31 Day Challenge - Day 16: Tribal Print

Hi Everyone!  I am actually pretty happy with the way my Tribal nails turned out.  I couldn't get a super clear pic of them, but basically the design is a tribal sun, which I painted over a sparkly Zoya color (will update when I find the name!).  I just liked the overall look of it...kinda like a sun with a fiery background.

I know a lot of people went with more Aztec-like tribal designs, but I leaned towards a tribal tattoo-like design.  I guess mine's more like a design than a print, but whateverz.  I was just happy that my nails looked decent this time!  Especially since the last couple looks were full of fail.

But I'm even more excited about the next challenge: Glitter!!!  You know I love me some glitter!!  I have so many to choose from, and a few ideas of how I want to sport them...so I will definitely be posting Day 17 soon.

Just 15 more days of the challenge remain.  I am determined to finish by the end of the year! LOL  I'm almost there...I think I can do it! =)

Anyhoo, till next time!

31 Day Challenge - Day 5: Blue

Hi everyone!  Woot, another post, sent in a timely manner.  Don't I feel on a roll...I think I got to this point last time too, but I am determined to keep it up this year! (Even if I'm starting 4 months into it...hahhaah)

For the challenge, I have this summertime Zoya color called "Breezi", and some Hot Topic polish in a sparkly purple color on my ring finger, all topped with China Glaze's silver crackle polish.

I guess I could take this opportunity to do a mini-review on China Glaze's crackle polish line.  I bought almost every color at Nail Warehouse Supply (they had a special that was buy 2 get one free).  So I bought the white, silver, and pink metallic.  I had already bought the black a week before.  I have tested all 4 colors on a variety of polishes (and am banging my head wondering why I didn't take pics of them!!!).

Here are my thoughts:
1.  You need to put the crackle coat on only after your base color has completely dried.  I had one nail that was kinda wet, and the crackle polish totally did not work out too well.

2.  All the colors seem to have a similar crackling amount, although it looks like Black crackles the best.  Direction of crackle is dependent on which direction you apply the polish.  Also, I find that having a little more on your brush works better, but some people say a very thin coat works the best.  You're going to want to play around with this to find what works for you.

3.  The black works best on light color polishes, especially a metallic silver.  I think that combination just looks the best, in general.  The silver, white, and metallic pink work best on darker colors.  As you can see in my challenge pic, the dark purple just seems to have a better contrast.  I actually had tried the metallic pink over a ballerina pale pink, and it just looked like I did a bad job of applying the polish,  You had to look up close and personal to tell that it was a crackle polish!

4.  I would definitely wear a top coat with this.  The crackle polish is almost matte, and I think it would chip off easily if you don't protect it with a top coat.  This mani lasted me about a week with minimal wear & tear.  Unfortunately the hot topic polish chipped after 4 days (the Zoya lasted a week, lol).

5.  These are relatively inexpensive (I got mine for $5 a bottle...and that one free one, lol).  I'm not sure how much they charge elsewhere, but I doubt it will be more than $8 each.  It's a fun and easy way to give your nails some texture without actually needing to do some tedious nail art (which I miss having the time for!).

6.  Would I recommend it?  OF COURSE!  I absolutely enjoyed wear these polishes, and I got lots of compliments at work (yes even now, a year after crackle has made it back in, hahahah).

I will try to get out some pictures of the different colors and stuff, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Till next time!

My Return to YouTube!

Finally...finally...FINALLY!!!  I've finally posted a video.  Finally.  I haven't posted one since....January.  Isn't that terrible?  I got so caught up in the wedding, then the whole morning sickness fiasco, and then just plain being lazy.  But now, I've got my butt in gear, and I have officially uploaded a video with not one, but TWO designs!  Go me!

Here's the Video:


I have a quick explanation of where I've been, and then two nail designs.  I included a picture of my mushroom nails (from the previous blog), but that was just for fun.

Here's the two looks I created:

Aka JcBelle's Wedding Look #1.  Both of these looks are created from my friend's wedding colors.  Our bridesmaid dresses are a deep wine color.  I'm still playing around w/ the look....

I used: Zoya's Irene; Orly's Vixen; Nail Star's Red Glitter, Green Glitter, and Gold; and Seche Vite's Recondition & Top Coat.

Aka JcBelle's Wedding Look #2.  This time I skipped the "wine" color because I wasn't liking it with the green.  One of her other colors is Chartreuse, which I adore.  The closest I came to it was Precision's Limon. =)

Here, I used: China Glaze's Watermelon Rind, Nail Star's Gold, Precisions's Limon, and Seche Vite's Recondition & Top Coat.

