PrettyPolish: How-To Make a Manicure Last Longer

You know when you go get your nails done at the salon and somehow it always seems to last longer then when you do it yourself? Well, I've found some tips over the years that REALLY help to prolong the life of a manicure. 

Get ALL the old polish off before you start putting the new polish on. It will help the polish adhere better when there is a clean nail base to begin with. Pure Acetone is the best remover in my opinion.

















Put a base coat on before the colored polish. I was never a big fan of base coats, I thought they were a waste of time, until I found this one!  The Nail Tek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat, you can find it at Ulta. It seriously adds days onto my manicure and it also has a bunch of good stuff in it that is supposed to make your nails stronger.

Do at least TWO coats of your nail polish. It will almost always look better and last longer!

one coat

two coats, see the difference?

Don't forget the top coat. This will add shine, prolong the manicure and smooth everything out! One of the best ones I've ever used is the Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear Invisible Nail Polish. I don't even know if this is supposed to be a top coat but it works SO WELL.

Let the polish dry for at least an hour. Okay, I know this is a bit crazy and not something that is really realistic but wait as long as you can. It takes a full hour for them to dry completely and if you're like me you paint your nails then think of 10 things you should be doing. I try to do mine at the beginning of a movie or show so that I will actually sit there and not mess them up. 

So there ya have it! With these tips I can get about a week out of my manicure, its worth the extra time and effort to make it last.

MakeupBag : Highlighters : My Favorites and How To Apply

One of my all time favorite products is highlighters! No, not these kinds.

Ones for your face!

There are five spots where the highlight should be placed. Hitting these spots with a beautiful shimmery shade will give your face a gorgeous glow, make your eyes big and bright, and help your cheekbones to POP!

1.Tops of the cheekbones

2. Down the center of the nose

3. Inner corner of the eye

4. Top of the browbone

5. Right above your lip (cupids bow)

Some of my favorite highlighters are:

-Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc in Peach Mosaic [this one actually works best over a blush as an all over shimmery shade. I also like using the four different colors as eye shadows, so its a double duty product!]

















-Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter in "Moonstone". [beautiful soft shimmer that is so buttery and smooth. I also want to try Opal which I've heard is amazing as well.]

-Mac Soft and Gentle. [perfect neutral shimmer. Not to white or pink. Perfectly in between. I love the glow from within this one gives.]

And for a great drugstore option! Hard Candy "Bronzer" in Tiki. I put bronzer in quotes because this is no where NEAR a bronzer, I don't know why its sold as that. You can find this at Walmart for under ten bucks! Its not as creamy and buttery and smooth as the other highlighters but it does the job and its the best one I've found at the drugstore. It has a bit more of a golden sheen to it.

Here are some swatches of each highlighter compared to each other to help you figure out which one might suit you the best!

Top- Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc in Peach Mosaic

2nd- Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter in Moonstone

3rd- Hard Candy "Bronzer" in Tiki

Last- Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Soft and Gentle

Try out a bit of highlight and see how it brightens your face. I bet you'll love it!

Deals and Steals: Scoring FREE Beauty Products

I don't know about you but I love a good beauty steal. And the best steal of all is of course getting something for free!

Sephora has a great program where for every dollar you spend you get a point. Its called being a "Beauty Insider". And then every month they come out with new samples that you can use your points for and get for free! Now I realize that they aren't free for real since you do have to spend money to get them BUT its a great way to try out different products and its kind of like a little bonus for being a loyal customer.

You all know I am forever in my local Sephora which means I am forever spending money there. So I've racked up quite a lot of points.

Sometimes they will even do a special 500 point perk which is a whole set of mini size products and this month it was the Nars set. Nars is among the more pricey makeup brands so to get to try out all these for free was a huge win for me!

This set included a sample of the primer, which I've used before and I know is awesome (it might be put away for the future giveaway!), a mini size blush in a Deep Throat, mini satin lip pencil in Rikugien and a mini Larger Then Life Longwear Eyeliner in Via Veneto.

The blush is a favorite in the beauty world so I was excited to give it a try and its a beautiful peachy pink with a bit of gold shimmer too it. The eyeliner is a great dark black and lasted all day on me without smudging and the satin lip pencil is a perfect shade of pink. 

So if you aren't a beauty insider yet at Sephora make sure you sign up!

May Favorites: Everything I've Been Loving In the Month of May

I decided to try something a bit different today and filmed a video of all my favorite products for the month of May! 

These are one of my favorite types of videos to watch because its like you get to see a bunch of mini reviews in one video! 

Enjoy.

DrugstoreDupes: L'oreal's Amber Rush vs. Mac's Tan Pigment

Jaclyn Hill used Amber Rush in one of her tutorials and I thought it looked so beautiful. It retails for around $8 at most drugstores but after she put it in her video it was sold out everywhere. I finally found it at Walmart and had to pick it up!

This is a loose pigment type eyeshadow so it packs more of a punch then a normal shadow. Its a stunning shimmery shade.

As I started to play around with it I realized I had something very similar in my collection. Mac's Tan Pigment! Now Mac's Tan retails for $21 and its not something the average women would go out and buy so finding a drugstore dupe is awesome!

Tan is on top and Amber Rush on the bottom. They look very different in this picture but I think it was the way the lighting was hitting them.

I wore Amber Rush on one eye and Tan on the other and could barely tell a difference. Tan is a bit lighter and cooler and Amber Rush has a tiny bit of a pink tone to it. They are both BEAUTIFUL and long lasting. I wore a primer underneath as always and didn't get any creasing.

Two notes if you want try this shadow out. Use a flat shader brush like one of these to apply it. Make sure to tap off any excess shadow on the brush before apply and use a patting motion for the best color.

Don't throw away the little plastic things that come with the product. They look like this and keep the pigment in place.

Give this shadow and try and let me know what you think!