Zoya Color Lock System Review

Over the holidays, my local Younkers had the Zoya color lock system mini set available for $15. I passed up on it several times, but months later it was still there, so I decided to get it. Since the store doesn’t carry any other Zoya products, I figured this would be an affordable way to try the entire system.

The mini set came with the Remove+ polish remover (used up), Anchor base coat, Fast Drops drying drops, and Armor top coat.

I have to give these little bottles credit in that they are ideal to travel with and so far have lasted a long time, and I’ve barely made a dent in them.

Now for the review. Did this make my nail polish stay on longer? Yes and no. It certainly made my Zoya polishes stay on longer, especially when reapplying the Armor top coat every other day or so. That said, I would only recommend this for use with Zoya’s nail polish, not other lines.

If you use this with other brands, your nail polish will chip like crazy. I am not going to call this a “con” necessarily, just something to be aware of.

I do like that this entire set dries quickly. As for the drying drops, they didn’t really wow me at all to the point where my polish was noticeably drier faster.

I will not be purchasing these in the full size, but do like them for my Zoya shades. Also, I will definitely keep buying the polish remover, as I love it!

What do you think of the Zoya color lock system? Have you tried it?

Hard Candy Peach Pop

This spring, speckled polish was all the rage! I love this trend and picked up several from the Hard Candy line, including this one called Peach Pop.

Hard Candy has several polishes that are great alternatives to the more expensive speckled lines, like Illamasqua and Deborah Lippmann. It should be noted though that these will not last nearly as long on the nail, at least they did not for me. Unlike Illamasqua and DL, when the Hard Candy speckle polish chips, it comes off in one large chunk instead of just a small chip here or there. For $4 though, this isn’t a complaint.

Peach Pop is a great orange shade packed full of pink, orange, and silver glitter. I used two coats here, though it would probably look even better with three! The glitter does not interfere with application either.

For the price, I think these are great polishes to have fun with, especially if you change up your polish frequently.

Essence Gel-Look Top Coat Review

Rhoda does not endorse this top coat!

I was really excited to try the Essence Gel-Look Top Coat, since there are so many “gel” top coats coming out onto the market. At $2.49, this is definitely not a bank breaker, and I have used and enjoyed other products from the brand.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

This sealing top coat is absolutely essential if you’re looking for long-lasting style. Thanks to its glossy texture with staying power and enhanced shine, it keeps all types of nail decorations in place and provides an extra-shiny finish to make unique styles stand out even more!

Some have touted this as being a dupe for Seche Vite, so let’s cut to the chase: definitely NOT. This top coat is terrible, sad to say. I’m glad I didn’t pay much for it, because I don’t see myself using it ever again! Why? Well, it definitely doesn’t deliver “XXXL shine”, but that isn’t my biggest complaint. This does NOT dry. Ever. Many reviewers have stated that they let this top coat dry for hours, only to go to bed and wake up with sheet marks. I let the top coat sit on my nails over two thin coats of polish and six hours later it was not dry. It was like I just painted my nails ten minutes ago. The finish was also not very shiny; it was just average.

This is a classic case of “you get what you pay for.” Don’t waste your pennies on this one! Sorry to be so negative, but this was a major let down.

Comprehensive Spring/Summer Polish Haul!

Hello! Thanks so much for reading this post, and stopping by. I really appreciate it! 🙂 Today I’m sharing a rather large, but comprehensive polish haul, meaning that these are the polishes I’ve purchased in the last three months. In looking at this, I’m realizing that I forgot to add two, but I will mention them anyway. 🙂

Let’s start with the ones I completely forgot to include: Butter London Keks and Torch! Torch is a gorgeous coral/orange with golden shimmer, available from Nordstorm.

Now, I’ll start left to right with the top row of the photo.

Sally Hansen All Fired Up– This is so vibrant! It is a warm red with a tinge of orange. I saw one of my favorite bloggers write about it and it looked amazing on her. Plus, I had a coupon so it was justified. 😉

NARS Versailles– Oh. MY. Gosh. This gold is just flat out sexy. Love.