The Watermelon Rind and Limon, I specifically bought for the wedding.  Everything else I've bought a while back.  It felt nice buying new polishes again, even if I don't really have a spot for them, lol.  Maybe I should invest in another rack?  And maybe I should actually hang it on the wall this time.  I have a nice spot behind the door, tee-hee.

At Sally's Beauty Supply, they have a coupon where if you buy two China Glaze polishes, you get a Seche Vite Perfect Nail item for free (a $9.99 value, lol...don't I sound like a comercial?).  I decided to try it out.  So far, I can say I'm really enjoying the Recondition.  I haven't noticed a difference in my nail yet, but it's only been a day.  What I do notice is that the Seche Vite top coat seems to work really well with this as a base coat.  I noticed it completely dried a lot quicker and I can't wait to see if there are any changes in the strength of my nails.  My nails are pretty close to 100% of what they used to be.  Which I am completely thankful for since my friend's wedding is NEXT week.  =)

I also went to Ulta for the first time.  There's one in Pasadena (which I had NEVER knew about, shame on me!), and I was really happy I decided to stop in.  I would describe it as a Sephora that carries not only high end brands, but also drug-store brands.  They had an impressive nail polish variety, although I didn't really buy anything except for Sally Hansen's Color Quick Fast Dry Nail Color Pens.  They were Buy 2 Get 1 Free (a $7.50 value?), so I decided to give it a try.  I bought Coral Pink & Black Cherry, then decided to go with a Nail Art Pen in white as my freebie.

I thought having your nail polish in a pen would give you better control in application...enough to do designs with.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  The brush is actually still pretty big, so instead of doing French tips as my original plan, I ended up doing the whole nail.  On the plus side, doing the whole nail was actually pretty quick.  Here's a picture of the Coral Pink on my mom.  I added some purple flowers to dress it up a little.  She didn't like it...said I didn't make them look nice.  Wtf?  Just ignore the last 45 min I spent on your nails!  LOL

After I was done with her nails, she had me do my aunt's nails.  This time she insisted that I make them look nice.  Whatever that means!  I asked her what design I should do, and she said to just make them look like mine (this was when I was sporting the mushroom nails look, lol).  I decided to forgo the mushrooms, and stick to a double French Manicure.  I think they turned out alright....if a little plain and boring.

Hmm, how would I have spruced this up for myself?  More glitter! LOL!  Kk, maybe not glitter...but rhinestones or something...or flowers.  I have no clue why flowers are my go-to....

I've marked a BeenaPop video as a favorite so I can come back to it sometime this week.  I think I'm going to try a variation of it with the wedding colors...so theoretically I'll have another shot of it.  (Not going to make it into a video when there's already one out there...?)

Anyhoo, much love till next time!

Disclaimer-
1. I bought all the products show or talked about in this blog.
2. No one is paying me or compensating me for this blog.
3. I am not affiliated with any of the companies of the products I used.
4. These are my honest opinions.

Zomg, it's a Post!

Hey blog readers, another update from yours truly!  I know I said I would be back around March, after the craziness of the wedding, but things have been quite hectic around here!  First off, lemme tell ya...the wedding was exactly how I imagined it, and I had such an awesome time!  Thanks to everyone who came!  The reception was crazy, but we managed to scramble by, and we're glad that everything is over and we can move on with our lives!!

Look at the guys in the picture...it's like they're scared to stand closer together!!  But you can tell all the women are good friends...we're all nice and close...hehehe.

So anyhoo, after we got married, I had to move into his place (I have traditional parents who would have frowned upon moving in earlier....), and that took a lot of time and energy.  Technically, I still have a bunch of stuff at my parents' house, but I'll work on that when I start to feel better, lol.  Feel better from what, you ask?  When this stupid morning sickness ends!!  Yes, I'm pregnant...ALREADY.  The curse of marriage is that birth control seems to fail when you finally say "I Do"...as can be attested by a couple other friends of mine who also got a surprise wedding baby.  So now most of my days are spent in bed, feeling nauseous, and disliking a lot of food I normally love.  Like Coke...and onions.  And this baby who used to love ice cream everyday, decided that he doesn't want ice cream anymore..he wants popsicles.  *Sigh*

Anyhoo, here's a pic of what my final decision was for Valentine's day.  I keep using this design, but it's just so pretty!  In case you're new, this design was inspired by 3TanjaJ3's New Year Eve's look.  I've worn this 3 times now: NYE, Engagement Pics, and now the Wedding/Valentine's Day.  I'll probably keep sporting this in different color combinations later on.

