Take it to the next step - Shellac

I only heard about this recently from a friend - Shellac. The nail polish like no other that stays nice for weeks longer than your regular nail polish. If you haven't heard about Shellac, here's a little more information on it.

Shellac Nail Polish

Why is this polish so desired?

Shellac Nails lasts up to 14 days without losing shine, breaking, chipping, or smudging. Even more amazing is the removal process. It is a 1, 2, 3 miracle. Shellac Nails comes right off with application of acetone.

CND (Creative Nail Design), the leader in professional nail, hand and foot beauty, is proud to introduce the first hybrid nail color after nearly five years of development in its state-of-the-art laboratory. Now you can say good-bye to chips, smudges, and dry time and say hello to Shellac™ Hybrid Nail Color! This revolutionary product applies like polish, wears flawlessly for 14 days of high gloss shine, and is removed in minutes.

Information courtesy of google 

My friend Ashley and I decided to go out and have a girls day yesterday. I haven't had one of these in forever. I hardly ever get to pamper myself, mainly because it's my choice to just save my money or use it on more appropriate things. We ended up going to Happy Nails Salon & Spa. There prices were pretty good and we had planned on just getting the basic mani & pedi for $35 and then adding the paraffin wax extra. Of course, the owner thought otherwise and talked us into spending $60 and also going with Shellac. Over an hour later, paraffin wax and hot stone treatment, we had adorable nails and were $60 broke. haha. Guess that's the price you pay for pampering yourself. I was nice enough to double check with the boyfriend if it was okay for me to spend that much. My original plan was to go to the place his mom gets her nails done and pay $25 for a mani and pedi and just skip the wax. Oh well.

Overall I'd have to save that I'm pretty impressed with my nails but I don't think I'll be going to that nail salon again. My nails didn't come out as perfectly as I had hoped, Ashley got skipped on the wax part because her nail ladies were too busy on their iphones texting and when I asked to have zebra print on my toes, the lady did a flower -_-.

Ashley picked the color [China Glaze] and I don't remember the name of it but it's a pretty coral color with a bit of a shimmer/sparkle to it. It went on really light and the lady had to do about 3-4 coats to get it a bit darker for me. I'm not sure if I like this color or not but I do know I don't care for the flower. lol.

Here are my finger nails with the Shellac. They didn't have too many pretty colors to choose from so it was either this one (to sorta match my toes) or a really bright, neon pink. My nails kind of remind me of Dorothy's Ruby Heels in The Wizard of Oz. haha. I'm not sure if I like the color or not. In the picture it looks a little red but it's actually pink. The boyfriend didn't like the color at all lol. He said it was too sparkly. I have to agree lol.

Ashley ended up getting a french tip shellac instead of doing a color and her's turned out pretty good. We were both amazed at how well this polish stands up to the everyday beating.


Have you used shellac nail polish??

Apothica Products = Giveaway Prize [Picture Heavy]

Hi Ladies!! I hope you all are doing great today! So recently I won a giveaway for a $25 giftcard for Apothica.com. The lovely Christine over at Makeup, Beauty & Fashion did this giveaway and I was super lucky to have won it. Now, it did take me FOREVER to figure out what products I wanted to try out. I'm absolutely excited for the items I received because they are just what I wanted. 

[Love my kitty girls picture in the background? hehe]. Here are the products I received. The one on the far right is a sample I received. I actually received two samples but the other one had a hole in the tube so there was nothing inside. Oh well.

From left to right: theBalm: Read my Lips in Gossip, Essie's Knockout Pout and Some type of masque.

Both the lip stick/blam and the nail polish are a beautiful shade of pink. I'm really in a "pink" stage right now. Almost anything I want or craving is pink! 

 The lipstick is the most gorgeous shade of pink ever! Plus it kinda has some sparkles in it. Score! =] Not only is it a beautiful shade of pink but it moisturizes your lips while adding a subtle pop of color.

 

 Next product I got was the Essie Knockout Pout. I have seen a lot of beauty guru's with this nail polish and I had admired the color for quite awhile, just never got around to purchasing it. Well, figured this was a good opportunity to give it a whirl. I love it! Even though I haven't gotten to use it yet. I will do a post shortly with it on my nails.

 Okay here is the only sample I was able to keep since the other one leaked out. This is supposed to be a masque but I really don't think there's enough in here to cover my face. Plus look at the green color! I would look like a swamp person lol. I might give it a whirl anyway cause it's a sample and I'm always down to try new products.

Here are some swatches of the lovely lipbalm/lipstick [still not sure what to call it specifically] and the lovely Essie knockout pout. Aren't they beautiful?

 Here's a swatch of [Gossip] on my hand. It's beautiful!! To get the above swatch color I rubbed the lipstick in the same area about 5 times to get it to be that dark. It's very subtle but very pretty.

I hope you all enjoyed the products I got from Apothica. If you'd like to check their website out click here.

XoXo Katie