Illamasqua Hemlock, Pink Raindrops, and Raindrops– Need I say more about these? Cult classic must haves. I’ll be blogging about these soon, for sure.

These OPI shades I was really excited about. The place to buy OPI is at hair salons. I always see them marked down to buy one, get two free, which is a crazy deal. I got Suzi’s Hungary Again, A Roll in the Hague, and Glitzerland!

Now for the second row! That mini bottle of Candy Darling is from a NARS set that was released with the Andy Warhol collection. It’s your standard hot fuchsia!

OPI Charmed By A Snake is one I had to track down online, since it’s from the old India collection. This is a sexy brown/bronze shade.

These two Essie polishes are true cult classics: Ballet Slippers and Fiji!

Orly Beautiful Garbage is a teal holographic glitter polish in a jelly base.

These two shades from China Glaze are from the summer Sunsational collection! Keeping It Teal and Sun of a Peach are both JELLIES! I can’t wait to wear these.

Finally, I have two from MAC: Tropical and Bleu Velvet. Tropical is pure bronze glitter goodness, and Bleu Velvet is a light periwinkle shade. I know MAC gets a bad rap for their polish, but I have had pretty good luck with them so far!

Anything catching your eye?

Sinful Colors Sail La Vie

Sail La Vie is a beautiful new shade from Sinful Colors. It is a vibrant periwinkle color and to me, it looks unique compared to other periwinkles that I have! These polishes are only $1.99 so it’s hard to go wrong with them, since they do last nicely and most of them have easy applications.

I used three light coats of Sail La Vie. The formula is a little thin, but what I just can’t get past with this polish is the SMELL. This smells like straight up skunk. I don’t know if I got a bad bottle or something, but it was not pleasant to apply. Luckily, after it dries and the top coat is on, that smell goes away. At the same time, it makes me reluctant to use it!

Highly recommend the color, but maybe check out the scent first if you can.

Maybelline Color Show Lustrous Lime

I think I mentioned this before, but when I first saw the limited edition, Maybelline Electric Nights Collection, I thought the colors looked boring. After purchasing one of them (Coral Glow), I ended up getting a couple more while they were on sale. These polishes may not look like much in the bottle, but on the nail they are stunning! They definitely live up to their name, “Electric.”

Lustrous Lime is a very vibrant, yellowy green. This is actually an old manicure that I never posted, so this polish may be difficult to find now since it is limited edition. In typical Maybelline fashion, they seem to release all of their best stuff as limited edition products! 🙂 I like this shade and it is a unique green compared to the other shades that I have.

Impress Nails Review!

Awhile back, I was browsing around Rite Aid and found a set of Impress Nails marked down to just $2. The design was pretty enough, and I figured they would be fun to wear when my nails certainly broke down to little nubs again. 😉

The set I picked up are these pretty pink leopard and lace nails. Upon purchase, I completely thought these were just regular fake nails with nice designs on them. I was definitely wrong! These are not your average fake nails. They aren’t cheap looking and they aren’t hard or scratchy. The edges are smooth and the actual nail is very flexible.

Impress claims:

• No drying time
• Superior, lasting shine
•  Easy removal
•  Lasts up to a week

So how did they perform? Well, on me they did not last a week, but the wear time isn’t bad either. On the second day I lost just one nail, but the pack comes with extras, so I was able to just pop on a new one. I do like how easy they are to apply. They don’t have any glue, and just stick right onto the nails. I also didn’t need anything fancy to take them off; I simply pulled them off with a little elbow grease. 😉

The sizes were of good variety, but I do wish there were more smaller ones, or maybe a set for petite nails. I have small nails and have always had trouble finding ones that are a perfect fit for me. This isn’t a complaint really, just something I noticed while replacing nails that fell off.

