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With the Essie Luxeffects Collection, Glitter Is a Shine of the Times

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Essie Luxeffects

The other day at the grocery store, I got to chatting with the cashier who was helping me. She was sporting one of the cutest sparkly manicures I’d seen in a while, and when I told her how much I liked it, she replied, “Aw, thanks! Since I have to wear a uniform every day, I like to do something to spice it up.”

Amen to that! Working for Tabs, I also have to wear a uniform of sorts — you know, sensible shoes and clothes that show I’m responsible enough to handle midnight gravy runs, and other crucial cat-assigned tasks. To spice things up this week, I plan to wear something from Essie Luxeffects.

The new collection of nail polishes launched earlier this month with five glittery shades ($8 each), and WOW! — what a surprise. I think of Essie as a pretty conservative line, so it’s neat to see them take a detour down a sparkly path.

The glitter flecks they used for these polishes, which are designed to be worn alone or layered with other lacquers, come in different shapes and sizes, from larger hexagonal flecks to tiny round ones smaller than a grain of sand, and the variety creates the illusion of depth and dimension.

The collection includes…

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Essie Luxeffects from the left: As Gold as it Gets, Shine of the Times, A Cut Above, Pure Pearlfection and Set in Stones

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Set in Stones
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Remove Glitter Nail Polishes Quicker With This Little Trick

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A tip to remove glittery nail polish

I love glittery nail polishes, and I suspect that you may love ’em, too. Lately, I’ve been having a blast with glittery ombre manicures, which have taken my lacquer love for glitter to whole new levels, but they’ve also opened my eyes to a downside of having so much glitter on my nails…

It can take forever to remove!

I can usually remove non-glittery polishes in 2-3 minutes, tops, but getting the glittery ones off can easily take me 10 minutes or more.

Until last weekend, my technique for removing glitter polishes involved soaking a cotton pad in an acetone nail polish remover, wrapping the wet pad around each nail, and then massaging the moistened pad around the nail for a minute or so before firmly sliding it from the base up to the tip. Sometimes, I’d have to repeat the process three or four times per nail to get them nice and clean.

Then, last weekend, I stumbled upon something that really helped move the cleaning process along.

It was Saturday night, and I was just about to remove my sparkly Raiders mani my normal way when I decided to hop in the shower first (three words: hella greasy roots).

After the shower, I moisturized, got into my jammies and sat down on the floor with my polish remover and cotton pads.

I started going through my regular routine, soaking and massaging a moistened pad on the first nail, but this time it was working much better than usual. On some of my nails, I only had to repeat the process once; on others, the first pad did the job.

A process that usually takes me 10-15 minutes ended up only taking 5 — still a little longer than usual for non-glittery nail polishes but a big improvement nevertheless.
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Give Yourself a Glitter Ombre Manicure to Support Your Team on Thanksgiving

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I stopped by a UPS Store to mail a package last week and received an unexpected compliment from the guy working the counter. He pointed at my glittery red and gold ombre manicure and said, “Atta girl! You’re wearing 49er colors.”

Go Niners!He said that his wife, a long-time Niners fan, would probably love to wear a mani like that on game day and asked if it was hard to do.

“Not at all,” I replied, and I walked him through the process as he prepped my package.

FYI: Talking nails with a big, burly UPS guy is weirdly entertaining. About halfway through the process, his eyes took on the same glazed, confused look that El Hub gets when I try to explain why it makes perfect sense for me to own 15 pairs of black shoes…

That’s when I suggested that the guy have his wife visit MBB. 🙂

If you’re a sports fan, Thanksgiving also means football! — a fun excuse to 1) paint your nails in support of your team and 2) give everyone around you something sparkly to look at while they heap mashed potatoes on their plate (YUM!).

To match the 49ers, I used red and gold shades from China Glaze and Lippmann.


Polishes from the left: China Glaze Champagne Bubbles, Lippmann Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?, and China Glaze Ring in the Red

So, Mr. UPS guy, this one’s for you and your wife! 🙂

Kickoff and the start of the first quarter

Let’s start by applying a clear base coat to even out the surface of the nail, and then brush on three layers of your background color, in my case golden Champagne Bubbles by China Glaze.


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What Are Your Weekend Beauty Rituals?

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During the week, I’m usually too busy catering to my fussy tabby’s redonkulous demands (where, pray tell, does one find an XXL Gucci cat snuggie??) to catch up on my beauty maintenance tasks, like hair plucking and nail polishing (like, where I paint all 10 fingers in the same shade, as opposed to the single-finger technique I use a lot for swatching), etc., etc.

So it’s only on the weekends that I’m able to take care of many of my beauty rituals. Things like…

1. Hair masks

I’ve been wearing my wavy hair straight a lot lately, and if I’m not careful, the heat from all of the flat ironing and blow drying will do a number on my locks.

Doing a hair mask over the weekend seems to quench my coif’s thirst, and lately I’ve been turning to Lush’s $19.95 H’Suan Wen Hua Hair Treatment, which I like to use right after I finish my Saturday or Sunday run.

