Influenster Holiday VoxBox 2012

Hey everyone! I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive a free Holiday VoxBox from Influenster. It came right before Christmas, so I didn't have time to really enjoy it right away.

 

In the box, there was a Goody Quik Style Microfiber Paddlebrush

This brush does cut down the drying time on my hair, but I don't love it. I think that if I had it in a normal brush, I would like it better. I am just not a fan of huge brushes. I do find that it is also hard to make fibers fluff back up after getting wet. If anyone has one and has tips to fixing this issue, let me know!

There was a set of nail sticker decals

 

I have her used these things or had the desire to try them. I just don't see spending the money for one manicure when I can do hundreds with one bottle of nail polish. I also prefer to do nail art that is one of a kind. But, since the ones I got we're gold and glitzy, I thought I would try them for New Years Eve. I actually was surprised with how easy they were. It was kind of nice to have a fancy manicure with no dry time :) One con was that they seemed to wrinkle over time. The photo i took was on day two of this manicure. those wrinkles weren't there on day one. This could be 100% due to user error, though. I followed the instructions and it went so much faster than expected! But I may have stretched them or something and it caused them to wrinkle. The other con was removal. It says to just peel them off. But it made some of my nails peel. Not bad, but enough to bother me. I wonder if a base coat would have prevented this, but the directions said to apply to nails cleaned with alcohol or remover, so I used nothing as a base. I can't say if they really would last for 10 days or not. I had them on for 3 and one did tear at the edge a bit. But I can't look at the same nails for 10 days :)

There was an NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine in #582.

I couldn't find an actual name anywhere on it, but it is a shimmery nude color. Really pretty alone or over a lipstick. I really like it so far. It isn't sticky at all. I am not sure how long it lasts yet because I have only worn it once and didn't really test it.

There were also a couple of food items in my box:

This Eboost energy drink was quite honestly....awful. I hate to say that about anyting I was lucky enough to receive, but it was. I couldn't even get past one sip of it. I got the Pink Lemonade, which is a popular flavor in my house and not one person was willing to take more than a tiny taste of it. I can't say if it had any benefits or not. I understand that everything can't be super yummy, but this had the worst taste and an even worse after-taste. Wouldn't even consider paying $39 for 30 packets.

 

Now the Quaker Real Medleys Oatmeal was SUPER yummy. I love oatmeal anyways, but this was the best I have ever tried. I love that it is in a cup and you just need to add water. Works great for me to take to work. I can just add hot water and enjoy my breakfast right in my office :) Will definitely be buying more of these!

 

Finally, I received a coupon code for Sole Society for $25 off my first pair of shoes. I love shoes and they have some fantastic ones! I am for sure going to do some shopping with them! I originally thought that this was an exclusive code for those of us that received this box, but I just saw Influenster post it on FaceBook today. So, I will share with all of you! INFLUENSTER25 is good until January 31, 2013.

 

Again, I want to thank all of the companies and Influenster for letting me participate in the Holiday VoxBox!

**disclaimer: these items were all sent to me for free. The opinions are my own, I was not paid money to do this review. Some of the photos were borrowed from the company websites**

Neon Swirls

So, my daughter and I went to Michaels the other day and she bought some neon acrylic paint in pink, yellow, green and orange. I immediately started thinking about a possible manicure using them. Please excuse my very stained cuticles. If someone has a tip to get black Konad polish off after stamping, I would love to know. This stuff is so MESSY and difficult to remove from skin and cuticles!

I base coated my nails with one coat of China Glaze white. Then I used a tiny paintbrush to paint a pink swirl in the center of each nail. Then, I added the yellow, green and orange around it to create a swirl pattern, almost a tie dye effect. When it was dry, I painted a coat of Northern Lights silver holographic over it. This helped blend the colors a bit more and give me a good base for stamping. Finally, I stamped over each nail using BM 203 and Konad Special Polish in black. It is hard to see the subtle shimmer of the Northern Lights, but it is sooooooooo pretty in person! I love this stuff when I just want a little 'kick' to my polish.

Thanks for stopping by!

Braided Nail Art

I am seeing this new braided nail art technique popping up on Youtube. I thought it looked like it might be fun to try. I, in no way, am claiming that I came up with this idea.  I am just sharing my results. All of the videos I have watched did a full manicure with the technique. I didn't, for two reasons: I don't have time during the week to do that kind of labor intensive technique and I think it is way too much for all of my nails. I chose to just do accent nails.

This is in the shade:

This is in sunlight:

Now, this was very easy to do, but HOLY COW is the polish thick when you are all done. I think I will wear this tomorrow, but I will probably take it off tomorrow night. That is, if it doesn't just peel off my nails on its own! It makes my nails look acrylic and since my nails are natural, I prefer them to look that way :) Thanks so much for stopping by!

Polish I used:

Jessie's Girl All Things Girly and Mermaid Lagoon

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Silver Sweep

Sunday Nails

I always do a full manicure on Sunday mornings. This is the one day I make time to do my cuticles and nail treatments. The rest of the week, I change nail polish as I feel like it :) Never on a particualar day. Today, I decided to not do the normal brighter summer colors I would usually do this time of year and actually try my OPI Just Spotted The Lizard.

 I got it when it first came out, but to me it is more of a fall color, so I haven't used it yet. It is the only one of the Spiderman collection colors that interested me and I really wish it looked as good on my nails as it did in the bottle. Of course my pictures are awful, I really need to figure out how everyone else does such great pics of their manicures!! This polish is so sheer! I am thinking I may see what it does layered over another polish in the future.

I did three coats of base color. Then I stamped just the tips (this was my first time using a french manicure stamp...little tricky to get lined up right) with Konad black special polish and Red Angel plate 101. Finally I used Seche Vite for a top coat.

 This picture was done inside. You can 'kinda' see the coloring shifting from green to gold to blue. I can actually see it better here than I can in real life! lol

These next two pictures are done in natural sunlight. It was hard to get a good picture in bright light because that is when the superfine microglitter shows up.

All in all, I like this nail polish. Not a huge favorite of mine. I am hoping that the new China Glaze Bohemian collection colors are better than this one. I don't see myself reaching for this one alot.

Thanks for visiting and stop by again!

If you have any requests, suggestions or feedback, I would love to hear it!

**edit**
Okay, so after wearing this nail polish for a few hours, I have to edit this post. I have decided that this polish DOES have a cool effect that I wasn't seeing before. I guess I was hoping for the colors to all show when just looking at it, but I realized that when I move my hands I do see all of the colors that show in the bottle. I should have videotaped it, but will try to show you with these two pics:

This one is just when looking straight at the nails in natural light. There is no flash, they are just so shiny that they pick up the small amount of light coming through a window. They are goldish-green.

Now, when I tilt my hand forward, they totally turn teal blue. I kept my pinky up to show the difference, ignore that it is out of focus. lol

So, I am beginning to like this polish more after further examination.