Sneak Peek: L.A. Girl

✯ PR Sample ✯

I'm still a zombie here getting over this illness and am writing this from bed on my Kindle Fire. I haven't painted my nails in a week now! I wanted to share a sneak peek though at at the awesome L.A. Girl polishes that Vanessa from L.A. Girl Cosmetics sent me for review. I am looking forward to sharing them with you all soon! You can find L.A. Girl polishes for sale at Rite Aid. :-)


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Valentine's Day Nails: Design 3

It's another Friday and I've got another Valentine's Day manicure to share. I used Zoya Miranda this time and blinged out my ring finger with rhinestone's from Sally Hansen's nail art line. It's something a little different than I would normally do. If I had glitter I would have too since the rhinestones are a little larger. I stamped with Winstonia Store 2nd Gen plate W207 with Konad Special White polish.


♥ Valentine's Day Nails 

• Design 1
• Design 2
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Super Sick...

I've been really really sick since last Saturday night, sicker than I've ever felt.  I've missed a week of work and ended up in the ER yesterday morning. They ran blood tests, gave me a chest xray and IV because I was dehydrated. The ER thinks it's either strep (they didn't get my throat culture back) or influenza. They sent me home with antibiotics. I've pretty much missed a week of my life because I've just been sleeping nonstop, drinking lot's of gatorade. I haven't really been online at all. I've had blog posts scheduled, but forgive me if I haven't replied to comments yet. Still resting up so I can hopefully get back to work on Monday.

Zoya: Dahlia, Mira, Sarah

My cousin surprised me with a belated Christmas gift the other day. 3 Zoya's from the latest promo sale. She sent me Dahlia, Mira, Sarah all colors I've been wanting. :-)


Dahlia is so pretty! It's a black and silver texture polish. I love the Zoya Pixiedusts, they are my favorite texture polishes. I only needed two coats.


Mira a bright purple cream. It reminds me a bit of China Glaze Spontaneous, one of my other favorite purples. I only needed 2 coats and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I stamped the Hummingbird with Winstonia Store 2nd Gen stamp plate W202


Zoya Sarah is a pretty metallic red. It reminds me of China Glaze Ruby Pumps. (We'll see if they're similar in an upcoming post). The formula was good, I only needed 2 coats and topcoat. The stamp is from MoYou London Kitty 11.


I also got a new larger squishy stamper on eBay. I've been using a smaller pink stamper from Winstonia Store. I love how good the images transfer with the squishy stamper!




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Indigo Bananas

I've been wanting to order from Indigo Bananas for awhile but there's so many pretty colors to choose from I always have a hard time deciding what to put in my cart. I finally decided on Maui and We Are The Music Makers. (mini size). I also ordered some cuticle balm in lemon scent after reading The Mercurial Magpies review.


I've been using the cuticle balm A LOT. Especially with this cold dry winter weather. The lemon scent is very light. I think I'd like to try peppermint scent next time. It's very moisturizing and dries with powdery feel instead of greasy like most balms.


Maui is a blue and purple duo chrome. It dries with a gritty finish so I used Seche Vite topcoat. I only needed two coats, really nice formula!



Blue is the prominent color in Maui.

I layered two coats of We Are The Music Makers over black polish, plus topcoat. We Are The Music Makers has color shifting glitter, you'll see green, teal, blue, purple, etc.




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Valentine's Nails: Design 2

Every Friday until Valentine's Day I will be featuring a different Valentine's Day design! Today I used Sally Hansen Triple Shine in Vanity Flare and stamped with Essence Hello Marshmallow & Konad Special White Polish. I used Winstonia Store 1st Gen W102.


♥ Valentine's Day Nails 
• Design 1
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RIP: Dance Legend Sully

Well... I never had this happen... I went to do my nails today for the work week, was unscrewing the cap on my Dance Legend Sully when the bottle split in half... my hands were completely covered in polish and I had to scrub with cotton balls and acetone.

Sigh... I haven't even owned it that long, and I never even got to wear it properly. I only swatched it on 4 fingers. There must have been some dried polish around the lid that made it tough to open and when I twisted the cap the bottle split. I suppose it had a hairline fracture in it from shipping when I ordered it from Llarowe.


RIP Sully... until Llarowe restocks you again someday, if I'm lucky enough to get another bottle... Dance Legend is a Russian brand & Llarowe only gets limited stock, and I'm not paying $19 for a bottle on eBay coming from Russia, when it may get confiscated by customs or get damaged during the long distance. So unless anyone has one lying around that they want to send me, lol. :-p I'll be waiting awhile. Blah....


