up to opacity on it's own in 2-3 coats. Formula wise this is as good as glitters get. Normally, I hate these pro-wide brushes but with this glitter it applied very easily and evenly. Dry time was fast as usual with glitters. I topped it o

Back when I got married in 2008 I had a very difficult decision to make: What to put on my tootsies. It all came about when I ended up buying open toed shoes instead of closed toe. They were pale gold kitten heels by Nine West. Quite possibly the best shoes for your wedding because they were elegant and glamorous without the risk of tripping and falling flat on your face in the aisle. Initially I wanted closed toe but these were the perfect shoe so I then started the task of finding the perfect pedi color. The colors of my wedding were pretty various because I hate matchy-matchy. I always go with what works, not what matches. My main pop of color was red though, a deep rose red. I used the red as an accent color and my other colors were neutrals (off-white, grey, and light blue) and metallics (gold & silver). My nails were going to be natural (but better using a sheer wash of a french shade) so I quickly decided my toes needed to have a pop of color. I wanted something deep, ri

CND Shellac, Cocoa. 2 coats. I've had this sitting in my Nail Folder for months now... I kept forgetting to type up a post on it. Back in May Burt and I went up to Mojave Valley, AZ for a wedding. We decided to make it a long weekend and stayed a night up in Laughlin, NV as well. When it comes to vacations I highly recommend CND Shellac because you don't have to worry about your manicure not holding up. Nothings much worse than staring at a chipped nail all weekend when you are supposed to be relaxing and having a good time. So, I went ahead and opted for this nice neutral color so I wouldn't have to worry if my outfit was clashing with my nails. Cocoa is a really nice opaque tan cream, not too light, not too dark. The bottle makes it look a little orange and dark but on the nail its much better. I think this would look universally flattering on all skin tones. The formula on gel polish tends to be a little thicker than regular polish but if you slow down your applica

'When someone is going through a hard time, it is often our instinct to want to give them solutions that have helped us.   While it is a positive attribute to want to assist, part of our own transformation is becoming more sensitive to knowing when it’s time to give advice, or when it is better to keep silent and listen.  It’s not our job to fix people. It is our job to be there for them.' - Adonna Connell

Illamasqua, Gamma. 3 coats. Blurry; shows accurate color. I love orange; especially bright neon orange (actually, I love most all shades of orange). One orange I used to highly covet was Essie's Bright Tights. The formula was a pain in the butt but the intensity of the neon was so good you just forgave the bad formula. That is until I found Gamma. I actually like this shade of neon orange better than the Essie. Gamma is maybe a tinge lighter but more saturated with color. Of course I did have to use 3 coats but the formula was still much easier to work with; the brushes are excellent and the color flows evenly onto the nail. This does dry to a satin or waxy finish; I actually liked it that way but I wanted some added durability so I added a coat of Gelous & then Seche Vite. Dry time was excellent due to the satin/wax finish. I love that about matte/satin/wax finish polishes. At 3 coats I could still see a little bit of visible nail line but it wasn't enough to bo

'Call it a desire, a hunger, or even a craving, but we experience longing every second of the day. Unfortunately, we tend to mistake what this longing is really for and where it comes from. The longing we experience is not for material possessions or external status, but it is our soul’s desire to reach our greatest potential.  The truth about longing is that when we use it to become our best, we experience the best.' - Adonna Connell

I've never done a Nail Challenge before but I stumbled upon this one and it's actually totally up my ally... Not too involved and a great way for me to show some of my older favorites. This blog post will tell you all about it: http://polishedmarvels.blogspot.com/2013/07/vintage-challenge-week.html Another problem I run into is that many of my older favorites are from companies that are no longer Cruelty Free so I don't want to advertise for them on my blog. Be sure to follow along with Polished Marvels & Little Miss Nailpolish ; they will have a Link Tool where you can upload your photos. You don't even need to have a blog to participate!