Kell's DIY Nails

Hey Gang! I hope your holidays were lovely. It's about time for me to start Tax Season 2015 so (as you might already know) I won't be posting all that regularly through April 15th. If you don't know, I work for H&R Block as a tax preparer and I get really slammed and work lots of overtime to meet the needs of my clients.  Tax Season requires me to make some adjustments one of which being switching to gel nails; they hold up much longer and help to prevent breaks. I use CND's Shellac and will post photos of my Shellac manicures during tax season; just remember it won't be all that frequent. I also recently stumbled upon Project Pan and thought this would be a great way to streamline my makeup routine as well as purge a few items from my stash. I first found out about Project Pan from Anya Marie  on YouTube when she was doing the Finish 6 by Christmas Challenge. What is it: Project Pan 101  (Watch this video for a great intro from Amber F) I will be participating ...

I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas (or other holiday) festivities!  I've got another Christmasy mani for you today... I applied 2 coats of Zoya's Veruschka which is one of the MatteVelvet shades that dry matte. This is a deep evergreen with beautiful shimmer. It applied very nicely and since it is a matte it dried quickly. These MatteVelvet's might not be around for long so I suggest getting them now while you can; they are some of the most beautiful mattes. Then I dabbed on one coat of Lumina Lacquer , Hooked On Christmas . Sadly, this particular polish is no longer available but there is one called Jingle Bells that you might like. I love circle glitter and this is various sizes of circle and hexagon glitter in red and various shades of green. There's also a variety of matte, metallic, and holographic finishes. The clear base is a very thick suspension base which required a slightly longer dry time. It also dried a little bumpy but a few coats of ACI's I...

Clockwise from the upper left corner: "Jello Surprise" Bath Bomb ,  "Moose Mug" Solid Bubble Bath ,  "Bend Over & I'll Show You" Fortune Cookie Soap ,  "Sparky" Fortune Cookie Soap , "Mele Kalikimaka" Fortune Cookie Soap ,  "I Pledge Allegiance, Amen!" Fortune Cookie Soap ,  "SQUIRREL!" Wax Tart ,  "Sparky" Wax Tart . Middle: Partylite Snowy Owl ScentGlow Warmer For those of you not familiar with Fortune Cookie Soap you might not fully comprehend the names of these delightful scents; that's OK! I am gonna fill you in; this year FCS went with an 'Old Fashioned Family Christmas' theme that incorporated their 'deep and abiding love' of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Chevy Chase style). So, now, I am sure re-reading those names will click. Oh, and don't worry, "Jello Surprise" is not Lime Jello and Cat Food scented! On the final post of my WIN-ter Wonderl...

Do you guys remember when I mentioned I wanted to try Fortune Cookie Soap's Wax Tarts ? I had just found out that Bath and Body Works was no longer cruelty free so my candle source dropped out from under me. I found myself facing Christmas without any home fragrance. Not good! I've gotta have some festive scents going on so I found FCS' Wax Tarts. Then I hit another delima; I didn't have a Wax Warmer. The hunt began for a warmer and of course I immiediately thought of Scentsy but then a friend of mine mentioned that Partylite offers warmers as well and said she loved hers. She gave me the name and contact info of her Partylite consultant, Jennifer Dennis. Jennifer responded to me quickly and gave me a link to her website . After perusing her online catalog I decided on the Snowy Owl ScentGlow Warmer ; I've been on an owl kick lately (my gift bags this Christmas are owl themed) and I like the crackled finish. I received my warmer 7 days later via FedEx. ScentGlo...

