Want healthy looking nails?

Happy Monday lovelies!  Today I wanted to share with you how I took my nails from looking like this....

horribly short and terribly unattractive

To looking like this....

long (perfect length for me) and uniform and perfect for painting or going natural

I have always had pretty bad nails.  I was a big nail biter all growing up, it wasn't until I was a grown adult that I kicked that habit.  As an adult my habit became chewing on the edges of my nails, I wouldn't bite them off, just gnaw on them.  Gross, I know.  I started to realize that if I painted my nails I wouldn't be as tempted to put them in my mouth.  Painting my nails led me to the realization that my nails were SHORT!  I tried to grow them out but my nails were so thin and flaky from all those years in my mouth that they just didn't grow well at all. I asked around a lot as to how to remedy the situation and people recommended a few different things, but the product that helped my nails out the most was OPI's Nail Envy for Soft & Thin nails.  I swear by the stuff, absolutely can't live without it.

The Soft & Thin formula of Nail Envy is chuck full of Calcium to help strengthen your nails.  So not only are my nails much stronger and grow better when I have this on, they are just healthier and stronger all together!  The packaging recommends that you apply 2 coats of Nails Envy and then apply an extra coat every day after that.  I did that at first and then I backed off a little.  My routine now is to use it as my base coat before applying my polish.  If I'm not wearing polish then I just apply one coat and have beautiful glossy nails.  Oh, that another great thing about this, it dries so quickly.  There really is no wait time for it to be dry enough to paint over or dry enough to do things with your hands again.

I hope this helps you if you have been plagued by nails that are less than stellar in the strength department like me.  You can get OPI products at places like Ulta, Peerless Beauty Supply, or many salons carry them.  I think it is sold for about $15 give or take some.

<3 / Roo

NOTM: Wallis

I have a new favorite nail polish color and it is Butter London's Wallis. I have had this color for ages and finally used it for the first time the other day. It is gorgeous! Green is kind of my go-to polish color. I really gravitate towards them, I have a million, but this one is extra special. It is kin of a moldy green but it is awesome. It is a mix of light green, dark green, and gold. LOVE IT!!

<3 / Roo

My favorite summer toes!

I have a go-to polish for my toes this summer. It's Shocking Pink by China Glaze. I LOVE IT! It is a super neon girly pink. The formulation of this polish is awful. It is streaky, takes a million coats, and dries very matte. All that said, I still love it. Throw a shiny top coat on it and all is well! Another great thing about this polish is it helps you look more tan, that's a plus for me.

So of course this is the polish I chose to get my toes beach ready tonight. We are super excited to be leaving for Los Angeles and IMATS on Tuesday!!!

<3 / Roo

Hi. Don't Hate Me.

Heyyyyy, guys.

I feel kind of silly posting after...oh...months. :/ I thought I would have more time after school let out, but in reality all my time and energy transferred to working 40+ hours at my job. If it's not one thing, it's another, right? But I don't want anyone to think I don't care about this blog/channel and I feel horrible Randi has kept this thing afloat without me. (Sorry, Randi!) She's the best.

But I'm here and ready to contribute! So, without further blah-blah...here it goes:

This is one of my favorite polishes--Fowl Play by Orly

It's such a beautiful mixture of dark purple base and chunks of multicolor glitter. I love that it has the depth and sophistication of a darker polish, but it's still interesting and fun with the glitter. The formula is a amazing, too--one coat and it's opaque. Boom. Gotta love that!

And another combination I'm LOVING lately is OPI's Dollface with Sephora's Pot of Gold.

I'm so sad that this didn't photograph as well as it looked in person.  It was such a lovely, feminine neutral.  I ended up repainting my nails the same combo after it had chipped.  That never happens, people. Never. That should speak to this combo's level of awesome.

Okay, that's all for now. I'll be back very soon with other things I've been loving. Until then! 

xo, bee

NOTM: I'm All Ears

OPI's newest collection is Minnie Mouse inspired. I believe there are 4 colors in the collection. This is the only one I picked up.