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Sally Hansen Salon Effects Giveaway!

✯ PR Samples Mentioned ✯

I have a giveaway to share with you all today! And... it's open Internationally!

Last month Sally Hansen sent me some of their polishes to review. Included was the Salon Effect strips. I was sent three different designs to review. They generously sent duplicates of the designs and today I'm sharing them with one lucky winner! I'm also throwing in a limited edition Halloween design that I purchased myself awhile ago.

(To share this giveaway image on Instagram, right click & save). 

The Prizes Are:

Sally Hansen Salon Effects are real nail polish strips that you apply. They last up to 10 days. (If you use a clear topcoat you can get almost 2 weeks wear out of them).


The only mandatory entry is your email address. There are lot's of ways to gain more entries. The contest is open internationally, though you must be 18 or have a parent's permission to enter. I am not responsible for lost or damaged prize packages.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This contest will run until February 14th, 2014, 12:00am EST.

P.S. If you're having trouble entering by Rafflecoptor Form, click here to email me your answers and I will input them into the form myself.


Please make sure you're sharing the image below on Instagram for the extra entry! ;-)
(To share this giveaway image on Instagram, right click & save). 

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Valentine's Day Nails: Design 1

Every Friday up until Valentine's Day, I'm going to feature a different Valentine's Day design. Today is Orly Miss Conduct with Winstonia Store plates 1st Gen W102 & 2nd Gen W207. One coat of Seche Vite topcoat. They are so sparkly in person! 


♥ Come back next Friday for another Valentine's Nail Art design! 

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Sally Hansen: Complete Salon Manicure

✯ PR Sample ✯

Today I have some Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure colors that were sent to me for review by Influenster. I was sent three different colors: Red My Lips, Pat on the Black and Jaded. I own a lot of different Sally Hansen nail polishes but this is the first time I've tried the Complete Salon Manicure line.


Red My Lips is a gorgeous bright red color. Formula was just right. Not too thin and not too thick. For real life you could get away with just two coats. Under the bright lights in my lightbox I needed 3 coats. You don't really need a topcoat because it's glossy on it's on, but because I stamped I used HK Girl Fast Dry topcoat and stamped with Winstonia Store 2nd Gen plate W207.


Pat on the Black is a deep dark purple color. I don't own any purples this color. Another great formula. You could definitely do two coats and be opaque, but for pictures I did 3 coats, plus HK Girl Fast Dry topcoat. I stamped with Winstonia Store 2nd Gen plate W203.


Jaded is pretty aqua green color that reminds me of China Glaze For Audrey. I did not like the formula on this one. It was way too thin. I needed 4 thin coats to get it opaque. I tried doing thicker coats but it would just bubble on me. You have to be careful because as I was applying coats, the coat underneath would drag and streak. HK Girl Fast Dry topcoat and Winstonia Store 2nd Gen plate W201.


In each Complete Salon Manicure bottle you get:

• Base Coat
• Strengthener
• Growth Treatment
• Color
• Top Coat
• Chip-Resistant
• Gel Shine

Have you tried any of the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes? What did you think of them? 

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Zoya Magical Pixie: Holographic PixieDust


I have another press release to share with you today. The Zoya Magical Pixie: Holographic Pixiedust, Spring 2014 collection. These will be released in February.

I'm really excited about these new pixiedusts. They look beautiful, but I'm also curious to see how Zoya pulls off the holographic part. Will they have the same texture of the original Zoya pixiedusts? Or will we see something similar to Essie Bulgaria? What do you think?


Zoya Magical Pixie - a new PixieDust formulation, amped up with spectacular sparkle creating the most magical, Zoya PixieDust ever! Three new never before imagined textured, holographic beauties for spring 2014... 


 ZP717 - Cosmo: Silver Crystal Sparkle, Textured PixieDust with Mega Hex Iridescent Particles, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP718 - Vega: Blue Opal Sparkle, Textured PixieDust with Mega Hex Iridescent Particles, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP719 - Lux: Rose Quartz Sparkle Textured PixieDust with Mega Hex Iridescent Particles, Full Coverage Formula.

$10.00 ea. (US)

For BEST RESULTS when applying Zoya PixieDust: apply 2-3 thin coats of polish for full coverage to a clean oil free nail surface. Allow product to dry completely for full effect. Do not use a base coat or top coat. Top coat can be applied for additional glossy effects. 

Shipping February 2014 on Zoya.com. 