Today's post is one of my very favorite! Every year I like to include an epic Christmas polish; one that I think is all of Christmas rolled into one bottle!  I give you... X-mas Me Silly from Polish Me Silly ! From their website:  ' It is meant to look like a christmas tree with a rainbow of ornaments and yellow, pink, and bright green stars floating throughout it to top it off.... It consists mostly of hexagon glitters and star glitter. It has a jelly green base to make it less transparent and tiny holographic green glitter to represent the tree. All of the colors of the rainbow are in this polish! lol The colors in this polish look beautiful together and it is absolutely stunning on. This is the perfect X-Mas polish...' X-mas Me Silly can be built up to opacity but I opted to layer one coat over Hard Candy, Crush On Ivy. I've had this Hard Candy in my Untrieds for ages and I love how it looks with XMS over the top. Formula was really great and easy to apply; just be ...

I've heard good things about ACI Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat when used as either a base coat or between coats so I thought I would give it a try. I applied my go-to base coat of Barielle, Hydrating Ridge Filler . I then applied a coat of High Tide, a coat of Gelous, a coat of High Tide and lastly a coat of ACI In A Hurry Quick Dry Top Coat . Gelous does take awhile to dry so it did extend application time but let's see if it extends wear time as well as I've heard. After 4 days this is pretty impressive especially since I wasn't very delicate with them. After 6 days my index nail looks pretty rough but this nail is really thin and flexible right now not to mention it is peeling. My other nails look pretty good still. Sorry about the lack of sunlight in this photo; we've got a storm moving into So Cal right now. This is my left hand so let me show you my right hand (dominate  hand) too. Again, my index nail is looking rough but this one is in the same condition as...

When I was on the e.l.f. website I noticed some new(ish) colors so I thought we should take a look at them! I know these are not really Winter or Holiday colors but let's be honest it's gonna be over in a flash and then it will be Spring. These are very versatile colors and a sparkly top coat (Twinkle Twilight) just gives you even more ways to rock them.  Prissy Chrissy   made me laugh; that name! I knew a Chrissy back in my school days who was definitly prissy. This soft peach creme is a nice palette cleanser but not quite a nude so you still get some nice color. I used 2 coats for this swatch stick but I really think this one will need 3 to eliminate any streaks and sheer spots. The creamy fomula was easy to apply. I have nothing quite like Prissy Chrissy; it's definitly a peach tone but with a touch of pink and has a brightness to it like nothing in my stash. Because this is warmer toned than Barielle's Kiss Me Kate I don't think it will give me lobster hands.  ...

I incorporated all of these items into a full face look so I could throughly test them out and show you what they look like when worn. To create this purple smokey eye I used the Mineral Eyeshadow Primer , Essential Smudge Pot in Poppin Party , and Studio Baked Eyeshadow in Burnt Plum . I started with a base of the Mineral Eyeshadow Primer all over my lid, brow bone, and crease. I've been using this stuff for about a year and I think it is comparable to the Urban Decay and Too Faced primers. The texture is really nice; it had a light and creamy texture that is easy to blend on the eye but try to avoid over blending it. It sets pretty quickly to a soft velvety texture. I like to blend it out over the lid, then the brow bone, then the crease. This prevents you from getting too much product in the crease which will then crease later in the day. A little goes a very long way and I always finish application by patting with my fingertip to avoid flaking. When applied correclty this will...

Today's prize is a Nail Art Package; quite a few different items to help you get creative.  10 Sheets of Nail Guides : At first I was looking for just Chevron & Traditional French Guides when I stumbled upon this awesome selection of nail guides. 2 different types of Chevrons, 5 Zig Zag patterns, 2 types of Waves, Straight, Heart, Circles, Lightening Bolt, Tear Drop, and 2 different Traditional French. Seriously everything you could ever need or want! Suicide Prevention Nails , Party Animal Nails , Retro Christmas Nails , Zoya Nail Art , Cresent Moon Nails . Jane's Tiny Things, Truly Outrageous Nail Decals: High -quality water slide decals in the raddest designs around!  The Truly Outrageous set comes with 64 decals (2 different sizes, color and black & white). The white paper will slide away when activated with water and you'll be left with these gem inspired designs on a clear background. Mix it up with round, marquise, square, pear, trilliant, and emerald cuts. ...