For the reception, I just had a plain french manicure.  I got my nails done at the place I used to go before I got into my nail design kick.  They did a pretty decent job, but I didn't bother getting any designs.  At this point, I was just really stressed out with all the wedding planning, and I just wanted an hour to just not think.  My mom got annoyed at me because she spent an extra $2 for the spa pedicure for me.  Hehehe, I couldn't resist.  Come on!  I was about to get married!  Wait, no...I was about to spend a stressful day...doing all the traditional stuff.  Tea ceremony and what-not, the pictures, then the traditional Chinese reception.  Of which, I ate like 2 bites of food in between changing twice and having lots of stuff to do.  At least I got to try the cake...

Well, anyhoo, I mention this because a week after I got my nails done, about....8 of them broke.  I have no idea what they used at the nail place, but my nails obviously did not like them!!  However, with my baby hormones, I have regrown most of my nails...just my pointer fingers both keep on cracking.   =( Bleh!  Maybe in another month they'll all be even again, lol.  So that's one reason I haven't been making videos or blogging.  Although I did get a request for a short nail look...

The other reason I haven't really done any looks is because I really can't stand the smell of nail polish remover right now...so, in the interim, I've decided to grab my fake fingers and do some looks on there for now.  They're still at my parents' house...along with the majority of my nail polish collection.  Maybe I should keep doing the videos there...the lighting is definitely better...plus like 75% of my stuff is there, hehe.

Here's a quick swatch of Zoya's Midori.  It was one of the free polishes from Black Friday.  I haven't had a chance to wear this till right before the wedding.  I can tell because my nails still look beautiful and long, lol.

The color looks pretty close to what's in the bottle.  It has a sheen, but I still prefer it with a top coat.  (This is pictured without a top coat.)

I believe this stayed on for about 5 days before chipping.  But keep in mind, I didn't use the Zoya base coat or top coat.  Supposedly, using their whole system, your polish should last for about 10 days.  I vaguely remember trying to test this, but I got bored of my color and changed it before it chipped, lol.

Here's a couple pictures of me trying out the nail polish from Claire's Accessories  I read on someone's blog (sorry I can't remember who!!) that they tried this "mood nail polish" from Claire's Accessories, so I (of course) ran to the mall to pick some up.  Here's one of the more dramatic ones.  Pictured to the left is how it looks when you're cold...it's a greyish color.  And pictured to the right is how it looks when you're hot, which is a peachy color.  If you're in cool weather, it looks really awesome...like a french manicure. =)  You can kinda see it on my thumb in the hot pictures.

I know it says "mood" nail polish, but I have no clue what mood would be cold or hot. LOL  As for the nail polish itself, it's not too great.  I wore it with Nailtek and Seche Vite.  Without Seche Vite, it would've been pretty much a matte nail polish.  But, even with everything, the nail polish chipped really easily!  I probably wore it for 3 days tops.  During my avoidance of nail polish remover, I actually noticed that 2 of the nails lasted for 10 days, so it does have potential.

I'll try to keep up with the designs soon.  I'm at 12 weeks, so the morning sickness should be subsiding any day now....

And here's a quick look at my wedding makeup:

I hired this makeup company called Susie Chhuor, and had my makeup done by Sunny.  She had such an awesome upbeat personality, and she did my makeup beautifully!  I was extremely happy with it.  (I do have a before and after pic...but I don't like how I look without makeup! All those dark circles...)

This is pretty close to how I had my hair on the actual day...though you can't really see in the first picture.  I love getting my hair and makeup done!  What girly-girl doesn't? =)

So, yup....this was a super long blog...which is what happens when I disappear for so long!  Take care, and I promise to have another post soon!

Disclaimer:
1. I bought everything product I'm showing by myself (nothing was sent to me for free).
2. No one has paid me or compensated me for this blog.
3. I am not affiliated with any of the companies of the products I used.
4. These are my honest opinions.

Merry Christmas!

Yes, finally a free moment in my life to sit down and work on my YouTube channel and my blog!  As an update for you all, I actually won the Juicy Couture Nail Art Contest hosted by skyecolispeedo.   Hurray!  I'm so excited to see what I won.  I'm supposed to get Luxurious Bourghese Nail Lacquer Kit.  I checked it out on Google, and it's pretty pricey!  So I definitely will have to see how it is, and maybe do a mini-review.  =)  How fitting it is that my Juicy Couture inspired nails won a contest & my blog is called Juicy Nails & Makeup, right?  Lol, yes...I'm a dork.  