The quality of this polish is great. Opaque in 2 coats, super shiny, and very sparkly. That being said, I don't like it on my fingernails at all!! It is just too much and too childish. Maybe if I was 10 it would seem okay. However I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of it on my toesies. Perfect color for summer toes.

What colors are you guys wearing lately???

<3 / Roo

NOTM: Pinta and Chloe

Oh my goodness, I apologize for the serious nothingness that's been happening on the blog this month. I have been so incredibly sick all month, just recently starting to improve. Hopefully I can get back on track soon. Look for a giveaway on our YouTube channel soon.

Now on to the nails....

Today's color combination was brought to you by my five year old. He really wanted to pick my nail polish last night. Initially he picked Zoya's Chloe, the orange flake topcoat. Then I let him pick another color for a base. He went for Zoya's Pinta, dark purple. Interesting combination that I probably wouldn't have come up with, but I like it. The orange and green flakes are a fun contrast to the purple. I can tell you the flakes are a HUGE pain in the butt to get off, but they're fun once in a while. So there you have it, finally a new post.

<3 / Roo

NOTM: Pacific Blue

Okay, so this is a nail polish I want to RAVE about, oh my goodness. Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue nail polish rocked my world. I LOVE it! The color is fantastic. It is so bright and shiny and it is a really unique shade of blue. I got so many compliments on my nails when I wore this color. But not only is the color wonderful, the formulation is great too. It goes on thick but not too thick so it's easy to put on and seems to only need one coat (even though I did two, it's a force of habit). If all of the above weren't reason enough to run out now and buy it, how about one more reason? It costs all of $2.49 or something close to that. Holy crap, best deal on nail polish ever. Go get it NOW!

<3 / Roo

Oh and P.S. I have OPI's Last Friday Night on my ring finger.

NOTM: Bitter Bitch

Tom Ford's Bitter Bitch, I really like this polish. It is such a unique color, a dark reddish brown. Tom Ford polish is about $30 a bottle. As I mentioned before I can't justify $14 on polish, so $30? No way. This was a gift from a very generous friend for Christmas. I doubt she'll ever read this blog, but if she does THANK YOU AGAIN M.

This polish is rather thick but it works. It applies beautifully, two coats makes it perfectly opaque and shiny. It was so shiny (in part to my topcoat) that it was hard to get a picture that didn't have such a glare on the nails. I have one other Tom Ford polish, a nude. Obviously I'll do a NOTM when I wear that one next.

Do I think anyone should spend $30 on a nail polish? Sure don't. But am I happy I have a couple? Very!

<3 / Roo

NOTM: Anne

Today I tried one of my newest polishes, Julep's Anne. I got an April Julep box, which is a monthly subscription service that focuses around nail polish. I got it for an awesome steal, $.01! You literally can't beat that. I filmed a video today and you can see what else came in my box when I post that. I believe anyone can get the same deal at julep.com with the promo code "penny". Their boxes are regularly $20, which I can't justify so I just canceled the service once I got the box.

Anyway, back to the polish. I liked this color in the bottle. A bright purple... soo up my alley. I really like it on my nails too. It is shiny, very opaque, and and the color is pretty. The bad news is I HATE the consistency of it. It is incredibly thick and rather hard to paint on my nails. I like the color now that it's on but I don't know how often I'd deal with its crappy consistency to wear it. I've heard good things about Julep polishes, so maybe the consistency of the other colors is better. Julep polishes retail for $14, which is a lot to spend on nail polish in my opinion.

I couldn't decide which picture I wanted to use. I don't feel that either picture shows the true color of the polish on my nails. The pictures look more blue than purple. The bottle of polish in the non-flash photo looks pretty accurate. The picture with flash shows just how opaque and shiny it is. Neither picture is perfect but they show different things.