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Hand & Nail Care

I wanted to share some of the products I use for hand & nail care. I took the photos with my Galaxy S3 and while they may not be perfect quality, they do the job. All items were purchased by myself.


I had been using Lush Lemony Flutter but I used it all up and I didn't buy more because I don't really like the scent. The Pig & The Peacock is an Etsy store that sells all natural handmade soaps and lotions. I love their solid hand lotions. They have already made scents in their shop. Lemongrass & Eucalyptus is a custom order. They have a soap that scent that I loved, so I asked if they could use the same scent for their solid lotion. (If you do a custom scent you have to buy the whole batch of 4 for $16.) I put this on every night before bed.

You rub the solid bar between your hands a few times and then rub your hands together. This is a deeply moisturizing lotion. With shea butter, avocado oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil. It feels a little oily at first but within a few minutes absorbs. Love love love this lotion.


I keep the Badger Balm cuticle care in my purse usually, to rub into my cuticles during the day at different times. It has different oils in it, including mandarin oil. The rosemary and mandarin oil are most prominent in the scent.

I mainly use CND Solar Oil right before I take nail photos. I rub it into my cuticles really well so it's not too shiny. I actually got this brand new and half price on eBay for $5! I really love it and would definitely get another when I run out. 


L'Occitane Verbena Hand Lotion is pretty much my everyday hand lotion. I do a splurge once a year at L'Occitane and this is one of the items I always buy. I can get a good years worth out of this container. I love the scent of this lotion. It has a citrus lemon lime scent with a hint of ginger. It's a nice light everyday lotion.


My Mom gave me my original Revlon nail file years ago in my early teens and I didn't need to buy a new one until about 5 years ago. They pretty much last forever. I've tried all sorts of nail files and I always come back to this one. Plus I love the sharp tip for cleaning out underneath your nails. It looks like they've changed the handle and the name since I last bought one, but they are still selling them. Revlon 34510 File.

The Sally Hansen nail clippers, my husband just gave me this past December. They have a neat plastic guard on them that prevents your nail clippings from flying all over the place, lol! Plus they are super sharp. They are called the Sally Hansen Clip n' Catch.


And last but not least I recently got OPI Nail Envy: Dry & Brittle formula. I don't really use base coats so my nails have staining and the tips have started to peel a little bit, so I started using OPI Nail Envy to prevent those things and help the overall health of my nails. I've only been using it 2 weeks now but the peeling is already much better.

What nail & hand care items do you use?

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Kindle Fire HDX WiFi Issues.


I wanted to blog about an issue I've been having with my Kindle Fire HDX 8.9". My HDX will periodically drop the wifi connection, (but still show it's connected with a perfect signal). Webpages won't load, Apps will say I have a connection problem and to check my wifi. It's completely frustrating because for a few hours it will behave, I can surf the net just fine. But then it will start acting up dropping the signal every few minutes (even though it's still showing it's connected to a perfect signal). I have to manually turn the wifi off/on to reset the antenna. Or switch airplane mode on/off. Which gets old real fast when it does it 5-6 times in a row!

I know it wasn't our home router causing the issue, because the same issue would happen when I used my T-mobile 4G internet through tethering and when I used public wifi hotspots. The HDX would just drop the signal while I was in the middle of looking at webpages. (Just to be sure, a few times I did restart our home router but that didn't resolve the issue).

This has actually been going on for a few months now. It started off as a minor annoyance and I guess I was hoping it would somehow be resolved through a system update. Doing a hard reset, (holding the power button for 20 seconds, then restarting the device) did not help. Restoring the device back to factory settings did not help either, and that was the last resort because it wipes out all your files. I did that last night, and today it was still having the same issue.

I finally got fed up and called Amazon tonight, but the CSR I got had a very hard to understand accent and I don't think either of us was understanding the other. So after I hung up I jumped on the Amazon.com Help page and started a chat session with another CSR. I thought maybe they would understand the problem more if they could see it in writing. After some troubleshooting, they are sending me a replacement device that should be here Monday and I have to send back my defective one.

I think maybe the internal antenna is defective, after doing a search on the Kindle Forums, I've found a few others are having the same exact issue. I really hope the replacement they send resolves the issue or I'm not going to be very happy. I had no issues at all when I owned the Kindle Fire HD, it's only the HDX that I'm now having issues with.

EDITED TO ADD: Replacement Kindle HDX just arrived this afternoon (1/12/14). So hopefully this one doesn't have the same issues. We'll see. Thank goodness for warranties.


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