Anyhoo, so some of the latest stuff with me.  Of course, I have my latest swag!  Christmas present from my mom:  Juicy Couture Purse!  I LOVE it...it's like the perfect size...although it gets pretty heavy cuz I stuff it to death.  But still, it's awesome...doesn't my mom have great taste?  She got these for a really good deal @ the Juicy Couture outlet in State Line.  I think the original price is like almost $200, but she got it for $90.  Pretty awesome right?

I also got most of my stuff from the Holiday Gift Wrap in Vegas (from both MGM & Ceasar's).  I have my nifty new camera (the purse is taken with it...and isn't the quality amazing?  At least compared to my last camera!) and my Monster Beats by Dre headphones.  The sound quality is frickin awesome!!!!  I just love to listen to music with these!  Yes, I know..I have that dorky sticker on my camera still.  Just FYI, I've already taken it off.  The camera looks sooo much nicer without it!

The only thing that hasn't come in yet, is my new iPod Nano with video camera.  I ordered a purple one...and I should be getting it hopefully tomorrow or Monday.  These holidays kinda tweak the shipping schedule!  Totally can't wait for it to get here, so I can use my new headphones w/ it!

Now onto the beauty stuff!  I got this Kat Von D perfume solid ring.  It came with a little thing of Saint and one of Sinner.  I'm actually not that fond of Sinner...but I think it's growing on me, lol.  But I absolutely love Saint!  It's a nice light floral-ish smell.  And this ring is sooo cute, and totally her style.

I believe this is exclusive to Sephora, but I know people on eBay are selling it too.  I got this for $30 (+ tax), and I use it all the time.  Some people are getting it just for the ring, and some people don't like the ring, but like the solid.  I LOVE both!

I got a bunch of Essie nail polishes from Beauty Headquarters.  I'll just list them from left to right, top to bottom: Queen of Hearts (from the Judith Ripka collection, it's supposed to have real diamond dust in it!), Cherry Pop, Status Symbol, Tennis Corset, Secret Affair, Happily Ever After, Curtain Call, Ridge Filler, Apricot Cuticle Oil, and Matte About You (a matte top coat).

I actually haven't had a chance to try too many things out.  I used Cherry Pop as part of a holiday French Mani I did (will post pics soon!), and I have a swatch for Curtain Call.  The Ridge Filler Base Coat was pretty cool...I got a tiny bottle for just $1.  I think it works pretty well was a ridge filler, but I think I'll only use this if I'm covering the entire nail with an opaque polish.  Alone, the ridge filler has a nude tone to it, and I don't really like that part of it.  But, like I said, it actually does fill in ridges, so it's something I'll have to keep in mind.  I also have used the cuticle oil...it smells sooo good!  I keep it at work and just apply it once a day during a break or lunch.  I have noticed a difference in my nails since I started using a cuticle oil daily.  They feel stronger and don't curl in as much (yes, I'm bad...I don't drink water so my nails are all thirsty and curly in like crazy!).  Maybe another month or so of this and my nails will start looking fantastic (I hope!), lol.

And last, but not least...I got the Zoya polishes I ordered on Black Friday!  It actually came in two shipments, because some of the polishes were backordered.  I waited till everything came in so I could take a picture of it all together.

In the left picture, I have: Astra (which I love...but it's kinda hard to remove!), Midori, Veruschka (a matte polish), Suvi, Envy, Irene, and Tangy.  In the right picture, I have the holiday gift set which includes the nail polish remover, base coat, top coat, and drying drops.  As much as I love green (with a name like Emerald, how could I not? Lol), I didn't just randomly decide to buy 6 green nail polishes from a brand I've never tried before!  On Black Friday, if you had a coupon code, you could get these 6 lovely green colors for free w/ any order!  So I ordered Astra and the holiday gift set.  I figured I'd try Zoya properly, with its own base coat, top coat, and everything to see if it really lasts as long as they say.

I've only tried Astra, and I think it wears pretty nicely.  I don't recall how long it stayed nice and unchipped, though.  I'll have to try again and really test it out soon.

So yup, I had an awesome Christmas, and I hope all of you did too!  I think this blog is long enough with all the swatches and nail art, so I'm going to do that in the next one!

Disclaimer:
1. I bought everything product I'm showing by myself (nothing was sent to me for free).
2. No one has paid me or compensated me for this video.
3. I am not affiliated with any of the companies of the products I used.
4. These are my honest opinions.