<3 / Roo

NOTM: Gaga For Green

Today I let my five year old pick out my nail polish color. I was leaning towards a coral Essie color, but Hudson picked this green color and I went for it. I love green nail polish, seriously love it. The green OPI polish from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection (can't think of its name) is probably my favorite green polish. I like this China Glaze one too. The color is bright and perfect for Spring. The formulation is good. I'm happy with Hudson's choice. I put some OPI Rainbow Connection on my ring fingers. I'm really into having an accent nail these days.

Enjoy your weekend guys!

<3 / Roo

NOTM: Dannii

Again I decided to use one of my colors I hadn't tried yet. I thought this Zoya polish looked fun, pretty, and Springish. I loved it when I was applying it last night. The consistency was so nice that it was a breeze to paint on. It has gold shimmer in it which I like. But after looking at it on my nails all day, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I can't figure out what's bugging me about it, but something is. Tell me what you think.

And P.S. The semester is ending for Britt and me this week so expect a whole lot more action on the blog and our YouTube channel in the future. I have so many ideas ready to go and am excited to finally have time for this again.

<3 / Roo

Nail of the Moment: Cute as a Button

I had my eye on Butter London's Trout Pout since the day the Spring collection landed itself at Ulta. When I got my Dermstore promo code in MyGlam last month I knew I wanted to get that polish, but it was seriously back ordered. Since I'm impatient and didn't want to wait, I ordered other colors instead. I kept my eye on the polish and was close to just giving in and splurging on it until I heard Allison (aka. Amarixe) mention that Essie's Cute as a Button was almost an exact dupe. Well sign me up! $4 for a polish (since I'm licensed) instead of $14, yes please. So I searched for Cute as a Button and was quite happy when I finally got my hands on it.

Decided to give it a shot today. I like the formulation. It is the perfect consistency. Not too runny, not too thick. It is very opaque after two coats and it is very shiny. Great Spring/Summer color.

<3 / Roo

Nail of the Moment: My Pointe Exactly

I practiced self-control the other day when I checked out the new OPI New York Ballet collection. Of the six new colors I only picked up two. I got My Pointe Exactly (light gray) and Barre My Soul (an incredibly soft pink/beige). The colors in the bottle look like they could be quite sheer so I didn't have high hopes.

Tonight I decided to try My Pointe Exactly. The first coat went on so sheer that Hudson, my 5 year old, looked at it and said it was the dumbest nail polish ever. "I can't even see it," he said. The second coat made a surprising difference. It's late and I'm tired so I didn't do a third coat but it might be a good idea with this one.
I wanted to add just a little something extra so I did a coat of One Less Lonely Glitter from Nicole by OPI on my ring fingers. I like the combination.

<3 / Roo

Nails of the Moment: Kim-pletely in Love

I was in the mood for something soft when I painted my nails this time. I decided to try one of the Nicole by OPI Kardashian collection colors I picked up. I blew this color off at first because it looked like just any other pretty light pink. But upon closer inspection it has the prettiest subtle purple sparkle in it. You can't see the sparkle unless you look closely. I was happy to see that the sparkle is just as subtley visible on my nails as it was in the bottle, you don't see it unless you look close but it's there.
It's a pretty color. It's nothing overly special but I'm glad I got it. It didn't disappoint.

<3 / Roo

My Week in Photos

Hey, guys.

I have this habit of snapping a bunch of pictures on my phone throughout the week but I never actually do anything with them. That's a darned shame, don't you think? Because these pictures are mostly things that amuse me. So, I decided that I'm going to be doing a weekly post that's dedicated to unloading these gems...hopefully they make you smile, too!

St. Patrick's Day meal. Yeah...that's Chinese Chicken Salad. But hey! It's green.

I'm not usually one to take pictures of my outfits...and post them. ha. but I wore my husband's shirt for an entire day because I was too lazy to do any laundry. :/

Meet the deliciousness that is Keller. He loves pizza. And just food in general.

He looks a bit like Chris Farley, no? "Lay off me, I'm starving!!"

Church is so much better with an adorable distraction. He LOVED my phone and changed my background to zebras in .5 seconds without me realizing it. He's basically a technology wizard.