For someone like me, I think these nails are best suited for special occasions or even a long weekend rather than daily use. I really like them and enjoyed wearing them!

So You Want to Stop Biting Your Nails…

Hey everyone! I have a different type of post today, all about quitting that nasty habit of nail biting. It is not easy, is it? For YEARS I listened to my mom nag me about my nails and how disgusting they looked (Sorry, Mom..you know it’s true!). When I got married, the photographer wanted the typical “hands” photo and I flat out said no because of my short nails (not that I wanted that shot anyway…). Then about a year and a half ago, in January of 2012, I finally kicked the bad habit of nail biting. Here are some tips that worked for me!

1- It’s all about willpower and wanting to stop. It was very difficult for me to quit biting my nails. I had to make the decision to quit biting them, and it was torture at first.

2- Start reading nail blogs, or start one of your own! This was huge in helping me to quit biting my nails. There are some truly beautiful nail blogs out there with many talented nail artists.

3- Create a Pinterest board for inspiration. This was the biggest part that helped me to quit biting my nails. I wanted MY nails to look like what I saw on Pinterest!

4- Buy nail polish in your favorite colors. I had some nail polish but only painted my toes with it. I purchased a few bottles of Essie and the rest is history!

5- Be comfortable knowing you might slip up. You might go back and chew off all of your nails sometimes. You might chew off one. That’s okay, but don’t give up!

6- Know it will take a long time to develop healthy nails. This has been the hardest for me. My nails are still pretty weak from biting them all those years, but they are improving. Taking biotin helps them, and of course eating a healthy diet filled with veggies and greens! Still, they aren’t perfect and it will probably be a long time before they are where I want them to be, if ever!

7- Be happy with the nails that you have. My nails are never going to look like a hand model’s (hee hee…I just wanted to use the phrase ‘hand model’), and they probably won’t look like some of the amazing blogs that I read, but I’m okay with that. I was always jealous of my best friend’s nails while we were growing up, but since I quit biting I can enjoy mine even though they aren’t perfect. 🙂

I hope this was helpful! If you want to quit biting your nails, you CAN do it!

Butter London Hardwear Top Coat Review!

Allow me to introduce you to my current favorite top coat: Butter London Hardwear. I actually received this for free with a purchase as a special deal. Alone, it is $19, but it is also available as part of a double set called “Tops and Tails” that includes a base coat. The set is a much better value at $25. I haven’t tried the base coat, but will probably invest in the set at some point when I need it (definitely not any time soon).

This contains .6 fluid ounces of product, and so far I am about halfway through the bottle despite having been using it for about six months! The best part is that it is still fluid and NOT thick. That’s something I hate about Seche Vite, and Nubar Diamont does the same thing, but not as bad. Another thing that bothers me about most top coats is that the brush doesn’t reach the bottom, making it impossible to actually use the product up because the brush dries out. As you can see in the photo, you can actually use all of this up!

Now for performance: This top coat works well with of course the Butter London brand, but also with other polishes. When I wear this, my polish doesn’t chip at all, but still get some tip wear, which I think is normal with any top coat.

The odor to this top coat is also not that strong, which is nice. I recommend this if you are in the market for a top coat!

Butter London Keks Comparisons!

As promised, here is a comparison post with Butter London’s newer blue shade, Keks. None of these are dupes for Keks in color or finish, but I thought this would be helpful for those wondering about different shades.

I included Slapper first, because I saw someone asking about it on another website; it is definitely not in this type of blue family and lies in the teal family.

Revlon Colorstay Coastal Surf is much lighter and has a glossy finish. Shelter Island from Essie is not nearly as opaque and is also lighter. Perhaps the most similar shade is Revlon Lagoon Afternoon, but it is definitely not a dupe.

The differences in these blues are a lot more prominent in real life; on the screen they don’t show the clear distinction between them due to the lighting! Still, the finish of Keks really stands out here. You can see the semi-matte rubber style finish.

I hope this was helpful! 🙂