Showing posts with label Nail care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nail care. Show all posts

31 July 2012

Nail Care Challenge #3 - Top Coats

Oh, I'm so late with this one...but I had to pack to come to my parents house for the month of August and I was left with no time to blog.


This week's theme is top coats. Being honest, I don't have that many, and for a long time I didn't wear any, but my nail polish would never dry and lots of times I would paint my nails in the morning and wake up the next day with some awful bed sheet marks.

These are the only top coats I have:


Claire's Top Coat - My first top coat. It is plain awful! It never fully dries and I would wake up every day with marks and dents on my nails.

Mavadry by Mavala - My second top coat and the first of the fast drying kind. It's really really good! My nails would dry in less than a minute and all my problems with bed sheet marks were gone. I used 2 bottles of it and the only downside on it is that it gets really tick and hard to apply once it gets around half full, and it's price... :S It would cost me about 13€ a bottle, which is a bit too much for my wallet.

Seche Vite - The holy grail of top coats, my favourite top coat ever, the best thing ever invented! xD Ok, seriously, I love this! It dries sooo fast, as soon as I finish applying it on my right hand, the left one is already completely dry, it gives my nails a tick and shiny look and, as Mavadry, it doesn't drag my nail art when I apply it. I get it for $4.25 a bottle (if my memory serves me right) on transdesign.com. Good thing about it is that as soon as it starts to get goopy and tick, you can add a few drops of Seche Restore (sold seperately) and you're good to go.

Kiko 3 in 1 Mat - My matte top coat of the moment. It's perfect! Works wonders on making your nail polish completely matte and it can be even used as a base coat for matte or pastel colours (makes application a bit easier and less streaky). I used to have Gosh matte top coat (mine is nowhere to be found, I have no idea of how I lost it), but it didn't work this good, it would only leave my nails with a rubbery look.

Purple Super Dry - This is a new one for me...I was looking for an alternative to Seche, wanted something a bit easier to get and cheaper if possible. This cost me 3€, it is available close to me, and it is fast drying! Sounds promising, no? Well, it did to me...until I tried it...It's not that it's bad, it really isn't, but comparing it to Seche, it just didn't measure up. :S I like that tick and shiny look that Seche gives my nails and this one is lacking on that department. It's thin, not so shiny and I had some dragging while trying it over some stamping.

That is it for now, sorry that I'm so late on this, but I really didn't have any time to do it earlier.

Don't forget to check all the other girls' posts. 

Tuli @ Prettifyournails 
Bárbara @ Betty Nails
Maggie @ Maggie Nails
Leticia @ omeubloggermiasol






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20 July 2012

Nail Care Challenge #2 - Cuticle Care

And it's already week 2 of our nail care challenge, time is going by so fast lately! I feel like I don't have time to do all that I want...but let's get on with this week's topic. 


I have to be honest, I'm lucky with my cuticles! I neglect them sooooo many times...it's sad, but I only remember they're there when they start to dry out. xD So, I'll just post a photo of what I have and how I am supposed to be wearing them. Here we go!


Jandaia Cuticle Oil - this one I TRY to apply it after doing my nails. We all now acetone isn't a really good friend to our cuticules and dries them out if you aren't careful, so I try to apply this oil every time...but that doesn't really happen, I forget about it most of the times. xD It does its job, like all oils it can take quite a bit to be completely absorbed.

Granado Cuticule Balm - all of the Granado products I'll be showing were a gift sent by the mother of my dear friend Leticia, she brought them with her when she came to visit from Brazil. This balm is amazing! You're supposed to put it in your cuticules 2 to 3 times a day and lazy me only does it once every other day,  but I guess that's enough for me. It really moisturizes my cuticles and it's completely absorbed in a few minutes. You don't have to sit around waiting for it to go away or anything like that and it won't leave any residues between your cuticule and nail like so many other balms.

Granado Cuticule Cream -  this one is supposed to soften your cuticules so the removal process is easier. I don't cut my cuticules, but I use this whenever I want to push them back a bit, and that happens once a week or so. 

Essence Studio Nails Fast Cuticule Remover - MIRACULOUS cuticule remover! Best one I've ever tried, it removes all excess skin in a few seconds! I tried this on my boyfriend today, he has horrible cuticules and he bites his nails, so I asked him to try and fix them a bit and he let me do it. His hands looked soooo much better after a good cuticule clean up and some nail filing. If this did wonders to his cuticules, it really is miraculous. Ah! I use this every 2 weeks.

Andreia Cutile Remover - Do not like this one, does nothing to me...

Apart from all these I have tried Mavala's Cuticule Remover and that one is ok, it does it's job well, I had no complains, but it's so expensive that I stopped buying it.

Guess this is all for now! Don't forget to check all the other girls' posts. ^^
Tuli @ Prettifyournails 
Bárbara @ Betty Nails
Maggie @ Maggie Nails
Leticia @ omeubloggermiasol


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13 July 2012

Nail Care Challenge #1 - Base Coats

Hey girls!
For the next 4 weeks, every thursday I'll be taking part of this nail care challenge created by Bárbara over at Betty Nails. I've been wanting to talk about my nail care and the products I use for quite a while now, and this challenge is the perfect excuse to do so.


So, this first week is all about base coats, what we use right now, used before and would like to try.

These are the ones I'm using right now:


Risqué Base Fortalecedora (strengthening base coat) - This was my only base coat for years and years! It's cheap, it does help to keep your nails strong, but at some point I felt like my nail polish would chip too fast and other times it would bubble and I blamed the base coat. Now I only use this on my feet.

Essence Pro White Nail Hardener - Sucks as a base coat! I wore it under China Glaze Atlantis and 2 days later the nail polish completely fell off, in one piece, like I was losing false nails or something. Tried it again under Barielle Elle's Spell, and again, it was a complete fail! Painted them at night and they were chipped the next morning, I couldn't even take photos of it. -.-' But althought it sucks as a base coat, it really whitens the nails. My nails were looking a bit yellow but they really improved after wearing this! I forgot to take a photo of the before, but this is how they look at the moment (with base coat):


Kiss Diamond Hard - My go to base! I absolutely love it! My nails used to break and peel a lot, but ever since I started using this, all my problems were gone. They only break when I hit them hard or use them as a tool. I noticed that they started growing a lot faster then before and I usually take off my nail polish after 4-5 days of usage with no chips.

Right now, I'm using my own mix of Diamond Hard with Pro White! xD My Diamond Hard was getting difficult to apply, but the bottle still had quite a bit that I didn't want to throw out, and since I didn't really like using the Essence base coat I tried mixing them both together, and it worked! ^^ I know have a base coat that whitens my nails, keeps them strong and doesn't chip on the next day! What more could I ask for?

Other than these base coats, I also tried Mavala 002 Double Action, but my nails got really yellow while using that one, and Mavala Nail Shield, but I felt no difference while using that one. They belonged to my mom (that's why I don't have them here with me for photos) and she really saw some improvement on her nails while using the Double Action base coat, so maybe I just didn't use it long enough to notice any changes.

As for the base coat's I'd like to try, they are O.P.I Nail Envy and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength, but they're both so expensive here that I have no idea of how or when I'll be able to get them.

That's all for today and here's a list of all the girls taking part of this challenge:

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