ella + mila Soy Polish Remover

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Blogger officially changed their layout and I'm adjusting. It's hard to believe that it was summer 2009 when I was talking with my friend Jen about blogs. I finally started my blog on December 7, 2009 and it's been an amazing eleven years so far. 

How To Remove Glitter Nail Polish

Glitter nail polish: It's BEAUTIFUL but yes, it's a pain to remove!  I used to be one who would take pure acetone and stick my fingers in it, leaving me with cold wrinkled fingers that were very dried out.  I also would attempt to take a little cotton wipe and scrub*scrub*scrub my nails until I could scrape it all off.  I've even peeled glitter polish off before (do not do this.)  Then, one day, I read about the foil method.


Now many a blogger has their method, their tools, their tricks.  This is simply the way I've been doing it.  :]


Materials
-Zoya Remove+.  This is step "1" in the Zoya Color Lock system.  It's a mild acetone remover with a pleasant lavender scent.  I also adore the plunger top, which allows you to get the remover just where you want it.  You can also relock the bottle's lid for travel or storage.
-Felt.  I bought mine at Hobby Lobby - I'm using white as I'm not sure how acetone and dyed felt react.
-Aluminum foil.  Just a square will do - you'll be crumpling it up as you go.

I like to use 2 pumps of Remove+ straight on my square of felt and then wrap the felt around my finger tip.  This allows for all the remover to be on your nail, not your skin.

Next, wrap a square of aluminum foil around your finger.  Wrap as tightly as you can so there is some pressure on the felt.

Do the rest of your fingers on one hand.  After the last finger, wait a good 5 minutes before attempting to remove.  Yes I know this part is boring.  Do it anyway.


I like to unwrap the foil from my finger, and then pressing down on the felt, pull it off my finger.

Fold over the felt and remove any glitter that didn't come off in the initial slide of the felt.  Providing you covered your nail in felt, it will be easy to remove.


Finally, treat your nails to a cuticle oil of your choice.  I'm using Julep Essential Cuticle Oil from my September American Beauty Julep Maven box. [Julep referral link]

Ta da!  Hopefully this makes your glitter wearing a bit more bearable! 

411 from OPI

Today on Facebook, OPI made an announcement /correction to their previously released information.

We have a correction to make. We've been informing you that you can not use thinner in glitter lacquers for some time. This was misinformation that we sadly passed on to all of you. After speaking further w/ our tech team and those in development, we're happy to tell you that if your glitter lacquers are getting think, you can add 2-3 drops of thinner to help them out! We sincerely apologize for the confusion.

Good to know!   Even better, further down in the comments, they mentioned you can also use thinner in the Black Shatter which I've noticed has gotten a bit clumpy in my bottle.  I normally wipe the neck down with remover (never getting any in the bottle) because that gunks up, but it's good to know I can do it in the polish itself as well.


Do NOT use acetone or nail polish remover to thin polish.  It will destroy your polish as remover is designed to remove polish, not thin the consistancy.  You can pick up thinner at beauty supply stores.  I have a bottle of generic brand, Zoya has an item called Renew in their Color Lock System that I use for Zoya polishes and Seche Restore works in Seche Vite and I've used it in China Glaze Glitters as well.  Anywho, just a little information update for you!  Enjoy!

A Beautiful Life Soy Nail Polish Remover

I was also sent A Beautiful Life's own soy nail polish remover.  It's big 3 free, soy based and non-toxic, safe for kids, recyclable packaging, gentle and effective and has a mild scent of grapefruit.  The smell was very faint for me but it was different from the smell of acetone for sure.


The top of this bottle is a small screw top which I wasn't sure if it was just a gaping hole or what, but nope, it's a little squeeze bottle that you can either let drip onto your cotton ball/pad, or squeeze the plastic bottle to get it on the cotton ball/pad.

I prefer cotton rounds, so I squeezed a little bit out onto my cotton round.

It looks a little oily from here and being soy based, there is a bit of an oil like residue that is left on your hands.  Not sure if you can tell that my nail and cuticle looks shiny here.

Now, the bottle states to wash your hands thoroughly after using, which I did and really felt like I had to because I'm not into having oily hands - I'm used to Zoya Remove+.  It did take a little rubbing for me to get my polish off my nails - it wasn't like a glitter scrubbing procedure but it wasn't a quick swipe either.  It was nice to have an alternative to acetone, especially when I'm trying to swatch several polishes in a day.  Like I need dry(er) cuticles at this point!  ^_^  Overall, I'm pleased with A Beautiful Life.  While the polish and remover is more than I pay for typically, this also has the all natural products in it, which is important.

A Beautiful Life soy polish remover is available on their website [official store] for $20 a bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post. 

Zoya Remove+ vs Seche Erase

If you're like me, you have what happens when it's time to remove polish.  The smell, the cold feeling of acetone on your fingers, scrubbing forever with glitters...


I mentioned before in my nail care post that I use Zoya Remove+ almost exclusively now.  I do use studio 35 beauty polish remover to clean up the edges of my manicure using an ordinary paint brush, and I have a few other jars and bottles of drugstore polish remover around too.


Then I heard about Seche Erase which sounded a lot like Zoya Remove+ all the way down to the slight lavender floral smell.  Problem was I couldn't find Seche Erase anywhere.  No salons or stores carried it and I didn't find it on most of my normal etailers.


Cue TransDesign [official website] again.  Now, here's the issue.  One 8 fl oz bottle of Zoya Remove+ sells for $9.99 on Zoya's website (also the same price in the salon that I frequent).  Seche Erase was only available in 1 fl oz bottles for $1.28 on TransDesign, so I bought 6 of them.  They are relatively the same price though, when you add it up.  The bottles are also quite different.  Zoya Remove+ features the "big flipper" top which has a plunger that when pushed, pools remover into the slightly curved top through 3 holes.  I normally only need one plunge to clean several fingers.  Seche Erase is in a squeeze bottle that you have to manually squeeze onto your removal pad of choice (I use cheap felt found in craft stores, cut into squares).


Application removal wise, I really found both to be the same - both removed the polish quickly, effectively, and had the same good smell, not like normal polish removers.  The ingredients appears to be alike as well except Seche Erase has some oils involved to help with the harshness that is nail polish remover.


Zoya Remove+
* 2-propanone
* Water
* Glycerine
* Fragrance
* D&C Violet #2


Seche Erase
* Acetone
* Water
* Lavadula Angustifolia (Lavender) extract
* Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil
* Melaleuca Altermifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
* Butylene Glycol
* Benzophenone-1
* Violet 2


Now I must be honest, while typing this out, my eyes bugged out a bit at the Melaleuca.  When my family first moved back to Texas from Oregon, my Dad's friend was selling Melaleuca products and my Dad, being a good friend, bought a little of EVERYTHING.  We had Melaleuca juice, Melaleuca lotions, and the one that killed me, Melaleuca laundry detergent.  My Mom washed all our clothes in it, and we all broke out into this horrible itchy terrible rash.  The only thing that had changed was the laundry detergent, so we threw out all the Melaleuca products and haven't looked back since.  However, Melaleuca Altermifoilia appears to be quite different because I've used Tea Tree shampoo for years without any side effects - in fact it's produced to do the opposite - relax the skin, not irritate it.  I also didn't notice any irritation with the Seche Erase, and as a test, spread it on my palms and back of my hands to see if a rash developed.  Thankfully, nothing happened but wet palms and hands.


I'm going to keep using these both alternatively, especially with a glitter - that's my true test.  Finally, I leave you with a comparison shot of the two bottles side by side.