I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Have you done anything fun or exciting? Me? I've done a lot of work... And I'm still not caught up. My husband is always telling me that I need to find something to cut back on because I'm driving myself too hard, but I don't even know what I would cut! Wait... Let's be honest... It'd totally be my day job if that were possible, but, alas, I do have bills to pay...
Aaaaaaaaaanyway, I wanted to talk a little about New Year's, my mani, and my resolutions, hopes, and outlooks for the new year. I'm not one to really do resolutions, but there are a few things that I know I really need to work on this coming year. That being said, here is my list of resolutions for the coming year:
Have a more positive outlook. Stop living in the past and regret and start living in the now! Keep a positive outlook and more positive things will follow!
Better manage my time so that I have enough time for all of my jobs as well as time for my family and friends and time for me.
Work harder on getting my brand name out to the public so that maybe, just maybe, I can actually quit my day job and pick up something less stressful on the side of my polish business.
Get back on track with a blog post every day and have more sustained interaction with readers.
Actually sit down and write again.
Work on being a healthier me - physically, emotionally, and mentally!
What about you? If you do resolutions, what are they going to be for this year? Do you usually accomplish your resolutions? I'm about 50/50 on mine when I actually make them, but I usually feel that if I have a goal, why wait until the new year to start it? Ok, let's take a look at my New Year's Eve mani! Tonight, I'm going to be wearing two new shades from my Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer collection - 2014 and Resolutions. Let's take a look! Be prepared for picture spam, and as always, click on the photos to see them in more detail. 2014 2014 is an electric periwinkle with an icy blue to vivid purple shift with a sprinkling of blue to green iridescent glitters. Please note: my photos show this polish pulling more purple than blue, but it is actually more blue in person. The purple shift is showing up more strongly in the photos than the blue, but they are fairly even in person.
It's got an average thickness that needs between two and three coats for full coverage. Here, I've worn it with three coats and a coat of Gelous on top for shine. Dry time was a bit on the longer side, but I attribute that to not using a quick dry topcoat for these photos. These photos are in artificial daylight.
Below are photos from the romantical glow of my refrigerator light so you can see the shift a little better.
Resolutions Resolutions is a glitter topper that is made up predominantly of black hexes and tiny stars in a heavily blue shimmered base. Other glitters in the mix include neon blue and neon pink hexes in varying sizes, sugar plum hexes in varying sizes white squares and rectangles, neon green diamonds, and banana yellow and watermelon dots.
It's a bit sparse in one coat, so make sure to add an extra coat for fuller coverage. Otherwise, you'll get much less glitter on the nail than normal glitter bomb toppers. I designed this polish this way so that it wouldn't be overly thick and clumpy. Here, I've shown one dabbed and one swiped on coat over 2014 topped with only one coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top.
Most of the photos have been taken in artificial lighting, but here are some crummy photos taken with my phone (sorry for the terrible quality), in both low light and in overcast sunlight.
So, there you have it! What do you think? Is it festive enough? I think it looks like a party on your nails, personally, but I may be a bit biased. You can win these two polishes in my Happy New Year Giveaway here or in the New Year's Resolutions Giveaway here and here (yes, there are two threads, so enter your resolutions on both for more chances to win)! Otherwise, they will be up on my store tomorrow, 1/1, at 3 pm est! I hope you all have a very happy and safe New Year's Eve!
Ok, first just a quick reminder to enter the New Year's Giveaway that you can read all about here. There are a lot of really awesome prizes to win, so make sure you enter before New Year's Day! Down to business! Here are my nails just after I finished doing Naked November.
Left Hand
Right Hand
As you can see, the skin around my nails has vastly improved. After experimenting for a month to see what skin care products would work best for me, I found that Lush Lemony Flutter is my holy grail. It smoothed the dry skin, plumped the weathered skin, and helped eradicate the tears and frays. MASSIVE CAVEAT HERE: Remember, not all products work the same for all people. Much like with topcoats, cuticle and skin care is highly dependent on your skin type and your body chemistry. I've tried so many cuticle products, but I've never seen results quite like this. The Lemony Flutter has also helped to restore the moisture in my actual nails as well, which, as you may recall, was sorely missing before I embarked on this challenge. I'm pretty sure that the lack of moisture was a larger cause for my damaged nails than even the damage caused by picking my polish or the havoc wreaked on them by Rejuvacote.
