Ornament nails inspired by Design Seeds!

Hey guys! Today  I have another collab mani for yall today! My friends Danele, Marcella, Aly and I decided to do one more collaboration before the end of the year. We decided to do ornaments based on the Designs Seeds Palate at the end of the post!



I used sooo many polishes for this mani, all OPI!

base: I Vant To Be A-Lone Star (2 coats)
shimmery topcoat: Happy Anniversary (1 coat)
ornament colors: OPI Scores a Goal!, Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It, Koala Beary, Skull & Glossbones
gold: Love.Angel.Music.Baby
white: Alpine Snow 

whew! 8 all together!

For the ornaments I just used a dotting tool, no special technique!





Design Seeds color palate

Aggies Do It Better Favorite Things Giveaway 2014!

Howdy! Today' blog is all about the giveaway I'm running over on Instagram! It's not to celebrate a certain number of followers or anything like that, just something fun for the end of the year! All of these items will be given to one winner, chosen at random, on New Years Eve! Yay! If it goes well I would like to do this every year!

This is a compilation of almost all my favorite things I have been using this year and as I'm coming to the end of my first year of this newly-launched blog ( I guess I can't say new anymore!) am still loving!

Note: Everything in the giveaway except for a couple things where noted was purchased by me! :)


First up is a full size 15ml bottle of Danele's oil that I blogged about earlier this week! You can see my review of it here. This bottle of the scent Glazed Christmas Cookie (my FAV) was donated by Danele for this giveaway :)

Cuticle Glaze oil

Next is a brand new box of Orly Nail Rescue! I recently discovered this stuff and it has saved me from so many disasters! Everyone needs it!

Orly Nail Rescue

This is the only cuticle remover I use. It lasts forever-I'm still on  my first bottle and I use it about once a week! It has really made a visible difference in how my nails look in pictures.

Cuticle Remover

Here are some more supplies from Sally's that I love. In addition to my crystal file I use these blue and pink ones daily! the blue one is really good for taking down length. I use these orange sticks to push back my cuticles with the remover above and scrape the excess off, and just anytime they need to be pushed back. They also have many other handy uses!

files and orange sticks!

Let's get on to the polish, shall we??? The winner will also receive the full OPI Gwen Stefani polish collection! (not including the separate boxed polish)!!!

OPI!

The winner will also receive this EPIC package of nail vinyls from Glam my Mani! Marlene was generous to donate 9 sheets of every design you can think of! I've used her vinyls several times and they are awesome :)

Nail vinyls

A few fun little extras...I love that sequined file (maybe I should keep that....hmmm)

bling

The winner will receive Seche Clear basecoat, Sally Hanson Insta-Dri topcoat, and China Glaze Ghoulish Glow glow-in-the-dark topcoat plus and elf concealer brush that so many of us use for cleaning up polish around the cuticle areas!

base and top coats

I also have a well known addiction to lip balms...here are my favs tho! Chapstick Cake Batter and The Body Shop lip butter in Shea!

lip balms

This is also a product I could not have lived without this year. The winner will receive a full size bottle of Batiste dry shampoo in cherry, my fav of all the scents!

dry shampoo

Lastly a cute black sequined cosmetic travel bag! yay!

travel bag

Cuticle Glaze oil review!

Hey guys! Wow! It's been a while :( My last published blog was over 2 weeks ago!) It feels longer than that. Right from Christmas I just got super busy preparing for the holidays and getting gifts for a Secret Santa Exhange I was in (do yall want a full post on that?) and just the way life seems to explode with business when December 1st hits. Then last Tuesday I decided to trip and break a bone. my poor toe. My first broken bone ever! And THEN 2 days later I came down with a crazy stomach virus that kept me in bed all weekend. Sheesh! So I'm way behind on things and I won't be back to blogging super regularly until after the holidays, probably. But I have a few up my sleeve!

Today I have a review! My friend Danele over at Low Country Lacquer started tinkering with oils this summer and came up with a really awesome cuticle oil! She gave some to me and a few others to try out for a while. And let me tell you, it's awesome! It's all I have been using pretty much since then.  She has finally decided to start a business selling it and SO that's where I come in to tell you how fantastic it is. Be sure to read all the way to the end for a surprise!

Disclaimer: the oils for this blog specifically were provided by Danele for me to review. My opinion is my own and can not be bought with cookies or wine or polish. So trust me if I start babbling its my HONEST opinon :)




Her oil comes in 2 packages... an 11ml roller ball tube (plastic) and a 15ml glass bottle dropper.
Scents you can choose from are: Unscented, Glazed Christmas Cookie, Glazed Lemon, and Sugar Glaze. She sent me an unscented (dropper) and Christmas Cookie (roller ball).

(fyi...the original bottle she sent me was also the Christmas Cookie scent. It's no wonder I was hooked)



Here are what my (unpainted bleh) nails look like after a weekend of malnourishment and a morning of running errands in the cold. Shame on me!



This is what the roller ball looks like.



To apply with roller ball, just swipe over cuticle area in half-circle motion. I have to say, the oil comes out quite well in this roller ball. I have one other (off-brand) roller ball oil and I have a hard time even getting the thing to turn! So slather it on, don't be shy!



For the dropper, you can either pinch up a small amount and dispense like this...



or like this. I usually do it with my hand facing me.



Then just use your other hand to massage it in. Use half circle motions around the base of your nail. If your nails are also free of any type of polish or base coat rub it into your nail too! It will absorb and is really good for your nail plate. I usually lay it on thick and rub the rest of it into  my hands.



Yall. I promise I wouldn't say this is awesome if it isn't. Fun fact: since I've had her original prototype since the summer it is what I use to hydrate my hands right before I take pictures of swatches. It absorbs quickly and doesn't leave your skin shiny  like my Burts Bees Lemon balm does (which I like too, but. Shiny.) So if you've been wondering what I use this is it! As far as the scents go, the Christmas cookie one is my favorite I've tried. The scent doesn't stay on your hands all day like lotion, just long enough to enjoy while you're using it.

Here's the official description of the unscented one:

Hand-mixed, UNSCENTED cuticle oil including: jojoba, avocado, sweet almond, and shea oils. 
No preservatives, not tested on animals. This product contains no fragrance.

And for the Glazed Christmas Cookie:

Hand-mixed, scented cuticle oil including: jojoba, avocado, sweet almond, and shea oils.
This fragrance contains notes of caramel, cream, a hint of nutmeg and praline. It also contains base notes of cocoa and vanilla. This fragrance smells yummy enough to eat!  
No preservatives, not tested on animals. This product contains fragrance oil.

**Please be aware of any allergies you may have. These products contains sweet almond oil. **



Here they are, nice and healthy again. ahhhhhhhh :)


 

And guess what! Danele has generously offered my readers a 20% code off your ENTIRE purchase from her store! ENTER CODE: ADIB20  So go there to Cuticle Glaze and pick up some! The glass droppers are $10.75 and the rollerballs are $9.50 and they will last you a long time! I'm only half way through the original bottle I have. But one must have back ups, right? ;)

Thanks and see yall again this week I hope!