As soon as I’ve caught my breath, I’ll comb the treatment through my hair from roots to ends, put my hair up in a ponytail, and let the mask do its moisturizing thing while I do my stretching, eat a post-workout snack, and putter around the house.

When I finally jump into the shower, I keep the ponytail on while I lather and shave. Then, I’m finished with my body stuff, I take out my ponytail and rinse the mask away (it smells like pumpkin pie!), before shampooing and conditioning. After everything, my hair looks and feels about a million times better — soft and shiny.

2. Face Masks

Because of the moisture-sapping cold outside and the heater running almost non-stop inside, my face has been totally parched, so I’ve started to use a weekly June Jacobs Intensive Age Defying Hydrating Masque ($80), which hydrates the heck out of even the driest patches on my forehead and around the corners of my nose.

Like I do with hair masks, I like to apply face masks right after a run, when I know I can let it work for 30 minutes to an hour before I hop in the shower. Then once in the shower, I try to leave the mask on as long as I can to let the warmth and humidity in the air open up my pores, making it easier for the product to absorb into my skin.

3. Exfoliating scrubs

Ah… There’s nothing quite like a good scrubbing to get my skin baby soft, and I’ve been de-crusting lately with Borba’s $28 Firming Micro-Diamond Body Polish. Borba calls the tiny grains in it “prismatic micro-diamonds!” — which just sounds very cool to me. I’m sure there’s nothing diamond about them, but they scrub like the dickens without rubbing my skin raw.

The product contains glycolic acid, green tea, colloidal oatmeal, aloe and cucumber to scrub, soothe and firm. Teamed up with these $3 exfoliating gloves from EcoTools, it’s a skin-scrubbing dynamo!
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If Your Time Is Worth More Than $1, Don’t Miss These E.L.F. Eyes Lips Face Nail Polish Remover Pads

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elf nail polish remover pads (1)

Nail lacquers better look out! There’s a new sheriff in town, and he brought a case of these of amazing E.L.F. Eyes Lips Face Nail Polish Remover Pads.

A dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, but someone forgot to tell that to E.L.F. With the exception of that travel pouch of emergency Nutella in my purse (no judgement), these are the best $1 products I’ve seen in a while.

A beauty obsessed pal of mine recently raved about pre-soaked nail polish remover pads, saying that they saved her a ton of time and kept her nails and cuticles in good condition, and WOW! — she was not kidding.

For removing non-glittery nail polishes, these are the shiz! One pad takes care of the whole kit and caboodle for me — base coat, top coat and multiple layers — for all 10 fingers.

Glitters, on the other hand (no pun intended) are a different story. I tried to see how these would handle my recent glitter ombre mani, and although the pads put up a good fight and cut through most of the sparkly stuff, I still had to use four of them to finish the job (there are 18 of them in a pack).

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elf nail polish remover pads (3)
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Feast Your Eyes on the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection

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china glaze eye candy

Oops! I just misspelled my Google search term. I meant to type “YouTube kittens,” but I accidentally typed “Ryan Gosling abs.”

Don’t you hate it when that happens? 🙂

The Internet can be so distracting. It’s easy to get so busy Googling important things like Ryan’s abs that you miss the really important stuff, like all of the glittery nail polishes appearing this season.

The stuff’s been showing up everywhere! — but after a certain point, it all starts to blend together, like house music at a three-day rave (duh-chuh-duh-chuh-duh-chuh!).

No worries. Eye Candy, the latest collection from China Glaze, can simplify the process of finding a glitter polish that’s both flashy and classy. The six-piece collection was inspired by Marilyn Monroe and utilizes a special variety of glitter called GLITTER (in all caps).

GLITTER is basically exactly like glitter, only sparklier, and because of it these polishes sport so much sparkle that they look like they’re about to explode! But at the same time, they’re bright, light, and to me don’t seem garish.

NOTE: There’s really no such thing as GLITTER. I just made it up.

China Glaze says that the “innovative glitter technology” they cooked up for these creates a “3-D effect.”

That’s marketing-speak for “these polishes are flashy and all up in your grill!” With that said, they might not appeal to ladies on a strict mani/pedi diet of Essie Ballet Slippers.

All six Eye Candy shades showcase glitter in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors in a clear formula. My favorite? — flashy Marry a Millionaire, which sets thin, confetti-like strips in green and teal against a backdrop of purple micro-glitter.

Hot, hot, hot!

I swatched Millionaire and its siblings this afternoon using two layers, and without a base or top coat.

china glaze eye candy

china glaze eye candy
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What Are You Wearing on Your Nails?

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I felt like doing something a little different and festive with my nails this weekend, so I tried a glittery ombre mani using a base of bright Lancôme Mini Les Vernis lacquer in Shade 102 ($15), topped with glittery China Glaze Twinkle Lights ($6).

I only did my tips, so my toes are currently bare and, I might add, resemble monkey feet, LOL! 🙂

Mini Les Vernis in Shade 102
Lancôme Mini Les Vernis in Shade 102


China Glaze Twinkle Lights, Snow Globe and Icicle

How about you? What are you wearing on your nails?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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