As you can see in the comparison above, most of the damage has grown out, the skin has smoothed, and my nails look much healthier and happier. The sad part, though, was that my thumb with the bubbles hadn't grown out completely, which caused my nail to break super far down into the quick. If you see any of my photos on my Facebook or IG pages, you'll see that my thumb is shaped a little strangely. I didn't want to file it all down to the meat, so I chose to take only that corner off. And because of the problems I'm still having from tears, I've also decided to change my nail shape to rounded until I can get them built back up. I'm not a fan of round on myself, but I just have to get over it if I want long and healthy nails! I mean, I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, right?
So, what do you think about going without polish for a month? Could you do it? Do you think that it helped me gain healthier and stronger nails? I'd love to hear your thoughts below!
Ok, so tonight's post will be mega-self serving. If you're not into that, just skip tonight's post and come back tomorrow where it will be back to business as usual. Tonight, I wanted to give you guys a heads up to the goings-ons over at Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers. So, let's get down to it! First, there will be a full restock of all current polishes, the Winter Collection, which you can see here, and the New Year's Duo on 1/1/2014 at 3:00 est. The New Year's Duo is not a 10 bottle limited edition. It will be available throughout the entire month of January. There are still a few discontinued polishes available right now, but there aren't any guarantees that they'll still be there in two weeks!
Second, I will be restocking the final three polishes in the Holiday Limited Edition series tomorrow, 12/18/203, at 9:30 pm est. The shop will be in maintenance mode until then so I can make sure everything is all cleaned up and ready to go. Remember, there are only 10 bottles a piece for sale of these polishes, so grab them while you can! Ok, let's take a look at them! Guided by Starlight (Christmas)
Guided by Starlight is a white crelly polish packed full of silver and gold metallic and holographic glitters in hexes, squares, dots, diamonds, moons, and stars and a light dusting of iridescent glitters. This polish is a bit thick by design in order to keep the larger glitters suspended, but you may want or need to add in a little bit of thinner. This is three coats without undies, a layer of Lynnderella Glitter Tamer, and topped off with KBShimmer's Clearly on Top. Surprisingly, this polish is a bit of a topcoat eater, so you may need a thicker layer of topcoat or an additional thin layer. Dry time is average, and the larger glitters did require a bit of fishing. Granted, my tester bottle is a mini, so the full sized bottles might not have the same issue.
Newborn Solstice Sun (Yule)
Newborn Solstice Sun is a deep ruby red jelly with silver and red holographic micro glitters. This is two coats without undies, a coat of Lynnderella Glitter Tamer, and finally topped off with KBShimmer's Clearly on Top. Dry time was average, and, as you can see, it reaches full opacity in two coats. Reds tend to stain on me, both the skin around my nails and the nail itself, but NSS wasn't a stainer on me. However, it's a definite topcoat eater, so be aware of that. Dry time was quick, and the glitters were easy to spread. I hate mini bottles because of their crap application, so I can't tell you if the base is too thick or not. You may need to add in some thinner, though.
Matunda Ya Kwanza (Kwanzaa)
Matunda Ya Kwanza is a lightly purple tinted polish with a bright rainbow of glitters in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You can use the dab method to get a more opaque look, or you can swipe across the nail for a more sparse look. These photos show MYK as one coat over Color Club Pucci-licious on all fingers except the ring finger, which is three coats of MYK alone. I added extra topcoat, Glitter Tamer and Clearly on Top, but it's not really necessary for this polish. Dry time was a bit on the longer side, but that could be because I'm impatient and didn't wait long enough between coats. Be aware, though, that if you wear it alone, as with most glitters, it will be a giant pain to remove.
So, there you have it! What do you think? Did you guys enjoy this series of polishes? If you miss out on the chance to purchase these polishes, they are their own prize in my New Year's giveaway! Make sure you enter here! Don't forget to follow my Facebook page, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers Facebook page, and my Instagram, and remember to be over at BEGL headquarters at 9:30 pm est tomorrow night to purchase the remaining Holiday Limited Editions!