I bought new sunglasses that I was so exited about..until they left crater-sized indents on my face.

And finally a beauty related picture! This is China Glaze's "For Audrey" with Sephora by OPI's "Pot of Gold" on my thumb and ring finger. This polish was such the perfect color of Tiffany's blue but it was such a disappointment as far as the formula goes. I don't know if it was just my bottle or the polish in general, but it was so thick it became difficult to maneuver. Bummer since I usually love China Glaze. Oh, well. C'est la vie!

Hope you guys like the pictures! What do you think...should this be a weekly thing?

xo-bee

Nail of the Day: My Private Jet

Hey, guys!

So, tonight's nail of the day is OPI's "My Private Jet." I LOVE this color!! Randi and I went to the beauty supply store and I was just browsing through the OPI polish and locked eyes with this beauty:

 It was love at first sight. 

I feel like these pictures don't even do this polish justice.  It is such a unique color--in certain light it looks brown, in others it looks gray, and it has the perfect amount of subtle multicolor sparkle.  I've only had this polish for a day and it's rapidly climbing my favorites list.  ha, ha can you tell I'm slightly obsessed? Yikes. Anyway, I highly recommend purchasing this color.  You guys won't regret it!

xo-bee.

China Glaze Hunger Games Collection

I don't know about you, but I am SO excited to see The Hunger Games. It opens in less than 2 weeks, yeah! I've never really jumped on any of the huge-following movies (like Twilight, Harry Potter, etc.) but The Hunger Games, I am a BIG fan! So as soon as China Glaze's Hunger Games collection came out, I had to see it. The colors are not what I would normally gravitate to in the Spring, to me they are more Fall colors. That being said, I did pick up 6 of the 12 colors in the collection. I picked up Fast Track, Foie Gras, Agro, Harvest Moon, Smoke and Ashes, and Luxe and Lush.

L to R: Luxe and Lush, Foie Gras, Harvest Moon, Agro, Fast Track, Smoke and Ashes

So this is Foie Gras. A great dark brownish taupe color. I think it is showing up just a little more purple than it really is. In person it looks a bit more brown. It is a super opaque polish that almost doesn't need two coats. It goes on so smooth and evenly. It is a pretty color too.

Here is Fast Track with Luxe and Lush on top. Fast track is a goldish tan polish with tiny gold sparkle/shimmer. Once on your nails the gold sparkle really shines through and becomes what you see most. I wasn't blown away by this color, but it is a fun neutral color.

This terrible picture is Agro. I was really surprised by how much I loved this color. It is extremely shiny green polish with lots of shimmer. The next picture with Luxe and Lush on top does a better job of showing its true color. It was nice a thick and barely needed two coats. Love this!

Luxe and Lush is not my favorite of the bunch. I have been wanting to try a flakie glitter for a while, so I was excited to get this one. It is just so thick and goopy that it is hard to put on. It also doesn't deposit much of the glitter on my nails. Probably won't be using this one much.

So this is Harvest Moon. It is a shiny copper color. To me it looks just like a shiny new penny and just screams Fall. It will be the perfect nail polish in November.

The last one I got from the collection is Smoke and Ashes. LOVE THIS POLISH!!! The picture just doesn't do it justice. I've looked around online and can't find a picture that really does do it justice. It is a blackish blue polish with green shimmer, but it reads black unless you look closer. The green shimmer is great. So for me this is the real winner from the collection.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the colors I chose. The one exception being the Luxe and Lush glitter. That was a fail, but you win some and lose some. Like I said, Smoke and Ashes is my favorite. Runner up is Agro. I'm trying to decide which one I'll wear to the movie later this month. Oh, and Brittany has Riveting (the bright fiery orange from the collection), so I'll make her post a pic or something once she's sporting that one.

Let me know if you've picked any up and what you think of them. And please, click the link to the right to follow our blog and please go subscribe to our YouTube channel. I know we are a little slow getting started but trust me, we are so excited and ready to get this thing going! Join us for the ride, will ya?